[mythtv-users] new stuff to understand

[Craig Tinson]

Hey All

ok.. so I've been running a myth box for a couple of years now I think - 
and over this time I've learnt quite a bit about how myth works and 
learnt even more about linux!

over this time I've got through various pieces of kit for upgrades - new 
mb, more memory, more hd etc etc..

now I've made a *big* difference - I've switched from a 878 based card 
to a new PVR-250.

it's taken a week or so for me to get this thing running and I've 
continued to learn a few things about how these cards work but it's been 
*really* worth it - I thought I had the 878 card working near original 
source quality but hell, this is now damn perfect and the quality is 
amazing.

i'm still having  a few problems in terms of stability of the 
machine/myth but I need to look into things further to provide more info.

so - to the purpose of this email.

I never got my head around "transcoding" as I figured I never needed to 
with the old card. now I'm recording with the 250 I figured I'd better 
know more about this transcoding thing.

what is it? why does it matter? how will it affect how I use my mythbox? 
is there settings I need to know about? am I right in thinking it's more 
of an issue now I'm on a 250?

I have mtd running as a daemon on startup but I don't know what it's 
there for! lol

can someone shed light?

thanks

Craig