wanting new box

[paulpa66]

have looked at Foxsat HDR 500GB , is this as good as most,better, any others i should maybe look at? not too fussed with 500gb smaller would be ok .

 

[Gavtech]

have looked at Foxsat HDR 500GB , is this as good as most,better, any others i should maybe look at? not too fussed with 500gb smaller would be ok .

...is OK.

 

[clemenzina]

have looked at Foxsat HDR 500GB , is this as good as most,better, any others i should maybe look at? not too fussed with 500gb smaller would be ok .

However, if you intend to store HD recordings for any length of time, be aware that they take up a lot more space than SD

Most of the HD PVRs have at least 500gb drives - the Tesco Technika Smartbox (Freeview not Freesat and it's a glitchy box) with only 320gb is one exception.

clemenzina

 

[Gavtech]

However, if you intend to store HD recordings for any length of time, be aware that they take up a lot more space than SD

Are you certain of that Clem?

Indeed one would think it is obviously so, but HD recordings use MPEG4 compression which is much more 'efficient' at discarding data than MPEG2 compression used for SD, so despite HD starting with considerably more data than SD, they end up not being too dissimilar in storage terms.

 

[clemenzina]

Well, Gav, come to think of it I've been surprised when my HDD says, eg, 20% when I'd have though it'd have been more, but I've been categorically told (by none other than fellow-members of course, I don't go anywhere else much for techie support besides here and DS) that we really need 1tb for HD recordings because, etc...

(I thought you must be "creddish", it's usually he who comes along saying "you've got it wrong clemenzina" )

clemenzina

 

[creddish]

(I thought you must be "creddish", it's usually he who comes along saying "you've got it wrong clemenzina" )

clemenzina

Awww! Surely not.

Colin

 

[brookheather]

Are you certain of that Clem?

Indeed one would think it is obviously so, but HD recordings use MPEG4 compression which is much more 'efficient' at discarding data than MPEG2 compression used for SD, so despite HD starting with considerably more data than SD, they end up not being too dissimilar in storage terms.

Depends on the SD channel - the SD bitrates vary from 2-4 Mbp/s and the HD channels are 6-7 Mbp/s so you will need two to three times the storage space.

- Simon.

 

[darucla]

I recently got a DVDS2 card for my PC, and a test recording of Planet Earth weighs in at 3.8GB, so about twice what I'd expect from Freeview SD.