[mythtv-users] Transcoding and H264

jedi jedi at mishnet.org
Sun Jan 30 22:14:49 UTC 2011


On Sun, Jan 30, 2011 at 02:17:30PM -0500, Jeffrey J. Kosowsky wrote:
> I have been a longtime user of mythtranscode/mpeg4 which I use to
> transcode my OTA mpeg2 recordings to mpeg4 compressed down to
> 1-1.5GB/hour.
> 
> However, given the current problem with 6 channel transcoding plus the
> general sense that mythtranscode is long in the tooth and lagging
> H264, I am interested in switching to H264 transcoding.
> 
> I have several questions:
> 1. In general how much slower will H264 *encoding* be relative to 
>    mythtranscode Mpeg4? (I have an old/slow machine and slow graphic card)

    h264 is a lot more CPU intensive. 

    Based on the description of your current setup I would stay away from h264,
especially the HD stuff. Expect transcoding to h264 to be at least several 
times slower than the internal MPEG4 transcoder. If you already have a working 
transcoding setup, I would recommend not messing with it. If you are worried 
about mythtranscode being deprecated, then upgrade your storage.

    If you are interested in h264 then you probably need to beef up your CPUs
or your video card and that's just for playback. If you can upgrade your video
cards, then suitable upgrades are cheap and plentiful.

[deletia]

    When I got my first HDPVR, all of my old gear was incapable of dealing
with the HD h264 recordings that I ended up with. 


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