Recording quality and space it takes?

[myxpykalix]

I looked at the faq's and this didn't answer my specific question...

I just bought a premier that gives me 45 hours of HD or 405 of SD. My question is I am on digital cable from comcast and i set my recording quality to "Basic" because i figure the digital quality even on basic recording will be way better then before.
However I do record programs from the HD channels in the lineup. So if i record from the HD channels is that taking up more space even though i am supposed to be recording in basic?

[lpwcomp]

Originally Posted by myxpykalix

I looked at the faq's and this didn't answer my specific question...

I just bought a premier that gives me 45 hours of HD or 405 of SD. My question is I am on digital cable from comcast and i set my recording quality to "Basic" because i figure the digital quality even on basic recording will be way better then before.
However I do record programs from the HD channels in the lineup. So if i record from the HD channels is that taking up more space even though i am supposed to be recording in basic?

The recording quality setting only applies to recordings made from analog channels. For digital channels (probably all of yours at this point), it records the digital stream.

[mattack]

To be even more clear -- except for analog channels, which you likely aren't getting anymore (especially with a cable card installed), the Tivo records the show exactly as it aired (the digital stream as lpwcomp said).

The Tivo doesn't reencode the show into a lower bit rate. (I personally would love this feature, but Tivos aren't designed this way.)

[myxpykalix]

So the answer to my question is that the digitqal and HD channels take up more recording space and i'm not likely to get more then the 45 hours of recording space right? Any suggestions on the best addon HD for more recording space?
thanks

[lpwcomp]

Originally Posted by myxpykalix

So the answer to my question is that the digitqal and HD channels take up more recording space and i'm not likely to get more then the 45 hours of recording space right? Any suggestions on the best addon HD for more recording space?
thanks

Yeah - don't add an external. Instead, either replace the internal with a larger drive or (unless you're on a cable system that is copy protecting everything) offload to your computer. IMHO, an external drive is more trouble than it's worth.

The 45 hours is an estimate. It's going to vary based on the resolution and compression.

[sharkster]

99% of what I record is HD and, using the same machines that you have, I find that a half hour show in HD takes up 1% of space and a one hour show in HD uses 2%. Looking at it that way, I found it easier to keep up on space and my needs.

For me, having two of these same Premiere Tivos with about 135 Season Passes between them, I don't have space problems. But I don't let things get way behind either, so that helps.

Oh, and stuff that I have recorded on SD (digital) seems to take about 1% for an hour and a half to two hours of programming.

[lillevig]

Originally Posted by myxpykalix

So the answer to my question is that the digitqal and HD channels take up more recording space and i'm not likely to get more then the 45 hours of recording space right? Any suggestions on the best addon HD for more recording space?
thanks

The HD recordings take more space than the non-HD digital recordings. If you want a good idea of how much each show takes, set up kmttg on your PC. Once it is linked to your Tivo, you can see your recordings on the Tivo and their statistics without even having to transfer them to the PC.

[ltxi]

HD takes up more space than SD digital, but I suspect you'll become unhappy quite quickly with your OEM drive capacity. My advice is to blow $200 on a 2TB upgrade right now, up front.....before you stack up recordings.

[mattack]

SD shows take up *around* 1 gig/hour. I record virtually everything in SD due to disk space issues.