Magnavox 537, 535, 533, 515, 513, 2160A, 2160, 2080 & Philips 3576, 3575 - Page 512

Is that a rhetorical question? I've never seen a VCR that can record more than 400 lines (SVHS) and most are only 240.



But Joe said: "Recorded HD CBS (1080i) to HDD. Played back, set to 1080p & display 16:9. No letterbox, no barn doors."

That doesn't make sense. If it can record 16:9 from the internal tuner, why can't the internal tuner be sort of "bypassed" to use the STB's tuner? A VCR can do this (when it's set to record ch 3 and it uses the STB's tuner, and of course will be SD, and of course when I do that it has to be set to record the SD channels).



Yes, what I hoped to avoid (remember, I use VCR playback on a SDTV). I want to be able to view recordings on my HDTV without any (noticeable) loss in quality.

Indeed. But what I meant is it's a 50" and not a 37 or 42 which should look better (if it's a good set) than SD on a 50".



How does a recorder know when an HDMI output is being used? Is there some kind of sensor activated when an HDMI cable is plugged in?

Thanks.

I was just merely trying to say that it is what it is.

Who knows why (although something tells me that Citibear may have something to say about it)? One thing I do know is, though, that if it did record in full HD, it would cost a lot more than it does.

As far as what Joe (who had to have been referring to from the internal tuner) or anyone else says, or however you're understanding it, what I said about it recording from an external tuner exactly like your VCR did still applies. And I really don't mean to sound snippy - again - just telling you like it is.

I think there are 'converters' you can buy that you can put in-between that can pass the source through to the recorder in it's original aspect ratio, but that will be an extra expense, and the cheaper ones of those (like $50) tend to degrade the PQ much more than the more expensive ones (like $200).

(As far as the HDMI thing, yeah, their's some kind of cutoff circuitry involved.)

Yeah, I knew what you meant....but still - we're part of an "Elite" club - no pun intended.

There sure was a HD VHS VCR sold at one time, the JVC HMDH5U. It was kind of a if you blinked, you missed it type product.

http://www.amazon.com/JVC-HMDH5U-Dig.../dp/B0002J6LA2

There was actually more than one HD VCR model made by JVC. I don't know if I'd even mess with one of those at this stage, though. If I recall, head misalignment, or some other, particular issue is common with them. Then you either have to buy the extremely expensive, hard-to-find blank tapes, or drill holes in S-VHS ones.

Better to just buy a TiVo and record to HD-DVD on your computer now.

F**k. I blinked. Of course no one has them now for less than a thousand frickin' bucks.

There was one JVC model which had a built-in, digital ATSC tuner, that some outlet was selling a bunch of new-in-box for something like $199 a year or two back. There's a thread in the "HDTV Recorders" section on it.

Some used to pair the recorders up with the LG LST-3410A HD-DVR, or the standalone, Samsung "SIR" tuners with firewire out.

How much more? Are those listed in this thread? If not, do you know the model #'s?

And BTW, what are the main differences in the units mentioned in this thread? Are they all 513's or 515's just under another name?



Ahh. Joe? Internal tuner or STB?



If recording from an external tuner exactly like your VCR did still applies than that would mean it can record 16:9 using the STB's tuner. ??



Do you have any info on those like model #'s? Do you (or anyone) know if the cheaper ones that degrade the PQ are still better than not using one at all?

Thanks.

Here's a question that just occurred to me: Why can't something like a dual-tuner HD-recordable TiVo be used just like a 513? Simply as a stand-alone manually-set-timer DVR? (Are TiVo's still lacking commercial skip or a one-button 30 sec skip?)

Clint, I don't have time to go into detail now, since I have to run off to that place that pays me so I can buy more stuff. But let's make sure we are on the same page.

There are three ways you can get "free" commercial video content.

First to come out over 50 years ago is vsb/analog/NTSC. You must still get those on your cable feed. That is really 525 lines of vertical resolution but your TV only shows 480 and it's interlaced (30 fps). The other lines are hidden and contain closed captions and other stuff.

Next method is QAM. Most popular is QAM256, but there is some 64 still around. Check Wiki. Cable companies use QAM.

Lately there is 8vsb/ATSC. It's what is used with OTA broadcasting. It can be 480i/p, 720p or 1080i.

There is dish too, but I want to keep it simple.

You seem to be looking at that old NTSC/analog signal and calling it SD. I call QAM256 480i or 480p SD digital. It can look 99% as good as your 720p/1080i HD. With cable, unless you can call a friend at the headend, you don't know how your content is manipulated. I get clear QAM for 125 channels. Most are SD 480i, some ED 480p (music), some HD 720p (ABC/Fox) and HD 1080i (the rest). My 480i digital QAM256 channel of MSNBC looks almost as good as the 1080i signal that comes out of my Pace HD STB. Cable signals and lineup are zipcode specific.

