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

[rschult298]

i have been having the same freezing problems like everyone else then i decided to just change the resolution from 1080i to 720p on my directv h20
and captured with arcsoft ,the preview actually plays kinda smooth and the capture plays great in mpc compared to unwatchable in 1080i.maybe it just cannot handle 1080 yet.

[zeldor]

so this is kinda HD-pvr related, I have mine but its hooked up
to a mythtv system at the moment. which of course doesnt do me
any good at the moment. was thinking about trying out sagetv to
get this beast to record my directv signal. However I still would like
to use my mythtv system for viewing. so Im wondering if anyone
has tried viewing the files saved from the hd-pvr on a linux machine?
thanks
s

[domc]

Does the HD-PVR record SD stations too?

[BobPhoenix]

Originally Posted by domc

Does the HD-PVR record SD stations too?

Anything your STB can display via Component, SVideo and Composite.

[Brent]

Originally Posted by domc

Does the HD-PVR record SD stations too?

Yes. It records anything that comes out of the component outputs of your cable or satellite box.

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by Brent

Awesome news jrog! 2 HD-PVRs on one HTPC. It's sort of amazing that we are learning more about this device then the folks at Hauppauge even know themselves isn't it...

BTW -- It was noted in this topic quite a while ago that Hauppauge themselves said multiple HD PVRs should work, as the drivers support it, but that you would have to use other software to do that since the Hauppauge-provided software doesn't use multiple tuners.

Hauppauge reps have often, but not always, said that you can't use multiple tuners because their software only supports one tuner at a time -- I'm sure it is because the reps feel that they can't really speak for other software.

Of course, there's always the bit about testing new devices to make sure there are no bugs while using multiple tuners, because such conflicts have ocurred in the past.

- Andy

[bcjenkins]

Originally Posted by zeldor

so this is kinda HD-pvr related, I have mine but its hooked up
to a mythtv system at the moment. which of course doesnt do me
any good at the moment. was thinking about trying out sagetv to
get this beast to record my directv signal. However I still would like
to use my mythtv system for viewing. so Im wondering if anyone
has tried viewing the files saved from the hd-pvr on a linux machine?
thanks
s

Not that this is a direct answer to your question.. The nightly builds of VLC support playback which means there is an open source player with a codec/library capable of doing this. I am not sure what the myth client uses for a playback engine, but on SageTV with a linux client, it is FFMpeg. As of right now, the best playback experience is a linux server to the SageTV HD Extender. The FFMpeg does not have the right libraries built into it yet to support playback.

Also note, playback would be quite CPU intensive depending on the state of HW acceleration for video card drivers in Linux. I think this HD-PVR from Hauppauge will help sell a number of HD Extenders for SageTV. I am already counting up the gift giving opportunities for my wife to buy me replacements for my MVPs.

B

[spaceghost]

Originally Posted by wado1971

Welcome back (sorry to hear about the box but in the end you'll be happy with the results - believe me).

Thanks. I see that thread is still very active. I needed a reason to update my computers anyway!

Update--took the cover off and propped up 2x 80mm fans to blow down and into the uncovered unit. I've never captured past 5 minutes before. I'm now over 1 hour and going strong!!!

[jrog]

Ok, this kinda sucks... My first box has been working great since I got it on Tuesday. No heat issues, although it seems slightly warm.

Last night, I hooked up box number two, and it was working, but this afternoon, it was not. I have taken off the cover, and aimed an 18" fan at it!!! (it's all I got at the moment), and now it's recording fine. I'm gonna let it run at least an hour or so in the ArcSoft software.

Interestingly, I can see box boxes seperately in the ArcSoft capture software, and I can switch between them and they are both working great (at least for now).

I will probably wait to RMA this, to see if they decide to put a fan in them or something.

Those of you putting fans on these things, how are you powering the fans?

EDIT: I just setup the box and got the USBUIRT going, they are both recording HBOHD and ShowtimeHD right now. I will see how it turns out, but so far, so good. I set the priority so that the Non-DVR box is higher than the Tivo-DVR, and all is well. CPU usage in Task Manager is averaging 2% recording from both boxes!

[Swagger200]

I hate to say it, but there is a very definite heat issue with the HD-PVR. Had a lot of problems with it upstairs, recordings just stop after 15-30 minutes, and the bottom centre of the unit is quite hot.

Move the box downstairs. where during this heat wave the temperature is 72 rather than 80 degrees, and the recordings seem to go on unhindered, at least so far.

