Transcoding happens on the fly, in hardware I assume. The compression is configurable, from a very high quality 1080p profile, down to more lossy streams for mo

Transcoding happens on the fly, in hardware I assume. The compression is configurable, from a very high quality 1080p profile, down to more lossy streams for mobile devices, 3 profiles total IIRC (non tweak able). The highest quality mode is _almost_ indistinguishable from the OTA signal. No lag or stutter, whatsoever. An added bonus of the transcode is the reduced bandwidth in the LAN. Previously I needed CAT5 for a stable ATSC stream, now Wifi suffices (e.g. to iPad/iPhone). There is an app for the iPad, to watch those streams. On iPad Air 2 it renders 1080p without lag. Also, putting the HD Homerun in the network let's one get away with a small head unit (in my case an Intel NUC). You are correct, the resulting files are still wtv container, but with h.264 stream inside. VLC can play them fine. Not sure about conversion to MPEG4. A 1-hour show comes out around 1.5GB (from memory), maybe less. Much better then before.