Hauppauge WinTV HD PVR (H.264) screenshot and pre-order link

[Brent]

Originally Posted by matt91

Shouldn't we be seeing a beta any day now, then? I agree with you, though, that Sage is probably working overtime to get the HD PVR support all lined up.

Originally Posted by sleonard

Well I doubt they would release a beta before anyone could possibly make use of it. My guess is that 6.4 beta will be released on or shortly after May 1.

S

No guarantee there isn't a private beta going on as we type - that's what SS is doing anyhow. There is no way SageTV isn't going to be one of the first to support this thing - it's too big in the scheme of things for them to ignore. Besides, info on this device was teased to us on these forums before we even knew what it was - and that was by the big guy at SageTV himself....

I'm hoping for a May 1st beta so I can get it installed and test it as soon as my HD-PVR arrives....

[Slipshod]

Originally Posted by BFisher

Website says:
Note: the video input format determines the recorded format. For example, 1080i input records at 1080i, 720P records at 720P, etc.. Any other format conversions needs to be done with the MediaConvert program (supplied).

Looks like DirectTV will be the satellite service of choice with this thing... Their receivers support native-passthrough (automatic resolution switching) and have rs232 control. Kind of amusing that the R5000 is much better on Dish and this is better on Direct.

[paulbeers]

Originally Posted by Slipshod

Looks like DirectTV will be the satellite service of choice with this thing... Their receivers support native-passthrough (automatic resolution switching) and have rs232 control. Kind of amusing that the R5000 is much better on Dish and this is better on Direct.

The R5000 is a great mod, but the advantage I see with this is that I can always move it to my next STB unlike the R5000 mod and it costs half as much.....so I see this still as the way to go even with Dish.

Now I just need to decide which one to go with!

[matt91]

Originally Posted by sleonard

Well I doubt they would release a beta before anyone could possibly make use of it. My guess is that 6.4 beta will be released on or shortly after May 1.

S

OK, fair enough. But I thought that the beta supporting the HD extender was released prior to the extender itself. The functionality was there during the beta cycles, but no one knew about it or could utilize it.

When the extender finally went on sale, the final version was released.

[Brent]

Originally Posted by matt91

OK, fair enough. But I thought that the beta supporting the HD extender was released prior to the extender itself. The functionality was there during the beta cycles, but no one knew about it or could utilize it.

When the extender finally went on sale, the final version was released.

True. However there were several pre-release HD Extenders out there before it went on sale so they had to release a beta for those people.

I really don't know what SageTV's intentions are but here's what I'm guessing:

1. SageTV has one HD-PVR box in house and they are working on the SageTV software setup required to get the HD-PVR to work with it. An update is being done to SageTV in a pre-beta
2. EDIT: Added #2 based on more information I've learned... Hauppauge is working on further updates to their drivers - this of course affects all of the HTPC software vendors support so SageTV, Snapstream etc are probably waiting for the driver updates to make sure everything works okay before saying officially when they will support it.
3. May 1st or soon after the first wave of HD-PVRs will ship.
4. May 1st or soon after SageTV will start a beta that includes support (some sort of support that may or may not include the HD100 at the moment). This beta will be the first chance for testing SageTV with the HD-PVR on multiple machines and configurations at the same time. From what I've gathered, Hauppauge has only tested with their own software so its up to SageTV and Snapstream to get things working on their software.
5. There could be updates to the beta to fix things that didn't work right, add support for additional devices/OS's etc.

This is totally speculation on my part, but I can see the difference in the HD100 having a beta before it was for sale versus SageTV having no beta until the HD-PVR is out there for more SageTV users. It would be nice to hear official word from SageTV on any of this, but other than Mike taking to Dave Zatz I haven't heard a peep.

I guess we'll find out next week though.....

[Taddeusz]

OMG! I just learned today that Cox Cable is adding Sci-Fi HD, among several other channels, to their line-up on May 20th! I am definitely going to need to get one of these before then! Aren't I such a nerd?

[jlindborg]

Originally Posted by Taddeusz

OMG! I just learned today that Cox Cable is adding Sci-Fi HD, among several other channels, to their line-up on May 20th! I am definitely going to need to get one of these before then! Aren't I such a nerd?

Well- before you get too excited wait till you see how "HD" it is... my Comcast provider added SciFi HD and it's not terribly impressive. Better than the SD version but not by very much. Compared to the HD HBO picture it's pretty poor. You can tell they're tight on bandwidth and are crow-baring in these HD chanels on the cheap and compressing the snot out of them.

Better than nothing but it didn't blow me away. I'm currently using DirecTV for my main rig and trying out Comcast cable for a few months to compare - I'm wondering if DirecTV HD would be better and if its worth the drama...

[Taddeusz]

Originally Posted by jlindborg

Well- before you get too excited wait till you see how "HD" it is... my Comcast provider added SciFi HD and it's not terribly impressive. Better than the SD version but not by very much. Compared to the HD HBO picture it's pretty poor. You can tell they're tight on bandwidth and are crow-baring in these HD chanels on the cheap and compressing the snot out of them.

Better than nothing but it didn't blow me away. I'm currently using DirecTV for my main rig and trying out Comcast cable for a few months to compare - I'm wondering if DirecTV HD would be better and if its worth the drama...

I have an HDHR and already record the QAM locals. While they are definitely more compressed than the OTA signal they're not completely terrible. The only thing that really ticks me off is that Cox sometimes downmixes the 5.1 audio to stereo. Once they are able to get rid of the analog channels they'll have a lot more bandwidth to work with since a single frequency that an analog channel normally occupies can carry several digital channels.

