Recording Time: SD vs. HD

[bayzbol44]

My wife records some of her shows on our HD/DVR receiver. She records her shows from a local ABC channel that carries the show in HD, but she sets it to record from the non-HD channel. Is there any reason why when she records it that it takes away about 3 hours from the HD allotted (sp?) time and about 45 mins from the SD time?

 

[S.Carter]

Are you sure she's choosing a non-HD channel to record. B/c of the amount of pixels used in HD programming is more than 2X more than SD. Thus taking up more record time.

 

[Brew]

You don't have dedicated space for HD and SD - it's just one big pool of space. So if (made up numbers) 1 hour of hd takes up 9 gigs of drive, and 1 hour of SD takes up 3 gigs of drive. Then when you record 1 hour of SD, your available SD space goes down by an hour, and your available HD space goes down by 3 hours. If you record 1 hour of HD, your available HD goes down by an hour, and available SD goes down by 9 hours.

 

[bayzbol44]

Brew, thanks. I was not aware of that. I thought there was "saved" time for each type of programming. If what you stated is true, then the amount of "time" they tell you that your DVR has is way overstated.

S.Carter, yes I am sure she is doing that. However, I had to double-check her setup.

 

[chicagofilms]

You don't have dedicated space for HD and SD - it's just one big pool of space. So if (made up numbers) 1 hour of hd takes up 9 gigs of drive, and 1 hour of SD takes up 3 gigs of drive. Then when you record 1 hour of SD, your available SD space goes down by an hour, and your available HD space goes down by 3 hours. If you record 1 hour of HD, your available HD goes down by an hour, and available SD goes down by 9 hours.

That doesn't make sense...

Recording 1 hourd of HD would loose 3 hours of SD in that scenario.

Recording 1 hour of SD should loose 20 minutes of HD...

 

[waltinvt]

How about if your HD DVR, being so smart it knows it's an HD program, available on an HD channel, assumes you'd prefer this, so defaults to that channel even though you selected the SD channel?

In other words, even though your EPG shows both the SD and HD channels available, maybe the receiver always defaults to the HD channel, even when you select the SD version.

 

[garys]

When I record an sd channel, my 622 records the sd channel. Is Bayzbol sure his wife is recording an sd channel. If she is recording the mapped down channel, she may be recording HD when she thinks she is recording sd. The factory default is HD and can be changed on the Local Channel screen.

 

[Brew]

That doesn't make sense...

Recording 1 hourd of HD would loose 3 hours of SD in that scenario.

Recording 1 hour of SD should loose 20 minutes of HD...

You are correct. It's just a flat ratio and your numbers are correct and not mine.

 

[Hall]

If what you stated is true,

It's 100% true.

then the amount of "time" they tell you that your DVR has is way overstated.

No, they don't. They state:

Record up to 200 hours of standard definition, up to 30 hours of high definition or a combo thereof ​

 

[rockymtnhigh]

It's 100% true. No, they don't. They state:

Record up to 200 hours of standard definition, up to 30 hours of high definition or a combo thereof ​

Exactly! And it is still a large amount of space. They would need to either have a 600GB Hard drive or 2 hard drives to provide 200 hours SD + 30 hours HD.

 

[bayzbol44]

Yes, I am positive (because I looked) that she is recording a SD channel and the DVR is actually recording that channel. When she plays the recording it shows the SD channel.

How is their claim of memory space not overstated? For every hour of SD programming I setup it is going to take away more than 3 hours of my "time". I always knew that whenever you record a 1 hour show, depending on the type of show, it will take up more than 1 hour of your allotted time. However, more than 3 hours for a soap opera or TV series show? So with a just over 200 hours on my DVR, I am only going to be able to have about 66+ shows scheduled and saved on my DVR?

 

[Cold Irons]

How about if your HD DVR, being so smart it knows it's an HD program, available on an HD channel, assumes you'd prefer this, so defaults to that channel even though you selected the SD channel?

In other words, even though your EPG shows both the SD and HD channels available, maybe the receiver always defaults to the HD channel, even when you select the SD version.

Nope - doesn't work this way. It records what you tell it to. We always record Network shows that we know are not in HD (Survivor, Amazing Race) on the 8000 series SD channels to preserve Hard Drive space.

 

[Cold Irons]

Yes, I am positive (because I looked) that she is recording a SD channel and the DVR is actually recording that channel. When she plays the recording it shows the SD channel.

How is their claim of memory space not overstated? For every hour of SD programming I setup it is going to take away more than 3 hours of my "time". I always knew that whenever you record a 1 hour show, depending on the type of show, it will take up more than 1 hour of your allotted time. However, more than 3 hours for a soap opera or TV series show? So with a just over 200 hours on my DVR, I am only going to be able to have about 66+ shows scheduled and saved on my DVR?

No, no, no....see chicagofilms/Brew correction to his time calculations earlier in the thread. Under Brew's hypothetical times:
-record 1 Hr. SD - takes away 1 Hr from SD Totals, takes away 20 min from HD Totals
-record 1 Hr. HD - takes away 20 min from SD Totals, takes away 1 Hr from HD Totals

These "Total Time available summaries" should be read as:
If you record only SD, you have XXXX hours available OR
If you record only HD, you have YYYYY hours available.

Can't believe that anyone really thinks the Dish description of this is misleading.

 

[Hall]

How is their claim of memory space not overstated?

I'm sorry if you don't understand the term "or a combo thereof". I know what it means and it makes sense. An HD program takes up quite a bit more space than an SD program. There's NOTHING anyone can do about that.

For every hour of SD programming I setup it is going to take away more than 3 hours of my "time".

No it doesn't. Before you record that one hour SD show, what's your SD time available say ?? After it's done recording, what's the SD time available say ?? Roughly one hour less ??

I always knew that whenever you record a 1 hour show, depending on the type of show, it will take up more than 1 hour of your allotted time.

Not true. It can take more or less or right around one hour. MPEG2 comes to us in a variable bitrate. Dish's estimates are certainly based on a pre-determined average bitrate. A cooking show on Food Network will probably take less than one hour whereas an action show might take more.

However, more than 3 hours for a soap opera or TV series show?

See above .... again.

So with a just over 200 hours on my DVR, I am only going to be able to have about 66+ shows scheduled and saved on my DVR?

If you EVER have 66+ shows recorded to watch, you'll have bigger problems.....

 

[KKlare]

The old quoted ratio of space used was 7:1, 7 hours of SD using the same space as 1 hour of HD. This was close to correct with 1080i. With 720p (ABC...) less space is used as are letterboxed shows. It seems MPEG-4 uses still less space. SD digital broadcasts OTA take just a little more than the Dish LIL SD of the same channel.

We now can sort by program length but I would I to know and sort by MB used so I can get rid of the disk hogs first. This would also give us a better measure of the compression. Getting rid of the hogs, still has the problem that the total hours need to be cleared can get worst with lots of SD.

-Ken

 

[navychop]

If you count all 3 of my satellite DVRs, even ignoring the separate OTA DVR, I have at least 66. No problem. Just got to be critical when viewing and delete the dogs early on.