What is the video quality for these?

SP LP EP SLP and HQ are a form of recording speeds. These settings will use more or less hard drive space or memory space - depending on which you select.

SP = slow play or slow record, will take up more hard drive/memory space about 2 recording hrs

SLP = Super long play or super long record, will take up less video hard drive/memory space about 8 hrs

LP = long play or long record, will take medium amount of hard drive/memory space about 6 hours

EP = on the Hd pvr stands for extended play or extended record

HQ = means high quality, I would use this one - it takes up the most hard drive/memory space

Here is smooth trick to try. Go to the timer on HD PVR. Follow this, press the timer on the remote or from the front panel. You will see a screen that will let you set timers for upcoming TV programs and what not. Press the Add a new schedule selection. If you have a hard drive installed on the HD PVR or memory connected it will tell you how much space of the memory the recording speed will consume.

Here is a quick example of what you should see:

HQ: 6 hrs.

SP: 11 hrs.

LP: 17 hrs.

EP: 23 hrs.

SLP: 34 hrs.

Yours might be different tho...

To increase the resolution from 480-ish, I would do the following tricks. In Video change the HD output to 1080i. Aspect ratio should be 16:9 depending on your TV. Under record set the default recording quality to HQ.

Here are some tips and tricks with that HD PVR. I would use a splitter. Get a 3 way splitter that has one input and 2 outputs on it. Run the video game to the input on the splitter. Place one output from the splitter on your HD PVR and put the other output from the splitter on your HDTV - something like AV1 or AV2. I would use AV1.

Now connect the HD PVR output to AV2. This way you can see the HD PVR when you need to. But play the game in AV1 to remove the HD PVR gameplay lag. Use this method for fighter games when playing online.

If you want to increase resolution there are 2 things you can do. Get Adobe Premiere or another editing software and increase your recording to HD quality. This is very easy to do. Or my personal favorite, get an RCA to HDMI converter - either way works. And both ways make the Tristar hd pvr work unbelievably awesome on making montage for gamers. Hope this helps you out and answers your question.

unlike tape, these designation don't mean anything for digital media. SP generally means a data storage rate of 6 mbps. the lp/ep/slp mean low/lower/lowest data rate, basically anything below SP is trash.