I own a 2011 MacBook Air:
1.6 GHz Core i5 Dual Core "Sandy Bridge" Processor
2GB RAM
64GB Flash Drive
I'm going to be using this strictly as remote access so it'll be doing a ton of transcoding. I know pretty much any machine can be used for a DVR, but will this cut it for transcoding content? Probably 720p when all is said and done.
The i5 is transcoding capable, but if the MBA is missing a fan then it won't be able to cool down and will throttle its cpu which can cause problems
Follow up question - If I went with a HDHomeRun Extend I'd have hardware transcoding on the remote end. I'd be accessing it remotely via wifi within my own house, I could select original and control the quality by using the HDHR Extend. Or am I dreaming up solutions that won't work?
The transcoding quality profiles are pretty bad. I don't recommend it. Plus if you record at original quality, the transcoder won't help you if you're trying to watch that recording remotely later.
If you only care about live tv, then yes you could leave the DVR quality at Original and set the EXTEND to heavy or mobile. There's no in-between settings though so you can't easily improve quality. If heavy is using too much bandwidth, you have to use mobile which is pretty bad picture quality and deinterlaces by dropping down to 30fps.