Colossus vs. HD-PVR bitrate/quality question

[Savage1701]

I'm currently using an HD-PVR along with some code that was posted in these forums that let me up the bit rate to around 13Mb/s or about 7GB per hour. I'm using it through a Dish HD receiver and a USB-UIRT for channel changing.

A couple years ago I picked up a Colossus card, but apathy set in and I never hooked it up.

Just curious - does the original Colossus have a substantially higher bit rate that would be noticeable as visibly better recording quality vs. the HD-PVR? I ask this because I am a bit skeptical of DISH's picture quality to begin with. I have some captures of movies back when I had a Charter HD box hooked up to to the HD-PVR, and I think those movies look far more detailed than what comes off of Dish.

My Dish HD receiver is also more problematic to hook up. I had to do custom IR reads off the remote, use ShadeBlue's STB Keep Alive utility, etc., so I don't want to do a lot of work if there is very little upside in terms of picture quality.

Thanks for any info.

[KryptoNyte]

Colossus will do 20 mbit/s, but in my comparisons, I can't really tell much difference between that and the HD-PVR's 13 mbit/s. I get the feeling that the quality of the transcoder seems to have more impact [at these bitrates] than higher bitrates.

The original Colossus will also probably require daily or weekly reboots, which the HD-PVR1212 generally does not. I can tell you that having them both running wreaks occasional havoc with my system if I need to use Hauppauge's software for any form of capture (without Sage).

[KryptoNyte]

Someone else would have to come in and let you know if you'd need some form of HDCP manipulation via HDMI and that STB.

[Savage1701]

Originally Posted by KryptoNyte

Colossus will do 20 mbit/s, but in my comparisons, I can't really tell much difference between that and the HD-PVR's 13 mbit/s. I get the feeling that the quality of the transcoder seems to have more impact [at these bitrates] than higher bitrates.

The original Colossus will also probably require daily or weekly reboots, which the HD-PVR1212 generally does not. I can tell you that having them both running wreaks occasional havoc with my system if I need to use Hauppauge's software for any form of capture (without Sage).

OK, good to know. For better or worse, I'm used to daily reboots, though mine are due to a memory leak somewhere. Good to know about running both at once, although I doubt I would do that since I only have 1 satellite tuner for the setup (I capture all major OTA networks with an antenna and several ATSC tuners). Thanks again.

[Savage1701]

Originally Posted by KryptoNyte

Someone else would have to come in and let you know if you'd need some form of HDCP manipulation via HDMI and that STB.

I would only be doing component input to the Colossus. Right now, there are no issues with my Dish component output and I have no intention of messing around with its HDMI output and ending up with HDCP issues. Thanks for your reply. I also see a lot of people discussing audio issues, but I only care if my recording is in stereo so that's never an issue for me either.

[KryptoNyte]

I do recall some folks that run both units without issue, so you're seeing my experience only.

I'm not aware of any problem with Colossus audio. I do see plenty of issues with HD-PVR2 5-channel audio here on the forum (which then translates to problems with Colossus2 audio as we have seen SHS constantly struggling to overcome).

[Savage1701]

Originally Posted by KryptoNyte

I do recall some folks that run both units without issue, so you're seeing my experience only.

I'm not aware of any problem with Colossus audio. I do see plenty of issues with HD-PVR2 5-channel audio here on the forum (which then translates to problems with Colossus2 audio as we have seen SHS constantly struggling to overcome).

Thanks Krypto; mercifully, I don't ever attempt 5.1 audio so I've never faced those issues.