quality of "internet" programs....

[alienxg7]

Hi,

For programs that are downloaded to people's tivos (eg. rocketboom (I've unsubscribed now! ;) and tv guide spot), has anyone noticed the quality isn't always that great (especially for rocketboom).

The TV GUIDE Spots were reasonable quality in general, just not that great. The Rocketbooms would always flicker, etc. BAD quality!

Are these common issues? My network adapter is working with tivo (I have checked its connectivity).

Okay, another sorta related question: I noticed a couple of times past midnight, my tivo would tune to a unidentified channel (one that my cable company didn't carry) and I have a theory that this is the tivo downloading content from the internet (tv guide spots, etc.)... am I correct?? I am a little surprised because I didn't expect the download to record like that (I expected more of a situation that occurs when a tivo transfers to another room's tivo).

Thanks!

Patrick

[cwoody222]

The TV Guide Spots were recorded off your cable company past midnight. Those are only as good as that channel come into your house at. Sometimes bad.

Rocketboom is different. That's downloaded directly to your hardware from TiVo. Mine is usually quite clear but remember, Rocketboom is filmed primarily for viewing online in small windows, on iPods, etc. They don't film it with full-screen TV viewing in mind, primarily.

What you're seeing sounds normal, I wouldn't worry about any of your connections, etc.

[cwoody222]

Clarification: when tuning to channels "past midnight" TiVo is not "downloading", it's recording. TiVo or the sponsor buys airtime on these channels. At the same time they broadcast some "signals" (sorta like closed captioning) that the TiVo can decode to know what to do with these recorded shows.

While TiVo would not record one of these shows in place of something you asked it to record, it can't do it while it's recording something else.


Rocketboom is a 100% separate process, an Internet download and can be done simultaneously during recordings, viewings, TiVo-ToGo downloads, etc.

[greg_burns]

I thought I read that Rocketboom is recorded in HD now. You would think the downloads would be of decent quality. :confused:

http://www.rocketboom.com/vlog/archives/2006/02/rb_06_feb_27.html

[Dan203]

Even so it's still only 480x270. So the best TiVo can do is letterbox it to 352x480, which is the same resolution used for Medium and Basic recordings. Add to that it's being transcoded from a heavily compressed QuickTime file to a fairly low bitrate MPEG-2 and the quality is going to suffer.

If TiVo could get their hands on the original HD material and transcode from that using two pass encoding I'm betting they could make it look pretty damn good even at low bitrates.

Dan

[greg_burns]

Amanda looks pretty damn good at any bitrate.

[jlee745]

I am waiting for my tivo adapter to arrive in mail.. What is Rocketbloom?

[JacksTiVo]

I am waiting for my tivo adapter to arrive in mail.. What is Rocketbloom?
It is Rocket Boom and it is a video blog that is on the Internet. Do a Google search to find it. After viewing it and if you like it, you can subscribe for it to appear on your TiVo. Click on the TiVo link on the Rocket Boom home page to sign-up at Tivo.com.

[jlee745]

Thanks
Checking it out now!!!!!!!!
Leigh

[alienxg7]

Thanks!

I personally could not stand rocketboom; bad acting, bad scripts, etc. But that's my own opinion.

There are definately complaints and are going to be complaints about internet downloads not carrying closed-captioning.

I believe the industry should work on encoding captioning on downloaded programs and research this area more. There certainly should be a way because so many people use it (not just the hearing impaired).

I believe the complaints have been going through the FCC (I believe that's the gov't company responsible) and this issue will be addressed eventually. It just isn't fair that all the VOD companies (Starz on Demand, Google Video, etc. etc. etc.) are ignoring the issue of captioning. The captioning may be handled differently for these types of broadcasts but I know it is possible. I can't remember right now, I think it's CPC; this company lets people borrow free captioned videos (all educational, not "Hollywood" videos I think) and recently thy began an online version where people could view videos online, but the last time I checked it was very limited.

I know captioning will take time to implement for this VOD technology but it will have to be done eventually (complaints will be very high and the FCC will intervene) and I wish that companies would start! It has to do with money of course.

Anyway that's my rant, but one that many people undoubtedly will agree with.

~Patrick