[djc45]

I have been a TIVO user for nearly 4 years and wouldn`t be without it now.

Anyway, I subscribe to satellite radio from the US (Sirius) which streams over the internet, the pc software has a timer to tune a radio channel in at a specific time. To record a show, all I need inow s a machine that can make an audio recoding of up to 3 or 4 hours with a timer.

I was thinking, If I bought a second TIVO from ebay , (unsubbed this time), could I use it as a manual audio recorder to record the audio feed from my pc. Could I then rename the files with Tivoweb perhaps.

Would this work, and if I set the record quality down to the lowest, would the sound quality be any different than best quality, or is it only the picture that changes.

On an unsubbed TIVO could I set daily, weekly etc, or would every recurring recording need to be re-entered manually.

Sorry to ask these questions, but my TIVO has always been subbed.

Thanks
Duncan

 

[mikerr]

Yes it would work, but why not just record it directly on the pc ?

Total recorder or something should work better

 

[djc45]

Yeah I thought of that, but there are other issues involved with it being a subscription service, and with my sound card, I can`t get the stream to record.

Do you know if the US TIVOs also work as manual recorders when unsubbed, obviously the epg and NTSC isues wouldnt apply for manual audio recordings. Some of the US TIVOs would look really good in the equipment rack?

Just a thought.

Do UK unsubbed TIVOs have a daily, weekly option in the manual timer settings?

 

[blindlemon]

Yes, you can set up repeat manual recordings on an unsubbed TiVo, and if you reduce the bitrates in TiVoWeb you can enable VBR and reduce the disk space used to little more than the size of a normal MP3 audio file too

 

[djc45]

Anyone know if there is any difference to the audio quality between the different recording options, or is it only the picture. E.g could I use basic quality for good stereo quality?

 

[RichardJH]

I always use basic for radio programmes that I record and they are fine

 

[terryeden]

All audio is recorded at the same bitrate - no matter what the video bitrate / resolution.

 

[mrtickle]

Anyone know if there is any difference to the audio quality between the different recording options, or is it only the picture. E.g could I use basic quality for good stereo quality?

Yes and no. The settings are the same for all the different recording options: a disappointingly low 32kHz sample rate (instead of 44kHz or 48kHz), 192kbit/s bitrate MPEG1 layer 2 (aka mp2).

Neither the bitrate nor the sample rate can be changed, so this is not really "good stereo quality" IMHO. It's reasonably good, but could easily be so much better.

 

[aerialplug]

I think you'll need to provide TiVo with some form of video (even if it's a blank menu screen) as I don't think it'll record anything unless there's a viable picture to encode.

I use TiVo to record of Sky's radio channels - I've got a special basixc quality where the video is barely viewable as the bitrate is so low, but the audio is fine. The Sky box provides a basic video picture so TiVo's happy with that.

To be honest there are better solutions than using TiVo for this...

Now, off to listen to the first installation of Douglas Adams' Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency on Radio 4.

 

[AMc]

It's funny I'd never really considered Tivo's sound to be low quality but it's not that high a spec is it?

For comparison the audio stream my Psion WaveFinder records DAB radio at is 128Kbps, 48KHz MPEG1 layer 2 (mp2). Well that's XFM anyway I know some are lower and mono and Radio 3 is slightly higher IIRC. So you will get a re-encoded equivalent of DAB which some consider too poor to be worth the effort - myself not included.

 

[mrtickle]

Ah yes, DAB the future of radio with its mono stations and low bitrates. Thankfully DAB+ using the AAC codec will sound a lot better. There are some excellent technical articles on this website http://www.digitalradiotech.co.uk/ which examine codecs and bitrates.

This BBC white paper is particularly relevant:
Matrixed Surround sound in an MPEG digital world

Notice the bitrates that the tests used (and that was for mpeg2 audio which is more advanced than mpeg1 layer2).

It's not the one I was looking for though. There was one dealing with the problem of losing dolby surround sound information in mpeg audio when you have to re-encode it (as we do). I'm surprised any surround effects survive through to TiVo's output at all

 

[shaunH]

Yes, you can set up repeat manual recordings on an unsubbed TiVo, and if you reduce the bitrates in TiVoWeb you can enable VBR and reduce the disk space used to little more than the size of a normal MP3 audio file too

Hi,

I'd like reduce the size of my Radio Recordings. Could you give me an idea how to set up for this?

I'm currently using TiVo basic with the following settings (set using TiVoweb resource editor)
CATVBasicVBRBitrate: 675000
CATVBasicMAXBitrate: 675000

A 3hr radio program tyfile currently weighs in at about 995MB (compared to the final Mp3 which is about 200MB) I'd love to reduce it further if possible.

Cheers,

ShaunH

 

[mrtickle]

I'm currently using TiVo basic with the following settings (set using TiVoweb resource editor)
CATVBasicVBRBitrate: 675000
CATVBasicMAXBitrate: 675000

Those match the lowest values I've used that work properly. When I tried 650000 the audio was skipping and repeating (in the PC, not the TiVo). I didn't try anything inbetween though!

 

[shaunH]

Those match the lowest values I've used that work properly. When I tried 650000 the audio was skipping and repeating (in the PC, not the TiVo). I didn't try anything inbetween though!

Thanks - worth a thought!

I'll leave things as they are for the moment

Best wishes,

ShaunH