Split rendering across multiple CPUs

ruggy1 · Post by **ruggy1** » Wed Aug 26, 2009 1:01 pm

I first asked questions on this forum 3 years ago about Ulead's ability to split rendering across multiple CPUs (Parralel processing). Nothing comes up in searches of the forum to support the notion that nothing has changed. My trusty old P4 3.4GHz is getting old and slow (yes, old CPUs do slow down!). I would be willing to pay heaps more for a Ulead product that actually used the multiple cores we have today. I have been away for a while and hoped that things would be better when I returned to rendering video, but sadly it appears that I am disappointed. Can someone please tell me if, or when Ulead or any other video rendering program can make real use of multiple cores. The world moves forward but the ability to render quickly seems to go backwards. Thanks for your input.

DVDDoug · Post by **DVDDoug** » Wed Aug 26, 2009 6:25 pm

This Post was interesting.

I remember reading somewhere that Video Studio and/or Movie Factory is supposed to support multi-core or multi-CPU processing. But, It might depend on what you're rendering to and from, because some CODECs may be more optimized than others... I just found this (Movie Factory):

Optimize for Intel Core2 Quad CPU

And this (Video Studio):

New Optimization for Intel Quad-Core Technology Support for Intel quad-core technology, enhanced for both dual-core and quad-core CPUs.

ruggy1 · Post by **ruggy1** » Thu Aug 27, 2009 8:48 am

Thanks Doug, the article you inserted about Ashampoo was interesting. I shall try it. But having a computer science background I am suspicious as to how it works without an intimate knowledge of how Ulead renders. The comments about Ulead 'supporting' multiple cores probably means it just works on them. To do real parallel processing of my standard 1 hour 14GB AVI file would mean Ulead apportioning a quarter of the load to each of 4 CPUs and reassembling the 4 rendered components at the end to produce a fully rendered file. Each would finish at a different time so the full render cannot be put together until after the last portion was rendered. This is only possible if Ulead supports multi-part rendering, which I believe it does not. Obviously Ulead must be thinking about this in the future. Any info from contacts with Ulead (sorry, Corel) engineers would be appreciated. As I said previously I would be willing to pay far more for a Ulead product that supported this functionality.