Hauppauge WinTV HD PVR (H.264) screenshots, Samples, Q&A

[Eric the Red]

Please note that as mentioned in this topic a while back, discussions of any issues related to using the HD-PVR should now go in the hardware section of the forum. Any requests for help will be moved there.

Maybe a new topic in the hardware forum should be used to post results of using it too, since this one is quite large & was mostly focused on when it would arrive.

Anyway, this topic is fine as a general discussion of the device, but it isn't a good place to try to get help using it it. Thanks.

- Andy

Hopefully this thread will serve as a place for Q&A's about this unit.. setting it up... samples videos, screen shots etc...

I myself was looking for an SD sample of what this box can produce. Any pics / video would be well appreciated!

-Eric

[CyRex]

Well, after using the HD PVR for the weekend (albeit sparingly), I figured I'd list some things that I have noticed...

- The first half second (approx.) of a recording seems to be the last half second of whatever was previously recording. I'm not sure if this is only on back-to-back recordings, but it has been on quite a few, if not all, of the recordings so far.

- CPU usage while recording seems reasonable when recording. I have a relative slow server by today's standard (single core ~2 GHz Celeron, I believe) with a Raid 5 disk array (3Ware HW controller), 2 gig of RAM. Sorry I don't have any exact numbers, but I can say that the CPU does not seem taxed at all when recording.

- Playback on the HD100 is mostly smooth. Every once in a while I get some digital "skipping" noise in the audio, and some slight pixelation, but I have not yet determined if the problem is with the playback or the actual video itself.

- Picture quality is excellent - definitely comparable to the image quality from my HDHR, but the files are about half the size. A 1.5 hour movie on HBO HD was around 5.5 GB. I was using two PVR-150s for regular programming, and the HD PVR blows them away in terms of PQ.

That's all I can think of right now. Sorry I haven't posted any clips - I don't have any where to host them, but didn't SHS post a clip a while back?

-Dan

[Brent]

Originally Posted by CyRex

That's all I can think of right now. Sorry I haven't posted any clips - I don't have any where to host them, but didn't SHS post a clip a while back?

-Dan

Thanks for the info Dan. Looking forward to unboxing this thing this afternoon....

There are several links to test clips on the HD-PVR article on my blog (link in sig) that someone has put up if anyone is interested. You have to scroll down to the comments section. I'll be adding my own test clips as well as soon as I can get things set up.

[Eric the Red]

Originally Posted by CyRex

That's all I can think of right now. Sorry I haven't posted any clips - I don't have any where to host them, but didn't SHS post a clip a while back?

-Dan

Clips were posted but only HD feeds. I'd be using this primarily for SD playback.

[eopian]

Originally Posted by Eric the Red

Clips were posted but only HD feeds. I'd be using this primarily for SD playback.

Can I ask why you are looking at this for SD purposes? What is wrong with the multitude of other devices that will do SD much cheaper? Couldn't you get something like the hauppauge pvr mce 500 and a large hard drive, say 750 gigabytes, for less than this device costs (and two inputs instead of one)?

[derringer]

I could be wrong, but I think from reading previous information, that it is being done because of how good the quality of the resultant feed is with the HD-PVR.

He'll have to jump in and say whether that is what he is talking about or not, but I don't think it is a huge stretch to assume that an HD-PVR will bring in SD signals with far better quality than the 10+ year old analog capture card technology that most of us have been using for that task.

I bet you would see noticable improvements in picture quality by using an HD-PBR to tune (I mean to view, obviously an STB is required to actually tune) SD feeds. Think about it; it intrinsically makes sense that this would be the case... And if that is the case, there is certainly a portion of the Sage using public who might want that better picture quality without having to go to HD because of the TVs they have in-house.

Just my guess, and something I had thought about...

[lobosrul]

Originally Posted by derringer

I could be wrong, but I think from reading previous information, that it is being done because of how good the quality of the resultant feed is with the HD-PVR.

My guess would be for future-proofing. Maybe he's planning on moving to HD in a year or two.

Anyone have a sample of 720p @ 4 or 5Mbps?

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by CyRex

- Playback on the HD100 is mostly smooth. Every once in a while I get some digital "skipping" noise in the audio, and some slight pixelation, but I have not yet determined if the problem is with the playback or the actual video itself.

The easiest way to figure that out is to rewind (skip back) and see if it happens in the same place again. If it does, then it's the recording, if not, then it's probably a playback issue.

Either way I'd probably email support as I'm sure they want to get this working flawlessly.

- Picture quality is excellent - definitely comparable to the image quality from my HDHR, but the files are about half the size. A 1.5 hour movie on HBO HD was around 5.5 GB. I was using two PVR-150s for regular programming, and the HD PVR blows them away in terms of PQ.

That's to be expected, recording HD vs SD Just curious are you using the highest quality?

And on that subject, does Sage provide for recording quality control over the HD PVR?

Originally Posted by derringer

I could be wrong, but I think from reading previous information, that it is being done because of how good the quality of the resultant feed is with the HD-PVR.

FWIW, while theroretically component is better, in practice S-Video is basically indistinguishable. I would not expect a major increase in quality w/ the HD PVR for SD recordings, save maybe saving some space.