My 2160A, 515H, and STB all feed, via HDMI, a Yamaha V867 that doesn't alter the video. The TV is a Sony 32EX700 which gets HDMI from the AVR and three Sony DHG-HDD250 HD DVR units.

Ever play S-VHS? It's 400 lines. So is a regular DVD. But were are jumping into the 24 vs 60/120/240 frame rate issue (see SOE above).

In summary, the output of your SD digital 513H should look great. Just not as great as 1080i recorded at 20Mbs instead of 10Mbs. Do the math on your Cox DVR and see if it measures up to the ROI for the 513H.

I could buy a Moxie, but it requires a CableCARD. My little cable company just learned that RG6 is better than RG59. I'd rather not take the risk. More later, sorry.

And I meant page #1 of this thread. It has a lot of answers.

ANALOG 480 blown up to 1080p looks bad on my cable too. DIGITAL 480i looks good. Your VCR has an analog tuner. I still use my VCR and an analog Toshiba DVDR (80gb HDD - 9Mbs)) fed from an HD tuner. Letterbox beats blank screen. Analog via RWY from my HD STB looks pretty good when recorded from AV1 on the 515H. It is letterbox. Still better than a blank screen.

Gotta go. I'm off tomorrow. More then.

It's been a while since I looked at Tivos, but don't they record HD/SD as it is received, so that there is no way to select a lower quality to stretch the HDD capacity, as we can do on the 513/515, etc.?

500 GB doesn't go far at HD

Bruce

About 60 hours.

Digital tuner? I have two (JVC and Mitsubishi) VCR units that can use D-VHS tapes and have firewire. But not digital tuners. They can talk and control each other. Nice units, but I went Sony.

Please let me explain tonight. All I used was my raw cable, TV and 515H.

And somebody should mention that there is no channel 3/4 output of recorded content.

A DVD is considered SD.
Why make these that do not record in HD? Several reasons, IMHO most people won't pay the cost increase for having a larger hard drive, a BluRay burner, BluRay blanks cost a lot more too. Many people do not buy these to be a cheap fee less DVR.

Hollywood is adamantly opposed to you being able to record their product whether OTA of Cable or Satellite in HD.


Your HDMI and all other devices that accept a HDMI device talk to the HDMI source to negotiate supported resolutions and to report whether HDCP is present. A BluRay player can only output a reduced resolution via HDMI if the disk is authored to prevent HD over non HDCP connections.

You will notice that Hollywood has successfully managed to kill off analog output in future devices. Thus eliminating the Analog hole that allows devices that connect via component to capture in HD.

The BluRay player will always SD. Disks can be flagged to prevent anything else over non HDCP connections.
They haven't been doing that mainly to help encourage player sales to older HDTV owners where their TV sets do not support HDMI. I expect sooner or later that will change.


Tivo's cost more. People that want to make Disks, DVD or BluRay need to go through extra time consuming steps with a good computer.

Tivo has been losing money and subscribers for years. Part of what makes a Tivo a Tivo is the guide that it downloads from Tivo.

Want anything from cable in your subscription, pay a monthly fee to the cable company for a cable card. or record through your cable STB.

Thus making recording anything more cumbersome.

I have basic cable and I can tune and record all the Clear QAM channels with no STB on my TV or my Magnavox DVD Recorders.

The "first post" of this thread is the "Table of Contents" to a wealth of information concerning Magnavox HDD/DVD Recorders:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...6#post12244086

It records digital source through the digital tuners as the unaltered transport stream so playback quality is exactly as it would be if the signal were piped directly to the TV. It records analog source through the analog tuners by encoding to MPEG-2. The TiVo has a global setting for quality of the encoding (bitrate) so one can select a lower quality if desired.

1 hr of broadcast HD takes up 5-7.5 GB of HDD space. A 1TB expander adds 120-140hr of HD storage. The network transfer ability gives you unlimited storage for non copy-protected programs.

In case anyone still cares, I used the Maggie 515 HDD to record a few songs from one of the Comcast music channels, then burned them to a DVD, for the purpose of recording the songs to the car's built-in "Music Register," which can record, store and play back music from inserted discs.

First, the Maggie performed flawlessly, with excellent audio quality. I used SP and (sorry Wajo) I did record the video as well, just to see what it would look like on the car's screen. I used an ancient non-approved HP 4X DVD+RW with zero issues.

