HD Recording

[wayne1935]

By accident, I discovered that cablecard recordings with TWC show only as DTV when the file Properties/Details are displayed. However, OTA recordings using a USB tuner show as DTV and HDTV.

The cablecard files appear to be HD given the size (~6GB) with OTA files being slightly larger.

I was wondering what might be causing this discrepancy. Could the additional processing by the cable company be removing the HDTV flag?

Wayne

This is a Win8 machine with an AMD FM1 processor/mobo. However, I get I get the same results with a win& machine with an embedded Intel Celeron processor/mobo.

[adam1991]

ummmm...dumb question, but what does "file properties don't show HDTV" do? What problems does that cause? Why is this an issue?

[RyC]

The HD flag is set by the guide data, not anything about the file

[wayne1935]

ummmm...dumb question, but what does "file properties don't show HDTV" do? What problems does that cause? Why is this an issue?

The properties of a particular recording shows whether the show was recorded in HD or DTV. It isn't a problem but my concern was why my HDTV recordings were not being flagged as HD. It was strictly a curiosity.

[wayne1935]

The HD flag is set by the guide data, not anything about the file

Thanx, RyC.

I saw a similar, slightly more detailed, explanation in a HD Homerun forum.

Wayne

[adam1991]

The properties of a particular recording shows whether the show was recorded in HD or DTV.

Ah. Well, as you can see, that's not true. The properties simply reflect what the guide data said.

Remember, HD and DTV are all DTV. It's all just digital bits streaming in and being stored on disc. There's nothing about the tuner that does anything other than tune to the digital stream and check for permissions to send it to WMC. Whether that stream contains what the human eye would consider HD or not, is not in the purview of the tuner to decide. To the tuner, it's all just DTV

It's not like the old days when the tuner converted analog to digital.

[richard1980]

The cablecard files appear to be HD given the size (~6GB)

HD is a term that describes resolution of the content. The resolution of the content has nothing to do with the file size of the recording. File size = bitrate * duration. Neither the bitrate nor the duration have anything to do with resolution.

It isn't a problem but my concern was why my HDTV recordings were not being flagged as HD.

There are three possible reasons for this:

1. You recorded a channel that only transmits an SD signal;
2. You recorded a channel that transmits an HD signal, but the transmitted program was SD scaled to fit HD resolution;
3. The guide data incorrectly indicated that the transmitted program was SD.

[wayne1935]

Thanx to all for the replies.

I'm not very literate regarding how this stuff actually works. I do know the difference between analog TV and the various flavors of DTV.

It seems most likely, from the replies, that the issue is being caused by the guide data to MCE since I think I have ruled out the other possibilities.

For the "hell of it", I recorded one of our local broadcast sub-channels (SD) with the cablecard and a 1 hour recordings was 1.5GB as opposed to a cablecard HDTV recording of ~6GB (+/- depending on the channel) and slightly larger OTA recordings. I haven't recorded any analog material since the camcorder days and Beta at that. I have no way of recording NTSC TV - the cablecard doesn't see analog and our USB devices are only OTA.

I thought TWC had dropped analog TV but our TV still gets channels that display NTSC (this is w/o a STB - the cable directly from the wall to the TV). TWC does provides HDTV for the local broadcast channels even with their Starter/Basic plan which we have and I don't think there is an SD choice for the primary network channels. When we view x.1 channel it displays 720p or1080i (and HD) depending on the network and the sub-channels (x.2 etc.) display 480i.

Wayne