191 of 201 people found the following review helpful:
Best Hi def recorder on the market currently
June posting
ok I would have given this 5 stars but this comes with current problem with it, this has optical in for 5.1DD recording at this time hauppuage can not get this to work so you are stuck with PCM 2.0 or audio from the analog imputs, now to the rest, it records video at 1920x1080 at same or near Blu ray discs, you have a choice of bitrate constant...
105 of 109 people found the following review helpful:
Not for the faint of heart
Here's the summary:
- Not a DVR. This is a pass-thru from audio/video source to PC.
- Generates H.264 at Baseline Profile 1.0 only -- not the High Profile 4.1 that x264.exe-based programs generate. The Baseline H.264 quality is not as good as the High Profile quality using the same bit rate.
This review is from: Hauppauge 1212 HD-PVR High Definition Personal Video Recorder (Electronics)
June posting
ok I would have given this 5 stars but this comes with current problem with it, this has optical in for 5.1DD recording at this time hauppuage can not get this to work so you are stuck with PCM 2.0 or audio from the analog imputs, now to the rest, it records video at 1920x1080 at same or near Blu ray discs, you have a choice of bitrate constant from 1 to 13.5 Kb or on variable all the way up to 20.2, this records in the same codeec (AVCHD) as blu ray and HD DVD discs, it will take any component imput, I have mine through my receiver where my Dishnet PVR HD, PS3, HD DVD and Oppo DVD player runs through, just for test purposes I tried all my devices and what I test recorded from dishnet, blu ray, DVD and HD DVD the test disc looked no different than the original source, once you capture your source you can then edit or add chapters then you get to add a real cheapo menu and then put in what disc you need to burn either a DVD-R or a dual layer DVD Disc, it takes about 10 minutes to author your recording to Blu ray standard and burn on your normal DVD as a true Blu ray playable Disc, beware once you burn your DVD as a blu ray playback DVD you will not be able to read it in your computer again unless you have a Blu ray Rom or Blu Ray Burner, once and if Hauppuage ever gets the 5.1 DD fixed this could be the killer to blu ray Discs, hauppuage claims by next driver release they will include the 5.1 fix. Beware this is Xp service pack 2 or Vista operating system only, also you must have a fast computer to use this device and its programs, I have a dual core 3.4 gig Intel, 2gigs of ram, 2 - 500 sata HDD and had to buy a nvidia 7600 512 meg video card to get this up to speed and at the fastest bitrate 13,500 I cant do anything else on the computer, but this is the problem with Hi def, its power hungry, now I can finally put my hi def movies of all 6 star wars and 3 lord of the rings on DVD for 1080i blu ray playback, you can also convert the finished files over to movie factory 6 to burn on a normal DVD for HD DVD playback also.
August update...
Ok been doing alot of capturing, have made 40 dual layer DVDs for blu ray playback and 10 dual layers for HD DVD playback. the video qua;ity is great if you keep it above 7.8 bitrate, only major drawback is no 5.1DD audio, I am now Beta tesing the 5.1DD audio driver right now, wow this makes a huge difference with the sound. Problems still, wont work with the arch software yet, sync problems, but works with TSmuxer. There seems to be heat related issues with some boxes, mine stays on 7, 10, 15 hours at a time never gets overly warm and never locks up. I have done well over 100 captures with this device. Having an Lg blu ray burner and blanks getting below $8 each, this might be the future for capturing and buring HD content at the PVR's full 13.2 to 20.0 bitrate in the future. If hauppauge can just tweak this 5.1DD driver a bit more I think this will be a great little device.
October update,
I am now a beta tester for hauppauge and I finally got 5.1DD drivers and TME software that works, so now I got a card that finally works capturing movies the way I wanted it to, 5.1DD and can also edit with the software and no more sync issues, burn to dual layers DVD's or $4 blu ray discs.
December Update
Ok Hauppauge support finally has Drivers and software out for general public that makes this device work properly. you can capture 1080i from any component ouput using the 5.1DD and you get a great captured TS or M2TS file ready to burn to a blu ray or dual layer DVD with or without menu. since october I have captured and burned over 50 movies onto disc in 5.1DD and they look great, the ones from the 1080p sources look really great. Now I manually record all my movies, so I do not know how this works with a timer or sageTV.
