drive for all those high-definition broadcast
movies and videos you want to record?
Cablevision, my local cable TV service provider, used to have two different channel numbers for the standard-definition and high-definition versions of a broadcast, such as 2, 4, and 7 for standard-def and 702, 704, and 707 for the same programs in high-def.
That changed last week. The company now broadcasts the high-definition channels on both the lower and higher channel numbers. So if you have an HD cable box, you get the widescreen HD program whether you tune in 2 or 702, and so on.
They're calling it Easy HD, and I guess it does make it easier for folks who forgot to tune in the HD channel or didn't realize there was an HD version of a particular station. I think that was a fairly common experience, judging by what I've heard from coworkers and seen at friends' houses. (No wonder some of them complained that HD quality wasn't all that great—they were watching standard-def!)
My only gripe is how this affects my ability to record onto the DVR I rent from Cablevision. The hard drive holds 100 hours of standard-def but only 24 hours of HD. I record a lot, and I save some programs for a long time, to watch or rewatch when time permits. When the drive would start to get full, I'd start recording in standard-def to cram more programming in there. I can't do that any more, because it's all high-def all the time.
I could offload some content to a VCR, but I disconnected mine long ago and don't feel like dragging it back. I could also hook up a DVD recorder, but I don't have one and don't really feel like buying one. So for now I'm waiting to see if Cablevision comes out with a higher-capacity DVR, or launches its remote DVR service, hopefully with a larger allowance than 24 hours of high-def.
Have any of you run into this, and if so, how have you coped?
—Eileen McCooey
Previous
Post a comment
Comments: