Tivo Video-Quality formats and encoding for DVD

[manse]

So I was burning some shows to DVD last night and I came across and interesting discovery. (Which most of you probably know, but I am new here so I am going to share anyway). :D

I burned some shows from my Series 2 Tivo to DVD. The mpeg format from the tivo was 480 x 480 (best quality). These had to be re-encoded buy the DVD program before it could burn the disc. This took a long time.

Then I burned some different shows from the same tivo. I noticed that 1) the same amount of shows were going to take up a lot less space on the DVD, and 2) that the DVD program did not have to re-encode it because these shows were recorded at 352x480 (a native DVD format apparently). The burning process was much, MUCH faster. It turns out these shows were recorded in medium quality format.

So it appears that Best and High quality on Series 2 Tivos are 480 x 480 and require re-encoding before they can be burned, and that medium and basic are at 352x480, which does not require re-encoding.

Anyone know what the Series 3 video size is? I haven't pulled down any shows from my HD Tivo yet. And, AFAIK, you can't select the quality that the HD tivos record at.

[Dan203]

As you discovered S2 TiVos record at 480x480 for Best/High and 352x480 for Medium/Basic. They can also record 544x480 for Best if connected to DSS receiver via S-Video cable.

S3 TiVos record all digital channels at their native resolution. Which means HD recordings will be 720x1280 or 1080x1920, but digital SD channels can be anything between 352x480 and 720x480 depending on what the cable provider chooses to use. For analog channels recorded on the S3 Best/High are recorded at 720x480 and Medium/Basic are recorded at 352x480.

All that being said you should try VideoReDo TVSuite for making DVDs. It can quickly make a DVD from any TiVo file without having to recode.* All you have to do is check the box at the bottom of the DVD dialog that says "Allow non-complaint DVD settings". The DVD it creates is not technically DVD complaint, but it will still play back in 99% of the DVD players out there as most of them don't actually care what the resolution of the video is.

Dan

* Obviously this only applies to SD video, HD video will always have to be recoded for DVD output.

[manse]

Hi Dan,

Thanks for the info! I have been using the trial of VideoRedo. It's a great application! I'll try the non-compliant setting and see if that works in my DVD players.

Thanks,
-Chris

[chasludwig]

This addresses a question that I've had since trying Videoredo and being astounded that it was able to burn a dvd in 35 minutes that took Roxio over 6 hours and in much less space. As far as I can tell Roxio doesnt have capability to turn off transcoding. So is the resolution the only thing transcoding addresses? I think its a great disservice on Tivo's part to not address different options to Roxio on their site but i suppose its a contract/money thing.

[chasludwig]

Were you using Videoredo for these dvds or something different?