Openshot-qt: Scripting a render to another pc / server?

Created on 27 Nov 2019 · 4Comments · Source: OpenShot/openshot-qt

Question:
It does take quite some time to render a video on my local pc, but I'm part of a home network with a server that could be taking up the processing of rendering so I can continue with other work. Is it possible / how could I do the work on my pc, then offload (via scripting I guess..?) the rendering to the server?

System Details:
I'm using win 10 latest, and current openshot version (which I can't see because I'm mid-render, but downloaded 2019 / Nov 06)
Server is Ubuntu 18.04

Thanks in advance!

question

Source

TharenaMelishka

Most helpful comment

You know, it strikes me that I may have accidentally'd into a way to do this, about 3 weeks ago, with the benchmark script I was writing (see https://github.com/OpenShot/openshot-qt/issues/3173#issuecomment-573484117).

Because it's already possible to load an OpenShot project file into libopenshot without any GUI using its Python bindings, the only thing we'd really need to make the whole export process GUI-free is to pull the code that performs the actual Export process from OpenShot itself, and replace the parts that read data from fields in the Export dialog GUI with command-line options that provide the same data.

Then, in theory, we could have an openshot-export or openshot-render or whatever script that takes an OpenShot project file, and some export parameters, and runs the whole export without any interface. It'd work on any system that had libopenshot installed, along with its Python bindings. (OpenShot wouldn't even need to be installed, since none of it would be used.)

I'll try to find some time to play with that, see how feasible it really is. (Though, I wouldn't expect anything sooner than a few weeks at the earliest. Maybe never, if it doesn't pan out.)

ferdnyc on 30 Jan 2020

👍3

All 4 comments

@TharenaMelishka
Saving the project; and rsyncing it and all files should work ... at least for rendering. For the preview of course not. If that's desired then ssh with X and letting Openshot run completely on the server is another option.

From one of our developers - Daniel Jour

speedytechdev on 28 Nov 2019

I'll try to find some time to play with that, see how feasible it really is. (Though, I wouldn't expect anything sooner than a few weeks at the earliest. Maybe never, if it doesn't pan out.)

ferdnyc on 30 Jan 2020

👍3

I'm still following this chain, and I'm patient. If it doesn't work, oh well, but if it does, how cool would that be. :) You do you, this is low priority I'm sure compared to other stuff.

TharenaMelishka on 3 Feb 2020

I'd like to add my voice to say that this would be a very interesting feature to have. I like to have pretty low-power things in my office, and also my kids (my daughter is getting really interested in Video Editing) aren't getting very powerful things. Instead, I have a server rack (yes, really :-) ) in the basement. The file server is also there, exported over SMB and NFS to clients that need it.

Perhaps it is also a reasonable feature for the Cloud API, since those who do not have a server rack in the basement, which I guess might be a few people ;-) , might want to rent CPU capacity for rendering.

Still, I think it is most valuable for LANs, as I have gigabit Ethernet in my house, but just 60 MBits/s to the Internet (mostly because I have never seen the need for more).

BTW, you might want to have a look at the architecture of DVD::Rip: https://www.exit1.org/dvdrip/doc/cluster.cipp It would issue commands over SSH using its GUI, it sounds like you'd be very close to achieve the same.