Sky +HD recording time

samv

Hi,

How much recording time do you get from a Sky+HD box?

I know the normal Sky+ box is 185 hours. We are going to upgrade once we move house. Unless my partner cancels and I set up a new account with them.

Sam

Harrowing_2

samv wrote: »

Hi,

How much recording time do you get from a Sky+HD box?

I know the normal Sky+ box is 185 hours. We are going to upgrade once we move house. Unless my partner cancels and I set up a new account with them.

Sam

Standard 250Gb box which you'd get for free gives only 60 hours of HD, but 185 hours for SD (if no HD recorded ). That's why some people pay extra (£200?) for a 1-Terrabyte box which (as you'd expect, being 4 times capacity) gives 240 hours HD.

Harrowing_2

PS, I am a little dubious about whether you even get as much as 60 hours, as when I record a 2-hour HD prog it says it has used 5%:eek:

davemurgatroyd

Recording time is completely down to the bit rate used by the broadcasters - fast changing screens such as football or action movies will take significantly more disk space than say a stage drama with little panning or zooming of the image. 4GB per hour is a realistic average for HD but can be as low as 2GB or as high as 6GB on some programming. It is NOT like video tape where a fixed time takes a fixed length of tape - to over simplify things with a digital signal you are mainly just recording the changes from the previous frame and not recording that complete frame again.

Also note that Sky+ and HD boxes will round up the percentage used to the nearest whole number above - so that 5% could well be 4.001%!! The shorter the programme the more innaccurate the percentage figure is.

Harrowing_2

davemurgatroyd wrote: »

Recording time is completely down to the bit rate used by the broadcasters - fast changing screens such as football or action movies will take significantly more disk space than say a stage drama with little panning or zooming of the image. 4GB per hour is a realistic average for HD but can be as low as 2GB or as high as 6GB on some programming. It is NOT like video tape where a fixed time takes a fixed length of tape - to over simplify things with a digital signal you are mainly just recording the changes from the previous frame and not recording that complete frame again.

Also note that Sky+ and HD boxes will round up the percentage used to the nearest whole number above - so that 5% could well be 4.001%!! The shorter the programme the more innaccurate the percentage figure is.

Thanks Dave, makes sense, also I meant to say 2 hour prog shows 5%, post now corrected.