[mythtv-users] OT: A question on the HD-PVR and non-HD content

[John P Poet]

On Wed, Feb 18, 2009 at 11:20 AM, Matt Emmott <memmott at gmail.com> wrote:
> This is independent of the current state of Myth, VDPAU, H.264, trunk, etc
> etc, but I think this list would be the most knowledgeable on the subject:
>
> I plan on getting an HD-PVR sooner than later. I plan on the component-out
> going from my STB to the HD-PVR, and the usb from the HD-PVR going to the
> Myth box. My question, or questions now that I think about it are: Is this
> box HD-only, or can I use it to tune SD content as well? Second, will it
> automatically adjust between 720i/p and 1080i/p?
>
> The reason I ask is, I'd like the HD-PVR and STB connection to be my primary
> tuner, and function like my old Tivo + STB - It would "just work". I'm
> hoping that the box could automatically adjust between SD / HD and HD's
> different resolutions and record appropriately. I don't mind if SD comes
> across in some kind of an H.264-esque wrapper, so long as it, again, "just
> works".
>
> Hope this isn't too far off topic but thus far I haven't been able to get a
> straight answer. Thanks in advance.

The wiki talks about this stuff, but here is a summary:

The HD-PVR understands 480i, 480p, 720p and 1080i.  It always encodes
to H.264, and it will do it at whatever resolution the input is.

For recording, Myth checks what resolution the HD-PVR is reporting and
will tell the HD-PVR to use a user-defined bitrate based on that
resolution.  So, 480i can be configured to use a much lower bitrate
than 1080i, since the extra bits will not help the picture quality.

LiveTV is the exception.  It takes the HD-PVR a couple of seconds to
sync to a new input resoution.  Myth doesn't want to wait that long,
and ends up giving up on the HD-PVR.  So, for LiveTV, Myth will ignore
the input resolution and always select the maximum user-defined
bitrate.  It still takes several seconds to change channels, but it is
"quick enough" that Myth will not give up on the process.

http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/HDPVR


John
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