Extended Hours Available For 500gb, 750gb and 1T Hard Drives

[skylinebeach]

What are the hours available to record SD, MPEG2 and MPEG4 using standard 320GB drive and if we do a 500gb, 750gb and 1T hard drive upgrade?

[P Smith]

Posted many times in main thread and others. Try use Search.

[skylinebeach]

I did and came up with a few results but nothing complete and consistant.

[Michael D'Angelo]

With the 320GB installed in the unit you can record about......

30 hours of MPEG2 HD
50 hours of MPEG4 HD
200 hours of SD

But DirecTV reserves 100GB that we can't use for recording so that leaves you 220GB on the factory installed drive.

So on a 500GB you would have 400GB to record on so those numbers almost double.

On a 750 GB you would have 650GB to record on so those numbers would almost triple.

And on a 1TB drive you would have 900GB to record on so that is a little more than 4x the amount.

[MountainMan10]

If you record an SD program on an HD channel does it take up as much space as an HD program? My guess is that it depends on the channel, not the program.

[Richierich]

It depends on the SOURCE MATERIAL. If it is 480I then it will take less bandwidth. If it is 720P or 1080I it takes more. It has nothing to do with the fact that the channel says it broadcasts HD material. Sometimes they broadcast both.

[MountainMan10]

That is what I hope it would be. On the HD channels the format button doesn't work on SD channels. You get the PB or Stretch as determined by the channel. This makes me wonder if the stream is HD even though the program is not.

[Richierich]

If the source takes a 480I picture and puts letter box bars on the side then it will fit a 16 X 9 screen. So they send it out that way and now it can't be STRETCHED because it takes up the whole screen.

However, it they sent it out as True 4 X 3 480I then you could STRETCH it or CROP it.

They normally upscale it to 480P or whatever and then Letter Box it and then send it out because they haven't had time to film everything they show in 16 X 9 720P or 1080I format so a compromise is what they do to buy time.

[MountainMan10]

Just want to make sure I understand this. The SD programs on an HD channel are 16x9, but only 480P, so they may take up a little more room than an SD program from an SD channel, but much less than a true HD program.

It then follows that if you set Native On you may see your TV flicker as the format changes from an HD to SD program on the same channel.

[Richierich]

Yes, that is true. The TV is changing resolutions and that is what takes time. If the HR20/21 upconverts the output then the TV will not have to do any work so it will not flicker or lag when changing channels as much as when it has work to do to convert to the proper resolution.

[BK EH]

If the source takes a 480I picture and puts letter box bars on the side then it will fit a 16 X 9 screen. So they send it out that way and now it can't be STRETCHED because it takes up the whole screen.

However, it they sent it out as True 4 X 3 480I then you could STRETCH it or CROP it.

They normally upscale it to 480P or whatever and then Letter Box it and then send it out because they haven't had time to film everything they show in 16 X 9 720P or 1080I format so a compromise is what they do to buy time.
I would like to know where this info comes from, as it doesn't make sense to me. Changing 480i source material to 480p is not upscaling, it is deinterlacing.

480p should not take anymore space than 480i -- it's simply a transmit/paint/display algorithm.

[Richierich]

Yes it is DEINTERLACING but so as to not confuse people who are not familiar with Interlacing versus Progressive output I chose upscaling as a general term.

480I/P will not take up as much space as 720P or 1080I because there is less of a datastream.

[BK EH]

Yes it is DEINTERLACING but so as to not confuse people who are not familiar with Interlacing versus Progressive output I chose upscaling as a general term.

480I/P will not take up as much space as 720P or 1080I because there is less of a datastream.
Now you are making sense -- thanks.

Better to confuse and re-educate people than to call a steak a chicken. ;)

[CKNAV]

Yes it is DEINTERLACING but so as to not confuse people who are not familiar with Interlacing versus Progressive output I chose upscaling as a general term.

480I/P will not take up as much space as 720P or 1080I because there is less of a datastream.

HD channels that show 4x3 SD, are upconverted to whatever resolution it will be, for example 720p or 1080i. The same recording will take more space then the same one from SD version of the channel. I do not know where this info comes from, but there is no 480p on any channel on D*. All SD channels on D* are 480i and HD channels are either 720p or 1080i.

[tonyd79]

It depends on the SOURCE MATERIAL. If it is 480I then it will take less bandwidth. If it is 720P or 1080I it takes more. It has nothing to do with the fact that the channel says it broadcasts HD material. Sometimes they broadcast both.

I haven't seen or heard of a channel that changes its broadcast standard....they will upconvert material but change the broadcast? Nope.

[MountainMan10]

I just ran a test. SCFIHD with an SD program is in 1080, but FXHD with an SD program is in 480.
It looks like the answer is an SD program on an HD channel will take as much space as it wants. It may be HD or SD sized. Or is FXHD always in 480?

[CKNAV]

I just ran a test. SCFIHD with an SD program is in 1080, but FXHD with an SD program is in 480.
It looks like the answer is an SD program on an HD channel will take as much space as it wants. It may be HD or SD sized. Or is FXHD always in 480?

FXHD is always 720p. You were probably looking at SD FX. Make sure you enable hide SD duplicates in Display menu.

[MountainMan10]

I have hide SD duplicates set. Just double checked. It was definitely FXHD. I turned Native Off and enabled output of 480P,720P and 1080I. When I went to FXHD the light over 480P came on. Normally I run with Native Off and only 1080I enabled because my TV takes to long to figure out the input mode.

[Tom Robertson]

Actual datarates depend upon how compressible the resultant upconversion data stream is. Since the upconvert and pillaring happens first, the compression can tightly compress the pillars (a big help) but the overall picture probably won't compress much more than if it were a true HD picture.

Cheers,
Tom

[houskamp]

I have hide SD duplicates set. Just double checked. It was definitely FXHD. I turned Native Off and enabled output of 480P,720P and 1080I. When I went to FXHD the light over 480P came on. Normally I run with Native Off and only 1080I enabled because my TV takes to long to figure out the input mode.
with native off I don't know what it would display.. could very well downrez it to whatever res you selected last.. unless native is on it will not auto set the resolution.. but it definately will still record it in the same res it was broadcast in..

[trdrjeff]

If you record an SD program on an HD channel does it take up as much space as an HD program? My guess is that it depends on the channel, not the program.

I would think it would take up even less than the SD equivalent channel since its an MPEG4 encoding :shrug:

[houskamp]

I would think it would take up even less than the SD equivalent channel since its an MPEG4 encoding :shrug:
mpeg4 isn't THAT good..

[trdrjeff]

We're talking SD vs SD showings :confused:

[houskamp]

It's still upscaled before it's compressed.. so it's still "HD" info...
no SD is MPG4..

[P Smith]

Well, Dish begin doing that. Soon D* will follow.