Can't judge playback yet, since none of my PC's are dual core. Have an HD100 on order.

What engineering genius decided this thing did not need a fan. Does it at least have a heat sink?

[drewg]

Originally Posted by bcjenkins

Also note, playback would be quite CPU intensive depending on the state of HW acceleration for video card drivers in Linux.

It is great to know VLC will play h.264 correctly.

FWIW, I think part of the ffmpeg problem is that it is single threaded, and sometimes you need more than one CPU to properly decode h.264. I think there is a summer-of-code project to work on this. Also, according to some recent traffic on the mythtv mailing lists (http://www.gossamer-threads.com/list.../users/336559), the CoreAVC project for linux enables mplayer to play some h.264 files (coming from either bluray or hddvd) that it was not able to play on Linux before due to CPU limitations. (http://code.google.com/p/coreavc-for-linux/). I wonder if this might also help with the codec problem..

Drew

[hydro123456]

Sorry about being lazy, but I don't really want to read through 44 pages. Does anyone know if Sage is going to support this device?

[spaceghost]

UPDATE,
I've been using the HD PVR all day since 9AM (when I took the cover off and put the fans on it). This is definately a heat issue. After I capture a few more programs (call it testing), I'll remove the fans and see how long it lasts with just the cover off. I don't know if a fan is necessary, especially if Swagger200 can move his box around his house and find a decent room temperature that will suffice.

jrog, I have a slot in the back of my PC for eSATA, so it has a 4 pin power plug. I grabbed a few 80mm fans laying around and plugged it into the external 4 pin power plug.

[jlindborg]

Fired my box up early this morning - tried it with 720p output for a while and switched my cable box to output 480p instead since my man Plasma is a 480p wide screen - it looks great in my opinion and runs at only 1.5 gig an hour (sweet!). CPU usage with my HDHomeRun recording HD and HD PVR recording HD Discovery at 480p is hoving right around 3 or 4% - can't beat that.

No heat problems on my unit (it's slightly warm to the touch but not alarmingly so) and I've recorded about 6 hours worth of stuff on it today so far - the only issue thus far is that the extender has tiny video "stutters" during playback - I've check carefully by playing back with VLC and the AcrSoft client and the stutters are not in the original recording, it's definitely an issue with client playback - it doesn't affect the sound, only a little video hitch now and again. I don't find it hugely annoying or unwatchable but you definitely notice it. Still better than SD recording all things considered.

sounds like others have had similiar playback problems but I'll open a case for it with support anyway just for grins.

[Swagger200]

Originally Posted by hydro123456

Sorry about being lazy, but I don't really want to read through 44 pages. Does anyone know if Sage is going to support this device?

Already supported - go to the beta software forum and download 6.4.3 beta

[dlandrum]

I have the HD-PVR working. Initially I had a 5-port switch sitting on top of it and noticed things were getting hot (this was before I saw all the chatter online). My rig is on wire shelving, so there is air on all sides. It keeps fairly cool with the 5-port switch off of it. I setup about 12 hours of recording for today; we'll see if it works.

When watching live TV via the Extender, the screen would go blue when the feed switched, from HD to SD and SD to HD, for commercials. The blue screen would last for about 2 seconds, then start showing the commercial or tv show. Anyone else seen this? Not sure if this is a Sage issue or HD-PVR issue or configuration as I am using the default recording quality ... which I think is variable.

[KenFab]

Originally Posted by spaceghost

...going strong!!!

Speaking of which, what's the story with your avatar, bro? It appears to be a head shot of some dude "droppin' loooooads".

[HawgGuy]

Is anyone getting playback with Hardware Acceleration?

I can playback h.264 streams from my r5000-hd using Sage/Cyberlink decoder with smooth results and 6-8% CPU utilization. For the brief time I had the HD-PVR (prior to RMA) I got reasonably smooth playback (though not quite as good as the r5000-hd streams), however there was no HA as judging from the 50% CPU utilization. This is true whether using Cyberlink or ArcSoft decoders.

[Wakecrash]

"Those of you putting fans on these things, how are you powering the fans?"
I don't have a HD PVR, buy I use a 1,000ma version of the attached universal AC adapter to power two 120mm fans at 7V.:
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/produ...uct_id=8072110

[mayamaniac]

Originally Posted by Swagger200

What engineering genius decided this thing did not need a fan. Does it at least have a heat sink?

None that I can see. I think I'll wait for a bit longer until the heat issues go away before placing an order.