Just got the Voom DVR (not really)!

Lars

SatelliteGuys Family
Original poster
Jun 23, 2004
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Although I read about the use of Tivo with Voom, I never really gave it much of a shot since my Tivo is SD and I really want more glorious HD in my home. So, I have kept the Tivo connect to my cable TV in my bedroom and have Voom in my rooms where I have HDTVs. However, I recently finished my basement and bought a new Panasonic projector with 720p native resolution. Wanting to be able to time shift the concerts on Rave and some of the movies on Monsters, I dragged the Tivo down to the basement and hooked it up to the Voom box. After going through the Voom setup and setting the standard output to squeeze (THAT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT PART), I found that my HD recordings are at least as good as a well made DVD if I set the Tivo on "Best Quality", use the s-video feed into the Tivo and s-video into the projector- and by setting the PJ in widescreen mode, I get a full anamorphic widescreen image as well (no bars). Needless to say, I bought a new Tivo for the bedroom (40 hours/$79 after rebates) and the 240 hour version is permanently hooked to my Voom box until (if) the Voom DVR comes along. The best part is that I still get nearly 100 hours of recording time at the "best" setting which is far more than any HD DVR out there that I know of. The only downside is the lack of program info for local HD, but that can be done as well if you schedule it manually- about as hard as a VCR- and yes I can program a VCR!
 
Hi:
When you "squeeze" the widescreen image with the VOOM box and then "stretch" it back with the TV doesn't that introduce artifacts into the picture?
 
Not really. Keep in mind this is very close to how a DVD player does an anamorphic DVD. I did this on Saturday and I have been blown away by the quality that I never thought would be there and I am using a 106" screen! I have a 34" Sony HD set in my family room and I plan to take the Tivo up there and hook it up when I get time to see how well it does there.
 
You're right Lars, the S-video feed from HD looks surprisingly good. Obviously not as good as true HD, but it is hard to tell from a commercial DVD. I've been recording using a similar set up in an HTPC using a Hauppauge capture card and Beyond TV3 for scheduling. BTV3 integrates the Voom and OTA guides for simple Tivo-like scheduling. It's easy to archive to DVD from there. The resulting DVD's have looked very good on both my 46" DLP and on the projector in my HT room. At least to the limits of 480i.
It would be nice if it were possible to get the 5.1 sound this way too, but so far no luck.
Still, I'm anxious for the DVR.

Bob H.
 
Hey guys I have a question on this...
I have a Tivo (temp until we get the HD-DVR...fingers crossed) connected to Voom STB via S-Video. The PQ is not that bad but I don't see it like a DVD...!!!
My question...I have the Voom STB via DVI at 1080i, is the S-Video out also at that same resolution or are each output separate on the Voom STB?
 
Voom STB via S-Video

truqui said:
My question...I have the Voom STB via DVI at 1080i, is the S-Video out also at that same resolution or are each output separate on the Voom STB?

I believe all outputs (except DVI and Component) are 480p.
 
voomvoom said:
I believe all outputs (except DVI and Component) are 480p.
480i, to be more precise. ;)
However, some geometry settings for SD outputs depend on resolution settings for HD outputs, as far as I remember...
 
I am actually getting fairly good results recording the HD programming on the EP+ settings on my Magnavox DVD recorder. It is not HD quality, but is fairly good quality.
I can record a 2.5 hour movie on that setting and it comes out fairly nice.

For movies I want to keep, it is acceptable. It is the 480i NTSC format.

roland
 
truqui said:
Hey guys I have a question on this...
I have a Tivo (temp until we get the HD-DVR...fingers crossed) connected to Voom STB via S-Video. The PQ is not that bad but I don't see it like a DVD...!!!
My question...I have the Voom STB via DVI at 1080i, is the S-Video out also at that same resolution or are each output separate on the Voom STB?

I have no Tivo experience, but getting good results from the HTPC required quite a bit of tweaking and experimentation with various encoding settings. I also went through three different capture cards before I got one with acceptable results. Even then, I'm spoiled by the HD recordings my HD tuner card makes (but for OTA only). This makes me even more anxious for the Voom DVR.

The Voom box is always 480i from Composite and S-video, and the resolution settings have no affect. Only the aspect settings have any impact.

Bob H.
 
bobhaze said:
The Voom box is always 480i from Composite and S-video, and the resolution settings have no affect. Only the aspect settings have any impact.

Bob H.

So how can the Tivo recordings possibly look as good as a DVD? They would be as good as a non-progressive DVD player at best wouldn't they?
 
jnardone said:
So how can the Tivo recordings possibly look as good as a DVD? They would be as good as a non-progressive DVD player at best wouldn't they?

480p and HD projectors have Interlacers built into them so the projector will convert the 480i to 480p, (this is the same thing your Progressive DVD player does)!! So the output from a 480i Tivo can look as good as your 480p DVD palyer if you let the projector do the interlacing.
 
There might be the possibility you could build your own DVR?

There are a couple of HDTV cards on the market. The specs for the Windows cards do not look promising. I have also read of people having trouble with that card. However, there is a linux card on the market. It looks a little better. However, it only runs in RedHat linux. I have SuSe Linux on my Linux box at home. I have thought about getting one and tweating it to see if I can get it to run. I am not sure if it has component inputs, or just the OTA input. The reveiws of the people that have managed to get this to work it seems good. The ATI Windows HDTV card have not been good.

You might be able to set up your own kick but DVR system with a surround sound?
roland
 
This is from the FAQ about the linux PCI card:

>What is difference between the HD-2000 and HD-3000
>The HD-2000 was a 5v PCI card with two RF inputs and mono sound for NTSC. The >HD-3000 is a similar card with one RF input, one SVIDEO input, one COMPOSITE >VIDEO and AUDIO input and one audo stereo output for NTSC. Neithor card detects >the broadcast flag.

I know the S-Video is 480i NTSC output from the Voom STB. What format is the Composite Video in? Is it also in 480i?

roland
 
Thinking about the spare computer hardware I have, I think I would only have to buy a motherboard, the TV card, and the sound card to try this...

roland
 
I built an HTPC (home theatre pc), and using snapstream beyong tv and sagetv, I've done this with a voom box for a while, like a pvr 480p, widescreen of programs on voom.

Not HD but definitely widescreen!

And it looks pretty good! Using sagetv client, my upstairs computer gets me widescreen on the bedroom 32" HDTV
 
Before knocking yourself out trying to build a HD recordable computer, it seems that JVC has a HD recorder which uses the component inputs.
 

DVR delay due to lack of content?

jumping ship over broken promises?

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