Originally Posted by Hymagumba (Post 35932502)

Does this mean, if they start decommissioning the V+ boxes, that the final hurdle to switching to MPEG4 only will be gone?

IIRC the samsung supported MPEG4 but the SciAtlanta only did MPEG2.

Originally Posted by nodrogd (Post 35932508)

Think it will be a while yet.
I'm still seeing posts on the community board from customers still using standard Pace V boxes that VM started swapping out several years ago.

Originally Posted by spiderplant (Post 35932518)

You are correct that the Samsung V+ supports MPEG4. The last of the Scientific-Atlanta ones were decommissioned a few months ago. VM hasn't switched to MPEG4 yet simply because there hasn't been any need to.


The Pace boxes are SD-only, so switching the HD channels to MPEG4 wouldn't affect them. There is little benefit in switching the SD channels to MPEG4.

Originally Posted by Hymagumba (Post 35932520)

You say that, but given the more efficient encoding wouldn't it help some of the more excessively compressed channels, like food network?

Originally Posted by Hymagumba (Post 35932520)

Is it just the case there is enough bandwidth for the TV channels in existence and therefore they don't need to swap to MPEG4

Originally Posted by Hymagumba (Post 35932520)

or is it that the costs outweigh the benefits for the timebeing? I'd have thought it'd be harder / more expensive to source MPEG2 encoding hardware these days compared to MPEG4.

Originally Posted by Joedm45 (Post 35932572)

I'm sure I read somewhere that moving to MPEG4 will considerably increase recording capacity on TiVo. If correct then surely that is reason enough to do it

Originally Posted by Raider999 (Post 35932591)

I think I saw that as well, it was a justification of Virgin dropping the idea of a 2Tb V6 box - although that was rumoured to be back on the cards recently.

Originally Posted by RobboEdin (Post 35932600)

BEWARE CONTROVERSIAL STATEMENT
1TB is more than enough for those who use the box to record and watch programs.
For those that see it as an archive box - WHY?

Originally Posted by RobboEdin (Post 35932600)

BEWARE CONTROVERSIAL STATEMENT
1TB is more than enough for those who use the box to record and watch programs.
For those that see it as an archive box - WHY?

Originally Posted by RobboEdin (Post 35932600)

BEWARE CONTROVERSIAL STATEMENT
1TB is more than enough for those who use the box to record and watch programs.
For those that see it as an archive box - WHY?

Originally Posted by Raider999 (Post 35932615)

Not at all controversial.

If you are away for 2 weeks, the number of football and rugby matches to record will more than fill a 1Tb box in HD recordings.

Originally Posted by OLD BOY (Post 35932633)

I only record what I want to watch, and when I have watched it, I delete it. Currently, my two V6 boxes are about 85% full and I use my DVD recorder to watch the main terrestrial channels. That has plenty on it as well.

I record everything in HD, which means instead of being able to store 500 hours of programmes on each V6, I can only store 120 hours. When you think that just recording one series of 22 programmes uses nearly a quarter of your total capacity, that isn't very much.

I watch only about 2.5 hours of TV a night most nights, and about 5 hours per night Saturdays and Sundays. So over the winter months, the number of recordings builds up, and I can reduce the list during the summer when there is very little that is worthwhile watching.

I also supplement my viewing with material from Netflix and Amazon, so it takes me longer to work through the list.

The way I use the V6 is exactly the way that Virgin Media advocate, so I do think it is incumbent on them to provide equipment which is fit for that purpose. If UHD channels ultimately come along, 1TB will be totally inadequate for recording in UHD.

---------- Post added at 16:49 ---------- Previous post was at 16:45 ----------



I agree it's not controversial. It is just incorrect.

Originally Posted by RobboEdin (Post 35932660)

...and that's exactly my point. When do you catchup on 200 hours of programming?

Originally Posted by OLD BOY (Post 35932662)

Over the summertime, when there's virtually nothing but repeats on!

Originally Posted by OLD BOY (Post 35932662)

Over the summertime, when there's virtually nothing but repeats on!

Originally Posted by alwaysabear (Post 35932751)

I have better things to do in the summer than to watch lots of TV.;)

Originally Posted by alwaysabear (Post 35932751)

I have better things to do in the summer than to watch lots of TV.;)

Originally Posted by Raider999 (Post 35932793)

It is precisely because I also have other things to do (like holidays days out etc) that the box is used to time shift programmes when I am not in.

As OB has stated, this is what the box is designed for, if it were only to watch live to it wouldn't need a hard drive and recording facility.

1Tb is barely adequate for HD recordings. UHD eat up space at a considerable rate - a larger disc option or cloud recording (not sure this is still on the horizon) will be an absolute requirement.

Originally Posted by alwaysabear (Post 35932809)

Fair enough, but still cannot understand how you find the time to catch up all the programs you seem to record "4 football matches, 11 rugby matches, 2 US football games and 1 ODI cricket match - that's just Saturday and Sunday!"

Originally Posted by alwaysabear (Post 35932809)

Fair enough, but still cannot understand how you find the time to catch up all the programs you seem to record "4 football matches, 11 rugby matches, 2 US football games and 1 ODI cricket match - that's just Saturday and Sunday!"