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

[timnelsonic]

Originally Posted by Deacon Crusher

Mine hasn't crashed, but I have had the IR blaster die on me.

I ran solid all last night without any overheating issues. The unit is on top of a cabinet with good ventilation, but in a rather warm upstairs room.

By the way, I could never get the IR blaster working at all so I went with a USB UIRT, which is working great.

[Brent]

Originally Posted by Deacon Crusher

how are you doing channel changing?

I'm using the USBUIRT (worth the money) as well. It works perfectly so I doubt I'll go back and try the Hauppauge IR blaster again unless just to test it out...

[mikejaner]

Originally Posted by KenFab

FWIW, I've been running/recording on my unit via component nonstop for the past 1.5 days without issue. It is physically sitting on top of my sage server box, and getting plenty of ventilation (it is *not* in any cabinet/enclosure).

For you guys with the heat issue, are your units inside a cabinet/enclosure and/or near any other heat source (e.g. power brick, exhaust fan, etc)? How about ambient temperature around the HD-PVR unit?

Mine is sitting in the basement on it's own shelf, in a room which is probably at ~70 Degrees, and has a fan blowing a good amount of air across it, while it stands on it's side.

[JimmyHACK]

720p component vid source.. the pass through working and shows on tv.. however in xp and vista no preview shows up in total media app and when i hit stop when capturing it always says capture failed.. any ideas?? makes no sense especially with the pass thru working fine


throwing it on its side adn a mini fan on it and well see what happens haha

[joepaz]

Originally Posted by JimmyHACK

720p component vid source.. the pass through working and shows on tv.. however in xp and vista no preview shows up in total media app and when i hit stop when capturing it always says capture failed.. any ideas?? makes no sense especially with the pass thru working fine


throwing it on its side adn a mini fan on it and well see what happens haha

I had the same problem - no preview and could never get a capture to work. I tried it on 2 different PCs, both of which dual boot into XP and Vista64. I called Happauge tech support, and they said it was a hardware problem and the gave me an RMA number. Just got back from shipping off from UPS. The tech support guy said they've now started testing every single unit to see if it works before they ship it out.

[rschult298]

my pass thru works fine ,but my install cd is blank,i tried it on a couple pcs.i have arcsoft total extreme full but the capture mode recognizes the device but says the device is not available.it must only work with the install cd software.i did install the beta driver.

[JimmyHACK]

Originally Posted by joepaz

I had the same problem - no preview and could never get a capture to work. I tried it on 2 different PCs, both of which dual boot into XP and Vista64. I called Happauge tech support, and they said it was a hardware problem and the gave me an RMA number. Just got back from shipping off from UPS. The tech support guy said they've now started testing every single unit to see if it works before they ship it out.

after letting it cool down and putting on side i got capture working for a few mins before freezing and showing no preview again.. so i'm in the overheat or whatever crowd... at least my $250 box came with a component cable that works

[KenFab]

Originally Posted by Deacon Crusher

KenFab how are you doing channel changing?

IR blaster. I literally just (temporarily) scotched-taped the thing on top of my STB and have it hanging near the sensor. It's been working flawlessly going on two days now.

[Chriscic]

Finally got around to trying mine out tonight, and don't you know it my HD-PVR appears to be DOA. Below is what I set to tech support, on the off-chance that I am doing something dumb and/or someone has a solution.

I can't get anything to show in the preview window, and when I hit capture I get "capture failed" (I am using the VHS app). Note I have tried both S-Video and Component inputs. I know it is hooked up properly since I can pass the component through just fine to the TV. I can also change the settings through TotalMedia Extreme (although the dialogs are extremely sluggish).

I have tried both XP and Vista (same machine) with the same result in both. I also tried SageTV (the beta that supports it) and it recognizes that the device is there but also will not show a preview.

MY PC is an Intel Core 2 Duo and I am running an Nvidia 8800GTX videocard.

Oh well, on to other things for the weekend.

[thomaszoo]

I got mine today (thanks for your help tracking it down, Dorothy). I made the connections, plugged it in. loaded the beta drivers, restarted SageTV service, added the HD PVR as a new video source using my existing Firewire channel changer. After about 15-20 minutes of watching there hasn't been a single hiccup! I was worried about the heat, but so far it seems just fine. Recording quality was set at Great (3.8 GB/hr). I just bumped it up to Best (5.9 GB/hr). I am wondering if the higher bit rate will result in less heat (less compression, less load on the cpu?). I am going to let it run awhile to see what happens now.

EDIT: I tried playing video from it on my MVP, but I don't have enough HP on the server (AMD 4000) for more than very slow playback.

[Chriscic]

I found that by turning the unit off for a while and physically turning it on it's side (as others have) I can actually record 1-3 minutes before it freezes.

I did some testing of firewire recording vs. the HD-PVR, and have to say I'm impressed; I can't tell ANY quality or detail difference between the two.

I compared the same 1080i clips from 1) Letterman and 2) CSI Miami and switched back and forth via Zoom Player. The HD-PVR output (max quality) looked every bit as good on my 52" Samsung LCD, even when zooming in on text.

