FFMPEG, Mencoder (or not) conversion.

[Jordon Bedwell]

I feel like a noob for asking this but since my friend is not available
to drill me down on how to do this maybe somebody can help me around
here. I've never actually needed to utilize FFMPEG, just installed it
for clients and let them figure it out past setup.  Anyways, proving my
newness to FFMPEG aside:

1.) What does this mean: muxing overhead 1.251961%  that was outputted
with some other stuff after my last failed attempt to try and figure out
FFMPEG (which mind you was horribly failed.) ~ If it's to do with
filesize I don't care.  Storage is near limitless ~ even on the go since
I can stream.

2.) Can somebody give me an example of converting [random codec] to
H.264, I heard H.264 does support 1080P HD, if this is not true,
suggestions and facts to break the myth's I've heard?

3.) Do I need mencoder to do all this or can I simply rely on FFMPEG?
Usually when I setup a client server and they do media, they ask me to
install FFMPEG + Mencoder.  Now, I know how to setup all this stuff, and
get it to work, but I certainly don't know how to actually work it for
real.  Never needed to utilize it before now.

4.) Can I thread FFMPEG (and Mencoder if needed) across all my CPUs? I
have 2 Xeons and 2 graphics card in this rig, seems like a major waste
with two 5870's and dual Xeons if can't thread across all the power to
cut the time by a 10th.