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PVR Comparsion document
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Old 27-02-2011, 01:01   #1
HDFootyMan
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PVR Comparsion document

https://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?...d=0&output=pdf

Looking for feedback on this folks. Willing to put info in there for stuff like dimensions, power consumption etc and all the other things which I've probably missed.
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Old 27-02-2011, 11:29   #2
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Re: PVR Comparsion document

That is a good comparison guide. Dimensions would be good if you are able to post that information. Maybe even noise levels, if that's possible to measure!
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Old 27-02-2011, 12:29   #3
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Re: PVR Comparsion document

Quote:
Originally Posted by HDFootyMan View Post
https://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?...d=0&output=pdf

Looking for feedback on this folks. Willing to put info in there for stuff like dimensions, power consumption etc and all the other things which I've probably missed.
very nice. Sky Content VoD (Sky Living) is available on TiVo though, same as V+HD
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Old 27-02-2011, 13:59   #4
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Re: PVR Comparsion document

The sky 1tb box actually has a 1.5tb drive although 500gb is for skys push ondemand feature ,Anytime.
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Old 28-02-2011, 00:55   #5
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Re: PVR Comparsion document

Updated with more info.
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Old 28-02-2011, 01:04   #6
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Re: PVR Comparsion document

Something is wrong with the recording capacity the TiVo reports.

It cant be 325 and 99 hours when the v+ is 80 and 20 They both use the same codec mpeg2

So V+ is 30 minutes per GB for SD and 7 minutes 30 seconds per GB for HD

Therefore TiVo should be:

500 hours of SD and 125 hours of HD.

I suspect TiVo is under reporting its hours.

Regards

John.
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Old 28-02-2011, 10:17   #7
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Re: PVR Comparsion document

The number of hours will always only be a rough guide because the bit-rate varies from channel to channel. There isn't that much variation between the HD channels, but the SD ones vary hugely.
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Old 28-02-2011, 12:18   #8
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Re: PVR Comparsion document

Quote:
Originally Posted by Marcus125 View Post
The sky 1tb box actually has a 1.5tb drive although 500gb is for skys push ondemand feature ,Anytime.
but the end user can't use that to record
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Old 28-02-2011, 12:58   #9
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Re: PVR Comparsion document

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Originally Posted by Digital Fanatic View Post
but the end user can't use that to record
True, but the 1TB you can record in stores more hours of TV than VM's 1TB box, because of the more efficient MPEG-4 compression.
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Old 28-02-2011, 17:17   #10
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Re: PVR Comparsion document

cracking document, hope you don't mind me asking in this thread but you know where you've listed VOD Push for Sky? Does it grab that stuff via the web or through the satellite? I'm panicking on behalf of my parents now as they have only the basic hardly any bandwidth web package!
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Old 28-02-2011, 19:23   #11
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Re: PVR Comparsion document

Quote:
Originally Posted by big_dirk View Post
cracking document, hope you don't mind me asking in this thread but you know where you've listed VOD Push for Sky? Does it grab that stuff via the web or through the satellite? I'm panicking on behalf of my parents now as they have only the basic hardly any bandwidth web package!
Its 'pushed' via satellite.

Heh, I really should update that part.

---------- Post added at 18:23 ---------- Previous post was at 18:13 ----------

Quote:
Originally Posted by pythagoras View Post
Something is wrong with the recording capacity the TiVo reports.

It cant be 325 and 99 hours when the v+ is 80 and 20 They both use the same codec mpeg2

So V+ is 30 minutes per GB for SD and 7 minutes 30 seconds per GB for HD

Therefore TiVo should be:

500 hours of SD and 125 hours of HD.

I suspect TiVo is under reporting its hours.

Regards

John.
The odd thing is, the hours for SD recording seemed to reduce as I did more research.

On VM's TiVo Press release, its listed as 500 SD hours.

In VM's TiVo user guide, its stated as 400 SD hours.

Then Carl from TCF told me its actually 325 SD hours

What really blew me away was the 700+ SD recording hours on Sky+HD 1TB (which is actually 1.5TB). I'm assuming at the moment that includes hours 'pushed' onto the box by Sky Anytime, into the reserved 500Gb partition.
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Old 28-02-2011, 22:06   #12
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Re: PVR Comparsion document

Quote:
Originally Posted by HDFootyMan View Post
Its 'pushed' via satellite.

Heh, I really should update that part.

---------- Post added at 18:23 ---------- Previous post was at 18:13 ----------



The odd thing is, the hours for SD recording seemed to reduce as I did more research.

On VM's TiVo Press release, its listed as 500 SD hours.

In VM's TiVo user guide, its stated as 400 SD hours.

Then Carl from TCF told me its actually 325 SD hours

What really blew me away was the 700+ SD recording hours on Sky+HD 1TB (which is actually 1.5TB). I'm assuming at the moment that includes hours 'pushed' onto the box by Sky Anytime, into the reserved 500Gb partition.
The user can record upto 740 hours of SD independently of the 500GB reserved for Anytime.

I'm sure you know but Sky employ DVB-S2 (MPEG4) which is much more efficient than MPEG2 as used by VM.

But my word some of the SD PQ is ropey!
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Old 28-02-2011, 22:09   #13
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Re: PVR Comparsion document

Quote:
Originally Posted by mersey70 View Post
The user can record upto 740 hours of SD independently of the 500GB reserved for Anytime.

I'm sure you know but Sky employ DVB-S2 (MPEG4) which is much more efficient than MPEG2 as used by VM.
But that's for HD isn't it?

Don't Sky use MPEG2 for their SD channels?

Mind you, if they are using MPEG 4 for SD and that doesn't include the space for Anytime, then that would explain why Sky+HD 1TB has almost double the SD recording space compared to VM's 1TB Tivo.
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Old 28-02-2011, 22:35   #14
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Re: PVR Comparsion document

Quote:
Originally Posted by HDFootyMan View Post
But that's for HD isn't it?

Don't Sky use MPEG2 for their SD channels?

Mind you, if they are using MPEG 4 for SD and that doesn't include the space for Anytime, then that would explain why Sky+HD 1TB has almost double the SD recording space compared to VM's 1TB Tivo.
Yes.

But the 1TB box can still record upto 740 hours SD, I read it's just less than a 3:1 ratio for SD/HD recording whereas VM is about 4:1.

Some of the bitrates on SD are pretty low on Sky which might explain how it can squeeze upto 740 hours. It is confusing I agree, maybe that's based on recording the ropiest shopping channel!

The 500gb reserved for the VOD service is totally separate.
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Old 28-02-2011, 22:45   #15
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Re: PVR Comparsion document

Quote:
Originally Posted by mersey70 View Post
Yes.

But the 1TB box can still record upto 740 hours SD, I read it's just less than a 3:1 ratio for SD/HD recording whereas VM is about 4:1.

Some of the bitrates on SD are pretty low on Sky which might explain how it can squeeze upto 740 hours. It is confusing I agree, maybe that's based on recording the ropiest shopping channel!

The 500gb reserved for the VOD service is totally separate.
Cheers for that, just updated the sheet.

I've also updated the recording hours for TiVo for 'up to' 400/100 for SD/HD.
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