One observation I have made by sitting closer to the screen is that the Comcast HD signal really isn't that great, but the HD-PVR is doing a great job of reproducing what is there.

This weekend I plan to try some short (since that's all I can record) clips from my King Kong HD-DVD and then A-B the two. That should be the ultimate test... if I can just get a properly working unit (and they add the 5.1 sound as promised), then I can already see this product is a big winner.

I find it real hard to believe this is a firmware issue, but I'll call Hauppauge tomorrow and see what they say.

[timnelsonic]

I successfully recorded many hours of HD programming all last night and several hours today and this evening. No hiccups. Maybe I got lucky, but I've had no issues and no overheating. Hopefully my comments won't jinx my success.

This tells me there is likely a quality control issue as opposed to something universally wrong with all of the units.

[JimmyHACK]

got my RMA number... I'm even next day shipping it cause im impaitient.. guys told me they should turn out a new box same day for me once they receive it..

[Chriscic]

Originally Posted by JimmyHACK

got my RMA number... I'm even next day shipping it cause im impaitient.. guys told me they should turn out a new box same day for me once they receive it..

These guys should be cross shipping RMA'ed units; it's their fault they sent out so many defective ones and they can always charge you if the return never makes it.

[Flash69]

I don't know. I am thinking I should cancel my order. Lots of problems, they are having to "test" each unit before it ships. Sounds like it might have been rushed to market...

I just don't know.

[Taddeusz]

Originally Posted by Flash69

I don't know. I am thinking I should cancel my order. Lots of problems, they are having to "test" each unit before it ships. Sounds like it might have been rushed to market...

I just don't know.

Wow, dejavu!

[Brent]

Well count me as somewhat lucky I guess as my unit is operating well. No heat problems, it handled working all day long yesterday and again all night long last night recording 1080i content without a hitch. Picture quality is excellent (been comparing to my HDHR recorded shows) and other than the IR blaster being underwhelming and having to figure out how to get the h.264 codec working on my client PC, everything is as good as I'd hoped.

If I hadn't bought one yet, I'd still buy one even knowing there are many with heat issues. If your unit has the issue, you'll know it right away and can RMA it (or better yet a driver update might fix it by then hopefully). I think it's well worth the trouble. Yes Hauppauge did rush it to the market, but I think they are trying to figure out the issue/s and take care of it.

Next up for me:
Add comskip support (need to talk to the developer of comskip about this)
Figure out firewire tuning on my cable box.
Once the driver is updated to include 5.1 and hopefully a heat-issue-fix I'll finish up a review of the HD-PVR with SageTV for the blog.

[bcjenkins]

Originally Posted by Brent

Next up for me:
Add comskip support (need to talk to the developer of comskip about this)
Figure out firewire tuning on my cable box.
Once the driver is updated to include 5.1 and hopefully a heat-issue-fix I'll finish up a review of the HD-PVR with SageTV for the blog.

I sent Erik a note on comskip. He'll more than gladly add it, we just have to find a way for him to decode the files. The good news is that VLC is able to play back the samples I pulled down which means the source code is available somewhere for it. (Use the nightly build of VLC) I have not gone through the process of compiling a current version of ffmpeg, but if anyone knows of a build repository to pull from which has all the latest codecs, etc, already bundled in, it would help him and SageTV (mvp transcoding).

B

[Bandit]

Originally Posted by thomaszoo

I got mine today (thanks for your help tracking it down, Dorothy). I made the connections, plugged it in. loaded the beta drivers, restarted SageTV service, added the HD PVR as a new video source using my existing Firewire channel changer. After about 15-20 minutes of watching there hasn't been a single hiccup! I was worried about the heat, but so far it seems just fine. Recording quality was set at Great (3.8 GB/hr). I just bumped it up to Best (5.9 GB/hr). I am wondering if the higher bit rate will result in less heat (less compression, less load on the cpu?). I am going to let it run awhile to see what happens now.

EDIT: I tried playing video from it on my MVP, but I don't have enough HP on the server (AMD 4000) for more than very slow playback.

Yeah, don't try on MVP. I have Dual Core Intel 2.4 Ghz and it can't begin to transcode to the MVP. Everything else works flawless for me. I feel bad for all the people that are having issues as I know how mad I would be. I was experiencing the same issues though and a format helped me, not sure why it didn't help anyone else. I have been recording non-stop and have only had one issue, and that was sound related due to changes I made on the STB. Changed them back and sound issue was gone.

I love it so much I want to know if a 2nd will work and if so, get one more plus 2 more HD Extenders.

[Bandit]

Originally Posted by Brent

Next up for me:
Add comskip support (need to talk to the developer of comskip about this)
Figure out firewire tuning on my cable box.
Once the driver is updated to include 5.1 and hopefully a heat-issue-fix I'll finish up a review of the HD-PVR with SageTV for the blog.

Brent,

The FW tuning is great, it is what I use, no worrying if that little blaster on the HD PVR is going to fall off. It is very simple to setup, I did it in about 5 minutes.