I sometimes wonder about how obsessive we get re video quality.

Theoretically, any FTA hard drive recording -> DVD burner set up in a computer should kill the commercial equivalents, most of which involve an intermediate linkage through s-video. But just how significant is that difference?

This what I'm doing at the moment:

Satellite decoders & the Strong PVR/Strong STB give s-video & analog audio out which is fed into a Pioneer 720H DVD-R hard drive, edited & then burned onto a DVD.

Maybe my eyesight is inferior or something, but it seems to me that the video quality on the final DVD = the original broadcast. And the surround audio (restriced to Pro Logic) is also fine.

Now it could be that the quality of broadcast via Austar (= Foxtel) on satellite is not good enough to harvest any advantages the computer alternative might have but the few DVDs I've burned via the Strong units have also come out fine.

It seems to me that if s-video is the highest quality output available that can be fed into a DVD-R, then, all other things being equal, recorded quality on hard disk = quality on the DVD.

Now I appreciate that Toppy/computer fiends are working in RGB, but is the video quality of the resultant DVD SIGNIFICANTLY superior to what others of us are doin? Theoretically it should be but in the real world is it? Anyone done A/B comparisons to verify the computer route is significantly superior?

John

I do recording of Austar via computer using a leadtek winfast pvr card using composite.
Replaying after burning to disk is equivalent to original Austar (digital satellite) broadcast.
I also record FTA using DNT Live and burn to disk. Its replay quality is as good as original.
I can perceive a significant difference in broadcast quality between my FTA digital viewing via DNT Live-DVI input to plasma than Austar s-video input to plasma.
Both, however, are perfectly satisfactory for our entertainment.

Rosco, I suspect the bandwidth of the Austar digital satellite broadcast is also a limiting factor to the quality obtainable from that signal. Add in the dubious nature of some of the original broadcast material (TCM is atrociuos) and it is not hard to replicate their quality on s-video.

I was never able to get s-video working from an Aurora satellite decoder (ABC & SBS from this) using SCART leads into a JVC HM-HDS1 (combined HD s-VHS recorder) but have achieved it via a SCART to s-video lead. The video quality of recordings on hard drive using this feed is just as crisp and clean as using FTA digital via the Strong decoder or PVR.

I guess the bottom line in all this is whether or not, as you say, the quality is perfectly satisfactory for entertainment. Some Austar programs are very borderline but FTA is fine. :ph34r: There has been considerable outrage expressed on this Board about ABC restricting bandwidth to allow for ABC-2 (a rather useless channel IMO but that is another topic) but I have not noticed any deterioration in the quality of this signal. Which underlines my question about whether we sometimes get too obsessive about video quality.

John