RE: Arghhh!!! Bloody PVR's :(

["Keith Doxey" <ukha@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Jim

> The conflict pop up is a bit disingenious. eg, when you're watching
one
> program, recording another, and a 3rd program is about to start that
you
> want to record, there is no option to "just record what I asked
you to
> record". It only gives you the option to cancel one of them!
>
> I don't know what happens if you ignore it, but perhaps it defaults to
> cancelling one recording?
>

Thinking back, I may have pressed "Backup" to clear the message.
Perhaps
that did it, as I said, I wasnt really watching the TV as I was working on
the PC so it didnt have my full attention.

> The fact that it didn't complain about a conflict when the recording
was
> programmed suggests that one of them finished late (I think Sky+ can
> compensate for that). However, it should have at least recorded most
of
> all the programs!

Eastenders was DEFINATELY running late as when SWMBO watched it later I had
to FF through quite a bit. By the start of Eastenders there was only 28
minutes left and I worried that the end of that would be gone as well (too
late to catch the repeat on BBC3) but it was OK/


> > Given that one of the supposed benfits of SKY+ is the fact that
> it records the raw bit stream therefore there should be any difference
> between live and recorded I was looking forward to better pictures.
> >
>
> What's your signal quality like?
>

Signal quality is good but looking at SatcoDX today I see that the
traditional "Terrestrial" channels are transmitted with a symbol
rate of
22000 and FEC of 5/6 whereas the majority of SKY is 27000 and FEC 2/3

I think I must definately have pressed something last night or the late
running of Eastenders was to blame because all 4 of the "test"
programs
recorded OK. Bloody typical!!!!


>
> I wonder if they're gradually dropping the bitrates to make room for
HD
> channels?
>

Taking a look at Hotbird 13 degrees, you can see "ordinary" TV
station that
have symbol rates of 28000 and  29900 generally with FEC of 3/4 so higher
bitrates and better error checking than our main TV channels :(

It wouldnt suprise me if stealth tactics are used to push HDTV. It was done
to force people to change from Vinyl to CD. When I was still DJ'ing I
noticed that I was starting to get feedback through the decks more often
but
only with singles of late 80's early 90's origin. Older singles were much
lounder and I didnt have a problem with them. One way of proving that a
"new" technology is better is to make the old technology worse.

Keith