The Olympics!

[pdaughe]

I was going to reply to noodleNT's thread: "Now I remember why..." but I thought we should have a thread with this title (pardon me NoodleNT, but it's just that I agree so much with you -- BTV and The Olympics -- way cool).

Many of us sailed through the Superbowl in high definition with BTV and were immensely impressed and appreciative.

Now it's time for the Olympics!

My wife is excited -- she went to the newspaper on-line and found a listing giving the specific times for each event.

IT THEN OCCURRED TO ME -- I've used BTV for approximately a year now and have never scheduled a manual recording. Setting up recordings is SO EASY I wondered why anyone would ever want to set up a manual recording.

Now I see the light! We can schedule manual recordings for just those events we want to watch!

That is WAY COOL!

[Cal]

Time to quickly buy more Harddrives. I'm filling up fast and they havent even started yet. I really need to the replace that drive that failed on me a few weeks ago.

Ah, If only I had High Def. Thats a jump I have not yet made.

[pdaughe]

Cal,

Don't look before you leap -- I didn't! High-definition for me was just an "experiment." I threw an HDTV antenna up on the roof in the fall, replacing an old, huge rotary antenna left there by the previous owner. I planned to "play-around" with HDTV when BTV 4 came out. I didn't really see the need for HDTV because my analog picture, I believed, had approached near-DVD quality; definitely better than straight from the cable. I just didn't see where HDTV could really be that cool.

What a surprise! Someone else posted back then: "As for me, I'm going all OTA." At the time, I just thought "Hmm.."

Well, BTV 4 and high-definition is so GREAT I've now joined that other poster. Every single show we record now is on a digital OTA channel and all of them are in high-definition! And it's FREE (at least no recurring costs)! It's hard to watch analog cable anymore -- the digital picture is just simply better, even on a standard definition TV. And the Dolby Digital sound -- sweet, sweet, sweet.

The point is "buy big." I saw recently that NewEgg had Western Digital 320's on sale for $117. A pair of those will come in handy when you find yourself recording at 9GB per hour!

And, DON'T look at "Movies" in the new Browse by Category feature. I only made it through the F's and had already setup four or five movies to record! On the other hand, another poster said his wife browse through the movies and remarked, "I want them, I don't care how many drives you have to buy"! He's got it made....

[Mamba]

Yah, the wife wants me to record ALL the Olympic 'casts. Do have OTA but no Fusion card, and of course one of the OTA channels we get does carry those 'casts...humph!
What do you think the min hardware is for HD PVR? I haven't pursued it since I think my current hardware is HD anemic. Also, I don't believe there is any ShowSqueeze for .tp yet, correct?

[Bilar Crais]

Ah...the Olympics in HD. When is the next time we can expect women's beach volleyball?

[pdaughe]

Originally Posted by Mamba

Yah, the wife wants me to record ALL the Olympic 'casts. Do have OTA but no Fusion card, and of course one of the OTA channels we get does carry those 'casts...humph!
What do you think the min hardware is for HD PVR? I haven't pursued it since I think my current hardware is HD anemic. Also, I don't believe there is any ShowSqueeze for .tp yet, correct?

Right, no ShowSqueeze yet for HD, but SmartSkip is applicable.

I know I'm not qualifed to answer the minumum hardware requirement for HD, but Snapstream gives some guidelines. From what I can see, I would expect your system to do just fine. My HTPC is a P4 2.8ghz, but I do have 1GB of memory and a Nividia 6600GT card. It plays HD beautifully. Processor utilization is between 25 to 35 percent. I don't have a frame of reference for ATI cards, but the rest of your system is definitely up to par the way I see it.

I say go for it; I bet you'll be surprised.

[btvfreak]

Originally Posted by Bilar Crais

Ah...the Olympics in HD. When is the next time we can expect women's beach volleyball?

Considering it's the winter Olympics probably not anytime soon, but one can dream.

[Mamba]

Originally Posted by pdaughe

Right, no ShowSqueeze yet for HD...

Hmm...have to dig around here..AutoXvid maybe?

My system meets the mins, tho' I would bump up the mem to 1GB. Have to look into this soon. Just not been much of interest on the HD channels until now.

[Bilar Crais]

Originally Posted by Mamba

Hmm...have to dig around here..AutoXvid maybe?

AutoGK works beautifully. If you intend on playing back on a standalone divx player, such as the Philips DVP-642, just make sure you don't have the auto resolution feature ticked. AutoGK decided that one of my HD captures would be best transcoded at 804X364....and standalones don't support anything higher than DVD resolution.


BTW: Has anyone figured out a quick and dirty way to convert HD to DVD?
No matter what method of transcoding to DVD or compatible mpeg2, my best rendering time has been around 8 FPS. I'm not that patient.