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kiwipeter: Well, I caved in and visited my local Telecom store (Riccarton, Chc). Walked out with a new TiVo and spent an hour or so having fun unboxing, connecting and configuring. Have got wireless working, all manner of things recording, Home Networking working and CASPA all up and running. Purchased 'Ghost Town' last night and I would say quality is certainly comparable to DVD although some banding and artifacting was noticed in sky scenes etc. Not too bad though, but I guess HD downloads will happen eventually. All in all, I would be happy to recommend this device and so far, so good!
Good luck with your new purchase, it's great that you are pleased with it! I'm interested in the quality of your movie download, my question is, would you expect a SKY HD movie to be of a better quality? Or do you think the TiVo movie quality is about the same as a SKY "standard definition" movie broadcast?
Regards
Fred
Spark Max Fibre using Mikrotik CCR1009-8G-1S-1S+, CRS125-24G-1S, Unifi UAP, U6-Pro, UAP-AC-M-Pro, Apple TV 4K (2022), Apple TV 4K (2017), iPad Air 1st gen, iPad Air 4th gen, iPhone 13, SkyNZ3151 (the white box). If it doesn't move then it's data cabled.
Spyware:
Good luck with your new purchase, it's great that you are pleased with it! I'm interested in the quality of your movie download, my question is, would you expect a SKY HD movie to be of a better quality? Or do you think the TiVo movie quality is about the same as a SKY "standard definition" movie broadcast?
Regards
Fred
Given Sky SD quality is lower bitrate than most youtube content I think to even make the comparison to this substandard service is a mistake. Sky is the reference for low quality and nothing more. No other service would dare to match it.
itey: it depends on the codec used.
the codec that youtube uses is much more efficient than what sky use - so you don't need a direct bit-for-bit comparison.
RustyGonad:itey: it depends on the codec used.
the codec that youtube uses is much more efficient than what sky use - so you don't need a direct bit-for-bit comparison.
Wow another pearl of wisdom...
Sky use both MPEG-2 and h.264 - both of which are accepted as fairly reasonable codecs - given that one is many years older than the other, with h.264 being accepted as one of the most efficient codecs around at the moment.
h264 is also used within FLV - which you may find related with things to do with Youtube. h.264 is also the exact same codec used by Freeview NZ and many other broadcasters worldwide for HD content - funnily enough due to its efficiency.
Youtubes primary aim in life is to present video to the masses using as little bandwidth as possible, and using files which occupy as little disk space as possible.
You cannot expect to mention quality and youtube in the same sentence and expect to be taken seriously - which is why if you try to stick the boot into Sky or any other broadcaster without knowing the facts you just end up looking like your FOS.
Maybe we might need a bucket - the brown stuffs getting out of control around here...
RustyGonad: I can't comment on the exact quality of Tivo movies - however the metrics behind all downloaded movies are relatively simple - codecs issues aside the bigger the file, the better the quality.
There's a whole lot of other variables - ie you can release a downloaded movie at 720p resolution (as many of the US providers do), but with a very low bitrate so that the filesize remains manageable - to say somewhere around 2GB - they can still call it a HD release, quality will be OK until you compare it to the Bluray - and then it will probably look bad - many reviews go as far as to say they also look bad vs a DVD.
Fact is with any download content - especially in New Zealand - you need to manage both the consumers ability to deal with it (ie diskspace) and the time it takes to download. Both of these will comprise the quality when compared with Bluray or even a HD broadcast.
Consideration needs to be taken for the fact that most Bluray's use around 20-30GB of space for the movie - downloading this into the home at the moment just isn't practical (or maybe just a bit slow :) ). On Demand doesn't cater for it taking 5 days to download - which is why the filesizes (resolution, bitrate etc) need to be managed.
Even HD broadcasts (eg Sky Movies 1080i) still only use roughly half the bitrate of Bluray - they can look OK, but the equiv Bluray always looks better.
