Guest Hedonastik Posted April 3, 2007 Posted April 3, 2007 Hey all, forgive me for not being technical, but I was told that if one downloads from a STB to a DVD recorder HDD, or directly onto the disc, then the quality is shocking, no better than onto a VHS tape. It also changes from Digital to analogue. It was better to buy a STB/DVD recorder in one. This is a bummer as was looking at getting a quality DVD recorder and upgrading my STB to a Genuine Twin Tuner. Is the info that I was given correct. Cheers in advance.
techo Posted April 3, 2007 Posted April 3, 2007 Hey all,forgive me for not being technical, but I was told that if one downloads from a STB to a DVD recorder HDD, or directly onto the disc, then the quality is shocking, no better than onto a VHS tape. It also changes from Digital to analogue. It was better to buy a STB/DVD recorder in one. This is a bummer as was looking at getting a quality DVD recorder and upgrading my STB to a Genuine Twin Tuner. Is the info that I was given correct. Cheers in advance. Looks like a typical conversation by sales people
davidl1503559772 Posted April 3, 2007 Posted April 3, 2007 Looks like a typical conversation by sales people At JB no doubt I record (and sometimes watch live) sh*tloads of DTV on the PVR, transfer stuff I want to archive via Ethernet to the PC, edit etc. and burn to DVD and the end result is always identical to the original broadcast. I can only assume (not having one) that if the DVD recorder is set to Long Play or similar then the PQ will deteriorate. What is on the HDD should be the same as the original broadcast unless it uses some form of compression also. The sales drones generally don't have a clue as they are generally selling "product" for a commission and probably have never used it, or not properly (hey, they use the Ch. 7 loop as an example of Hi Def!). Yes, it does go from Digital to Analogue, but shouldn't be inferior in any way.
pgdownload Posted April 3, 2007 Posted April 3, 2007 Hi Hedo, As mentioned typical sales spiel. In fairness they probably actually thought they were well informed. As a starting point STBs actually output analogue (that's what they do, convert the digital signal to analogue so that your TV can understand it). As a rule of thumb HD takes 8 Gb per hour, SD takes about 3.5 GB per hour and a standard DVD holds about 5 GB. For this reason recording HD is of little use - you can do it fine but in compressing it to fit on a DVD you lose the 'high definition'. So recording SD to DVD is perfect. DVD recorders allow you to set the quality of their recording. As a rule of thumb you can record about 2 hours of TV and get pretty crystal clear PQ. Go for 1 hour of superb or 3 hours you start getting a little dodgy (about 5 hours probably starts looking like a VCR). Recording to the DVDR harddrive (if it has one) is not an issue as you can always go 'best quality. The two areas where a external DVDR is annoying is: 1) the 4:3 / 16:9 difference between analogue and digital can get a bit mucked up when transfering from a STB (digital) to a DVDR (analogue) 2) Its a bit fiddly hitting PLAY on the PVR and REC on the DVDR etc. but if you don't want to burn 5 DVDs a week this is not really an issue. If you do want to then get a hybrid PVR/DVDR or get a PVR that allows downloading to a PC for burning to DVD there. To surmise. An awful lot of people have DVDRs hooked up to their STBs. Regards Peter Gillespie NB Have aread of the PVR thread if you're in the market: http://www.dtvforum.info/index.php?showtopic=36191
Guest Hedonastik Posted April 6, 2007 Posted April 6, 2007 Hi Hedo,As mentioned typical sales spiel. In fairness they probably actually thought they were well informed. As a starting point STBs actually output analogue (that's what they do, convert the digital signal to analogue so that your TV can understand it). As a rule of thumb HD takes 8 Gb per hour, SD takes about 3.5 GB per hour and a standard DVD holds about 5 GB. For this reason recording HD is of little use - you can do it fine but in compressing it to fit on a DVD you lose the 'high definition'. So recording SD to DVD is perfect. DVD recorders allow you to set the quality of their recording. As a rule of thumb you can record about 2 hours of TV and get pretty crystal clear PQ. Go for 1 hour of superb or 3 hours you start getting a little dodgy (about 5 hours probably starts looking like a VCR). Recording to the DVDR harddrive (if it has one) is not an issue as you can always go 'best quality. The two areas where a external DVDR is annoying is: 1) the 4:3 / 16:9 difference between analogue and digital can get a bit mucked up when transfering from a STB (digital) to a DVDR (analogue) 2) Its a bit fiddly hitting PLAY on the PVR and REC on the DVDR etc. but if you don't want to burn 5 DVDs a week this is not really an issue. If you do want to then get a hybrid PVR/DVDR or get a PVR that allows downloading to a PC for burning to DVD there. To surmise. An awful lot of people have DVDRs hooked up to their STBs. Regards Peter Gillespie NB Have aread of the PVR thread if you're in the market: http://www.dtvforum.info/index.php?showtopic=36191 .
Guest Hedonastik Posted April 6, 2007 Posted April 6, 2007 . Thanks very much everyone, this has been a great help. I loaned a friends' very basic DVD recorder today, to try it out for myself and as Gomer Pyle used to say " Surprise, surprise.." it works fine, just as you all said. Cheers
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