S3 File Size FYI

1100 Views 4 Replies 4 Participants Last post by astrohip, Sep 14, 2007

TexasGrillChef

Discussion Starter · Sep 14, 2007

Hey, this is something I just discovered.

I haven't heard anyone talk about this feature yet, and when I did a search I wasn't able to find any information about this...

HOWEVER.... I thought this would be great FYI!

When I go into my "Now Playing" list... and click "Select" on an SD recording. Then click the "INFO" button. It will tell you the SIZE and amount of Hard Drive space this show is taking on the hard drive.

I checked to see if this worked for any HD shows I had recorded and it does NOT.

The info will only show how much space is used on the hard drive for that show.

I think that is great! At least it gives us some sort of clue as to how much hard drive space is being used. Now if they could enable this feature for the HD shows that are recorded as well.

TGC

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TexasGrillChef

Discussion Starter · #2 · Sep 14, 2007

Actually... after checking all 23 of my HD recordings, I found SOME of the HD recordings under "Info" (Twice). Will tell you what the file size is, and others wll not.

Example, HBO-HD recording of Big Love says file size is 5.18gb, another HBO-HD recording of "Tell me You love me" doesn't list its disk usage size. Go figure. (Since both are an hour long recording of a HD show, I will assume that it will be about 5gb in size as well)

A second HBO-HD recording of big love says it's disk usage size is 5.76gb.

Like I said before... Even though the S3 doesn't have a TRUE disk usage meter anywhere listed. At least this way we can have some idea of how much hard drive space we are useing. IT is better then nuttin!

TGC

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bkdtv

· #3 · Sep 14, 2007

Did you scroll down using the page down (channel -) key? All the high-definition recordings on my TivoHD have file sizes.

You can use this information to compare off-air and cable feeds of your local channels. Record the same program from cable and OTA and then compare the file sizes. If they are identical, then your cable provider is passing through the OTA feed without processing or compression. If the file size on the cable recording is smaller, then that means your provider is degrading the quality of their local feeds.

Once you know the file size, you can easily calculate the average bitrate:

Average bitrate = (file size in gigabytes * 8192) / (number of minutes in recording * 60)

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pkscout

· #4 · Sep 14, 2007

Very nice. I've only got one HD recording right now, but I'm recording some other stuff in the next few days. I did have to scroll down to get the info, so, as bktv mentioned, you do have to scroll down sometimes to get it.

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astrohip

· #5 · Sep 14, 2007

This is not new, it's been around since at least the S2 days. There are many threads that mention this, particularly ones comparing file sizes of analog vs digital vs HD etc etc. You can also use this to compare OTA HD vs cable HD. For example, a local news station cable HD was 7.46GB. OTA was 7.66GB. Not a big difference, and not as compressed as I would have thought. YMMV.

It's a terrible overall FSI though. Just use the Recently Deleted Folder for that. It is good for telling you how much of your hard drive any particular program uses though.

It is a great feature! :up:

ETA: meant to add, *every* recording has this, regardless of HD or not. The scroll down mentioned above will always show it.

whoops, didn't read well...bkdtv already gave the tip about comparing OTA vs cable. My bad

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