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Hauppauge HD PVR

Last post 11-16-2008, 2:18 PM by divad2. 224 replies.

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06-05-2008, 11:23 AM 266971 in reply to 266853

Octavean
Joined on 11-22-2004
Active Member

Re: Hauppauge HD PVR

For those who actually have a Hauppauge HD PVR, have any of you setup a Logitech Harmony Remote for use with it?

Does Logitech have a profile for it yet or did you setup some kind of custom configuration?

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06-10-2008, 1:21 PM 267680 in reply to 266971

Octavean
Joined on 11-22-2004
Active Member

Re: Hauppauge HD PVR

Just ordered an HD PVR.

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06-13-2008, 8:21 PM 268361 in reply to 266853

kifkroker
Joined on 11-17-2007
New Member

Re: Hauppauge HD PVR

ncstrev wrote the following post at 06-04-2008 8:47 PM:

So far, I am disappointed. I cannot get Totalmedia Theater to start. No 5.1 is a show stopper for me. The box is going on the shelf until the driver update supports 5.1.

I had issues getting that to start. After several reboots, etc. it finally started up but I noted it disables Aero & changes the color scheme to Basic. Maybe try manually disabling Aero.

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06-13-2008, 9:03 PM 268363 in reply to 268361

kifkroker
Joined on 11-17-2007
New Member

Re: Hauppauge HD PVR

For anyone that has one of these, does your illuminate blue around the top as illustrated in the photo on the Hauppauge website???

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06-14-2008, 6:50 AM 268398 in reply to 267680

Octavean
Joined on 11-22-2004
Active Member

Re: Hauppauge HD PVR

Ordered the Hauppauge HD PVR on 6-10-2008 and received a confirmation e-mail immediately. Just yesterday I received the following e-mail:

Dear Customer,

Thank you for your online order for the HD-PVR. Due to overwhelming demand, we are backordered on this product until early July. We are doing everything we can to pull this date in sooner and we will certainly ship you order as soon as the units become available.

We apologize for the wait and we appreciate your patience.

Regards,

Vincent

Hauppauge Computer Works

So I’m willing to wait and expect to do so probably well into late July if not longer. I still have to put some consideration into how I intend to integrate the HD PVR into my system. If I can manage simultaneous analog tuner and HD PVR H.264 recordings with automatic post possessing transcod it would be a bit of a kludge but quasi functional in MCE / VMC.

I already ordered and received a retail Vista Home Premium Upgrade DVD (my fifth Vista License) for the target system which is currently running MCE 2K5. Although the target system’s hardware is ill equipped to deal with H.264 decode. I was thinking about rebuilding or replacing the system though. After all, an Intel Core 2 Quad can be had for under ~$200.

I also have a BeyondTV v3 license so I can upgrade to the latest version of BeyondTV for something like ~$29.99. Actually I think its ~$49.99 for previous owners of BeyondTV v3 SE. I could make the change temporarily until Fiji becomes available.

By the way, I have been hearing that the Hauppauge HD PVR has been shipping with a 10% off coupon for BeyondTV users which would translate to ~$24.99. Can anyone confirm this?

For what its worth, Amazon.com seems to be selling the Hauppauge HD PVR with free shipping and likely no tax. However they cite “this product usually ships in 2 to 3 weeks”.

Either demand is high or supplies are low,….maybe both.

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06-17-2008, 2:43 PM 268893 in reply to 266834

kcir1957
Joined on 06-18-2008
New Member

Re: Hauppauge HD PVR

Please indulge me as I am somewhat of a newbie. By support for h.264 for MCE is it just a question of being able to play those files? because if that's the case I believe I am already able to play h.264 files renamed as hdmov with my xp mce 2005 by using qta 1.81 and a few registry changes.

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06-17-2008, 3:34 PM 268899 in reply to 268893

kingwr
Joined on 03-31-2004
Member

Re: Hauppauge HD PVR

What is required is for MCE to accept the H.264 encoded data stream and save in a dvr_ms file. You may be able to schedule recordings in the HD PVR outside of MCE and then rename the recorded files/registry hacks and play them under "My Videos." But I think most would agree that this doesn't count as "supported" under MCE for recording TV.

WRK

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06-18-2008, 6:08 AM 268966 in reply to 268398

Octavean
Joined on 11-22-2004
Active Member

Re: Hauppauge HD PVR

Hummmmm,…….

The new HP x280n MediaSmart Connect seems to have H.264 support and also functions as a Windows Media Center Extender.

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06-29-2008, 9:39 AM 270792 in reply to 268966

Octavean
Joined on 11-22-2004
Active Member

Re: Hauppauge HD PVR

OK, I recently received my Hauppauge HD PVR which was a bit of a surprise since they sent me an e-mail stating that they were backordered and likely wouldn’t be able to ship my order until some time in early July.

Anyway, I’m still in the process of setting up the HD PVR unit since free time is at a bit of a premium at the moment but I expect to finalize soon (today). Since I have been reading in the Snapstream BeyondTV forums and the SageTV forums of some instances of overheating units I was just wondering if there was any way to identify the likelihood of such a problem by serial number or the like. At the bottom of my HD PVR unit it says “Rev C2”. Were the problem units “Rev C1” or is there no way to tell other then running it through its paces?

