xGrid and VisualHub

Related to my post about the AppleTV, I decided to bulk convert all of my X264/AC3 720p MKV files to H264/AAC 720p MOV files. I had about 30 files to convert. I have tried with FFMpegX and haven't actually managed to convert 720p video successfully! I downloaded and tried VisualHub and this worked fine so I went ahead and bought a license. It has a convert queue so I set off a few files for bulk convert but @ 4 hours per 45 minutes it was going to take a while for all of the video to convert.



I then saw the Xgrid tick box and decided to setup a Xgrid with my home OS X machines which are:

• 1GHz G4 DP Powermac


• 2.33Ghz C2D iMac


• 1.66Ghz CD Mac Mini


• 2.16Ghz CD Macbook Pro

I also have a 2GHz CD Macbook which is not normally on my network but I could add it to the grid if I find I need it.





18.3Ghz! I converted 15 files in 8 hours! As you might imagine the 1Ghz DP was the weak link in the version. If I can't get all of my AVI/MKV files to play in the ATV, I may use this to bulk convert all of the files to MP4 H264 videos.