Is the H10-250 mpeg4?
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Currently the HD Tivo is not MPEG4. There is a bit of a raging debate as to if the HD TIVO can be upgraded to handle via a firmware or software update.
My personal opinion is that we will need to get a new HD DVR once D* does make to MPEG4 shift.
There has been rumors that D* will provide that to us at no charge. Those rumors seem to be more conjecture then fact at this point. D* has not released any type of press release that I am aware of that addresses this.
My personal opinion is that we will need to get a new HD DVR once D* does make to MPEG4 shift.
There has been rumors that D* will provide that to us at no charge. Those rumors seem to be more conjecture then fact at this point. D* has not released any type of press release that I am aware of that addresses this.
There could be several reason's why some of the HD programming fills the screen and some does not.
First make sure you have you HD Box set to widescreen, assuming you have it that way already but maybe you don't.
Next when you are watching an HD channel say ESPN, if they are showing something in HD it will fill the screen completely, however when they show something not in HD you get the black and grey bars going up the sides of your screen creating a 4:3 image instead of a 16:9 image.
The other reason you may get an HD channel not filling the screen could be if something like a movie on HBO-HD is being shown in it's OAR (original aspect ratio). An HDTV image is based on a 1.79:1 aspect ratio, the majority of movies at least released on DVD are 1.85:1 but that ratio will still basically fill an HDTV screen full, however there are a lot of movies with wider ratios 2.05:1, 2.35:1 are a couple examples and when watching one of these movies even on an HDTV you will get the black horizontal bars on the top and bottom of the image, just like you do with a standard 4:3 TV set and trying to watch a widescreen DVD.
Hope that helps.
First make sure you have you HD Box set to widescreen, assuming you have it that way already but maybe you don't.
Next when you are watching an HD channel say ESPN, if they are showing something in HD it will fill the screen completely, however when they show something not in HD you get the black and grey bars going up the sides of your screen creating a 4:3 image instead of a 16:9 image.
The other reason you may get an HD channel not filling the screen could be if something like a movie on HBO-HD is being shown in it's OAR (original aspect ratio). An HDTV image is based on a 1.79:1 aspect ratio, the majority of movies at least released on DVD are 1.85:1 but that ratio will still basically fill an HDTV screen full, however there are a lot of movies with wider ratios 2.05:1, 2.35:1 are a couple examples and when watching one of these movies even on an HDTV you will get the black horizontal bars on the top and bottom of the image, just like you do with a standard 4:3 TV set and trying to watch a widescreen DVD.
Hope that helps.
johncop said:
The debate is actually over, yes they could update them with a combination of firmware & software, however, DirecTV will NOT be doing this. D* stated in their press release that MPEG4 transmissions will require a new receiver. Robert at VE also said that D* plans to take care of HD TiVo owners with a free upgrade to their new Home Media Center, which appears to be a far more capable unit. This upgrade will require a 1 yr commitment extension as does all new hardware activation.
The HR10-250 does not support native passthru yet. It is rumored that when these units are blessed for the 6.2 software rolling out to other D* DVRs that this will be included. This information is in addition to what CWS_kahuna had to say. There are many factors however most seem to be happy with setting the unit to 1080i and leaving it there, the HR10-250 does a fair job at upconversion. I think SD programming looks better at 480i. I have set my unit to run 480i & 1080i I use the uparrow on the remote to toggle between these options.
slacker9876 said:
I would strongly disagree with this statement.
All MPEG decoding is done in hardware, not firmware, not software.
There is an MPEG-2 decoder chip inside each and every DirecTV receiver.
Even the new NDS box isn't capable of MPEG-4 without the addition of a separate IC coprocessor chip. There's nowhere on the TiVos to install this chip, nor was the TiVo designed to accept one in the first place.
http://www.conexant.com/products/entry.jsp?id=911
However, you agree the debate is over and that new HARDWARE will be used. So you made this argumentative post why? Like I said, the debate is over, let's not quible for the sake of making one another look bad.Hogarth said:
The end result (on topic) is that his HR10-250 will not be docoding MPEG4.
slacker9876 said:However, you agree the debate is over and that new HARDWARE will be used. So you made this argumentative post why? Like I said, the debate is over, let's not quible for the sake of making one another look bad.
The end result, on topic, is that DirecTV couldn't upgrade the HR10-250 to be MPEG4 compatible, even if they wanted to.
They could certainly engineer a replacement receiver (even a TiVo), but there's absolutely no physical way the HR10-250 will -ever- decode MPEG4, period.
They've said they're going to eat the cost of the upgrade.
DirecTV doesn't make people pay for mandatory upgrades that will only get them more money/subs in the long run (ex: Locals upgrades).
DirecTV doesn't make people pay for mandatory upgrades that will only get them more money/subs in the long run (ex: Locals upgrades).
DirecTV addressed the issue of MPEG4 upgrades in their Jan 27th, 2005 Conference Call. Excerpts of the transcript are available at avsforums, the audio is available from DirecTV's website in the Investor Relations area.
"From the Q&A period:
We’ll have the upgrade to MPEG 4 at the early part of the second half of the year and we will clearly convert our HD customers which at today’s numbers are about half a million."
The exact timing of the switchover and which markets will happen first is yet to be announced.
"From the Q&A period:
We’ll have the upgrade to MPEG 4 at the early part of the second half of the year and we will clearly convert our HD customers which at today’s numbers are about half a million."
The exact timing of the switchover and which markets will happen first is yet to be announced.
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