Though perhaps when mine finally shows up I can try that out, get recordings from the HD PVR, my PVR 250, and raw capture and see how they compare

He'll have to jump in and say whether that is what he is talking about or not, but I don't think it is a huge stretch to assume that an HD-PVR will bring in SD signals with far better quality than the 10+ year old analog capture card technology that most of us have been using for that task.

The "analog capture technology" really isn't that old, and it's really pretty good. Setup correctly, and with enough bitrate, a PVR250 is not very different (quality wise) from a direct feed.

I bet you would see noticable improvements in picture quality by using an HD-PBR to tune (I mean to view, obviously an STB is required to actually tune) SD feeds. Think about it; it intrinsically makes sense that this would be the case...

I'm not sure why, as noted above, Component's theoretical advantage over S/Video never really materializes in the real world. Most of the problems with SD capture today are not due to the capture itself, but due to the poor quality of the source.

[Eric the Red]

Using a component vs a composite connection still produces better PQ on an SD TV. My 27" JVC doesn't do 720p or 1080i.. yet it still has component inputs. I looked around a little and when you compare PQ of Component vs Composite on SD.. the picture is still miles better.

At the moment I'm using SD.. but within the next year I plan to move to HD once I get a better TV !!

[appelm]

Originally Posted by Eric the Red

Using a component vs a composite connection still produces better PQ on an SD TV. My 27" JVC doesn't do 720p or 1080i.. yet it still has component inputs. I looked around a little and when you compare PQ of Component vs Composite on SD.. the picture is still miles better.

At the moment I'm using SD.. but within the next year I plan to move to HD once I get a better TV !!

I've always found the SD recordings captured via s-video look less sharp and less colorful than video produced by connecting a cable STB directly to a tv via component or even s-video. No matter what amount of fine-tuning to the picture, I've never been able to get the picture quite as good though I've been satisfied with the result for some time. I too am hoping that SD recordings will be better.

[CyRex]

Originally Posted by stanger89

That's to be expected, recording HD vs SD Just curious are you using the highest quality?

Sorry, I should have clarified. The SD channels look miles better recorded via the HD PVR than they did on the PVR-150.

I am using the highest quality in Sage, not sure if that applies to the HD PVR or not, but I'd definitely be interested to know.

-Dan

[mistergq]

what codecs should I be using on my client for this?

[spaceknight]

I just set up my hd-pvr I have picture but no sound. can anyone tell me what settinge I should have in sage to get sound?
the picture look great in sd and better in hd

[CyRex]

Originally Posted by spaceknight

I just set up my hd-pvr I have picture but no sound. can anyone tell me what settinge I should have in sage to get sound?
the picture look great in sd and better in hd

What type of audio connection are you using between your STB and the HD PVR? If using optical, you need to select "Component + SPDIF" for the connection type. Also, make sure that the correct audio output is enabled on your STB.

-Dan

[spaceknight]

I am hooked up component and using the rca audio. the pass through works when I go to my tv

[gschwendt]

Just thought I'd share this, although the target audience will probably be pretty small.

http://www.vimeo.com/1108316

It's a captured video from PS3, then converted into WMV. From Vimeo, you can watch it in streaming HD or download the WMV file from the right side of the page.

[Brent]

Just put up a very quick first-look and unboxing post. A few test clips are there as well - I'll add more later today.

You can read more on the blog post

[karpodiem]

Originally Posted by gschwendt

Just thought I'd share this, although the target audience will probably be pretty small.

http://www.vimeo.com/1108316

It's a captured video from PS3, then converted into WMV. From Vimeo, you can watch it in streaming HD or download the WMV file from the right side of the page.

Wow, that looks really really good.

[karpodiem]

Originally Posted by Brent

Just put up a very quick first-look and unboxing post. A few test clips are there as well - I'll add more later today.

You can read more on the blog post

Thanks for the posts Brent, keep 'em coming.

*Edit: The Sportscenter clip plays back with an audio delay in MPC-HC (along with the video being somewhat "slow") and completely crashes VLC. Same thing for the other clip as well.

In the past, I've had flawless playback of HD .ts clips on my system, so I don't believe it to be a hardware playback issue. The test clips that were posted for the HD PVR a month or so ago played back fine. I recorded the hockey game last night and am watching it now, so yeah, I'm pretty sure it's not my system.

[Brent]

Originally Posted by karpodiem

Thanks for the posts Brent, keep 'em coming.

*Edit: The Sportscenter clip plays back with an audio delay in MPC-HC (along with the video being somewhat "slow") and completely crashes VLC. Same thing for the other clip as well.

In the past, I've had flawless playback of HD .ts clips on my system, so I don't believe it to be a hardware playback issue. The test clips that were posted for the HD PVR a month or so ago played back fine. I recorded the hockey game last night and am watching it now, so yeah, I'm pretty sure it's not my system.

Give me some more time and I'll make a few more sports-type clips tonight. I'll add them to that post later this evening.

Don't assume just because your system can handle HD content just fine that the HD-PVR output will work for it - at least that's what I'm seeing on my client PC. This thing is going to take some time to get situated I think