# 1080p on Premiere?



## jcthorne (Jan 28, 2002)

I can push a 1080p/24 video to the Premiere via PyTivo. Sometimes it plays in 1080p, sometimes in 1080i.

I only have 2 resolutions enabled in my Premiere, 1080i and 1080p.

Video at less than full frame 1080 (1920x1080) NEVER plays at 1080p.
Video at exactly full frame 1080, plays at 1080p only sometimes. Other times the output remains at 1080i. 

Anyone know what is going on? Any way to force the Premiere to 1080p or swap to it? I can find no logical reason its only doing it SOMETIMES. Perhaps some flag in my mp4 files header is not exactly right?

Update: I have figured out when it plays 1080p and when it does not for full frame files. If you select the file from the my shows menu for the first time and play from the begining, it plays at 1080p every time. If you leave the show and go to the menus it stays 1080p until you play live tv or some other file that is not 1080p. If you then return to the previously started video it plays in 1080i


Still do not under stand why a 1080p/24 file that is 1920 x 800 or so (2.35:1 DAR) will not play at 1080p and is instead converted to 1080i/30. Seems a bug in the Tivo. Among many I suppose.

Odd that with all the Premiers out there for near a year now, no one else has seen this.


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## txporter (Sep 18, 2006)

. Well, you are the pioneer. There don't seem to be the hardcode video junkies using Tivos to watch blu-ray rips. There were a lot of other players out much earlier that could do this. I would suspect that most of the folks that are into video manipulation, downloading, etc are using other devices that support more formats and standards.

I never understand why there are non-full frame video out there. It saves almost nothing in the encode. Oh well.


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## jcthorne (Jan 28, 2002)

txporter said:


> . Well, you are the pioneer. There don't seem to be the hardcode video junkies using Tivos to watch blu-ray rips. There were a lot of other players out much earlier that could do this. I would suspect that most of the folks that are into video manipulation, downloading, etc are using other devices that support more formats and standards.
> 
> I never understand why there are non-full frame video out there. It saves almost nothing in the encode. Oh well.


You are correct, it adds very little data to the encode. Re encoding to get the full frame is very time consuming though and I likely will fore go 1080p on those vids. The difference in PQ is small and re-encoding add its own problems.

I do not want multiple devices and multiple remotes and different configurations in each room. I want one whole house, all media solution. One that 'just works' ie high WAF. Tivo is STILL the closest device to that ideal that exists, even with its shortcommings. No device does all formats and all sources, so I store all media in MY standard formats. JPG, MP3 and MP4 ONLY.

I was surprised that with a year under its belt, no one else was pushing bluray rips to the Premiere.


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## txporter (Sep 18, 2006)

jcthorne said:


> You are correct, it adds very little data to the encode. Re encoding to get the full frame is very time consuming though and I likely will fore go 1080p on those vids. The difference in PQ is small and re-encoding add its own problems.
> 
> I do not want multiple devices and multiple remotes and different configurations in each room. I want one whole house, all media solution. One that 'just works' ie high WAF. Tivo is STILL the closest device to that ideal that exists, even with its shortcommings. No device does all formats and all sources, so I store all media in MY standard formats. JPG, MP3 and MP4 ONLY.


Yeah, I understand that you don't want to re-encode everything that is non-full frame. More of a rant at the folks transcoding it in the first place.

I am with you on the one device for the house (and WAF). I am the same way. I just haven't moved into blu-rays yet. For what I am doing, the Tivo Premiere is that device as well (alongside my component distribution amp).

As an aside, my wife and I just got an iPad and iPod touch for Christmas. I found that all of my encodes that are Level 3.1 or below (720p or less) only need audio transcoding to AAC to sink up with iTunes and the devices. It saves quite a bit of time to not need to totally re-encode my already transcoded programs to allow transfer to my new devices. Previously, I used devices that wanted everything in XViD/AVI format. It was a pain to duplicate everything. I am actually considering transcoding all of the AC3 audio to 2ch AAC since we really aren't audiophiles anyhow and always just play through the TV speakers.


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## Jeff081 (Jan 29, 2011)

I am going out of my mind with this same problem. Very frustrating that this Tivo box does not know how to properly handle a 1920x800 1080p video. Anyone have any luck?

