[morac]

I know that M-card support will be ported, but how about things like the new "Hybrid' mode and any other added stuff (though I think Hybrid mode might be all that's new).

 

[ZeoTiVo]

magic 8 ball says - highly doubtful

for anything other than M-card support

 

[GoHokies!]

I can't see why the new hybrid mode wouldn't be back-ported to the "premium" platform.

 

[hutchca]

What is the new Hybrid mode? I can't find any details on that.

Since the S3 already has 720P and 1080i Hybrid modes, I suppose all that's left is a 480P or 1080P mode.
Neither units offer 1080P output and a 480P Hybrid mode makes no sense.

EDIT: I found Megazone's review which details the new "Hybrid" output mode.
http://www.tivolovers.com/a-review-of-the-tivo-hd-digital-media-recorder/
Seems unlikely that the TiVo could ever receive or record a 1080P source but who knows.
Maybe HD-DVD downloads from Unbox?

Since the TiVo HD is still running an older version of the S3 software it seems unlikely that the "Hybrid" mode is just a software enabled feature.

 

[megazone]

I can't see why the new hybrid mode wouldn't be back-ported to the "premium" platform.

It depends if the older chips in the S3 can handle it, really.

 

[vman41]

Since the S3 already has 720P and 1080i Hybrid modes, I suppose all that's left is a 480P or 1080P mode.
Neither units offer 1080P output and a 480P Hybrid mode makes no sense.

My TV's HDMI doesn't handle 480i, so for my purposes the desired "Hybrid native" mode leaves 720p and 1080i alone and de-interlaces 480i. Down-rezzing 1080p to 1080i would be required as well if there were any 1080p material on the TiVo.

 

[snitm]

My TV's HDMI doesn't handle 480i, so for my purposes the desired "Hybrid native" mode leaves 720p and 1080i alone and de-interlaces 480i. Down-rezzing 1080p to 1080i would be required as well if there were any 1080p material on the TiVo.

I really hope Tivo includes the "Hybrid native" mode in an S3 update very soon. My Panasonic HDMI add-in card for my TV doesn't support 480i either. I don't really care about the 1080p to 1080i support (yet). I'd gladly take a minimalist "Hybrid native" that doesn't do the 1080p conversion.

 

[btwyx]

EDIT: I found Megazone's review which details the new "Hybrid" output mode.

Now I'm going to be annoyed if that doesn't turn up on the S3 sometime soon. That's just what I've been wanting for TiVo to do for years (since the HR10).

I can't see what support this would need from the hardware. Software tells the hardware what to output, software knows what the program is recorded in. So what hardware support is needed?

 

[Dan203]

While I like the idea of a "Hybrid native" mode, since my TV doesn't support 480i over HDMI, I probably wouldn't use it. My TV goes black and flickers for 3-5 seconds every time it has to switch modes. This is particularly annoying on the TiVo because the menus are always 720p, which means that every time I enter a TiVo menu from a program which is in any mode other then 720p my TV freaks out for a few seconds, then does it again when I return to the program. For me the quality difference between native and 720p fixed (my TVs native resolution) is not worth the annoyance of the constant screen flickering.

Dan

 

[kucharsk]

Same here - my Panny plasma doesn't do 480i over DVI-D, but will do 480P, 720P and 1080i.

The LG HD DVR I had before my S3 had a pseudo-hybrid mode that did just that - converted 480i to 480p, but passed 720p and 1080i through to the set as 720p or 1080i.

With the S3 I either need to change the format of half my HD channels or not be able to see 480i digital programming.

 

[HDTiVo]

While I like the idea of a "Hybrid native" mode, since my TV doesn't support 480i over HDMI, I probably wouldn't use it. My TV goes black and flickers for 3-5 seconds every time it has to switch modes. This is particularly annoying on the TiVo because the menus are always 720p, which means that every time I enter a TiVo menu from a program which is in any mode other then 720p my TV freaks out for a few seconds, then does it again when I return to the program. For me the quality difference between native and 720p fixed (my TVs native resolution) is not worth the annoyance of the constant screen flickering.

Dan

I agree. 1080i Hybrid for me is a way to stop the mode changes to/from 720p (esp. menu) and 1080i while allowing the TV to properly switch between SD and HD wide settings.

I wonder if TiVo HD might offer 1080i mode for menus? 1080 is getting much more common in the HDTV user base.

Also, it would be nice is the TiVo UI started to branch from SD limitations for the HD boxes, but that's probably asking too much for a while.

