Lost Record Quality Option with CC

[V7Goose]

I know this was discussed back in November, but thought I would re-post it here with my experience - took me a while of searching to find the old post to confirm my experience.

I got my S3 two weeks ago and initially hooked it up without cable cards on Time Warner cable. I did extensive testing comparing the record quality, and eventually set up most season passes at basic quality. I know for a fact that the various programs I had in the Now Playing list did actually show the quality at which they were recorded, since I spent some time showing that to my wife.

I switched to Verizon FIOS on Wednesday and had two CCs installed at the same time. All FIOS channels above 49 are digital, but I have one TV without cable box that receives the lower channels just fine, confirming that they are indeed analog. After installing the CCs, I have no option to set the record quality level on ANY channel, even the analog channels below 49. I know that some here have stated this is because the CCs secretly find the digital simulcast of those programs (which I verified was there with the digital tuner in my Sony plasma TV).

Now here is the new and very strange info: the programs already recorded in Now Playing that DID show the quality at which they were recorded NO LONGER DISPLAY this information! I find this really strange, since those programs must still be at the lower quality, but now the display does not show that. I haven't reported this to TiVo tech support yet, but will soon.

[AbMagFab]

That's because with CC's, they map the analog channels to the digital versions.

Be happy, it's a good thing.

[Mike Farrington]

That's because with CC's, they map the analog channels to the digital versions.

Be happy, it's a good thing.
But I can see how it might frustrate some who have good analog signals and are worried about free space management. As for me, my analogs suck being way out in the boonies, so I welcome the digital feeds.

[AbMagFab]

But I can see how it might frustrate some who have good analog signals and are worried about free space management. As for me, my analogs suck being way out in the boonies, so I welcome the digital feeds.

Digital recording will take less space than analog compressed at basic quality, in general. They are around 750MB-1GB per hour.

You are getting better than "Best" quality at less than "Basic" space.

It's a win-win.

[joelkfla]

Digital recording will take less space than analog compressed at basic quality, in general. They are around 750MB-1GB per hour.

You are getting better than "Best" quality at less than "Basic" space.

It's a win-win.
Will it only remap to SD digitals, and not HD digitals? Because apparently the HD channels broadcast non-HD shows at HD resolution, which takes up more space than Best analog.

Or is this thread only talking about the cable systems method of transmitting the OTA analog channels?

Bright House Central FL doesn't seem to offer anything under channel 99 in digital (except the HD, with different channel numbers.) All my lower tier channels show the Recording Quality setting.

So this doesn't really impact me -- I'd just like to get my confusion resolved.

[JSP]

Digital recording will take less space than analog compressed at basic quality, in general. They are around 750MB-1GB per hour.I've pulled my drive and examined the recordings with some of the linux tools available, and I've found that my HD recordings average ~ 7.5GB/hour, my digital SD recordings, 1.5GB/hour, and my analog recordings at "high quality", 2.5GB/hour. In my case, the digital channels use more space than an analog recording at basic quality, but less space than at high quality. Obvious, the recording quality is better than either one, since no extra digital to analog conversions and additional lossy conversions have to be done.

Of course, mileage may vary for the digital channels, as it depends very much on the bit rate your cable provider is allocating to the channels.

[jstrazz]

I just got my S3 this week. I'll be getting my cable cards for it shortly. I cannot wait to be able to record everything in digital best quality. Stop worrying about the space usage. You should get about 35 hours of quality viewing in HD, and if you can't watch some of those programs before you run out of space, then you're probably recording too many shows that you don't have time to watch anyway. I've found this to be the case on many occasions. I just delete the programs that I didn't watch because I lost interest in them.

[ashu]

Famous Last Words: 35 Hours is enough. :p

This is obviously your first TiVo! (?) :)

[CharlesH]

I've found that my HD recordings average ~ 7.5GB/hour, my digital SD recordings, 1.5GB/hour, and my analog recordings at "high quality", 2.5GB/hour. In my case, the digital channels use more space than an analog recording at basic quality, but less space than at high quality. This is consistent with other posters who have said that SD digital recordings take up about as much space as Medium analog recordings. As I understand it, this is due to the stations throwing a lot of CPU horsepower at the compression for a given quality, as well as, for non-live programs, having the opportunity to do the compression offline. For example, when you run the ZIP file compression utility (which is lossless, and thus "perfect" quality), you can chose between faster or better compression. It has to do with how much effort you want to spend getting closer to the theoretical maximum compression. There is no way the pitiful little processor in the TiVo, operating under real-time constraints, is going to get as good compression.