Recording Quality is too High - Help!

[Chrome]

I recently purchased the SageTV software in order to use with my new TV tuner, and it has worked very well. I am having one issue with it, however.

I record most of my shows from over-the-air HD stations. I have my settings configured to record at 'Fair' quality (0.9 GB/hr), but all of my 1 hour shows come out to be around 6-10 GB apiece. This is quickly filling my hard drive, and so I would like to force the shows to record at the lower bit rate.

If anyone knows what my problem is and/or how I can fix it, please help! Thanks in advance.

[Opus4]

You can't set the recording quality for digital tuners -- they simply save the digital stream as it is received.

- Andy

[GKusnick]

Originally Posted by Opus4

You can't set the recording quality for digital tuners

I think the confusion arises from the fact that you can set the recording quality -- i.e. the option is there on the Favorite Details and appears to be functional -- but it doesn't have any effect on digital tuners.

Things might be less confusing if Sage could suppress display of that option if there are no analog encoders installed, or if the specified channel is tunable only though digital tuners. Or maybe you could add some text to the recording quality popup dialog reminding users that it applies only to analog tuners.

[GKusnick]

Anyway, to Chrome: the way to fix your problem is to get a bigger hard drive if you want to record HD as it comes off the air. If you want to record in SD save disk space, you can do that either by using an analog encoder to record off the S-Video output of your STB, or else record HD off the air and then use Sage's built-in conversions to downconvert to SD after recording.

[sundansx]

There are a few addons for v6 that can do an inplace transcode. look around for them. That would be one way to reduce space and select a quality. Keep in mind that a hd program will take a long time to transcode and forget about using this option for live viewing. More of an overnight thing, me thinks.

[Chrome]

How does one go about using the built-in down-converting feature? I'm sure I could find how to after searching for awhile, but, if someone knows a good place that explains it, or can run through it briefly, I'd be very appreciative.

[CollinR]

Go like you wish to watch a recorded show, on the popup choose "Convert". You can then pick a format to convert to, optionally you can create additional formats but thats for another thread.