HD XL capacity? How many hours?

[TiVoEvan74]

A follow up just to make sure I understand this. I'm used to an old Series 2 Tivo, and this HD stuff is all brave new world to us! (My other thread ended up becoming a high-tech discussion of drive upgrades, so I thought I try a fresh thread.)

1) If we were to buy a Tivo HD XL, we should get 1,350 hours of recording time of non-HD shows via cable. If they were all HD shows, we get 150 hours. (OK, I understand it would be "up to", but close to that, right?)

2) We'd have no choice in the quality of the recording, whether we received the signal over-the-air or via cable. Recording time and quality all depends on whether the show is being sent out in HD or SD.

3) If our cable co. went all digital, the amount of recording time would still depend on whether the shows we wanted to record were being sent out in HD or SD... that's because digital ≠ HD. Again, we'd have no choice in the matter of the quality of the recording.

4) Can the HD XL work with an old analog TV set? Should have asked that first!

[bkdtv]

1) If we were to buy a Tivo HD XL, we should get 1,350 hours of recording time of non-HD shows via cable. If they were all HD shows, we get 150 hours. (OK, I understand it would be "up to", but close to that, right?)

2) We'd have no choice in the quality of the recording, whether we received the signal over-the-air or via cable. Recording time and quality all depends on whether the show is being sent out in HD or SD.Capacity depends on the channel from which you record. The "1350 hours" only refers to content recorded from analog channels at the [lowest] "basic quality" setting. All programs on digital SD and HD are recorded as is, bit-for-bit identical to the original, and any quality settings are ignored.

You'll can record150-170 of programs from HD channels and anywhere from 4-8x time that amount from digital SD channels. Different channels require different amounts of bandwidth, so any "hours" figure is an estimate.

3) If our cable co. went all digital, the amount of recording time would still depend on whether the shows we wanted to record were being sent out in HD or SD... that's because digital ≠ HD. Again, we'd have no choice in the matter of the quality of the recording. That's correct.

4) Can the HD XL work with an old analog TV set?Yes.

[TiVoEvan74]

Oh, so it could be as "low" as 600 hours if the shows are being sent out in SD. Hmm... not as much as I had thought.

I guess I'll have to check with the cable company and see if there's info on whether the shows are being broadcast digital (HD or SD) or analog. (Am I even right about that? If digital, then either HD or SD.)

Or, wait, is it that the channels themselves are in HD or SD (or analog), and not particular shows?

And if our cable co. is still sending out stuff in analog over the cable wires, we'd still have the Basic recording option. Interesting!

We're only a few years away from having used rabbit ears (even with our Tivos), so all this HD/SD/analog stuff is mind-bending!

[GBL]

I guess I'll have to check with the cable company and see if there's info on whether the shows are being broadcast digital (HD or SD) or analog. (Am I even right about that? If digital, then either HD or SD.)


Some cable systems (like my Comcast system) broadcast the same channels both in analog AND digital form; a cable card remaps an analog channel to the digital stream, if it exists. If you don't have a cable card, both the analog and the digital version may show up separately in the channel list.

[ThAbtO]

The older analog TV needs to have the proper inputs to hook up the Tivo, composite (yellow or s-video, white/red for audio), component, HDMI. Any programs showing in HD will show picture framed when using composite.

[Dmon4u]

I've had my TiVo XL filled a couple of times with all HD shows. I then estimated recorded time with FiOS @ 119 to around 132 hours. I thought the 119 was too low but, again, the time you get will vary.

* It was relatively easy since I recorded just 4 or 5 different shows. I included the minutes I padded.

[classicsat]

It is the channels in HD that take the bandwith/capacity, regardless of the program. SD is upconverted to take the hD bandwidth, although the HD encoders may lax off and reduce the bitrate a bit for SD content.

[TiVoEvan74]

Very helpful info! Much thanks!