# How many hours can a DVR 625 hold?



## Spike375 (Dec 4, 2005)

I thought it could record 100 hours, but according to the hours left and the amount of events I have saved it doesnt add up to 100 hours. It adds up to about 75 hours before it says its full. Is something wrong?


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## JohnL (Apr 1, 2002)

Spike375 said:


> I thought it could record 100 hours, but according to the hours left and the amount of events I have saved it doesnt add up to 100 hours. It adds up to about 75 hours before it says its full. Is something wrong?


Spike,

100 hours is an estimate. Dish compresses their signal with MPEG2 using statistical multipexing. This means that some channels have more bandwidth than others.

Generally Premiums and PPV channels use more bandwidth, Highly rated national channels use less, low rated channels less, with Local into local the least. The lower the bandwidth a channel uses the lower the bitrate so that is fewer bits that are used on your Hard Drive.

If you record Low bitrate channels then you will likely get close to the 100 hours, if you record PPV, and other Higher Bitrate channels then you will never get close to the 100 hour estimate.

Rest assured your Hard drive is not damaged, nor is there anything wrong with your receiver.

John


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## Spike375 (Dec 4, 2005)

Oh, I didn't know that different channels used different amounts of bandwidth. Thanks alot for the info. 

By the way, just out of curiosity, is there anywhere I can find out how much the different channels use? 

It would be nice to know which ones take up more space so I can delete those shows first when I need to make more room.


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## JohnL (Apr 1, 2002)

Spike375 said:


> Oh, I didn't know that different channels used different amounts of bandwidth. Thanks alot for the info.
> 
> By the way, just out of curiosity, is there anywhere I can find out how much the different channels use?
> 
> It would be nice to know which ones take up more space so I can delete those shows first when I need to make more room.


Spike,

Dish changes bandwidth on the fly with their statistical Multiplexing. As Channels need more or less bandwidth it can be and is changed on the fly.

Generally High Bit rate action, PPV and Premiums get more bandwidth.

There is no cut and dried answer on this. Some channels or programing is going to consume more bandwidth than others, BUT again PPV, Premiums will consume the most Bits on the hard drive.

John


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## Spike375 (Dec 4, 2005)

Ok, well thanks again.


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## Nifty-Stuff (Jan 16, 2006)

My tech who was installing my 625 DVR last week said it is also a function of the amount of "movement" in the video which determines the amount of recording. 

He explained it like this:

Recording shows like Nascar with a lot of movement / scene changes = much less recording time.

Recording something without a lot of movement / scene changes (like the blank blue screen from your VCR) = more recording time.

This would seem to make sense because JPG compression works the same way. The more differently colored pixels you have, the less compression you can get.


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