Directivo, TivoNET, and ExtractStream

[gekea@y...]

here's an idea.

if the standalone tivo's are basically applying MPEG compression to 
an analog signal and the DirecTivo is storing an already compressed 
digital signal...would i really be loosing that much quality if i 
just used my video capture board to catalog my DirecTivo veiwings? i 
would even gain the ability to apply my prefered codec (MPEG 4).

i used to own a standalone tivo...and hated it. i took it back to 
the store 3 days later for a refund. the compression on it was 
horrible. there was WAY TOO MUCH pixelation.

however, we all know the DirecTV compression is very good. not quite 
DVD quality, but good. i instantly noticed a difference in the 
quality when i hooked up my sony sat-t60.

so, doesn't it seem logical that if i were to capture this output and 
apply a MPEG 4 codec...it would be better than what the standalone 
tivo does? it is, by all accounts, applying a sub-par MPEG 
codec to an analog input as well.