Which recording quality is better?

[LehighBri]

I recently started recording HD and would like to know what the difference between the 3 quality settings below is:

MPEG2 Max Quality: MPEG2-PS @ 5.9GB/hr
DVD Standard Play: DVD @ 3.2 GB/hr
Best: DVD @ 3.0 GB/hr

If I want the best best quality, do I choose MPEG2 Max Quality since it rings up at 5.9GB/hr or should I choose one of the DVD options? What does everyone prefer? I have tons of disk space so that isn't an issue.

[GKusnick]

Encoding quality is irrelevant when recording HD, since it comes pre-digitized and pre-encoded from the broadcaster. Whatever bitrate and resolution they're sending out, that's what you get.

[LehighBri]

When is the Recording Quality option used then?

[GKusnick]

Recording quality is used when you record from an analog source that requires digitization. This would include analog NTSC tuners (Hauppauge 150, 500, etc.), S-Video or composite video inputs, and so on.

Digital TV (including HD) is by definition already digitized and bypasses this whole encoding step. You just receive the incoming digital stream and write it to your hard disk.

I'm assuming that when you say you're recording HD, you have an actual HD capture device such as HDHomeRun or some other ATSC or QAM digital tuner. On the other hand if you receive HD via satellite or digital cable, but are recording it via the S-Video output of your STB connected to an analog capture card, then you're not actually recording HD, you're recording analog SD, and recording quality will be relevant to that.

[malbec]

Greg is spot on.

Howerver, forgoing the HD/Digital vs. analog issue.

I record my analog recordings with Standard DVD @ 3.2. I am pretty sure you can asume the higher the bitrate/file size the better the quality, but from my experience you get a very good quality picture using DVD Standard and save some room on the harddrive to boot (would you rather have two shows or one that is, with my old eyes, perceptibly indifferent) I recall this question being asked previously with a lot of people posting what they use, there may even had been a poll at one time. Maybe you already have, but you might try a search of the forum.