[Frameworks] DVR compression

[Dave Tetzlaff]

> I assume that video recorded on a satellite DVR receiver is compressed much more than on a DVD, right?

Not necessarily. Some DVDs are much more compressed than others. Satellite receivers are getting MPEG2 streams, the same basic data format as DVD. I'm not sure exactly how much bandwidth is used by SD satellite feeds, and how that compares to a typical SD DVD. Most satellite feeds are HD these days though, thus creating the same image you'd see from a Blu-Ray, not a DVD. I would guess HDTV feeds are more compressed than Blu-Rays, but I don't really know...

I have seen some 'classic' films on satellite that looked considerably better than they do on sloppily encoded DVDs.

HD looks good with a satellite feed if there's no weather interference. In contrast, any terrestrial HD feed looks visibly inferior, with Verizon DSL streams being extremely compressed and crappy-looking.

In short, whatever you get on a satellite DVR should be fine for any general purpose. The trick is getting it out of the DVR and into a computer.