Oooh don't worry about it. Ask me questions any time.
I use the Hauppage WinTV PVR-250. It's a TV Tuner(let's you watch cable on your comp). It also comes in the form of a PCI card(Lemme know if you don't know what that is.) The Program I use to record is Cyberlink Power Cinema(it's just this program that came with the card).
Transcoding is basically the process of changing the format of a video from one to another. When I record these matches they come default as .mpg files. I could just upload the .mpg files to YT if I wanted to, but it's an uncompressed format. A match can usually be ~275mb. I use DVDVideosoft's video to ipod converter to get .mp4 files(which match YT's specifications for good quality videos). If I upload the .mpg files I have to wait forever for the videos to go up. Then YT has to use it's own program to transcode the video while it's processing it.
I get decent enough quality with my videos using this card/software. I could get better quality though. I'm probably gonna stop using Power Cinema/DVDVideosoft and switch to Pinnacle Studio/Sony Vegas. Also keep in mind this card is better for recording. I haven't really used it for streaming. You'd be good with a Dazzle if you want to stream.
Edit: soo many typos >.>