The VideoLAN Forums

Here is my set up: KU DVB-S feed > 4 x TBS Quad Tuners > Linux Box > WAN(Fiber)

Linux box will be transcoding the stream to H.264 from MPEG1/2 via VLC or FFmpeg How good would the Linux box need to be in order to handle this setup for multiple channels?

Noone knows. It depends on too many parameters to answer.

Noone knows. It depends on too many parameters to answer.

Fair enough, let me turn the question around a bit:

How much CPU usage is required to transcode mpeg2 to H.264 on newest I7 Intel Quad Core PC?

on My PC (MacOS) a 1.1Mbit/s DVBS to h.264 stream needs about 70 to 100% of one core of a 2.4Ghz CPU, E5620@2.4.ghz.
How many channels to you want to stream ? 4 or 16 ?

on My PC (MacOS) a 1.1Mbit/s DVBS to h.264 stream needs about 70 to 100% of one core of a 2.4Ghz CPU, E5620@2.4.ghz.
How many channels to you want to stream ? 4 or 16 ?

16
It seems like some serious horsepower is required to handle a dozen of channels if one core of 2.4Ghz CPU can only do 1 channel. Or am I interpreting this improperly?

No, correct. CPU depends however mostly on the output size, and the desired quality. I start one instance of VLC per channel. I never tried more then 4 channels simultaneously. Of course VLC uses more then one thread and more then one CPU, But load is about 8% (of 8 CPUs) with one channel.
A new I7 should have about 2.5x CPU power of my old Xeon 2010. I guess, it could be capable of 8 or 10 channels.

But, try yourself. As Jean Baptiste already told, there are many factors which influence the final CPU load. Even the content you play will change the load.

See my post just submitted about using an i7-3770k to transcode two streams