I saw jobs 1,2,3 defined in the backend that i have not seen in other mythtv systems
1. Copy to remote
2. Encode to x264 mkv
3. Encode to mp3
4. blank

I am wondering how to use them.
Here is what i want to do...

1. Record a show on local drive
2. remove commercials
3. transcode to x264 mkv
4. move this file to a network drive (my local drive has limited space)
5. delete the original recording in local drive
5. update the database with this new location so i can play it later

Is that possible? If so, how?

I use this to do several of the things you mention.

https://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Transcode_Mpeg2_to_H264

It just takes a couple lines of code to add the things you want to do (each item). Why write a few programs when one big one will do. Were from the Lennart Poettering School of Programming. ( Please don't flame. I know it's a cheap shot but I couldn't resist.) I don't even really know Python and I was able to make the changes I needed.
It uses ffmpeg to transcode. Somewhere along the way mythtv lost its ability to fast forward and keep its timeline using mp4 transcoders like handbrake but ffmpeg seems to work. That happened like myth 27-28-ish. Drove me crazy until I found this and started using ffmpeg. Let me know if you need code examples like updating the DB. Purists consider it a no-no but I never have had a problem. But to be fair, one can really make a mess of things if you're not paying attention.

-sparks-