Hauppauge Colossus Recording Quality Ignored?

[mrcloudy]

Greetings! Does anyone know why my 1080i recordings are the same size as my 480i recordings? In some cases the 480i recordings are LARGER than the 1080i recordings... It seems that adjusting the recording quality does absolutely nothing at all. The videos, regardless of resolution and quality setting, usually end around 2GB for 30 minutes... Am I overlooking something here?! Googled for an hour already and tried various python2_encoding lines in my config. Thanks if you can help.

A 480i recording

General
ID                               : 0 (0x0)
Complete name                    : D:\(Recordings)\TransformersPrime-TheHumanFactor-14156695-0.ts
Format                           : MPEG-TS
File size                        : 2.19 GiB
Duration                         : 29mn 40s
Overall bit rate mode            : Variable
Overall bit rate                 : 10.6 Mbps
Maximum Overall bit rate         : 11.7 Mbps

Video
ID                               : 4113 (0x1011)
Menu ID                          : 1 (0x1)
Format                           : AVC
Format/Info                      : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile                   : Main@L3.2
Format settings, CABAC           : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames        : 2 frames
Format settings, GOP             : M=3, N=15
Codec ID                         : 27
Duration                         : 29mn 39s
Width                            : 720 pixels
Height                           : 480 pixels
Display aspect ratio             : 4:3
Frame rate                       : 29.970 fps
Standard                         : NTSC
Color space                      : YUV
Chroma subsampling               : 4:2:0
Bit depth                        : 8 bits
Scan type                        : MBAFF

Audio
ID                               : 4352 (0x1100)
Menu ID                          : 1 (0x1)
Format                           : AAC
Format/Info                      : Advanced Audio Codec
Format version                   : Version 2
Format profile                   : LC
Muxing mode                      : ADTS
Codec ID                         : 15
Duration                         : 29mn 39s
Bit rate mode                    : Variable
Channel(s)                       : 2 channels
Channel positions                : Front: L R
Sampling rate                    : 48.0 KHz
Compression mode                 : Lossy
Delay relative to video          : 2ms

A 1080i recording

General
ID                               : 0 (0x0)
Complete name                    : \\nas\network recycle bin 1\Multimedia\(Recordings)\AmericanDragonJakeLong-OldSchoolTraining-14386358-0.ts
Format                           : MPEG-TS
File size                        : 1.94 GiB
Duration                         : 31mn 51s
Overall bit rate                 : 8 731 Kbps
Maximum Overall bit rate         : 27.0 Mbps

Video
ID                               : 4113 (0x1011)
Menu ID                          : 1 (0x1)
Format                           : AVC
Format/Info                      : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile                   : High@L4.0
Format settings, CABAC           : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames        : 2 frames
Format settings, GOP             : M=1, N=15
Codec ID                         : 27
Duration                         : 31mn 51s
Bit rate                         : 7 912 Kbps
Width                            : 1 920 pixels
Height                           : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio             : 16:9
Frame rate                       : 29.970 fps
Color space                      : YUV
Chroma subsampling               : 4:2:0
Bit depth                        : 8 bits
Scan type                        : MBAFF
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)               : 0.127
Stream size                      : 1.76 GiB (91%)

Audio
ID                               : 4352 (0x1100)
Menu ID                          : 1 (0x1)
Format                           : AC-3
Format/Info                      : Audio Coding 3
Mode extension                   : CM (complete main)
Codec ID                         : 129
Duration                         : 31mn 51s
Bit rate mode                    : Constant
Bit rate                         : 384 Kbps
Channel(s)                       : 6 channels
Channel positions                : Front: L C R, Side: L R, LFE
Sampling rate                    : 48.0 KHz
Bit depth                        : 16 bits
Compression mode                 : Lossy
Delay relative to video          : -29ms
Stream size                      : 87.5 MiB (4%)

SageTV 7.1.9
Windows 7 64-bit
Hauppauge Colossus Driver 1.5.30151.0
DirecTV HD Receiver
HDMI through HDCP Stripper

[sacrament055]

I had seen that as well and is likely why my hd_pvr recordings look better than my colossus recordings.

[mrcloudy]

I believe I figured out what the problem was. You have to set the recording quality/mode in the driver's config. I noticed that Sage does somewhat boost the bitrate, as long as it's not already over the bitrate you set in the driver config. My 1080i recordings are always at the bitrate I set, while the 720p sometimes aren't, and the 480i aren't ever.

The easiest way I was able to configure the driver was by going into ArcSoft ShowBiz -> Capture (Hauppauge Colossus Capture #) -> Format Settings -> Video Encoder tab.

Might help to stop SageTVService and then set everything in the driver configuration to default before adjusting it.

I think this could possibly be remedied with an updated DShowCapture.dll, but since development stopped...

Good luck!

[MattHelm]

Is this stilled required? I just installed one, and noticed my new files are a little smaller than the HDPVR ones.