Someone else can probably comment on the actual filesize/bitrates, but I doubt Tivo will be using anywhere near even these bitrates - not cause they don't want to - just that having to deal with even an 8-10Gb file creates many consumer issues.
Personally I think the only thing to measure it against is your own eyes - if you like it forget the metrics and use it. If not get a Bluray player. Remember On Demand/download movies aren't about quality, they're about convenience.
frednz:RustyGonad:itey: it depends on the codec used.
the codec that youtube uses is much more efficient than what sky use - so you don't need a direct bit-for-bit comparison.
Wow another pearl of wisdom...
Sky use both MPEG-2 and h.264 - both of which are accepted as fairly reasonable codecs - given that one is many years older than the other, with h.264 being accepted as one of the most efficient codecs around at the moment.
h264 is also used within FLV - which you may find related with things to do with Youtube. h.264 is also the exact same codec used by Freeview NZ and many other broadcasters worldwide for HD content - funnily enough due to its efficiency.
Youtubes primary aim in life is to present video to the masses using as little bandwidth as possible, and using files which occupy as little disk space as possible.
You cannot expect to mention quality and youtube in the same sentence and expect to be taken seriously - which is why if you try to stick the boot into Sky or any other broadcaster without knowing the facts you just end up looking like your FOS.
Maybe we might need a bucket - the brown stuffs getting out of control around here...
I found an interesting article here:
http://www.wap.org/journal/digitaltv.html
ATSC formats: Many are defined, including:
Standard definition (SDTV): 480i to maintain compatibility with NTSC.
Enhanced definition (EDTV): 480p to match the quality of movie DVDs.
High definition (HDTV): 720p for compact transmission of HD images and 1080p for sharp resolution on all screen sizes; i = interlaced (2 pass scanning) and p = progressive (1 pass scanning).
The goal is for all DTV broadcasters to use the 1080p format, but the standard allows for HD broadcasting at 720p or 1080i in the interim. Most DTV receivers are being built to scan at 1080p and to convert to that when the incoming signal is either 720p or 1080i. The aspect ratio is now 16:9 to more nearly conform with that used by motion picture theaters.
So, do you think that the quality of TiVo movies would be equivalent to 480p or 720p? And do you think TiVo movies would be equivalent to a broadcast at 10 megabits per second (Mbps), 15 Mbps, or 20 Mbps?
Thanks for your help.
Regards
Fred
I aim to misbehave.
RustyGonad: I can't comment on the exact quality of Tivo movies - however the metrics behind all downloaded movies are relatively simple - codecs issues aside the bigger the file, the better the quality.
There's a whole lot of other variables - ie you can release a downloaded movie at 720p resolution (as many of the US providers do), but with a very low bitrate so that the filesize remains manageable - to say somewhere around 2GB - they can still call it a HD release, quality will be OK until you compare it to the Bluray - and then it will probably look bad - many reviews go as far as to say they also look bad vs a DVD.
Fact is with any download content - especially in New Zealand - you need to manage both the consumers ability to deal with it (ie diskspace) and the time it takes to download. Both of these will comprise the quality when compared with Bluray or even a HD broadcast.
Consideration needs to be taken for the fact that most Bluray's use around 20-30GB of space for the movie - downloading this into the home at the moment just isn't practical (or maybe just a bit slow :) ). On Demand doesn't cater for it taking 5 days to download - which is why the filesizes (resolution, bitrate etc) need to be managed.
Even HD broadcasts (eg Sky Movies 1080i) still only use roughly half the bitrate of Bluray - they can look OK, but the equiv Bluray always looks better.
Someone else can probably comment on the actual filesize/bitrates, but I doubt Tivo will be using anywhere near even these bitrates - not cause they don't want to - just that having to deal with even an 8-10Gb file creates many consumer issues.
Personally I think the only thing to measure it against is your own eyes - if you like it forget the metrics and use it. If not get a Bluray player. Remember On Demand/download movies aren't about quality, they're about convenience.
I aim to misbehave.
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