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06-29-2008, 10:45 AM 270801 in reply to 270792

willowpc
Joined on 05-03-2008
New Member

Re: Hauppauge HD PVR

My original unit overheated and was replace via RMA with a Rev C2 unit which works fine and is much less hot to the touch. I have been able to record fine for 12 hours in a row with the new unit whereas the original one froze after a few minutes.

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06-29-2008, 1:44 PM 270830 in reply to 270801

Octavean
Joined on 11-22-2004
Active Member

Re: Hauppauge HD PVR

Thanks for the fast response. Its good to know that the “Rev C2” is probably less likely to have heat related issues. I finalized my setup for now (only installed Arcsoft TotalMedia Extreme and the 1.0B drivers) and did a test capture for about an hour. The Hauppauge HD PVR only got slightly warm and the resulting capture file was beautiful!

The only snag for me was the fact that my HP m1070n Media Center Edition 2K5 test system doesn’t really meet the minimum specifications:

Intel 520 2.8GHz P4 HTT

Asus PTGD1-LA Motherboard Intel i915P

1GB DDR

ATI X1300 Pro

320GB HDD

Blackbird Analog Tuner PCI

HDHomeRun

Media Center Edition 2005

So as I suspected, there was more chop then a butcher shop when the file was played on my old HP m1070n MCE PC. I don’t know if a video card upgrade will help but I suspect that it would. Something like an HD 3650 or an 8500GT / 8600GT for better hardware acceleration CPU offload. It is actually almost watchable but naturally I want to fix this. A CPU upgrade would require a motherboard upgrade which I can do. Maybe an Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300 and micro motherboard but if the video card can do it for ~$50,…..

Anyway, on the HP, I dragged and dropped the TS file captured from the Arcsoft software onto the Windows Home Server. Then I dragged and dropped it from the Windows Home Server Video Share folder onto Cyberlink PowerDVD Ultra 7 on my main Vista system (AMD X2 4800+). It plays really smoothly across the network. Its like butter with not one skip or snag! I can see why some would use a Windows Home Server as a host for the HD PVR now since the HD PVR does all the work for recording and the client does all the heavy lifting for playback.

So the sample file is about ~1 HR and reads as MPEG4 AVC with a bit-rate of about ~9Mbps according to PowerDVD Ultra 7.

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07-02-2008, 5:54 AM 271312 in reply to 270830

joenobody33
Joined on 07-02-2008
New Member

Re: Hauppauge HD PVR

Hey guys.. Since all the online stores seem to be out of stock, ff anyone is interested in selling their HD PVR, please send me a PM..

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07-04-2008, 2:01 PM 271907 in reply to 271312

Octavean
Joined on 11-22-2004
Active Member

Re: Hauppauge HD PVR

Sorry joenobody33 I’ll be keeping my HD PVR for a while.

I found this interesting though:

Possible Countermeasures

Some UK television providers (notably Virgin and Freesat) have attempted to counter the HD-PVR and similar devices by selectively disabling the component outputs of their set-top-boxes. US cable and satellite providers are following suit and lobbying legislators for the right to disable the component outputs of their devices.

There is a theoretical solution to this, albeit somewhat expensive. A company called HDFury makes a HDCP-compliant HDMI to RGB bridge. The RGB output of the HDFury can be converted to component with a second device from Box1020. In essence, a user with an HDMI-only device could utilize the following path to convert HDMI to component video:

HDMI Source -> HDMI to DVI cable -> HD Fury -> Box1020 -> Component Cable -> HD-PVR

At the time of this writing, the HDFury and Box1020 cost approximately $350 US. Add to that the cabling and $250 US cost of the HD-PVR and the total cost approaches $650 US. Some users will be put off by the high cost and circuitousness of the solution, but for an increasing number of MythTV users, it may be the only one.

Another possibility is the Exten HD HDMI to Component Video Converter. It is currently available for approximately $260.00 US. However this device automatically shuts off the component outputs when the input is encrypted (Protected), so it is no different than the outputs of the set top box.

http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/Hauppauge_HD-PVR

We know the powers that be will be gunning for the Hauppauge HD PVR to render it inoperative but I didn’t think there would be any recourse whatsoever if they decided to close the analog hole by disabling the component outputs on set top boxes.

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07-07-2008, 3:16 PM 272607 in reply to 271907

Octavean
Joined on 11-22-2004
Active Member

Re: Hauppauge HD PVR

The OEM version of TotalMedia Theatre that comes with the Hauppauge HD PVR doesn’t seem to have the cited VMC Plug-in.

Or maybe I’m missing something!?!

Can anyone confirm this? I was going to post in the Arcsoft forums but I’m having trouble registering the product which is necessary to post there.

Hummmm maybe if I install the Trial version?

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07-24-2008, 2:46 PM 277349 in reply to 272607

Octavean
Joined on 11-22-2004
Active Member

Re: Hauppauge HD PVR

For the owners of the HD PVR that have registered their OEM version of the bundled Arcsoft TotalMedia Extreme software, you can upgrade your software to the full retail version. I believe its $39.99. This will give you the MCE / VMC plug-in for H.264 playback and Blu-ray / HD DVD playback.

Otherwise its $119.99 in the Arcsoft store.

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