Subject: Re: Inexpensive MBONE "encoding" machine.

From: [email-masked] (Jonathan C Day)
Date: 8 Apr 1998 16:16:15 GMT

On Sat, 4 Apr 1998, Forrest W. Christian wrote:
> 
> I'm needing to put together a machine that will do a good job at real-time
> audio and video encoding for the MBONE.
>  
> I also don't want to spend a lot of money.

My suggestion would be to get the cheapest high-end PC you can find.
(This might mean assembling a PC, which really isn't a difficult task.)
Based on typical prices around here, a 32MB 180MHz MMX-based PC with a
2.5GB HD and ethernet card would cost about $500 to construct from parts.
NOTE: This does NOT include the real-time video capture card. I've not
played that much with video capture cards and I'd rather stick to what I
know.

For an OS, I'd personally go with Linux, but is largely because it's what
I'm familiar with.

However, there's Linux and then there's Linux. Here, it depends on what
trade-off you want between stability and performance. For stability, I'd
go with Linux 2.0.33 and mrouted, if you need to be able to route.

If performance counts for more than the occasional glitch, I'd say throw
caution to the wind, grab the latest Linux 2.1 kernel, egcs with pcg patches,
glibc 2.0 and pimd, if you need to route. Any programs you need to compile,
sod the debug flag and ramp the optimizer to the highest it'll go without
the program exploding. This option should give you the device drivers you
need, along with high performance, at the risk of using some alpha- or beta-
test software to get that.