 

[litkaj]

Is there some reason why they can't add 1080p output? My TV, like others mentioned, has about a 4 second switch time when changing input resolutions so I just keep it at 1080i fixed. That said, it seems kind of dumb to convert 720p to 1080i.

 

[vman41]

Is there some reason why they can't add 1080p output? My TV, like others mentioned, has about a 4 second switch time when changing input resolutions so I just keep it at 1080i fixed. That said, it seems kind of dumb to convert 720p to 1080i.

1080p is twice the pixel rate of 1080i, it takes more expensive hardware to handle it and only in the last year have any signficant number of TV models supported it for input.

 

[litkaj]

1080p is twice the pixel rate of 1080i, it takes more expensive hardware to handle it and only in the last year have any signficant number of TV models supported it for input.

It's interesting that you say that because in this area I haven't seen a 1080i TV in more than a year. Everything sold around here is 720p (or more likely, 768p) or 1080p.

How about a mapping option then that lets us set the output mode based on the input mode? Something where I could set 480i to upscale to 1080i, 480p to upscale to 720p, and 720p & 1080i to stay as they are.

 

[Dan203]

I agree. 1080i Hybrid for me is a way to stop the mode changes to/from 720p (esp. menu) and 1080i while allowing the TV to properly switch between SD and HD wide settings.

You know the TiVo has a built in function for this. That's what the aspect button on the remote is for. Heck since I got the S3 I never have to change the aspect mode on my TV. I just leave it on wide mode all the time and use the TiVo's aspect feature to change the display of the video.

Dan

 

[snitm]

You know the TiVo has a built in function for this. That's what the aspect button on the remote is for. Heck since I got the S3 I never have to change the aspect mode on my TV. I just leave it on wide mode all the time and use the TiVo's aspect feature to change the display of the video.

Dan

I'm confused; you're saying that the aspect button enables you to switch video modes? If yes, did you somehow program your remote to do so; last I pushe dthat button it didn't change the video output... please advise.

But regardless, I'm missing the utility of this manual switching of video modes when Tivo quite clearly _can_ make the video output more configurable on the TivoHD than on the S3.

I fail to see _why_ the S3 can't have a mode to convert 480i to 480p... give me that Tivo and I'll shutup; I'd really like to use native HD video modes rather than keeping video fixed at 720p because my HDMI card doesn't support 480i...

*grumble*

 

[Dan203]

No it allows you to "switch between SD and HD wide settings". Basically it allows you to change the display of SD content from "Panel" which is 4x3 mode, "Full" which is 16x9 stretch mode and "Zoom" which takes letterboxed content and zooms it to full screen 16x9. I know a lot of TVs, including mine, don't allow you to change the aspect mode of anything in 720p or 1080i so I assumed that you were using the Hybrid mode so that SD content was output as 480p and you could then use the zoom or panel modes on your TV. I was simply pointing out that if you set your TiVo to 1080i fixed then you canl zoom and stretch SD content with the TiVo itself and not have to touch the TV controls.

Dan

 

[snitm]

No it allows you to "switch between SD and HD wide settings". Basically it allows you to change the display of SD content from "Panel" which is 4x3 mode, "Full" which is 16x9 stretch mode and "Zoom" which takes letterboxed content and zooms it to full screen 16x9. I know a lot of TVs, including mine, don't allow you to change the aspect mode of anything in 720p or 1080i so I assumed that you were using the Hybrid mode so that SD content was output as 480p and you could then use the zoom or panel modes on your TV. I was simply pointing out that if you set your TiVo to 1080i fixed then you canl zoom and stretch SD content with the TiVo itself and not have to touch the TV controls.

Dan

But then I'd have "1080i fixed" and wouldn't be able to watch 720p broadcasts natively.. conversely I'm currently using "720p fixed"; so 1080i native is unavailble to me..

bottomline I'd likely appreciate tivo releasing an update for the S3 that includes the Tivo HD's new "fixed native" video mode.... I'll try to remain silent on this issue until they hopefully do so

 

[HDTiVo]

You know the TiVo has a built in function for this. That's what the aspect button on the remote is for. Heck since I got the S3 I never have to change the aspect mode on my TV. I just leave it on wide mode all the time and use the TiVo's aspect feature to change the display of the video.

I know about that, but it looked to me like I lose some resolution/quality using that, so I let the TiVo output the full picture and have the TV deal with it.

 

[Dan203]

Really? I notice no difference when using the TiVo's aspect mode vs my TVs. And the TiVos is a lot faster to switch among the modes.

Dan