[mythtv-users] Why does going to live TV take so long?

f-myth-users at media.mit.edu f-myth-users at media.mit.edu
Sat Mar 11 01:43:49 UTC 2006


    Date: Fri, 10 Mar 2006 17:32:33 -0500
    From: "Steven Adeff" <adeffs.mythtv at gmail.com>

    On 3/10/06, f-myth-users at media.mit.edu <f-myth-users at media.mit.edu> wrote:
    >     > Date: Fri, 10 Mar 2006 11:42:30 -0500
    >     > From: "Steven Adeff" <adeffs.mythtv at gmail.com>
    >
    >     > Tivo's buffer is about 7 seconds as well. From memory, my Series 1
    >     > Tivo had a 7second buffer.
    >
    > No.  I just ran a test.  My Series 1 TiVo changes channels in no more
    > than 1 second.  (RF input from cable system.)

    I never said it took 7 seconds to change channels, just that it keeps
    a buffer, I thought it was 7seconds, I know its noticable, we noticed
    it when the kitchen tv was on that had no DVR and it would output the
    sound a few seconds before the Tivo did.

Viewing the signal from the cable and from the TiVo in LiveTV mode
side-by-side shows that the delay is 1 second there, too.  I wouldn't
be surprised if the time to change channels and the delay through the
TiVo's buffers is almost exactly the same and for the obvious logical
reason.  (And presumably its tuner locks to NTSC in only a hundred ms
or so, which makes sense---getting a fast lock to an analog low-def TV
signal isn't hard.)

(In .18, Myth's delay in the same setup is about 5 seconds.)

Also, is it possible that the TV in your kitchen was viewing OTA and
the TiVo was viewing cable?  Your cable provider probably added a fair
bit of latency; I can certainly see a few seconds' delay between OTA
PBS and my cable system's version, for example.

    It also takes longer to change channels if you have an external tuner,
    which I did at the time.

Understandable.


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