[mythtv-users] Transcoding and H264

[Jeffrey J. Kosowsky]

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)

2. Similarly, how much slower will *decoding* be?

3. Are there any plug-ins available to automate such transcoding?

4. If not are there Job scripts and instructions available?
   (note: I checked http://mythtv.org/wiki/Category:User_Job_Scripts
   but didn't see much other than "Transcode wrapper stub" which
   seemed to only be part of the solution)

5. What is a "reasonable" bandwidth expectation for good quality H264
   in 1080 and/or 720p?
   (Note with mp4 I was using 1-1.5GB/hour. What type of quality can I
   expect with H264 in that bandwidth range?)

Basically, I would like something that will automatically transcode
all new digital recordings to H264 with some ability to set the
bandwidth/disk space used. If it is a script, I want to be able to
either manually or automatically start it and then have the script
take over to launch the right transcoding codec, do the transcoding,
remove the original when done, and then update the mythdatabase when
done.

Sorry if any of my questions seem too newbie but I just am not
experienced in this and I *know* that others must have solved this
problem many times over.

Thanks!