Sky Compression
 

Just noticed something interesting*. A 1hr TV program usually takes about 5%
of my Sky+. I currently have 3 films on disk, all around 2 hours from the
normal sky movie channels (not pay ones) , which only take 5, 6 and 8%, the
first 2 of which seem like pretty aggressive compression.

--
Tumbleweed
* OK not THAT interesting...

email replies not necessary but to contact use;
tumbleweednews at hotmail dot com

"Tumbleweed" wrote in message
...
Just noticed something interesting*. A 1hr TV program usually takes about 5% of my Sky+.
I currently have 3 films on disk, all around 2 hours from the normal sky movie channels
(not pay ones) , which only take 5, 6 and 8%, the first 2 of which seem like pretty
aggressive compression.

--
Tumbleweed
* OK not THAT interesting...

email replies not necessary but to contact use;
tumbleweednews at hotmail dot com



What are the two movies which as you say seem to be very highly compressed?
Just added the movies to my package for the xmas holidays and of course will
use one months sub to record 30 or so movies to watch in the new year:)
Only got three on my HD atm...
Stealing Harvard (91m 7%)
Salton Sea (113m 8%)
Adaptation (122m 9%)

All what I would expect from SKY allowing for less than accurate figures from SKY+
and the use of a variable bitrate encode which depending upon the actual video content
could result in two films of the same running time using varying amounts of hard drive
space.
I have read a lot of complaints about the PQ of the movie channels recently but so
far with the limited sample I've seen in the last 10 days they look ok (at least on my
bog standard CRT) could be a more pronounced issue with plasma and lcd viewers
of course.


Mike C

"Mike_C" wrote in message
.com...

"Tumbleweed" wrote in message
...
Just noticed something interesting*. A 1hr TV program usually takes about
5% of my Sky+. I currently have 3 films on disk, all around 2 hours from
the normal sky movie channels (not pay ones) , which only take 5, 6 and
8%, the first 2 of which seem like pretty aggressive compression.

--
Tumbleweed
* OK not THAT interesting...

email replies not necessary but to contact use;
tumbleweednews at hotmail dot com



What are the two movies which as you say seem to be very highly
compressed?
Just added the movies to my package for the xmas holidays and of course
will
use one months sub to record 30 or so movies to watch in the new year:)
Only got three on my HD atm...
Stealing Harvard (91m 7%)
Salton Sea (113m 8%)
Adaptation (122m 9%)

All what I would expect from SKY allowing for less than accurate figures
from SKY+
and the use of a variable bitrate encode which depending upon the actual
video content
could result in two films of the same running time using varying amounts
of hard drive space.
I have read a lot of complaints about the PQ of the movie channels
recently but so
far with the limited sample I've seen in the last 10 days they look ok (at
least on my
bog standard CRT) could be a more pronounced issue with plasma and lcd
viewers
of course.


Mike C


Solaris 108 6%
Adaptation 121 6%
Mr Destiny 123 8%

I havent viewed them yet. Its interesting that Adaptation is different for
the two of us...in fact, its bizzarre, esp as its possibly up to 50%
different! I might look later and see if there is a difference between the
movie channels and others, I do recall that a Sky One recording was 61m and
6%.

--
Tumbleweed

email replies not necessary but to contact use;
tumbleweednews at hotmail dot com

"Tumbleweed" wrote in message
...

snip

I havent viewed them yet. Its interesting that Adaptation is different for the two of
us...in fact, its bizzarre, esp as its possibly up to 50% different! I might look later
and see if there is a difference between the movie channels and others, I do recall that
a Sky One recording was 61m and 6%.

--
Tumbleweed




Could be down to transponder issues, movie channels spread
across a number of different transponders perhaps operating with a slightly
different spec or maybe the movies are not pre-encoded and the compression
is done on the fly which could explain the differences between two broadcasts.
Or maybe even how different models/revisions of SKY+ work out the percentage
used, unmodified v1 btw:)

I think Solaris is on tonight, I'll record that just to see what the figure is.


