What exactly is transcoding?

Transcoding is the direct digital-to-digital data conversion of one encoding to another such as movie files or audio files. This is usually done in cases where a target device does not support the format or has limited storage capacity that mandates a reduced file size.

HERBIEO wrote:
Transcoding is the direct digital-to-digital data conversion of one encoding to another such as movie files or audio files. This is usually done in cases where a target device does not support the format or has limited storage capacity that mandates a reduced file size.

I assume I'm fine with music, since they're just MP3s and everything under the sun supports MP3s... how big of a deal is this with video these days? My target devices are mostly Android (Honeycomb and above), and iPhone 4's+, iPad 2+ type devices. I also have an xbox 360 that would be an added benefit, but probably not a deal killer if it didn't work.

It's a bigger deal for video. Most portable devices support AVC (H.264)'s constrained baseline profile, and many also support H.263/mpeg 4 ("xvid")

However, there are a lot of non-compliant H.264 MKVs floating around. And a lot of other codecs (DV, Motion JPG, VC1, VP8, Theora in use ). Also, these files might also need audio transcoding (for instance ogg is not supported on many mobile devices).

However, you don't necessarily have to use real-time transcoding. Another option is to convert your media offline into something your devices can play.

StephenB wrote:
However, there are a lot of non-compliant H.264 MKVs floating around.

I'd be ripping my own DVDs, so I suspect I'm not worried about things that are "floating around" since I'd be able to control the format I suspect (but I'm new to this...)

StephenB wrote:
However, you don't necessarily have to use real-time transcoding. Another option is to convert your media offline into something your devices can play.

Thank you - this line helps clarify a ton for me. It sounds like so long as I rip into a format that the players support, I'd be fine. This wasn't the way my mind was working - I was thinking that some devices just weren't going to stream, but I guess that's not really the case.

Chris-Boston wrote:
It sounds like so long as I rip into a format that the players support, I'd be fine.

Yes. An MP4 container with AVC video and AAC LC audio should play on your iPAD just fine (and also on your Android devices). The other aspect is to choose a file size / bit rate which fits your NAS and network, as well as giving you reasonable quality. You likely will need to experiment a bit with the first couple of DVDs, but once you find a working recipe it will become routine.

StephenB wrote:

Chris-Boston wrote: It sounds like so long as I rip into a format that the players support, I'd be fine. Yes. An MP4 container with AVC video and AAC LC audio should play on your iPAD just fine (and also on your Android devices). The other aspect is to choose a file size / bit rate which fits your NAS and network, as well as giving you reasonable quality. You likely will need to experiment a bit with the first couple of DVDs, but once you find a working recipe it will become routine.

So I'm all ready to place my order for the Pro 2 and I see Amazon's running a deal that brought down the price $30 on this one, and $50 on the Pro 4. I start to compare features and the Pro 4 starts looking pretty good, and I wouldn't mind being able to easily throw in a 3rd drive in a few years when my mirrored 2 TBs start to get cramped. So I decide on the Pro 4 and swap that out in my cart. Then Amazon throws a free financing offer up for my AMZ card and I start thinking it's just a couple hundred more to move from 4 to 6 and I can pay it off over 12 months. Damn you Amazon!

:slap:

So I made the purchase. I'd say it was a rash decision, but I actually started with the Pro 6 at the beginning of June and talked myself down to the 2 when thinking about what I needed. I only started to talk myself back "up" to the higher end ones when I thought about transcoding video, but then your posts sent me back to to the Pro 2/4.

So I guess in two days I'll be the (hopefully) proud owner of the Pro 6.

Anything anyone would do differently if they had to start over? Common mistakes made during setup that I should avoid :-D ?

Thanks seriously though --- your advice was a huge push towards the ReadyNAS over the two competitors I was considering, and it was *almost* good enough to make me buy the Pro 2 or 4.

I would suggest putting in a single drive, update it to current firmware, then add the rest of your drives and do a factory default. That will allow you to have as much expansion room as possible. Also make sure you have a backup option for your data to ensure you never loose it.

If you are looking for a very good program for encoding to mp4 try handbrake, its free and all'ready as a lot of built in profiles
ipod, iphone & ipod touch, iphone4, ipad, apple tv, apple tv2 and a few others.
Download here > http://handbrake.fr/

And another good free program with a huge amount of built in profiles is Super.
Download here > http://www.erightsoft.com/home.html

And Mediacoder again free and easy to use it as a wizard to take you through the settings for your converted video
Download here > http://www.mediacoderhq.com/

Handbrake does a good job of encoding to .mp4, it's default is .m4v which is on the i devices. The few times I have forgotten to change it, I simply changed the extension and never had a problem. Some one more versed in all the video formats could probably tell what difference there is if any. I use .mp4 because it play nicely in Media Player.

Thank you both for your suggestions! :)