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View Full Version : Tivo reencode video?

Bytez
03-18-2006, 10:56 PM
Does Tivo Series2 DVR reencode the video or does it save the raw stream? And transferring via tivotogo will reencode it again or now? :confused: I wonder why it's at 480x480 resolution, why can't it be 720x480? Any way to force it to record at that resolution?
filburt1
03-18-2006, 11:07 PM
It must encode the incoming stream given it's analog, not digital. I believe TTG transfers are not recompressed, but they're tagged with some extra metadata.
Bytez
03-18-2006, 11:12 PM
dang, was hoping it won't reencode. I bet a dvd recorder will yield better quality.

is that why it takes so long to grab the file using TTG ?
filburt1
03-18-2006, 11:13 PM
It's a limitation of the network interface, the USB interface, and the CPU which adds DRM to the stream as it's being downloaded.

If you use best quality, it will use the lowest level of compression.
Puppy76
03-24-2006, 04:49 PM
dang, was hoping it won't reencode. I bet a dvd recorder will yield better quality.

is that why it takes so long to grab the file using TTG ?

Umm...ALL DVRs encode analog video they're capturing. The video they're capturing isn't encoded.

And ANY DVD-Recorder would have to encode/reencode any content, since nothint is broadcast in a format DVD players can decode.
pdhenry
03-24-2006, 05:19 PM
It's at 480 X 480 because NTSC doesn't have 720 pixels of horizontal resolution. More like 430 (from what I was able to Google).
Bytez
03-25-2006, 02:15 AM
how come some say the video looks better when played from tivo as opposed to running the feed straight to the TV?
c3
03-25-2006, 05:22 AM
how come some say the video looks better when played from tivo as opposed to running the feed straight to the TV?

That's extremely unlikely.
EwanG
03-25-2006, 06:48 AM
how come some say the video looks better when played from tivo as opposed to running the feed straight to the TV?

Tivo as part of their encoding does some noise reduction (or so I've heard). Therefore on a marginal signal or a signal with the right kind of noise, I could imagine the picture from the Tivo being "better".

However, that's going to be a small minority of channels, and will depend on what appeals to the individual viewer.

For example, I own a Canon S2 IS camera, and on any of the digital camera forums, you will hear arguments pro and con about it having a "soft" focus. A lot of that comes down to individual preference, and whether folks prefer their sharpening done in camera, or in post processing software.

FWIW,
Ewan
Puppy76
03-27-2006, 10:15 AM
Or it would look better if your TV has a really terrible tuner :D