Mike C

"Mike_C" wrote in message
ng.com...

"Tumbleweed" wrote in message
...

snip

I havent viewed them yet. Its interesting that Adaptation is different
for the two of us...in fact, its bizzarre, esp as its possibly up to 50%
different! I might look later and see if there is a difference between
the movie channels and others, I do recall that a Sky One recording was
61m and 6%.

--
Tumbleweed




Could be down to transponder issues, movie channels spread
across a number of different transponders perhaps operating with a
slightly
different spec or maybe the movies are not pre-encoded and the compression
is done on the fly which could explain the differences between two
broadcasts.
Or maybe even how different models/revisions of SKY+ work out the
percentage
used, unmodified v1 btw:)

I think Solaris is on tonight, I'll record that just to see what the
figure is.


Mike C

Mine is a V2, original 40Gb disk.

--
Tumbleweed

email replies not necessary but to contact use;
tumbleweednews at hotmail dot com

"Mike_C" wrote in message
.com...
Just added the movies to my package for the xmas holidays and of course
will
use one months sub to record 30 or so movies to watch in the new year:)
Mike C

Mike,

I don't think you can do this.

I recall a post in here last year from someone who found that they could not
view the movies they had recorded because they had unsubscribed from the
movie channels.

Something to do with the box checking your subscription on playback.


--
~~~~~~~~~~
All the best,

Henry
~~~~~~~~~~

Mike_C wrote:

Just added the movies to my package for the xmas holidays and of course will
use one months sub to record 30 or so movies to watch in the new year:)

You have to do it the other way around: record first then subscribe in
order to view.

--
Digibox problem? : A reboot solves 90% of these.
The Sky Digital FAQ: http://tinyurl.com/6u4p9
How to get UK TV overseas: http://tinyurl.com/6p73
Fed up with logos / red buttons? : http://logofreetv.org/
BBC gone? : http://www.astra2d.co.uk/
----
Only the truth as I see it.
No monies return'd. ;-)

"Mike_C" wrote in message
.com...

"Tumbleweed" wrote in message
...
[snip]
What are the two movies which as you say seem to be very highly
compressed?
Just added the movies to my package for the xmas holidays and of course
will
use one months sub to record 30 or so movies to watch in the new year:)

Err - that won't work. The recorded films are still encrypted on your hard
drive and are only decrypted when you replay them. If you have stopped
subscribing to the channels you've recorded from, then you will cease to be
able to replay the recorded material.

This is how Sky + works - it has two tuners, but only one de-crypter and
MPEG2 decoder - both of which are in the replay bit not the recording bit.

Steve

"Henry" wrote in message
...

"Mike_C" wrote in message
.com...
Just added the movies to my package for the xmas holidays and of course will
use one months sub to record 30 or so movies to watch in the new year:)
Mike C

Mike,

I don't think you can do this.

I recall a post in here last year from someone who found that they could not view the
movies they had recorded because they had unsubscribed from the movie channels.

Something to do with the box checking your subscription on playback.




Which is why they are being recorded onto DVD.
Don't worry, this is the second xmas I've done this:)


Mike C

"Stephen Neal" wrote in message
...

"Mike_C" wrote in message
.com...

"Tumbleweed" wrote in message
...
[snip]
What are the two movies which as you say seem to be very highly compressed?
Just added the movies to my package for the xmas holidays and of course will
use one months sub to record 30 or so movies to watch in the new year:)

Err - that won't work. The recorded films are still encrypted on your hard drive and
are only decrypted when you replay them. If you have stopped subscribing to the
channels you've recorded from, then you will cease to be able to replay the recorded
material.

This is how Sky + works - it has two tuners, but only one de-crypter and MPEG2 decoder -
both of which are in the replay bit not the recording bit.

Steve




Yes I knew that three years ago which is why the movies are being recorded onto
DVD. Would have made it more clear but the thread was mainly about the
amount of compression being used not the manner in which SKY+ records
encrypted content.
Thanks anyway:)


Mike C