Please explain HD to the newb

[linuxrunner]

ok i am a little confused with all the HD talk going around on this board...

I have a HVR-1600 and I very much enjoy all of the nice clear channels i get with a roof mounted antenna. I am able to tune into about 12 QAM channels. Some of these channels seem the be pretty much the same quality as the other SD channels i get.

However about 4 of these channels are VERY sharp and clear on my monitor with a res of 1440X900. The sharp channels are the QAM stations that advertise HD broadcast.

I have found when i record these nice sharp channels and go to play them back it plays back as a black screen, (live TV plays fine with little or no skipping)

So am i getting real HD channels? if so is this 780p or 1080i? Is it copy protection that stops me from being able to record and play back these 4 "HD" channels?

[Deusxmachina]

I don't know about the copy protection, but to see exactly what the recorded files are made of, download Media Info and open the recorded file with that. It will tell you what codecs it uses, bitrate, how many channels of audio, resolution, etc. If they advertise they're HD, I'd guess they're HD.

I don't understand the mention of an antenna with Qam unless you use both an antenna for OTA *and* have cable for some cable channels.

[linuxrunner]

sorry, not QAM.

Just OTA DTV

I know what the video's are, I double checked with an app called g-spot. It looks like it should work fine and has the same attributes as the other non HD recording i have made

[Deusxmachina]

I'm guessing those four HD channels are NBC, ABC, CBS, and Fox, although if they are you probably would have already said. You are getting those four stations in 720p or 1080i, correct?

One thing that can happen, and happened to me with an ATI 2400 video card, is HD channels would be a black or green screen but SD would play fine. I get ABC in HD Over-The-Air, and the affiliate also has a 24/7 weather channel here in 720x480 SD. I was getting the blank screen on everything except that SD weather channel. The black/green screen also happened if viewing recorded HD files with PowerDVD, so it wasn't just GBPVR.

If memory serves, I could make the blank screen come and go by enabling or disabling mpeg2 acceleration for the video card in the Windows registry. That was one way to "fix" it. What I ultimately did is use Gabest MPV for a video decoder and never had that problem, nor too many others, again. (YMMV)

So, it might just be a video decoder problem. You can change them in the first or second tab in Config. Restart PVRx2 after changing something in config for it to take effect. You do have to have the decoders already installed on your computer, of course. MPV is free. If that doesn't help, can try numerous other ones.

[flyswatta]

I have found when i record these nice sharp channels and go to play them back it plays back as a black screen, (live TV plays fine with little or no skipping)

You might try playing them back in a different player (VLC, Zoom) to verify that they are good recordings. Most likely the issue is a playback problem, as Deusxmachina mentioned, you may have to select a different decoder for playback.

[linuxrunner]

You might try playing them back in a different player (VLC, Zoom) to verify that they are good recordings. Most likely the issue is a playback problem, as Deusxmachina mentioned, you may have to select a different decoder for playback.

Thanks for the help.

I usually view in WMP but i tried viewing the HD videos in VLC and no go, still just a black screen but with sound. Standard Def recordings work great on either player.

Both are recorded as .mpg

I saved a HD recording to a external hard drive and we tried to run it on a friends computer who has many more codecs than i do and has never had a problem viewing videos and it was the same thing

I know there is something being recorded with the HD videos, because some of the video files are over 10gig's each.