Freeview with PVR and DVD Recorder

"larkim" writes:

On Oct 30, 12:12 pm, "Pyriform" wrote:
Roderick Stewart wrote:
Consequently, there are no boxes with DVD recording capability that have
twin tuners.

Shall I summarise as I see it?

Options:
a) Twin digital tuners only writing to HDD
b) Single analogue and single DTT tuner writing to HDD or DVD
c) Twin digital tuners writing to HDD or DVD

a) Available, cheap (as no additional MPEG-2 encoding required), allows
analogue output to another device (e.g. DVD writer) which will be as
good as recording to DVD from the live broadcast as the stored
programme is the same as was broadcast
b) Available, but MPEG-2 encoders needed to move DTT transmission into
a DVD-compliant recording and this is expensive.
c) Not available, as the presumption is that the second DTT tuner would
need an additional MPEG-2 encoder and therefore the device would be too
expensive for the market (especially compared with a twin DTT HDD box
combined with an external DVD writer).

Does that just about summarise it? My only uncertainty is whether the
single DTT HDD/DVD combo device actually records the DTT bitstream on
the HDD or whether it actually re-encodes this anyway. I presume it
does not, but I may be wrong.

I don't know if the following matches your c option.

http://www.microanvika.com/product.a...O&PNO=FUJ11668

It seems to tick your hardware boxes (and more), but I wouldn't know
about the software (XP Media Centre Edition).

HTH

--
Brian Raven

larkim wrote:

The "it" was the box - "I presume that the box does not re-encode the
bitstream into a new MPEG-2 file". It seems I was wrong!! So a single
DTT tuner plus HDD and DVD unit doesn't record the bitstream directly,
even when it is writing to the HDD (see Mark C's comment re Sony 710).


I remain slightly surprised about this, and also surprised that the HDD
/ DVD combo units require an MPEG-2 converter, as if I record the
tranport stream directly on my DHD4000 twin tuner HDD box, and then
extract that recording onto my PC (a small technical feat at the
moment, currently involving taking the DVR apart and plugging the HDD
into my PC) then to turn this into a DVD I do not need to go through a
re-encoding process.

This has been covered in depth on this group in the last few months.

The fact is DVB & DVD Video have different, albeit overlapping, criteria
re acceptable resolutions & gop length. Converting from DVB to DVD Video
/can/ require re-encoding.

Encoding is a slow process & typically in available standalones can be
done at best in realtime. Since most users wouldn't appreciate having to
wait such periods 'just to copy' a programme from HDD to DVD, possibly
with their box's other functionality disabled during this period, the
only simple design solution is to re-encode as the data comes in.

That also makes sense from a manufacturer pov when taking into account
the fact most users don't know or care what's going on under the lid,
don't know or care about optimal quality & that virtually all of these
boxes are built from modular components whose functionality slots together.

--
Michael
m r o z a t u k g a t e w a y d o t n e t

Michael Rozdoba wrote:

The fact is DVB & DVD Video have different, albeit overlapping, criteria
re acceptable resolutions & gop length. Converting from DVB to DVD Video
/can/ require re-encoding.

I'm sure you're right - I do appreciate that the DVD standards get in
the way. Though many DVD players will quite happily play non-standard
resolution stuff if you can get you DVD creation software to forget the
rules for a while.

I suppose I have probably only created DVDs from BBC stuff, which is
usually to a sensible aspect ratio - I certainly haven't created DVDs
from the odd resolution channels such as abc etc etc.

Matt