[mythtv-users] HDTV Question

[Steven Adeff]

On 11/20/06, Michael Tiller <michael.tiller at gmail.com> wrote:
> I just got an HDHomerun so I hope to be grabbing a pretty high quality
> digital stream soon (once I get my HDHomerun working with Myth, but that is
> a different thread).
>
> I grabbed an SD stream in VLC and it shows many of the issues with digital
> TV that I don't like (artifacts around text, interlacing, etc).  I assume at
> least the artifacts around the text are reduced for HD content (and in some
> cases the interlacing if you get 720p?).  For this reason, I was thinking I
> would record in HD for some shows even though I don't have an HD capable TV.
>  The idea would be to try and achieve a very high quality SD recording from
> the HD.  But I had a few questions:
>
> 1) I assume MythTV has no trouble downscaling the HDTV content?

yups, but that doesn't lower the playback requirements.

> 2) Keeping the HD recordings seems like a lot of space...what are my options
> for transcoding it?

currently you can resize the video, but the audio gets converted as
well, kind of a pain if you want the AC3 audio.

> 3) Presumably this would best be done via a transcoding job (or is some
> other framework within MythTV required)
> 4) Is any of this worth it?  Honestly, I thought some of SD streams looked
> like crap so it seems like it would be worth it.

Recording in HD for playback on an NTSC is definitely worth it, as
even downscaled the quality will be closer to "DVD" than to the
original NTSC broadcast (which are, well, garbage.).

Of course, it will make you want an HDTV...

-- 
Steve
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