[emfraser]

I've been using my S3 with analog cable and an antenna (for local HD). I really like the flexibility to record two HD shows at once or two analog shows at once. I like to record most things in analog to save space, and only record new prime-time shows in HD.

I'm finally moving to a building in which I can get digital cable, so I'm thinking about going the cablecard route because sometimes my antenna signal cuts out. That raises two questions:

1. If I get two cablecards, can I also record in compressed analog or will my TiVo simply fill up very fast by recording everything in digital?

2. If I just get one cablecard, I know I'll only be able to record one digital show at a time, but will I also be able to use the analog cable tuner to record analog shows?

Thanks!

 

[LifeIsABeach]

1. Analog shows will still have the Best, High, Medium, and Low options as before.

2. No, it becomes a single-tuner TiVo when only one cablecard is installed.

 

[atmuscarella]

Sorry don't know the answer to #1

For #2 if you only have one cable card in a Series 3 or TiVo HD is becomes a single tuner DVR. If you are using cable cards you need 2 cable cards in and working to use the dual tuner function even for OTA the only exception is if you are using an "M" card in a TiVo HD - 1 "M" replaces 2 "S" cards.

1. Analog shows will still have the Best, High, Medium, and Low options as before.

Will his TiVo give him the option to pick between an analog or digital version of the major (OTA) networks or will it default automatically to the HD digital version?

Good Luck,

 

[vstone]

When he picks a program or a season pass, he is identifying that program by channel. If, for instance he wants to record NBC Nightly News every night but, knowing that while the show is in HD, most of the taped or on-the-scene content is SD, he wants to record it in SD, he would pick the SD channel, not the SD channel. I do this with the Sunday morning talk shows (all in SD), except for ABC, which has poor audio on the analog channel.

 

[moyekj]

Also note that SD digital channels in general actually consume LESS space than analog encoded recordings (except if you use low quality setting for analog encoding).

 

[emfraser]

Thanks for all the help.

The cable lineup I'll have will basically be limited to the over the air channels. I have an antenna that works fine to pick up digital channels (some occasional problems, but nothing too severe).

Is it even worth getting a cablecard then? Is there any advantage I'm not thinking of?

Also, how much space to digital SD recordings take? That is, what analog compression level corresponds best in terms of file size?