Customer Reviews

Hava Platinum HD Tv Placeshifting Dvr Pvr

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(17)

 

 

Great quality it sends tv signal over the internet. So in a house or office environment all the computers in the network can watch the same channel. On the computer you install software that allows you to watch and even record shows. This one is HD and the quality is really good. You can tell it is a mpg though. You'll see occasionally those bits and squares that come with that. Even when you watch full screen it looks great though. The faster the movement the more pixelated it looks especially on the fast moving letters but football looks good and so does tennis. There is at least a 3 second delay to what you are watching so you can't use it to play video games.

The name of this product is EXTREMELY deceptive. The package says "full DVD resolution" and "Full HD 1080". This product only streams 480i regardless of input (component or otherwise). 480i IS NOT HD! It is NOT as good as 480P DVD. It is STANDARD DEFINITION!!! To make matters worse, the HAVA doesn't even do a good job with 480i! The HAVA with component input produced a visibly inferior picture compared to my STANDARD DEFINITION Hauppage PVR-150 with s-video input! Interlacing artifacts on the HAVA were also clearly visible. Additionally, network issues resulted in unreliable scheduled recordings. (This is not necessarily the HAVA's fault, but it affected the reliability of recordings nonetheless.) The bottom line... The HAVA may be useful as a place shifter, but that's about all. :(

I have owned a Slingbox PRO for over a year, and was fairly happy with it ... until I got the Hava Platinum HD. Not only does Hava have a better picture than Slingbox, it also has more features, and is less expensive. Those additional features include being able to watch a program over more than one computer at a time, plus a feature that essentially turns your computer into a DVR with DVD copying capability. This DVR capability provides independent control to each computer to pause, stop or fast forward the video...and it gets around the time delay of having to send those type of commands to a DVR cable box using the Hava virtual remote control. Or, you can simply copy the video onto your hard drive, watch it later ... or copy it onto a DVD, making Hava much more versatile than the Slingbox.

Of course Hava does not display a true HD video...HD is converted to a wide screen 480i format, just like that on a commercial DVD, and the resulting video has a quality close to that of a DVD.

I was also impressed by the Hava support. The virtual remote on Slingbox stopped working for all Moxi DVR users when Moxi upgraded their firmware. Slingbox has not been able to upgrade their firmware to fix this problem, while Hava did came up with a software patch that fixed it.

I use this to record my XBOX gameplay. It records in DVD quality (480p) and was pretty easy to setup. One big pro is that the software allows you to split the file by time. So you can say record 10 minutes at a time and a 30 minute recording will be split into 3 separate files. This is important if you want to upload your gameplay to youtube which only allows a maximum of 10 minute videos. One big con is that it uses component miniplug cables instead of standard component cables. If anything happens to them (like the darn dog chewing it up) the HAVA cables are pretty much impossible to find and you'll have to order replacements directly from the manufacturer.

Initially this looked like a great product. Worked great for about three months. Then became a door stop.
Too bad too. Watching my recorded programs from my cell phone was awesome. If they could make it more reliable and a longer basic warranty it would help. 30 days just isn't long enough. Updates seem few and far between, so don't buy expecting to wait for software support to come later. Will be a LOT later.

Too pricey to risk buying another. So can't recommend it.

This was an ok product for the price listing at the time of my purchase.At the time I was looking for and HD recorder and the title fit my description..This product was absolutely terrible upon my purchase..it only rec. up to 480i..Not 1080i like it says it does.And two main things made this product bad, one being that it was always having trouble connecting to the network and its humongous issue with interlacing ..Beyond all i would go with the hauppauge HDPVR 1212 if you want true Hd rec.

I have never used any other product like this, so I cannot compare, but from what I've read and now experienced, I believe I made the right choice. This was easy to hook up, install and use. Both audio and video quality is great....both over the network locally and over the internet thousands of miles away. If you are at home, it is best to watch it locally over the network as opposed to using the "over the internet" feature at home....especially if you have a voip phone because it uses up bandwidth and the two services running at the same time made for a very sketchy phone conversation. Not so with the local method of watching, though. Overall, extremely satisfied with this product. It's the best thing since.....ummmmm.....sliced bread! :D This was an older model and a refurbished item, but it was the lowest priced item of its kind that I could find and I have had no problems with it yet and it's been wonderful to be able to watch my own tv, dvr recordings, etc. from wherever I'm at. I would not have been able to afford a more expensive unit, so I am thrilled that I can get this kind of technology at such a low price. Wonderful invention!

I use this regularly to access my Comcast DVR on my cell phone (Windows Mobile 6.1) or laptop (Windows Vista SP1). Infrared remote signals are generated from the software interface to control the DVR through an IR "bug" that is pointed towards the DVR. Very nice for transferring content (clips or full programs) first captured on my DVR to my computer. Functionality is stable and reliable, and both the firmware and supporting software are regularly updated by Hava. High quality streaming when accessed from my local network, reduced but acceptable quality when accessed over the internet. Very pleased with the price, performance, and vendor support of this product.

The Hava was advertised as a "Slingbox Killer". I do not share this opinion. I have used a Slingbox Classic since 2006. When it stopped working recently, I bought the Hava to replace it. The software setup on the Hava was very convoluted and confusing. It would not configure for remote viewing, (why else would I want it?). After several hours on the phone with customer support, they were able (after many attempts) to configure it for remote viewing, although it required my holding down the RESET button on the device, thereby losing the previous configuration information. When it was finally working, it's performance was a huge disappointment. It does not have the slick channel lineup as on the Slingbox. The live TV playback was very jerky and much of the dialog was lost. The final insult was that the Hava would NOT display the programs recorded on my DVR, therefore I could not watch the programs I had recorder for later viewing. It is obvious to me (an engineer) that this product was RUSHED to market with far too little testing and fine tuning. I returned it and replaced my Slingbox, which I now love even more than before.

I am not an expert and I cannot tell if this is real hd or what. However I plugged it in a minute and it worked very well. The definition is very good, so is the sound. I am extremely satisfied.