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

[sleonard]

Originally Posted by Swagger200

...

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

My guess is that it isn't supposed to get hot enough to need a fan. The working ones are apparently staying cool and is why I'm going to RMA mine instead of modding it with a fan.

S

[lpott6]

I apologize if this has been answered before, I scanned this thread and others looking.

Anyone know if the drivers will load on XP64? That's what my sage server is on and I really don't want to move it if I don't have to.

Thanks

[dvd_maniac]

1. When recording with this unit it is supposed to record in the format that the component cables detects like 720p or 1080i? If so, does it record 480i when recording an SD channel?

2. Is anybody able to cut/join videos from this unit with any program without re-encoding it?

[Brent]

Originally Posted by sleonard

My guess is that it isn't supposed to get hot enough to need a fan. The working ones are apparently staying cool and is why I'm going to RMA mine instead of modding it with a fan.

I agree - mostly because I've been using my HD-PVR almost non-stop recording 1080i content and it hasn't missed a beat. Gets warm, but not hot to the touch. There has to be something different between the working ones like mine and those that are overheating.

My advice: If you have an overheating one, RMA it and get a new one - repeat until you get a good one - you'll love it when you get one that works like its supposed to.

[sleonard]

Originally Posted by dvd_maniac

1. When recording with this unit it is supposed to record in the format that the component cables detects like 720p or 1080i? If so, does it record 480i when recording an SD channel?

2. Is anybody able to cut/join videos from this unit with any program without re-encoding it?

1. Yes, that is how it is supposed to work.

2. I saw one post yesterday over at the AVScience forum about a program that can do it.

S

[jrog]

Yeah, I have one that works perfectly fine with no heat issues, and another that needs a fan on it all the time. I turned off the fan, and within 3 minutes, it stopped working. I put the fan back on, power cycled it, and it's back to normal. I'm gonna wait til they really fix the issue to RMA mine. I may put my own heat sinks on it, it's the analog devices digital encoder that gets hot, not the Ambarella H.264 encoder. Makes sense that others are having issues worse when it's HD versus SD.

After looking into it more, it's an ADV7401KSTV-140. It's rated for 0-70C, but after assuming the worst conditions, (and my room is nowhere near 70C) it's still 20 degrees below the Maximum junction temp. Now, when the chip processes Composite video, it should be about 1/3 the power consumption of Component HD, which would bring the temp down a little further.

Another recommedation in the Datasheet is to turn off any unused ADCs, that could be something that's not happening now, and could be addressed in the firmware, and so we're so close to the edge, we're seeing some fail, and others not.

I'm rambling on, but I believe that this thing is on the hairy edge, and it's going to come down to the individual ICs that came off the line, some are better than others. If they put a heatsink on this thing, then it will help, but with zero airflow, I mean, there isn't even a vent on this thing. It could be a bad batch of ICs from Analog Devices... I've run into that before.

[spaceghost]

Originally Posted by KenFab

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

That's funny. I never saw it like that! It's some guy i used to work with a long time ago. We caught him sleeping in his chair and took some pics over the cubicle. It really is that boring.

[mayamaniac]

Originally Posted by spaceghost

That's funny. I never saw it like that! It's some guy i used to work with a long time ago. We caught him sleeping in his chair and took some pics over the cubicle. It really is that boring.

Draw some whiskers on him and add pointed ears and he'll fit in with the cat theme on this forum.

[Revan654]

Originally Posted by dvd_maniac

1. When recording with this unit it is supposed to record in the format that the component cables detects like 720p or 1080i? If so, does it record 480i when recording an SD channel?

2. Is anybody able to cut/join videos from this unit with any program without re-encoding it?

1. It will uses whatever Resolution you have your Receiver set to from HD to SD.

2. Their is a TS Cutter however it is very unstable and the programmer dropped all Support for it. However I did find that StaxRip does work with the TS format. You might need to edit a few lines of codes if you want it to work with TS format.

[Swagger200]

Since moving the HD-PVR down to my slightly chilly basement, I have had no recording issues at all. Everything runs to completion, 2-3hrs as scheduled.

The recordings look fine though they are expectedly choppy on my non-dual core PC's. Waiting patiently for my HD100.

I am with you folks - will hang on to the unit and only RMA it when a real solution emerges. I am still miles ahead of where I was a week ago - constantly filling up my PVR box and having no archiving options other than SD over S-Video.

This is the last remaining hurdle to make me a total HD bigot.

[rschult298]

i am capturing in 720p from dtv h20 ,the video i capture at 8mbps and at 10mbps look great plays smooth, audio video in sync but throughout i get video anomalies,not the whole picture studders but random areas of the video.i have captured with the box closed and with it opened with a fan blowing on it, no difference.it seems either driver or software related.i have captured with arcsoft and sagetv same results.i had a problem with playback but downloaded k-lite mega codec update 20080606 and playback is fine.gonna try a different usb port.

update;i felt like the glitches had something to do with usb so i downloaded the usb drivers for my mobo and installed.
the past few days when i turn on the hd-pvr the usb symbol would show in the taskbar for a few seconds ,this seems to be when i get glitchy video.now i turn it on and it seems to load correctly and the video is smooth no glitches.

[jlindborg]

Originally Posted by sleonard

1. Yes, that is how it is supposed to work.

2. I saw one post yesterday over at the AVScience forum about a program that can do it.

S

Unfortunately the program they reference doesn't work with the files generated by the HD PRV - neither does the latest beta drop of StaxRip - and I've been unable to find anything that will let me 1. edit the file (i.e. remove commercials and such) and 2. convert it into XVid - tried numerous leads here but no one seems to have anything around that works.

