Windows Media Center recorded content

[iThinkYouBrokeIt]

I used Windows Media Center to record an episode of Prison Break, which I believe broadcasts in 720p. I view the properties of the recorded file and it says its 704x480. It's 16:9 ... and visually, i'd say the quality is comparable to dvd.

My question is... why is it not 720p? Does it downscale? Does it actually broadcast as 480p?

[Baldrick]

Try capture/record the digital stream with something else and check if it's 720p first.

I would guess that media center reencodes everything to mpeg2 ~704x480.

[iThinkYouBrokeIt]

Well, I converted it to an MPEG-2 file using DVRMSToolBox. So now, when I view the properties of the MPEG-2 file, it says its 1280x720. I load it in Vdub and it also says 1280x720. It doesn't appear to be upscaled. So I guess it's safe to assume it actually recorded it as 720p. There's probably some kind of glitch that would lie on the properties or something. I dunno.