Decoders

[HarryH3]

Just another data point: I'm seeing 1.7-1.88 GB per hour on Comcast's H.264 channels, with 5 minutes of pre and post padding, using the HDHR Prime.

[mvallevand]

Thanks for the feedback HarryH3. I guess Internet streaming and cable have changed what high definition means, since that is OK by mpeg4 standard HD @ 4MBs. That is well under 1/4 of the BluRay bitate
I guess that is why OTA ATSC looks so much better to me on a bigger screen.

If anyone wants to test what they consider HD and also have Netfilx, you can do some checks on your perception. Over time I noticed many videos looked worse than others and it turns out they were just DVD quality, with lower bitrates even with HD setting and no real HD was available I found two good keystrokes, alt-ctrl-shift S or D (S to chose bitrates and D to display current bitrate). You really should do this test on IE or Edge because you will get 1080p some videos are up to 4MBs that cable companies seem to deliver which is much higher than Firefox or Chrome.

Martin

[scJohn]

Just another data point: I'm seeing 1.7-1.88 GB per hour on Comcast's H.264 channels, with 5 minutes of pre and post padding, using the HDHR Prime.

First, my condolences that you have Comcast as your cable provider. That 2GB per hour for H.264 sounds awful low for an HD channel. I could see that, maybe, for an SD channel. Like a sub channel from a local TV station that's showing old SD(480i) TV series. Just so you know, Comcast takes anything that is in 1080i and then converts to 720p60, and then converts it H.264. Why? This allows them to cram 9 channels, instead of 8, into one of theirs QAM channel. Good for Comcast, bad for the consumer. I would fire up HDHomeRun_Config_GUI, located at Programs/SilconDust/HDHomeRun. Start watching a channel on your Prime and look at Network Rate field located under the Status section. This should be a good approximation of the bit rate that Comcast is using for channel (H.264 or MPEG2).

If you are close enough to your local broadcast tower(s), look into going OTA for your local stations.

[gEd]

FWIW, I know Europe was late to the HD party by about 15 years but our current OTA HD content is pretty decent.

1920x1080 x 25Hz @ 6000Kb/s is 2.92GB/hour

[HarryH3]

scJohn, right now I'm seeing 3.5-4 Mbps on an h.264 channel and right around 12 Mbps on an mpeg2 channel, both HD. Most of the OTA stations are still mpeg2, probably until the next time Comcast goes to the negotiation table with them. I can see the degraded video, but it doesn't bother the wife. It's VERY noticeable when a ticker is going across the bottom of the screen on an h.264 channel. The excessive compression makes the text jitter across the screen.

Doesn't bother me much, as I've noticed that even though TV's have improved immensely in my lifetime, the crap delivered via them hasn't.

[jcjefferies]

FWIW, I know Europe was late to the HD party by about 15 years but our current OTA HD content is pretty decent.

1920x1080 x 25Hz @ 6000Kb/s is 2.92GB/hour

I does tend to very with broadcaster and if its satellite or terrestrial with satellite tending to produce larger files. On Channel 4 HD Simpsons episodes are all about 2.5GB. A selection of my BBC HD one hour recordings vary between 2.1GB and 4.6GB and values between.

Chris