Series 2 dumbs down HD signal?

[dwilcomb]

So, to make a long story short, I have a DirecTV HD install date approaching. (I'm upgrading from my SD Cable signal to take advantage of my HDTV.) I know if I run my receiver through my series-2 TiVo that any recorded shows will be "dumbed down" to SD. My question is - what about live shows? Will live feeds pumped through the TiVo be similarly reduced?

Obviously, the buffer is SD, but I guess the technical question is this: is a live signal actually processed through the buffer before going to the TV, or is it just passed through unadulterated?

Ps: Planning to go to HD recorders eventually, but I would need two (which is an expensive proposition). Still not sure about HDTiVo versus DirecTV DVR...but that's another thread :)

[pkscout]

Everything on your TiVo is run through the buffer. There is technically no such thing as "Live TV." You are at least a second or two behind at all times.

[TriBruin]

The Tivo S2 does not dumbdown an HD signal, it doesn't understand it at all. You can not feed a direct HD signal in to a S2 and see it, you can only feed it an SD signal. If you taking the output from your DirecTV receiver and feeding it in to the Tivo, the receiver will handle the down conversion, not the S3 Tivo.

[dwilcomb]

Everything on your TiVo is run through the buffer.

Curses! That's what I was afraid of.

[CuriousMark]

You can pipe the SD signal from the receiver to your TiVo and run the HD output directly to the TV. Anything going through the TiVo will be SD of course, but you could tune an HD channel and then switch the TV input to the HD signal and watch live in HD. Many people do this, but it has the problem that if the TiVo wants to record a different channel, it will switch on you, which can be annoying.