I'm recording Analogue TV signals from my Comcast Digital Box on my Freestanding Liteon 5005. Very Happy with the performance--no coasters or problems that weren't my fault or bad media.

As I understand it, the Original Signal I get thru the RF Cable from the Wall or from the Decoder Box is standard NTSC signal, or standard US tv, which is "around" 550 lines of resolution. It seems to me that the "DVD Quality" Settings on the machine that use 720 Lines of resolution are wasting DVD space as the final format on the DVD can not have any greater resolution than the orginal signal? If this is true, it makes sense to record at something only slightly better than Super VHS quality settings.

Am I right, or what am I missing?

Similar concern regards "ALL" the video capture cards out there right now whether pci, agp, or usb based==aren't they all capturing the rather poor quality of the standard tv broadcast signal? If I am going to burn something at 720 lines of resolution (or More) I want the source material to be as good or better?

I understand the Blu-ray systems out later next year will be able to directly record the HD signal. Are there any capture hardware solutions out there right now that capture the digital signal before it gets down coded to NTSC? Thanks.

Welcome to CDRinfo's Forum!

Take a look at this page. There are some difference in quality.

(in reply to leaglebob)

Thanks Iggy. That is a teriffic info page. I think one error there is it says the unit doesn't have SVHS connector but My unit does and the picture right above the statement shows an SVHS connector as well. I assume from its label and position the SVHS is output to the TV? ((No need for you to answer--just something I noticed.))

I'm stumped. The pictures shown show 4 different quality results--obvious to the eye but they aren't labeled. I will look again at my own machine's pictures and try to note a difference. Last time I saw a differnece between 6hr and 4 hr recording but not from 4-2-1 and "logically" it makes sense that if the original source signal is from 550 to 640 lines, we are all wasting space on our dvd's to record at 720 lines UNLESS there is some extrapolating going on that actually does give a better picture than the orginal??????????

As an aside, this is similar to all the mp3 recording I have done. MY EARS don't hear any difference above about 36 Kps so I rip all my music to 40 Kps and re-encode all the 320Kps music I find to the same 40kps. Saves alot of space on my CD's. Who cares when Blu-ray gets here? I'll still have my portable player with 8 times as much music. Thanks again for the reference. bobb.

(in reply to Iggy)

Found most of my answer here in their excellent free guides:

http://www.digitalfaq.com/capture/software-resolution.htm

My conclusion: recording at 6 hour level on dvd is totally appropriate. Will record best movies at the 4 hour level. IE==tv resolution including VHS is very different than computer and digital resolution. for instance--vhs signals are interlaced while dvd is not which makes the vhs resolution almost comparable to the 6 hour setting. Anyway===the real test is my own eyes 15 feet from my screen and for that I would rather save on dvd cost. bobbo.

(in reply to leaglebob)