Question about recording quality?

[cage]

I have a 30hr sa tivo set to record at medium quality to give me aprox
19hrs. This gives me a ok picture on my 36" toshiba. I am thinking of
getting a 55" hdtv. With that size will I need to record at best to
get a decent picture from sat. or will medium still be ok. I would
like to know because if I need to record at best I am going to upgrade
the hd. The unit is almost 2 1/2 years old and the orig hd seems to be
working fine. What are their aprox life?
Thanks
cage

[herzog@uhhh.org]

>>On Mon, 30 Jun 2003, cage wrote:
> I have a 30hr sa tivo set to record at medium quality to give me aprox
> 19hrs. This gives me a ok picture on my 36" toshiba. I am thinking of
> getting a 55" hdtv. With that size will I need to record at best to
> get a decent picture from sat. or will medium still be ok. I would
> like to know because if I need to record at best I am going to upgrade
> the hd. The unit is almost 2 1/2 years old and the orig hd seems to be
> working fine. What are their aprox life?

If picture quality is an issue and your "sat." service is DirecTV, I'd
definitely recommend going with a DirecTivo unit (just purchased the
Hughes HDVR2 myself and LOVE it)...


--
Larry Herzog Jr. "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain
ZRXOA #1029 conceit, but in humility consider others
better than yourselves." - Philippians 2:3

[cage]

Going with Dish because of locals.
cage

On Mon, 30 Jun 2003 19:59:09 GMT, wrote:

>
>>>On Mon, 30 Jun 2003, cage wrote:
>> I have a 30hr sa tivo set to record at medium quality to give me aprox
>> 19hrs. This gives me a ok picture on my 36" toshiba. I am thinking of
>> getting a 55" hdtv. With that size will I need to record at best to
>> get a decent picture from sat. or will medium still be ok. I would
>> like to know because if I need to record at best I am going to upgrade
>> the hd. The unit is almost 2 1/2 years old and the orig hd seems to be
>> working fine. What are their aprox life?
>
>If picture quality is an issue and your "sat." service is DirecTV, I'd
>definitely recommend going with a DirecTivo unit (just purchased the
>Hughes HDVR2 myself and LOVE it)...

[Jud Hardcastle]

In article >,
says...
> I have a 30hr sa tivo set to record at medium quality to give me aprox
> 19hrs. This gives me a ok picture on my 36" toshiba. I am thinking of
> getting a 55" hdtv. With that size will I need to record at best to
> get a decent picture from sat. or will medium still be ok. I would
> like to know because if I need to record at best I am going to upgrade
> the hd. The unit is almost 2 1/2 years old and the orig hd seems to be
> working fine. What are their aprox life?
> Thanks
> cage
>
>
>
It's probably going to depend on the HDTV. Some (now most? all?) HDTV's
have a circuit called a "line and pixel doubler" that takes an NTSC
signal, deinterlaces it, and extrapolates intermediate pixels. Although
not as good as a standalone line doubler (so I hear--I've never seen
one) my Mits HDTV doubler does a VERY good job--no scan lines and MUCH
better picture in non-HDTV mode than a standard NTSC RPTV. You can
pretty much forget about the old how-close-to-sit rules with an HDTV.
You may be pleasantly surprised with how many shows you can use medium
on.

I've got my default TIVO recording quality set to medium with maybe 1/3
of the season passes set to high and only a few set to best. Actually,
the overrides are somewhat arbitrary when I'm defining a new pass based
on how good the show is and how many special effects--Stargate is set to
best for example. Been intending to record the same show on different
levels and compare--but never find the time.

BUT--you'll eventually upgrade the disk anyway. Because you'll probably
find you're watching a lot more because of the bigger screen. If you
don't have it already, consider adding a good surround sound system,
either Dolby prologic or Dolby Digital. Movie theaters see a lot less
of HDTV owners (and TIVO owners) :-)

TiVo 60hr S2 upgd to 180hr (60@Best, 98@High, 130@Medium, 222@Basic)

Jud
Dallas TX