It Says "HD" But It's Really "SD"

[hookbill]

In my area if CBS goes into football OT which it always does if it has a double header the shows that follow that are suppose to be in HD, arn't. I don't know why that is but in the Cleveland area it's a fact at least over the last couple of weeks.

I record "The Amazing Race" on the SD channel but I set up "Cold Case" and "Without a Trace" on my HD channel, and pad an hour so I catch everything.

TiVo list "Cold Case" and "Without a Trace" in my HD folder which makes sense as they are labled HD. Even though they ar SD. Now to my question. When you watch a show on the HD channel does it still use the disk space that an HD show would even though it's not in HD? I keep track of my disk space by counting HD shows, I don't like to use suggestions. My guess is it doesn't but I want you well qualified experts to assure me. :)

[Dan203]

The HD information is gathered from the guide data, not from actually looking at the resolution of the recorded content. So if it's supose to be HD, then the guide data will be set to HD, and the TiVo wont know any better.

Dan

[MichaelK]

In my area if CBS goes into football OT which it always does if it has a double header the shows that follow that are suppose to be in HD, arn't. I don't know why that is but in the Cleveland area it's a fact at least over the last couple of weeks.

I record "The Amazing Race" on the SD channel but I set up "Cold Case" and "Without a Trace" on my HD channel, and pad an hour so I catch everything.

TiVo list "Cold Case" and "Without a Trace" in my HD folder which makes sense as they are labled HD. Even though they ar SD. Now to my question. When you watch a show on the HD channel does it still use the disk space that an HD show would even though it's not in HD? I keep track of my disk space by counting HD shows, I don't like to use suggestions. My guess is it doesn't but I want you well qualified experts to assure me. :)



I believe what is happening is that your affiliate is getting the following programming off a "delayed" sd stream that CBS puts up on the their sats to follow correctly after the game without clipping the first show. Probably the HD feed that is supposed to start at 7 (or whenever) is started on time so the affiliates without an overrun can get the schedule at the right time. CBS likely doesn't have anough sat slots to post a normal HD feed from your timezone AND a second slightly delayed feed. (can you follow- dont know if I explained that so well- but i know what i mean!-LOL)

anyway- on to your second question it will likely take just as much space on the drive. Your affiliate is likely taking that SD network feed and upconverting it to HD. I suspect if you play back on of those "should be HD but really SD shows" then the banner up top will still say 1080i due to the upconvert. Most stations that are not PBS seem to be afraid to change the resolutions they send- so they wouldn't change the 1080i widescreen to 480 4:3 for the SD. It's possible that since the content started 4:3 SD that it compresses a little better but unless the station has a subchannel then there is no need for them to try and send anythign but the usual 19.2mpbs. So the drive space should be exactly the same.

[MichaelK]

The HD information is gathered from the guide data, not from actually looking at the resolution of the recorded content. ...

and that's a good thing- since many stations just leave their resultion at 720p or 1080i all the time anyhow even when SD is on.

[hookbill]

I believe what is happening is that your affiliate is getting the following programming off a "delayed" sd stream that CBS puts up on the their sats to follow correctly after the game without clipping the first show. Probably the HD feed that is supposed to start at 7 (or whenever) is started on time so the affiliates without an overrun can get the schedule at the right time. CBS likely doesn't have anough sat slots to post a normal HD feed from your timezone AND a second slightly delayed feed. (can you follow- dont know if I explained that so well- but i know what i mean!-LOL)

anyway- on to your second question it will likely take just as much space on the drive. Your affiliate is likely taking that SD network feed and upconverting it to HD. I suspect if you play back on of those "should be HD but really SD shows" then the banner up top will still say 1080i due to the upconvert. Most stations that are not PBS seem to be afraid to change the resolutions they send- so they wouldn't change the 1080i widescreen to 480 4:3 for the SD. It's possible that since the content started 4:3 SD that it compresses a little better but unless the station has a subchannel then there is no need for them to try and send anythign but the usual 19.2mpbs. So the drive space should be exactly the same.

First paragraph: Explained well, I sort of understood that as well.

Second paragraph. You mention the banner up top will stay 1080i due to upconvert. This also makes sense, but where exactly "uptop" is this banner your speaking about?

[stoli412]

Another possibility is that his local affiliate doesn't have the capability to record HD content as it comes off the sat and then show it later. In fact, most affiliates don't have this capability yet...they can only pass network HD in real time. So when the game goes into OT, they have no choice but to show the SD feed.

[MichaelK]

First paragraph: Explained well, I sort of understood that as well.

Second paragraph. You mention the banner up top will stay 1080i due to upconvert. This also makes sense, but where exactly "uptop" is this banner your speaking about?


play back the show- press right arrow while it's playing. The tivo will toggle through various versions of its info banner with each click. The biggest version has a description of the show and at the end will list the resolution in parenthesis.

[MichaelK]

Another possibility is that his local affiliate doesn't have the capability to record HD content as it comes off the sat and then show it later. In fact, most affiliates don't have this capability yet...they can only pass network HD in real time. So when the game goes into OT, they have no choice but to show the SD feed.


I was wondering if maybe that's how they normally handle overtime and the like.

Looks like the S3 could have other uses- LOL

[stoli412]

I was wondering if maybe that's how they normally handle overtime and the like.

Looks like the S3 could have other uses- LOLI know that my affiliate doesn't have this problem...we always get the HD feed. But all of my affiliates are O&Os, so they probably have the money for the HD recording equipment.

As a side note, this is why almost no talk/syndicated shows are in HD yet. Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune are in HD, but most stations can't show them because they can't record the HD feed.

[hookbill]

play back the show- press right arrow while it's playing. The tivo will toggle through various versions of its info banner with each click. The biggest version has a description of the show and at the end will list the resolution in parenthesis.

Thanks, I'll check it out. There is still a great deal of TiVo for me to discover. :up:

[hookbill]

Another possibility is that his local affiliate doesn't have the capability to record HD content as it comes off the sat and then show it later. In fact, most affiliates don't have this capability yet...they can only pass network HD in real time. So when the game goes into OT, they have no choice but to show the SD feed.

Exactly, my CBS affiliate is owned by Raycom, probably the worlds cheapest television broadcasters. There theory is, if you want it (like Dolby 5.1) tell CBS to pay for it. :)