The ArcSoft package is absolutely a joke! I tried converting a simple half hour HD show in 480p (around 730 meg) using a few different formats it offered - it ended up generating a 15 gig (!!!) file after nearly 2 hours that wouldn't play in anything I had. Not good...

I have a feeling those of us who have grown used to quickly cleaning up files and archiving them are going to be waiting a while for tools to do the job with these files...

[EDIT]

Horsing around with the different ArcSoft convertion options blue screened my XP pro box twice - I don't advise fiddling with these, looks to be pretty amature hour stuff...

[Revan654]

Originally Posted by jlindborg

Unfortunately the program they reference doesn't work with the files generated by the HD PRV - neither does the latest beta drop of StaxRip - and I've been unable to find anything that will let me 1. edit the file (i.e. remove commercials and such) and 2. convert it into XVid - tried numerous leads here but no one seems to have anything around that works.

StaxRip works perfectly fine with HD PVR. I have done around 6 encodes so far. Everyone is flawless.

[jlindborg]

Originally Posted by Revan654

StaxRip works perfectly fine with HD PVR. I have done around 6 encodes so far. Everyone is flawless.

version 1.1.0.1? I must be missing something (as are a couple others who have also had problems) - downloaded all the plug ins but it bails on loading the .ts file saying no audio stream was found.

[More specific]

It actually gets as far as "Extract audio and index MPEG-2 using DGIndex" and then throws up a dialog saying the sequence header can't be found - not entirely sure what that means...

[Revan654]

Originally Posted by jlindborg

version 1.1.0.1? I must be missing something (as are a couple others who have also had problems) - downloaded all the plug ins but it bails on loading the .ts file saying no audio stream was found.

[More specific]

It actually gets as far as "Extract audio and index MPEG-2 using DGIndex" and then throws up a dialog saying the sequence header can't be found - not entirely sure what that means...

Yes using 1.1.0.1,

DGIndex can not handle H.264 files you have to use DGAVCIndex instead. Need to change that in Options.

Only problem you should have is with the audio. StaxRip doesn't like the input of AAC Audio for XviD. So going have to convert it to a different format first.

[jlindborg]

Originally Posted by Revan654

Yes using 1.1.0.1,

DGIndex can not handle H.264 files you have to use DGAVCIndex instead. Need to change that in Options.

Only problem you should have is with the audio. StaxRip doesn't like the input of AAC Audio for XviD. So going have to convert it to a different format first.

Hmmm... clearly I'm out of my depth here - I'm used to using command line driven tools like GK and Handbrake and such and they don't normally give me issues but this one is just a bit too twitchy for me - Can't seem to get a clean run on it no matter what configuration options I choose - it finally got to a generic "access violation" and I gave up. I'll have to wait for the "old dummies guide" for this bad boy.

[jlindborg]

Well, I don't feel like quite so much of a bone head now - spent a few hours wandering around forums and newsgroups and converting h264 .TS files has put more than a few folks in the ditch. I did run across a couple sets of rather complicated multiple step instructions that worked, although painful. Most instructions were, not suprisingly, concentrated on converting DVDs using these types of tools and were of little help.

I ended up getting an updated version of SUPER (v2008.build 30) and low-and-behold it handles it all natively - rather nicely. I was able to open the .ts files directly and convert them into MP4 H264s or AVI DivX5 - both worked ok (kinda slow, but I'm not in a hurry) and looked good - compression wasn't bad either. A 30 minutes show at 480p produced a .ts file about 720 meg, crunched into Divx5 AVI with good quality it was a little more than 300 meg. Better than I expected. I'll fiddle with the settings and do some tests to dial in what I like but it's definitely usable.

After getting it into AVI I could just use VirtualDub to do the editing with the "direct stream" option for audio and video - it's not as slick for cleaning up lots of little cuts as VideoRedo, but such is life. There may be other AVI "cutters" out there that are easier to use for this task but VirtualDub is free and works well enough.

[spaceghost]

Originally Posted by jlindborg

2. convert it into XVid - tried numerous leads here but no one seems to have anything around that works.

I am also VERY interested in converting to XVid. All of my library is in XVid format anyway. If there was a reliable way to convert these .TS files, I'd be capturing at the highest bitrate and compressing it with XVid.

I tried to convert a 5 minute clip with TME and it ran for over an hour. I stopped it at 57% completion and it was at 75% the file size already.

[mikejaner]

Not sure I get the concept of trying to archive the video coming off of the HDPVR. Isn't converting to Xvid from the H264 stream redundant? I was under the impression both formats are MPEG4 based. If anybody is getting a lower file size when converting to Xvid, I would be suspicious of quality loss. As it is, you are already getting a crazy compression ratio for HD content. I do however see the rationality in converting the video to be playable on an iPod etc........

[jlindborg]

I archive stuff on DVD and play it directly with players that handle XVid/DivX (my NAS holds a lot, but I archive much, much more) - they don't handle the 264 codec - my folks have the same DVD player and I often snag content for them to watch on the road as well - just easier all around.

Once players come out that handle the native 264 files, I wont have to bother.

The video size reduces nicely with very little loss in quality - I let it go at about 1300 bit rate and force the aspect ratio to stay the same and such - watching them side by side there's very little difference - I'm sure videophiles will absolutely freak at the thought, but hey...