How does the Sky HD box relay "live" pictures to the TV?. Obviously with the pause and rewind features the box must be continualy recording whatever you are watching, but is this just a backup ready to take over when required, or are "live" pictures actually being relayed from the hard drive recording?
Sky HD box
- Thread starter tvmog
- Start date
Runs live and also buffers what you're watching to the hard drive - you can set how much it buffers. When you go into live pause or rewind the HDD takes over.
[quote user="Andrew Everard"]
Runs live and also buffers what you're watching to the hard drive - you can set how much it buffers. When you go into live pause or rewind the HDD takes over.
[/quote]
Does playing from the hard drive result in any theoretical loss of HD image quality. Visually I can't see much difference. There could be a slight deterioration but it might just be that I know it's coming from the hard drive.
Runs live and also buffers what you're watching to the hard drive - you can set how much it buffers. When you go into live pause or rewind the HDD takes over.
[/quote]
Does playing from the hard drive result in any theoretical loss of HD image quality. Visually I can't see much difference. There could be a slight deterioration but it might just be that I know it's coming from the hard drive.
professorhat
Well-known member
- Dec 28, 2007
- 992
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In theory, there should be very little, but I think it depends on use. Anyone who uses a computer probably knows about fragmentation and the same applies to TV recorders (though it's far less pronounced as generally on these recorders, you're talking mainly large files). Simplistically, this is where files have to be broken up into several different chunks on the hard drive to fit the file on. This can cause the odd blip in playback as the spindle in the hard drive has to to move around the disc to find the next "part" of the file it's playing. Therefore, it's probably worth formatting the drive every now and then to clear any fragmented files - every now and then in this instance being every 1-2 years as opposed to running defragmentation tools every 1-2 months on a PC!
Of course, any time a file is saved to a hard drive, there can be errors in this and thus error correction must come in to handle these, so in theory, I guess there might be a noticeable degradation in quality. However, I've never seen anything to show this in my Topfield, other than the blips I get every now and then which I attribute more to fragmentation or just a bad signal at the time of recording than to this.
Of course, any time a file is saved to a hard drive, there can be errors in this and thus error correction must come in to handle these, so in theory, I guess there might be a noticeable degradation in quality. However, I've never seen anything to show this in my Topfield, other than the blips I get every now and then which I attribute more to fragmentation or just a bad signal at the time of recording than to this.
[quote user="tvmog"]Does playing from the hard drive result in any theoretical loss of HD image quality. Visually I can't see much difference. There could be a slight deterioration but it might just be that I know it's coming from the hard drive.[/quote]
IME, having had Sky HD since launch, no.
IME, having had Sky HD since launch, no.
sorry to hijack but... Andrew have you ever had this problem with the HD box? When im recording a SD programme & an HD programme & watching an HD programme from the harddrive the sound breaks up and the picture jumps. Am I asking too much from the unit??
There does seem to be a technical/bandwidth issue, though variable. I've found I can record two HD shows and watch an SD show from the hard-disk with no problems, but do get some break-up if trying to watch an HD recording while making two new recordings (if one of them's HD).
It's very rare, however, that i'm making two HD recording while wanting to watch another - more likely to be out/still working/watching a Blu-ray or DVD instead!
But it'll become more of an issue as more HD channels come on-stream....
It's very rare, however, that i'm making two HD recording while wanting to watch another - more likely to be out/still working/watching a Blu-ray or DVD instead!
But it'll become more of an issue as more HD channels come on-stream....
An issue i have, and it doesn't matter whether i'm recording or not, is that sometimes the picture slows down a bit, ever so slightly, not like slow-motion or anything, but it is noticeable, lasts for a second or so, maybe less then goes back to normal, but it will periodically do this "slow-down"...
I've never experienced it on an HD channel though, anyone any ideas ?
I've never experienced it on an HD channel though, anyone any ideas ?
[quote user="Clare Newsome"]
There does seem to be a technical/bandwidth issue, though variable. I've found I can record two HD shows and watch an SD show from the hard-disk with no problems, but do get some break-up if trying to watch an HD recording while making two new recordings (if one of them's HD).
It's very rare, however, that i'm making two HD recording while wanting to watch another - more likely to be out/still working/watching a Blu-ray or DVD instead!
But it'll become more of an issue as more HD channels come on-stream...
.
[/quote] I have at times had hd break down when recording hd and watching hd through time slip =(remove adverts) It happens quite often.
There does seem to be a technical/bandwidth issue, though variable. I've found I can record two HD shows and watch an SD show from the hard-disk with no problems, but do get some break-up if trying to watch an HD recording while making two new recordings (if one of them's HD).
It's very rare, however, that i'm making two HD recording while wanting to watch another - more likely to be out/still working/watching a Blu-ray or DVD instead!
But it'll become more of an issue as more HD channels come on-stream...
.
[/quote] I have at times had hd break down when recording hd and watching hd through time slip =(remove adverts) It happens quite often.
I haven't noticed any actual "breakup" in picture, but I thought I noticed a slight deterioration in the quality of the HD programme I was playing back when the disc started recording another HD programme automatically. It's difficult to tell though because the quality of HD picture can change from shot to shot, particularly in documentaries.
Watched Battlestar Galactica: Razor in HD this morning (from the box). There was loads of artefacting in the fast moving scenes and loud explosions seemed to make the picture break up. Disappointing.
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