[mythtv-users] Best settings for transcoding HD content to save space?

[Eric Sharkey]

On Tue, May 13, 2014 at 3:33 PM, Gary Buhrmaster
<gary.buhrmaster at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Tue, May 13, 2014 at 7:17 PM, Ronald Frazier <ron at ronfrazier.net> wrote:
> ...
>> Actually, a few cents less than that. You have to count the electricity cost
>> of transcoding vs idle.
>
> Power savings gets tricky, not only because of differing transcoder
> power utilization, and local electricity rates (if you are not paying
> for the power in the basement of your parents house, did it get
> used?), but the cost of the spinning of the various numbers and
> sizes of rust both now, and in the future.  All said, transcoding is
> not generally cost justified

Although, hardware based transcoding tuners like the new HDHR units
may provide a cost effective solution.  I'm assuming the electrical
costs associated with transcoding in hardware will be a lot lower than
doing it in software.  If the device works reliably, and you can just
set it into transcode mode and forget it, all the arguments about
human labor associated with the transcoding go away as well.

Eric