What exactly is transcoding?

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.