Protecting the video - EXAMPLE

RawAlex · 2005-03-14, 08:00 PM

Clickbuster, I never have anything about sharing - what I have is something against false hope. I am not getting on you, I am poking at the idea and saying that I don't think it will work like you are suggesting.

PHP isn't made for, isn't robust enough, and doesn't have the thruput to truly handle what you are suggesting. PHP is an interpreted language, not a compiled one, so it runs basically in a container, which has much higher overhead than cgi. Yes, it can be done the way you suggest, but I seriously doubt the scale you are talking about. Basically you will be anywhere from double to quad hitting the central bus (depending on if PHP is using disk cache during the operation), and you will be limited specifically by the amount of bus time available. Remember, processing files in this manner means READ (bus) PROCESS (bus) possibly CACHE (bus X 2) output to NIC card (bus) - plus all the underlying actual file handling going on with the OS. You could have run the same file across the bus 10 - 20 times before it gets sent out.

Certain banner rotator programs use PHP to pass the banner image, and that alone is enough to grind many servers to the point of being useless. Using PHP to pass 1 meg or more per process for 4000 processes is just not very likely. I think you need to figure out how long it would take for each movie to be delivered from a server with a 10mps line (which probably passes closer to 8mps)? (or Sparky might chime in here with the calc...) My rough guess is this: 8000kbs/ 4000 users is 2kbs, which means 500 seconds per 1 meg file - and that assumes your server ain't doing anything else.

Remember, it's not the person, but the ideas - I think you are a smart guy looking for a better solution - but you need think the implications through before proposing this sort of solution.

Keep trying - your on sort of the right track, just using the wrong tools.

Alex

2005-03-14, 08:00 PM	#1
RawAlex Took the hint. Join Date: Mar 2003 Posts: 5,597	Clickbuster, I never have anything about sharing - what I have is something against false hope. I am not getting on you, I am poking at the idea and saying that I don't think it will work like you are suggesting. PHP isn't made for, isn't robust enough, and doesn't have the thruput to truly handle what you are suggesting. PHP is an interpreted language, not a compiled one, so it runs basically in a container, which has much higher overhead than cgi. Yes, it can be done the way you suggest, but I seriously doubt the scale you are talking about. Basically you will be anywhere from double to quad hitting the central bus (depending on if PHP is using disk cache during the operation), and you will be limited specifically by the amount of bus time available. Remember, processing files in this manner means READ (bus) PROCESS (bus) possibly CACHE (bus X 2) output to NIC card (bus) - plus all the underlying actual file handling going on with the OS. You could have run the same file across the bus 10 - 20 times before it gets sent out. Certain banner rotator programs use PHP to pass the banner image, and that alone is enough to grind many servers to the point of being useless. Using PHP to pass 1 meg or more per process for 4000 processes is just not very likely. I think you need to figure out how long it would take for each movie to be delivered from a server with a 10mps line (which probably passes closer to 8mps)? (or Sparky might chime in here with the calc...) My rough guess is this: 8000kbs/ 4000 users is 2kbs, which means 500 seconds per 1 meg file - and that assumes your server ain't doing anything else. Remember, it's not the person, but the ideas - I think you are a smart guy looking for a better solution - but you need think the implications through before proposing this sort of solution. Keep trying - your on sort of the right track, just using the wrong tools. Alex