Feb Posting
some here wanted me to post to let you know of known problems with this and dishnet, I find there is no exact problems per say with the PVR1212 and Dishnet, you should know that sometimes when you use this device with the dishnet you get out of sync problems and digital tears in the picture, most, if no all is the blame of dishnet or most likey the channel the show is broadcast from. Example: I have tried 7-8 times to capture and record Spaceballs from MGM HD channel every time its out of sync and every time its being played out of sync on MGM HD over dishnet before I even capture it. Please keep in mind when using this device, HD content is never perfect and they "big hollywood" does not want you to capture and record their programs. So dont be surprised if "they" are always trying anything to foil you capturing a Hi Def Digital program, be it dish, cable, PS3 or HD-DVD. so far I have captured and burned onto dual layer DVD's 130 movies from all such sources all coming out perfect, be it analog, 2DD or 5.1DD audio. yeah where else can you watch on a disc, star wars, lord of the rings, batman, star trek movies in hi def, way to go hauppauge. :)
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This review is from: Hauppauge 1212 HD-PVR High Definition Personal Video Recorder (Electronics)
Here's the summary:
- Not a DVR. This is a pass-thru from audio/video source to PC.
- Generates H.264 at Baseline Profile 1.0 only -- not the High Profile 4.1 that x264.exe-based programs generate. The Baseline H.264 quality is not as good as the High Profile quality using the same bit rate.
- Generates default .M2TS files which are difficult to edit -- use the .TS file output instead for easier editing.
- Arcsoft software is good for capturing and that's it. The software for creating a disk always seems to re-encode -- a process that takes my PC days or makes my PC hang.
- After capture, I have to use third-party software to finish production.
The product is not an easy out-of-the box solution. Hookup is easy, and the Arcsoft software installation is easy, capturing is easy, but it gets tricky after that.
When you capture, you can set bitrates. I set my 720x480i broadcast to 4.1 MB/s thinking it would be fine. When I made a disk and played it on the Blu Ray player, the video had a horribly compressed look. That was a straight H.264 file from the HD-PVR 1212 unit to disk without transcoding. But when I transcode some other high-quality 480i video using an x264.exe-based application with 4.1 MB/s the video quality is fine.
Now I made the mistake of capturing my first video in .M2TS. Tried to edit it. Lots of software doesn't like .M2TS. I didn't know that then, but I know now. Fortunately I was able to use the freeware TSRemux to convert the .M2TS file to a .TS file. Now apps like H264TS_Cutter and multiAVCHD are happier. Lots of crashes and failures with .M2TS.
Editing. I use H264TS_Cutter to cut out commercials. This app is handy -- you take clips you want to save and create a cut without transcoding. This is important in the H.264 video world because transcoding takes days on my PCs, but the H264TS_Cutter makes a cut in minutes. You can also join two files in this manner. H264TS_Cutter has never crashed on me with .TS files. I tried using a little more complicated app for cutting -- TS Packet Editor -- but I had to reboot my PC after each file edit.
Creating a video disk. I use multiAVCHD. It lets me make a simple menu for the multiple titles. To get this to generate a Blu-Ray format file structure, I had to (after clicking Start) select the button [AVCHD compatible players] -- the button [For all Blu-ray players] wouldn't work in my Blu-Ray player.
The size of the output files determines what size disk I can use. I use Imgburn to burn to DVD-5, DVD-9, or BD-25 -- this plays in my Blu-Ray player as long as I choose the UDF physical format and UDF 2.50.
That's the quick way of taking the output from the HD-PVR 1212 and placing it on Blu-Ray compatible disk. If all this that I've described sounds like Greek, be wary of this purchase. You'll need to do your homework on using these 3rd-party apps (though fortunately the ones I've described are free) to keep the production time to a minimum and spare yourself days of needless suffering. Had these tools been included and described in the bundled software for this purchase, it would have saved me about two weeks of trial, research, and error.
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This review is from: Hauppauge 1212 HD-PVR High Definition Personal Video Recorder (Electronics)
To start off, I'm writing this review solely from the perspective of someone using this to record footage from video game consoles (an Xbox 360, in my case), because that's why I bought it and that's all I've used it for so far.
Upon opening the box, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that there was a component cable included, a nice bonus. The first thing you'll notice is how light the device itself is. The all-plastic body and the lack of weight contribute to give it a slight cheap feeling, but this is not reflective of the overall quality of the device, as I'm about to explain.
The HD PVR has pass-through outputs, which means you can plug your console into the PVR and then the PVR into your TV (with the included component cable), eliminating the need to split the signal. I was a little bit worried about any input lag caused by the pass-through, but I was thankful to discover that there is absolutely none. The one downside of this, if any, is that the PVR has to be on for the pass-through outputs to work. It doesn't have to be recording and the software doesn't have to be open, so it's not that big of a deal, but it's just one more device that is sapping power.
