Posted by Stuart Miller on 12/19/06 06:14

"Citizen Bob" <spam@uce.gov> wrote in message
news:45855835.376795343@news-server.houston.rr.com...
> On 16 Dec 2006 16:05:23 -0800, "AndrewD" <andrew_duerden@excite.com>
> wrote:
>
>>Can someone explain to me why I can only record around one hours worth
>>of TV on my Sony DVD recorder on the highest quality setting? I can
>>buy a DVD box set of a TV series (24 for example) on which they manage
>>to fit 4 episodes in high quality dolby 5.1 surround sound.
>
>>Why can I not fit the same amount of data onto a normal recordable DVD?
>
> You can if you use the same resolution, which is 2-hour.
>
> The 1-hour setting is higher than standard DVD.
>
> The MPEG-2 chips in the newest DVDRs do a fantastic job even at
> 6-hour. You can convince yourself of that by making a series of test
> recordings and checking them with GSpot. For example on one of my
> DVDRs I can get 720x480 at 1000 Kb/s from 6-hour resolution. That's
> good enough for a 19" viewscreen and not bad for even a 62" DLP.
>

I agree

In my last set of tests, the 3 hour setting showed no significant difference
from the 1 hour setting for a digital broadcast, played back on a 32"
screen. Both of these were compared to the original witn no real loss of
quality. For standard cable tv, the starting signal is not quite so good, so
you could go longer without noticing the quality drop.

There seems ot be a lot of 'overkill' on the newer standards and components.
But, if you are watching close up to a 42" set, you may be able to see the
differences on a test, but who watches any real programming up close like
that? Even with my new glasses I have trouble making out the detail at a
comfortable viewing distance when watching a dvd, so a small loss of detail
on a recording is of no significance.

Stuart

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