[mythtv-users] What's the point of MythTV HD?

[George Mari]

Richard Woelk wrote:
> 
> 
> jmk wrote:
>> Hi George / MythTV Users,
>>
>> On Mon, 2007-12-03 at 22:18 -0600, George Mari wrote:
>>  
>>> David Linville wrote:
>>>     
>>
>> <snip>
>>
>>  
[deleted]
>>
>> A few quick, hopefully not too dumb, questions about this approach...
>>
>> I currently have two standard DirecTV STBs which are connected via
>> s-video to ivtv cards. My main MythTV host is connected to a HD TV.
>> Unfortunately, one of my STBs is dying and I'm told by DirecTV it'll
>> cost $69 to replace. It appears that for an additional $30 I can get a
>> HD STB, so I am considering going that route.
>>
>> When the HD STB is configured to display 16:9, does Myth automatically
>> detect this and display full screen? Currently, it appears that 16:9
>> content is being displayed in a 4:3 window. I can manually zoom/scale,
>> but I find this annoying and I'm wondering if this approach gets around
>> that problem.
>>
Yeah, what Richard said in his reply.  :-)

I have 2 frontends that are connected to 16:9 TV's, and I changed the 
settings via Setup->TV Settings->Playback->Aspect override to 16:9 for 
all content.  This stretches 4:3 programs to fill the width of the 
screen, which I prefer, and I still get 16:9 recordings in their proper 
format.  My recording profile assumes everything is 16:9, so this works 
for me.  I like Richard's idea of different recording profiles for 
different aspect ratios - I hadn't thought of that.

>> Are there extra costs that I'm missing with this option? 

Check out the DirecTV forum on dbstalk.com for information on how you 
may be able to get a better deal when upgrading.  If you have a round 
dish now, you'll need a new dish installed capable of receiving the HD 
MPEG4 signals.  You'll want to review your programming package to see if 
there are any additional HD channels you want access to, like the HD 
Extra Pack for example.

 >> It looks like
 >> it'll cost an extra $10/month for HD service.
>> I'm assuming you felt the
>> picture improvement of capturing HD as SD was worth that.

For me, yes, definitely worth it.  There was a noticeable difference in 
PQ of recordings before and after the upgrade.  Recordings with the new 
STB were brighter, and seemed to have more definition.  It could just be 
that I am noticing the effects of less signal compression with the new 
signal path.  Of course, expecting a 480i signal to look good on a 1080P 
display as I am doing is not realistic, but there are degrees of 
acceptable. :-)

BTW - I'm recording with a PVR-350.

>> If I get a new HD dish and HD STB, can I continue to use my working
>> non-HD STB? 

Yes - I asked this question as well, and this is what I was told.  I 
decided to replace all 3 of my receivers in the process, though.

Just wondering if I have to replace both STBs, since the
>> second one isn't used all that often.
>> Thanks!
>> Joe
>>
>>   
> Joe,
>    I do this with my HD satellite receiver. Mythtv doesn't automatically 
> detect the 16:9 content, you have to set that up in your record profile.
> I changed my "high quality" profile to be widescreen, which is 
> anamorphic widescreen,  while I left "default" as 4:3
> 
> When I record from an HD channel, I use the high-quality profile, and 
> from SD, I use default.
> 
> HTH
> 
> Richard
>