movie file size diff between hardware and software decoding

[TeleFragger]

Ok so I had btv running with a old hauppauge card... it was ok...
was able to record in wmv format which I used so I could play them from my xbox360
1gb per hr
now I have a hauppauge pvr 500 (not 100% clear but people thought it rocked yesterday as we had a football party / baby baptism party all in one)
well I am able to record but only in mpg format.
This is ok however 3gb per hr is alot. Is there any way to get these files smaller other than choosing a different quality level? I may have to mess with the quality and drop off of dvd quality just to get the file size down.. I have a 100gb drive in the machine so 80gb is actually free...
thus.... 26.6 hrs of recordings max currently.. unless I throw a bigger drive in....

I could use windows movie maker to convert it to wmv on off hrs but that too will eatup more drive space....

in actuallity this isnt important as I guess all I want to do is record then delete anyway...

[bits]

Originally Posted by TeleFragger

Ok so I had btv running with a old hauppauge card... it was ok...
was able to record in wmv format which I used so I could play them from my xbox360
1gb per hr
now I have a hauppauge pvr 500 (not 100% clear but people thought it rocked yesterday as we had a football party / baby baptism party all in one)
well I am able to record but only in mpg format.
This is ok however 3gb per hr is alot. Is there any way to get these files smaller other than choosing a different quality level? I may have to mess with the quality and drop off of dvd quality just to get the file size down.. I have a 100gb drive in the machine so 80gb is actually free...
thus.... 26.6 hrs of recordings max currently.. unless I throw a bigger drive in....

I could use windows movie maker to convert it to wmv on off hrs but that too will eatup more drive space....

in actuallity this isnt important as I guess all I want to do is record then delete anyway...

If the title of this post is your question then..no there should be no difference in file size between software and hardware encoding PROVIDED it is the SAME video format and the same settings for video and audio bit rate and resolution. In your case you are comparing WMV to mpeg which is not valid when considering file size as a fuction of encoding method (software vs hardware).

To change file size you need to change the quality setting. PVR500 is an mpeg2 hardware encoding card. That is what it does and it does it well.

The easiest thing to do is get more HDD space. Recording to mpeg2 and then converting to WMV or DivX is time consuming and unless your video source PQ is stellar you will lose PQ.