I'm using pytivo as well, are there any settings in the conf file that can maybe pad it so Tivo thinks its 1920x1080?


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## jcthorne (Jan 28, 2002)

Jeff081 said:


> I am going out of my mind with this same problem. Very frustrating that this Tivo box does not know how to properly handle a 1920x800 1080p video. Anyone have any luck?
> 
> I'm using pytivo as well, are there any settings in the conf file that can maybe pad it so Tivo thinks its 1920x1080?


Not sure what tivo box you have or what it is you are trying to do but neither the TivoHD nor the Premiere have any trouble with 1080p video streams as far as aspect ratio and padding.

The tivoHD has a bug displaying non-full frame h.264 720p video files but 1080 is fine. Premiere does not have this bug. I push 1080p video to my premiere all the time, as I had done with my tivoHD before. Just faster now.


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## Jeff081 (Jan 29, 2011)

Tivo Premiere. Pulling 1080p videos with PyTivo. 1920x1080 work perfectly and display as 1080p. 1920x800 however downscales to 1080i.


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## Jeff081 (Jan 29, 2011)

When I say padding I meant before it gets to the Tivo, adding bars to the top and bottom so Tivo sees it as 1920x1080 instead of 1920x800.

It fits the screen fine and the aspect ratio is fine. It's just at 1080i instead of 1080p when it's not full screen.


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## orangeboy (Apr 19, 2004)

Jeff081 said:


> Tivo Premiere. Pulling 1080p videos with PyTivo. 1920x1080 work perfectly and display as 1080p. 1920x800 however downscales to 1080i.


You can't pull with pyTivo without it transcoding, unless it's mpeg2. It could be (and likely is) ffmpeg causing this.


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## Jeff081 (Jan 29, 2011)

No, it's not. It's a problem with the Tivo and my initial description wasn't 100&#37; accurate. Quite sure I am experiencing a similar issue with the starter of this thread(hence why I posted here).

Here's what I just noticed. I copied over 2 1080p movies, one of each resolution, for test purposes. I played 1920x800 and true to form it displayed at 1080i. Then I started playing a 1920x1080 and it played at 1080i as well. 

I noticed that when I had the menu up it was displaying at 1080i as well. I went into the display settings(an SD screen), didn't change a thing, backed out to the HD menu which was now displaying at 1080p, apparently going to a SD screen then back to HD sparked that change? Now with the menu screen at 1080p I was able to play both 1920x800 and 1920x1080 at 1080p. The same exact files that were only at 1080i before, I did not recopy them over.

Seems to me that the Tivo Premiere is really glitchy despite almost being out a year. I need to fiddle around with what video I am playing, toggle through SD and HD menu screens(without changing settings) and then start playing a movie to get it at 1080p.

For what it's worth I tried StreamBaby and got identical behavior.


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## Jeff081 (Jan 29, 2011)

For what it's worth I discovered you can press the up arrow to cycle between display modes(including 1080p). This makes it so I don't have to do everything I detailed above, just hit up a couple times. So it's pretty much a non-issue.

Still strange.


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## alanmcdonley (Aug 17, 2009)

I have recently joined the ranks of 1080p60 AVCHD camera owners, and now investigating how to view my clips and edited video with "all the quality" possible. 

Do I understand correct from this discussions that I can pull 1080p60 (in ? codec / container) via pyTivo to a Tivo Premire retaining all 60 progressive frames per second of "fluid" motion and quality, then play the transferred item (ensuring 1080p setting using the up arrow) to my 1080p60 accepting HDMI connected TV?

A long, long time ago I had to edit some setting in pyTivo to get it to transfer 1080i video without transcoding; Does pyTivo need to be told not to transcode 1080p60 source material?

(This is serious to me because I currently only have TivoHD and am considering purchase of Premiere only for this purpose. TivoHD's 1080i output was not a big deal when I could only create 720p HD videos.)


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## wmcbrine (Aug 2, 2003)

alanmcdonley said:


> Do I understand correct from this discussions that I can pull 1080p60 (in ? codec / container) via pyTivo to a Tivo Premire retaining all 60 progressive frames per second of "fluid" motion and quality, then play the transferred item (ensuring 1080p setting using the up arrow) to my 1080p60 accepting HDMI connected TV?