[hemicuda]

Originally Posted by Taddeusz

Once they are able to get rid of the analog channels they'll have a lot more bandwidth to work with since a single frequency that an analog channel normally occupies can carry several digital channels.

true, but isn't that a bit further in the future? I thought the 2009 stuff was only for OTA broadcasts. I'm going to be major PO'd if Comcast decides to drop the 02-78 analogs shortly thereafter. Local commercials say it *only* affects the "rabbit ears" TV watchers. Having to rent 4 STB for my setup would bite.

I still haven't tried a comparison between OTA and QAM here. I have it on my 'Round Tuit' list though.

[matt91]

Originally Posted by hemicuda

true, but isn't that a bit further in the future? I thought the 2009 stuff was only for OTA broadcasts.

Cable analog is at the discretion of the cable provider, but I recall that they must carry locals in analog though 2011 (?). The rest of the analog stuff could be pulled at any time. I believe that Comcast Chicago has already done this. Comcast would like everyone on a digital STB sooner rather than later.

*LOTS* of discussion on this at avsforum.com and dslreports.com (and elsewhere, I'm sure).

[Brent]

Anyone have any thoughts on what codec would work best with the HD-PVR? Using the proper codec will be crucial for H.264 playback I would think.

[gplasky]

The Cyberlink PowerDVD 7.3 Ultra worked the best for me on that sample download. (And when I say best I mean that's the only one that worked.) Not that I tried a lot after that.

Gerry

[JREkiwi]

Originally Posted by Brent

Anyone have any thoughts on what codec would work best with the HD-PVR? Using the proper codec will be crucial for H.264 playback I would think.

As the codecs needed to playback recordings from the HD-PVR are the same as the ones required for playback of DVB transmissions in some countries, I would wait to see what codecs SageTV are going to provide as part of their imminent support of DVB H.264/AAC and the HD-PVR, before spending money on other codecs.

John

[jlindborg]

Originally Posted by Taddeusz

I have an HDHR and already record the QAM locals. While they are definitely more compressed than the OTA signal they're not completely terrible. The only thing that really ticks me off is that Cox sometimes downmixes the 5.1 audio to stereo. Once they are able to get rid of the analog channels they'll have a lot more bandwidth to work with since a single frequency that an analog channel normally occupies can carry several digital channels.

Not to squash your hopes and dreams but I also get QAM via HDHR from cable- The QAM content for my locals is much better than the SciFi HD picture - it's pretty noticible. Two different beasts I'm afraid... maybe you'll have more luck with Cox than I have with comcast - Not getting the warm fuzzies about cable in general with this testing.

[lobosrul]

I believe the FCC asked cable co's to provide analog service until sometime in 2012.

And if your judging the pic quality on scifi-hd by watching Battlestar, read this:
http://hddvd.highdefdigest.com/682/b...actica_s1.html

Apparently, the way its shot just doesn't make for good HD.

[bialio]

The SciFi HD picture from Dish is a HUGE improvement over the SciFi SD picture I get from TWC. And I'm watching it in Sage via SVIDEO. Once the HD-PVR comes out I expect all kinds of good things.

Comparing SciFi HD to other HD channels isn't as valuable as comparing the HD SciFi feed to the SD SciFi. That increase in picture quality that I see is worth the price of admission alone.

I will agree though that there is very little HD on SciFi HD. Battlestar is the only show I've seen so far in HD. But give it time - they'll get there eventually.

btl.

[Brent]

I can play back the video from the clip in my server PC and client PC, but no audio. Has anyone found the secret to getting the audio working within SageTV?

I have played it back okay within PowerDVD 8 Ultra with video and sound.

[Slipshod]

Originally Posted by paulbeers

The R5000 is a great mod, but the advantage I see with this is that I can always move it to my next STB unlike the R5000 mod and it costs half as much.....so I see this still as the way to go even with Dish.

Now I just need to decide which one to go with!

Well, yes it is quite a bit more expensive, but I still think each one is optimal for one provider:

1. R5000 does not support MPEG4 on Direct. Virtually no HD channels.
2. All Dish programming is output at one resolution from the current batch of receivers. If you don't want SD being recorded at HD resolutions you'll need additional receivers ($7/month more per) and another set of SD recording devices (which most would already have). Also, you'll have Dish doing their scaling on one set of channels (either 1080i > 720p or 720p > 1080i) and will have to maintain at least two different channel lineups (HD and SD) for the seperate types of receivers.
3. I've heard (but don't currently have experience) that IR-blasting is less reliable and should be avoided if possible. Dish will only accept IR blasting.
4. Direct does native-passthrough, so you can record SD or HD at native res and not waste disk space.
5. Direct has RS-232 control, so it should be more reliable than IR-blasters.


I ended up going with the R5000. If I had ended up waiting for the Hauppage I would have switched to Direct. On top of the above reasons, they also have more HD channels currently. In the end I decided I wanted native bitstream more than anything else. I'm not really worried about the cost in the future. I can have the R5000 moved into another dish receiver if this one dies, and Dish is still in progress moving to MPEG4 so it will be MANY years before they add new sat programming with I can't receive.

Amusingly enough, I may end up getting a hauppage when it comes out. I have a leased 622 I'm not doing anything with right now. If I return it my bill will go up by approximately $5 because I'll lose the DVR advantage package.

Cheers,
Slipshod

[bialio]

One Nice thing about Dish is the HD only package. $29.99 a month for all the HD they offer (excluding premium channels like HBO) is hard to beat. Especially if your circumstances permit. In my case it was a perfect fit - I get all the locals in HD through clear QAM and the basic cable channels on line that feeds my cable modem.

btl.

[JREkiwi]

Originally Posted by Brent

Has anyone found the secret to getting the audio working within SageTV?

I suspect SageTV needs at least a new MPEG demux filter for audio to work

John