The car played the disc without any issues either, as long as I booted the system in Video Disc mode. Eric Clapton never sounded better. A real kick watching Comcast's changing info. screens on the car's display as the music played, just like watching the H.T. setup.

I even saw the Maggie's Title Screen and was able to navigate to the title I wanted, just as you would normally do when you were using the Maggie and wanted to select a title.

Unfortunately, when I tried to record the music from the disc to the car's Music Register hard drive, I got a message the equivalent of, "Get that thing out of me and don't ever try that again!"

So, as I (we) already guessed, the Register will only record WMA and MP3 files. Period. It will not look at a video disc. That's a separate function of the car's system that plays back only.

I examined the disc I had made on the Maggie on the computer and it is (to me) undecipherable. Weird looking file names and structure. It does play fine on the computer, using the Windows Media Player.

As someone here suggested prior, whatever those files are would have to be converted to either WMA or MP3 to get them into the car's Register. Not sure I want to mess with one of those conversion programs.

One other possibility for your feedback please: the car's Music Register says it will accept AUDIO DVD's for ripping music, nothing about video DVD's, which is what you would normally use in the Maggie and which the Music Register function of the car rejected. Does anyone think this would make a difference and would the Maggie accept AUDIO DVD's? Still, the files would have to be WMA or MP3 and apparently the Maggie does not create those files, so probably won't work.

Anyway, the Maggie is one great piece of equipment, as you already know.

Thanks for all your patience and help guys.

DVDs are Standard Definition.

It takes HD-DVD (now dead) or Blu-Ray to achieve High Def on a disc.

The picture you get off a DVD is Standard Def.

Surprise!

Hey, I just noticed -

this thread is now on page 513!

(And pretty soon it will be on page 515!)

Yeah, I'm bored outta my skull right now.

I neglected to mention this before, but the digital tuner in the JVC would have been entirely useless for cable, as it was only ATSC.

Might the card be "free" in some cases, though, if it's regarded as your "first tuner"?

Of course, if they do always charge, they could be getting you on the "dual-tuners" of the TiVo angle.

(I've never checked here.)

Excellent post Citibear. I have two 515s and a rented DVR. You'd have to pry the DVR from my cold dead hands. The Mags do not replace a DVR for people like me who want to watch most of their programming in HD.

I have the MAGs to transfer SOME programming to other TVs in the house and so I can act as "DADFlix" sending some programing via disc to one of my kids. Most importantly, I am a movie buff and I use the the MAGs to create discs of classic movies for my collection. I am now using one of the converter boxes (HDMI to S-video) recommended by Wajo, to get good quality 16:9 discs. Not HD, but still pretty nice.

CitiBear -- an excellent post. I'm just an OTA guy, so don't really get into the nuts and bolts of all the cable/ satellite stuff, but I think you sum up the situation nicely. The only thing I miss on my maggie is the TVGOS I used to get with analog OTA on my panny HD-DVR (though TVGOS could have its own issues).

scott s.
.

Maybe it was more the market, but I never had any real problems to speak of here (Chicago) using any of my Pannies v7 or v9 guides (or Sony recorder's v7 or HD DVR's v8, for that matter) with analog OTA back in the days before they started messing around with even the analog signal (which started sometime within the year before the official OTA "digital transition" was to take place).

In fact, it was the greatest thing for me since sliced bread.

Although CitiBear's post is true for my experience with Comcast, its totally the opposite of my experience with WOW the 17th largest cable company here.

WOW still sends Basic Service in clear QAM. So I'm still able to record the local channels and these cable channels without a special box.
QVC, USA, TNT, Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, Disney Channel, Lifetime, E!, Comedy Central, 30 VH1, MTV, FSN Detroit, ESPN, ESPN2, AMC, The Learning Channel, ABC Family, HGTV, Turner Classic Movies, Food Network, CMT, EWTN, SyFy, A&E, History, Discovery Channel, CNBC, CNN, Headline News, MSNBC, Hallmark Channel, C-SPAN, Travel Channel, Spike TV, BET, Bravo, Golf Channel, Fox News Channel, The Weather Channel, Shop NBC, FX, Disney XD, TV Land, Animal Planet, OWN, National Geographic, Speed, MTV2, tru TV, Big Ten Network, Nicktoons.

However you often here me complain that it uses those horrible RAW channel numbers!

Hey, just about anything looks good on my main set - a 21" CRT

Whether or not you get letterboxed recordings depends on your cable box. While some boxes force everything into a 4:3 format, others will preserve the widescreen format....

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showp...stcount=62#WS5