Thread: Why are the live buffers not the same?

Originally Posted by joshr915

along with everyone else, I dont see your point here. just start recording both (two buttons!) then if you insist on sitting paused on it, go to the DVR menu, select the recording you just started and sit paused on it. I have no idea what this "hassle of recording" you speak of is.

And when you talk about watching both shows at once, swapping between the buffers....you realize if you just record both, watched one at a time skipping commercials, it takes the EXACT same amount of time to watch both?




Please explain why recording is so hard..? Takes about 1 second to start a recording

he believes he is "saving " space on the hard drive by not hitting the record button...
Everyone is entitled to their picadillos.
Quite frankly this is much ado about nothing and this dopey thread should be closed and stored in the 10th sub basemment of some unused building in Washington DC behind a door marked "never open"..
In other words, this thread is a waste of good bandwidth..

Having both a 625 and a 622, there are times when I wish the 622 had a 2 hr buffer. I know I can just press record (and I do), but they might as well remove the "Record Entire Event" option since, more often than not, I'm already out of the 1 hr buffer.

Let's not forget that TiVo Series 3, HD, and HDXL only give you a 30 minute buffer.

Originally Posted by Jhon69

Well I will take Mondays for example,we like Antiques Roadshows and Heroes that both come on at 8PM PST so I live buffer both channels PBS&NBC.Watch Roadshows first because of no commercials then after Roadshows is over switch tuner to CBS because we like the Big Bang Theory that comes on at 9:30 PM PST .Then go to the tuner that has NBC rewind live buffer start watching Heroes while FFWing through commercials.After getting through watching Heroes go to the CBS tuner rewind live buffer then watch Big Bang Theory while of course FFWing through commercials.This can be achieved because I have 2-120 minute live buffers on the 625.I reserve my recording space for movies I like to record.

But I also can see if I know I won't be home to record such programs see to me having the longer live buffers gives me(the operator) another option than just to record a program(s).Having live buffers is like adding space to your hard drive because you don't have to record every program.

P.S. I also could not do this with just 2-60 minute live buffers.

Not to belabor the point, but is your hard drive so full that you can't just record them? It seems to me that you are dramatically missing the point of having a DVR, or of the DVRs capabilities. It would be like waking up at 5:00 a.m. every day to set the alarm to go off at 6:00.

You can set the 625 so that it only has the latest episode in the hard drive. My wife and I like to watch the NBC news. It is set to record every day, and dump yesterday's episode. That way, we only have the one latest episode of the news at any one time. It is a "set it and forget it" type deal.

The purpose of live buffers is not to act as a second hard drive, the point of live buffers is to stop what you are doing to get a snack or go to the bathroom (or swat flies, as we were invaded yesterday ). Something else to consider, the live buffers live somewhere, and that somewhere is on the hard drive of the machine. Add 2 hours of HD live buffer, and you necessarily reduce the number of hours that the machine can record on the hard drive, and AFAIK, the live buffers take up more space than recorded programs, it is not 1:1.

Originally Posted by DishSubLA

Let's not forget that TiVo Series 3, HD, and HDXL only give you a 30 minute buffer.

Wow still only 30 minutes? that's what my HR10-250(DirecTivo) has and that's really sad.

Originally Posted by Centex

Not to belabor the point, but is your hard drive so full that you can't just record them? It seems to me that you are dramatically missing the point of having a DVR, or of the DVRs capabilities. It would be like waking up at 5:00 a.m. every day to set the alarm to go off at 6:00.

You can set the 625 so that it only has the latest episode in the hard drive. My wife and I like to watch the NBC news. It is set to record every day, and dump yesterday's episode. That way, we only have the one latest episode of the news at any one time. It is a "set it and forget it" type deal.

The purpose of live buffers is not to act as a second hard drive, the point of live buffers is to stop what you are doing to get a snack or go to the bathroom (or swat flies, as we were invaded yesterday ). Something else to consider, the live buffers live somewhere, and that somewhere is on the hard drive of the machine. Add 2 hours of HD live buffer, and you necessarily reduce the number of hours that the machine can record on the hard drive, and AFAIK, the live buffers take up more space than recorded programs, it is not 1:1.

With all due respect I believe that to just record only is losing sight of what a DVR's capabilities can be unless that swap button on the remote control is there for looks.

And yes I record just don't like to record stuff with commercials kinda of a pet peeve of mine.

Don't know how much space dual live buffers take but I know MPEG4 dual live buffers would be less space than MPEG2 dual live buffers like my 625 has.

Just think if you had to swat flies and you have a ViP DVR at 1:01 of a paused program you would need to find something else to watch cause your live buffer is gone!.

Originally Posted by Jhon69

Don't know how much space dual live buffers take but I know MPEG4 dual live buffers would be less space than MPEG2 dual live buffers like my 625 has.

This is true, but only when comparing apples to apples. In other words, you need to compare mpeg-2 SD to mpeg-4 SD, or mpeg-2 HD versus mpeg-4 HD. The 625 can only buffer mpeg-2 SD, and that's only 544X480i. The VIP receivers have much larger SD mpeg-2 OTA signals to buffer, and then there's the HD broadcasts. In the worst case scenario, OTA MPEG-2 HD 1920X1080i, your buffer for a 2 hr program would be quite significant.

Originally Posted by TheKrell

This is true, but only when comparing apples to apples. In other words, you need to compare mpeg-2 SD to mpeg-4 SD, or mpeg-2 HD versus mpeg-4 HD. The 625 can only buffer mpeg-2 SD, and that's only 544X480i. The VIP receivers have much larger SD mpeg-2 OTA signals to buffer, and then there's the HD broadcasts. In the worst case scenario, OTA MPEG-2 HD 1920X1080i, your buffer for a 2 hr program would be quite significant.

Yes that's true.I guess I will never know why Dish changed their live buffers from
2 hours on the 625 to 1 hour on the ViPs?when the 2 hour seems so perfect for what I use them for.

And it seems alot of the users are set and satisfied to"record only" if it's over 1 hour.


Is that what Dish's SD programming is 544x480i?.I thought it looks a heck of alot better than DirecTV's SD programming.

Originally Posted by Jhon69

Yes that's true.I guess I will never know why Dish changed their live buffers from
2 hours on the 625 to 1 hour on the ViPs?when the 2 hour seems so perfect for what I use them for.

And it seems alot of the users are set and satisfied to"record only" if it's over 1 hour.


Is that what Dish's SD programming is 544x480i?.I thought it looks a heck of alot better than DirecTV's SD programming.

It has been explained that to have 2 hr buffers would give us less recording time. So what's not to understand?