# Fuzzy HDD recordings - but only some



## supersadie (Sep 26, 2009)

Hi
Can anyone help with my DVD recorder. I have a TV and DVD recorder which both have a digital tuner. I record from the DVD through the HDMI cable and switch over to antenna, if I want to watch other things while it's recording. I record onto its hard drive and when I had a nearly full drive, I deleted some things I'd watched. However, I recorded a film the other day and it's really fuzzy. I thought I might be close to full and that the DVD had compensated by reducing definition. But there are still 60 hours left to fill. Another oddity is that some of the other things I've recorded are fuzzy too - but not necessarily the most recent. Seems a bit random. The DVD is recording in MLP format - if that helps. I don't recall setting that manually. Hope someone can make sense of this!
Best wishes and thanks...


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## supersadie (Sep 26, 2009)

No - please re-read my post. I'm not talking about disks I'm talking about the hard drive. Hope this helps.


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## buffoon (Jul 16, 2008)

Have you ever monitored the DVR (that's what it should be called) picture on your TV?

I mean setting the DVR to the channel from which you're going to record and then looping that thru (without as yet recording) to your TV to check its quality?

MLP is BTW an audio format, not video. Typically DVRs record in MPEG.


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## buffoon (Jul 16, 2008)

...........and please ignore hitherto given advice from RameshGaikwad, both now removed.


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## supersadie (Sep 26, 2009)

It's already looped through the TV. It's what I watch all the time. Looked ok to me. MLP is what it says in the settings for recording, along with SP and EP etc.


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## buffoon (Jul 16, 2008)

Can you tell us the exact cable connections?

I'm assuming you're receiving TDT (terrestrial digital television) via a coax cable from the antenna (and not for instance cable TV or Satellite).

So are both TV and DVR receiving their signal via coax? If so, is the coax split to furnish both? Is the HDMI you refer to the link between DVR and TV (for playback of recordings)?

Could you in fact post make and model of both TV and DVR?


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## supersadie (Sep 26, 2009)

Thanks. I've changed the setting in the default mode to 'Sp' from MLP. That may fix it as I see on Wiki that MLP produces very poor resolution. But I'm mystified as to why the DVD recorder changed the setting (if that's what happened) as I had plenty of space left on the hard drive so need to change recording speed. It's possible it accidentally got altered while someone was fiddling, I guess. Anyway, LG both for Tv and recorder. You're right about set up - antenna cable from the wall socket. HDMI connecting Recorder and TV. Tuners in both. I've doing a bit of spot recording now to test it out. Fingers crossed!


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## supersadie (Sep 26, 2009)

Ooh. Think it's solved. No idea how setting could possibly have got changed or why. But I do have a person connecting Mac to the TV and playing films - so anything's possible. Thanks for everyone's kind contributions.


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## buffoon (Jul 16, 2008)

Yeah, MLP (misunderstood that in my post #3) is the worst quality of recording. Although mainly designed for recording onto DVDs (to get more on a disc) it'll also give the variations of quality on the DVR's HDD within one single recording that you describe. 

I doubt that it'll be necessary for most standard programs but you could try to set the MPEG 4 to "on" as well. In off mode it'll be just MPEG-2, usually sufficient.


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