Mixing SD and HD

[tim_d_wagner]

Has anyone here done much mixing of SD and HD? Other than specifying channel can you specify what to record in HD unless you use separate SD and HD servers?

[myktek]

Originally Posted by tim_d_wagner

Has anyone here done much mixing of SD and HD? Other than specifying channel can you specify what to record in HD unless you use separate SD and HD servers?

what are you trying to do, would you elaborate?

[tscales]

HD channels are separate. Choose the show on an HD channel and ensure that your SD lineups do NOT include those channels, and they'll record in HD. Don't turn on 'record on any channel'.

Really not that hard.

[CrunchyDoodle]

My BTV box has two SD analog and four HD QAM tuners. In my guide the SD analog channels are 2 - 99 while the HD QAM channels are 100 - 999. I did not map any SD QAM channels into my guide. While it's true that some content on an HD capable channel is often SD, I ignore that. So I have two lineups that contribute to my guide data. One is the SD analog lineup and the other is the QAM lineup where I ignore the SD QAM channels. True HD content is marked such in the guide, so I know what I'm getting.

Bye.

[tim_d_wagner]

Originally Posted by tscales

Don't turn on 'record on any channel'.

Really not that hard.

I did preface the question with "Other than specifying channel". I understand I can do so by specifying a channel, I was asking to see if there were other options. Thankyou anyway for the reply.

[tim_d_wagner]

Originally Posted by myktek

what are you trying to do, would you elaborate?

I’d be happy to elaborate. I am curious if anyone has comments on how HD recordings worked on the SD set, or comments on their experiences in general of using both. A few quick searches did not really pick up much on the subject.
It looks like Calgary has a pair of HD OTA channels, and a slightly used LCD TV has showed up at our house, so it is time to upgrade the SD BTV setup that has been running stable for a while. I have a few options for setting up our new TV, and am weighing the options.
As part of that I was trying to figure out if I could specify a show to record a show like House on HD sources, but still allow the scheduler the flexibly of choosing which HD source to use if the system also had SD sources present.
I think I have two options, 1 mixed source HD SD server upstairs with 1 link downstairs, or 2 servers, 1 SD 1 HD. I think there are pros and cons to both, but there are a few random pieces of info I am missing trying to make the final choice.

[phareous]

Don't make it more complicated than it needs to be. If you see a show you want on the HD channels, then set it to record it...it will play just fine on a standard set, or on beyond tv link in a standard set. It will scale down automatically. I record most of my shows on HDTV and play them on a SD set upstairs. No need for separate servers, etc, etc. You will need to make sure you specify to record on the HD channel and not "record any channel", because the latter will probably use SD too (although maybe it uses the order of your tuners...don't know, as I never use it).

[ftsi]

In theory...
You should have HD tuner with the HD lineup. SD Tuner with it's own (edited to exclude HD lineup) custom lineup.
The HD should be higher priority than the SD.
Then...
Select a show to record. (i.e. House) and set it up to record on any channel.

If things work as they should...

If the HD tuner has a conflict, it should fall back to the SD tuner.

Hope this helps a bit...

[josephz2va]

I've only noticed this on my cable company basing it on two signals. 720p for standard HD signals and 1080i for enriched HD signals.
Mainly you will only be able to know it's broadcasting HD if you have a widescreen monitor or have the window set to 16:9 ratio and the black bars disappear.
As far as I know that's how it is. 1080i for enriched channels needing a hardware tuner when I tried to watch it.

Sadly only FOX, UPN and ABC are the standard signals here and NBC,CBS,CW do HD signals.

[tscales]

I'm confused. 720p and 1080i are just variations and 1080i isn't much better. I cn't tell any difference.

What do you mean by a hardware tuner? There is no such thing for HD as it is already MPEG2. HD tuners just save the datastream.