No. The Premiere will only do 1080i60, or 1080p24. But if you have a 1080p60 recording on the TiVo, it should play it back with no problem, I think -- it'll just be converted to 1080i.



> _A long, long time ago I had to edit some setting in pyTivo to get it to transfer 1080i video without transcoding; Does pyTivo need to be told not to transcode 1080p60 source material?_


No.


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## alanmcdonley (Aug 17, 2009)

wmcbrine said:


> No. The Premiere will only do 1080i60, or 1080p24. But if you have a 1080p60 recording on the TiVo, it should play it back with no problem, I think -- it'll just be converted to 1080i.


Seems like I should stick with TivoHD (which also does 1080i), and burn my 1080p60 to Blu-ray.

Thanks, you just saved me a lot of money.


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## lrhorer (Aug 31, 2003)

jcthorne said:


> Update: I have figured out when it plays 1080p and when it does not for full frame files. If you select the file from the my shows menu for the first time and play from the begining, it plays at 1080p every time. If you leave the show and go to the menus it stays 1080p until you play live tv or some other file that is not 1080p. If you then return to the previously started video it plays in 1080i


Are you sure? Is that report from the TiVo or the TV? All of my 1080p files play at 1080p. I have, however, seen a small bug in both S3 and S4 units where the Tivo reporting will get "stuck" when returning from live TV. Sometimes it even claims to be 480i. If I dismiss the menu and bring it back up again, it reports the resolution correctly. The TVs always report correctly, however: 1080i for the S3 models and 1080p for the S4. I don't have a device that reports frame rate.



jcthorne said:


> Still do not under stand why a 1080p/24 file that is 1920 x 800 or so (2.35:1 DAR) will not play at 1080p and is instead converted to 1080i/30. Seems a bug in the Tivo. Among many I suppose.


I don't think it is exactly a bug. I seem to recall the limitation is published somewhere, unless my memory is failing me. (Always possible.)


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## lrhorer (Aug 31, 2003)

wmcbrine said:


> No. The Premiere will only do 1080i60, or 1080p24.


Actually, they don't seem to have any trouble with 1080p30. Of course, the S3 converts to 1080i, but I can send either 1080p24 or 1080p30 content to both my S3 and S4 TiVos, and they don't complain.



wmcbrine said:


> But if you have a 1080p60 recording on the TiVo, it should play it back with no problem, I think -- it'll just be converted to 1080i.


'Interesting question. I'll have to create a short 1080p60 clip, and see what happens.


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## lrhorer (Aug 31, 2003)

alanmcdonley said:


> Seems like I should stick with TivoHD (which also does 1080i), and burn my 1080p60 to Blu-ray.
> 
> Thanks, you just saved me a lot of money.


Well, in fairness to the Premier, it does handle 1080p24 just fine, and it does definitely look just a bit nicer than 1080i. It is one of the few real advantages of the Premier, along with faster networking. That said, I certainly would not be willing to pay extra for a Premier, especially not if I already had S3s (which I do).


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## jcthorne (Jan 28, 2002)

lrhorer said:


> Are you sure? Is that report from the TiVo or the TV? All of my 1080p files play at 1080p. I have, however, seen a small bug in both S3 and S4 units where the Tivo reporting will get "stuck" when returning from live TV. Sometimes it even claims to be 480i. If I dismiss the menu and bring it back up again, it reports the resolution correctly. The TVs always report correctly, however: 1080i for the S3 models and 1080p for the S4. I don't have a device that reports frame rate.
> 
> I don't think it is exactly a bug. I seem to recall the limitation is published somewhere, unless my memory is failing me. (Always possible.)


That was many moons ago and several software revisions. I have not paid much attention to this issue in some time. I have some 1080p24 material, will check the projector status and see.


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## lrhorer (Aug 31, 2003)

I'm sorry, I have to take it back. 1080p30 recordings transfer on both the S3 and S4 platform, and the S4 properly reports the content to be 1080p, but it does not display it in 1080p. Apparently it transcodes to 1080i on the fly on both S3 and S4 machines. The same is true of 1080p24 material on the S3, but the S4 does display 1080p24 material in 1080p24.


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