After getting everything hooked up, you have to install the included software on whatever PC you're going to be using to record. The software installation was pain-free, although I recommend getting the latest driver updates from their website and the latest software updates through the software itself. Make sure that you do NOT lose the CD, as you can only download the driver from Hauppauge's website, not the included software. One of the downsides of the PVR is that only the included software and a small list of 3rd party software will work with the device. Luckily, this isn't that big of an issue as the included software works great, with minimal issues.
One of the great things about the HD PVR is that it does all of the H.264 encoding on the box itself. In other words, you won't need a high-end PC to record in HD because the HD PVR does all of the heavy processing. You will need a high-end PC to watch and edit HD video, however. Unless you're just archiving or using the PC as a storage device (and then accessing the recorded videos on your 360, for instance), you're going to want a high-end PC to edit and playback the video that you record. There's simply no getting around this: if you want to produce videos in HD, you're going to need the tools for it.
The preview window provides smooth, full-quality video. There is a significant amount of lag between the source and the software preview window, however. If you were hoping to sit at your PC and play by watching the preview window, you can forget it. The input lag will make it impossible.
Overall, the video and audio quality are excellent. This will produce video miles beyond any SDi capture card you have. The device will record in whatever format you input (1080i, 720p, etc.). I would recommend going with 720p over 1080i. The lack of interlacing outweighs the gain in resolution, in my opinion (unless you're taking a screenshot or taking video with little movement). It support frame rates up to 60fps, maybe beyond. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 in 720p at 60fps looks absolutely beautiful. The device lets you change the bitrate from 1MBps to 13.5MBps, so you can increase the quality of the video and sacrifice a small file size, if you wish. I find 8MBps to be a good balance. It allows you to fit 1 - 1.5 hours into around 5GB, and it still provides video that's good enough for YouTube HD uploads and similar casual usage. If you're going for production-quality video with almost no compression artifacts, you can easily increase the bit rate, but you're going to pay for it in file size and the power it requires to process.
All video is encoded in H.264. The software lets you record in 3 container formats: .TS, which is a generic 'transport stream' compatible with many digital media players; .M2TS, which is compatible with the Sony Playstation 3; and .MP4, which is compatible with the Xbox 360. These are somewhat-confusingly labeled "AVCHD", "PlayStation 3", and "Xbox 360" in the software, respectively. It's important to note that *this has nothing to do with what you're recording from* - it only has bearing on what device you want to play back the recorded footage. The MP4 format will play back on an Xbox 360, while the other formats will not. I recommend choosing the format that works best with whatever software you're going to use to edit the video, or whatever device you plan on using to watch the video. Note that most software will be able to open/edit an MP4 file, while I've found less compatibility with the other formats. If you plan to burn footage to Blu-Ray disk, though, go with .TS, as it's the format used on Blu-Ray disks and so your video won't require any transcoding, which is very nice (you can burn a Blu-Ray disk in just a few minutes).
If you don't want your footage encoded in H.264, there is an included converter program that can convert to variety of formats, but I haven't tried it yet, so I can't tell you how well it works.
The only two minor issues that I've had have involved the software. Sometimes the capture program will not recognize the device, requiring you to unplug it from the computer and plug it back in, at which point it should work normally. It's not that big of an issue, and it may be specific to my computer, but it's worth noting.
Secondly, the included playback application, TotalMedia Theater, causes a hard reboot whenever I try to start it. This also isn't that big of a deal because there's lots of other software that can play back the recorded files. Based on searches in which I've found only a couple of mentions about the problem it appears to be a very rare issue, but it's still worth noting. (I'm using Vista 32-bit, for reference).
Overall, the HD PVR is great for recording footage from hi-def consoles like the 360 and PS3. It's easy to use, doesn't require an insanely powerful PC, and produces good-quality video and audio in a good format at a reasonable file-size. Although the price is a bit steep, it's worth it if you really want to record high-quality, high-definition game footage from your 360 or PS3. If you have any questions, feel free to post them in a response and I'll try to answer them as best as I can.
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This review is from: Hauppauge 1212 HD-PVR High Definition Personal Video Recorder (Electronics)
As long as you know exactly what you are getting with the Hauppauge HD PVR, you won't be disappointed with the performance of this little black box. It is designed for PC Windows users only, although Mac owners can use it with some add-ons.
First, you'll need to understand and accept what this PVR does not do: without any memory or hard drive inside, it does not store video itself, making the PVR label somewhat misleading, and it does not burn video to DVD. To use it, you must hook it up to a PC or Mac (more on the Mac later) for both recording and playback. And it relies entirely on software running on your computer to record, edit, program, and burn Blu-ray format DVDs. The box itself has no controls other than a power button. It has component, composite, and S-video connections (no HDMI) for video, and optical and stereo audio inputs.
So what does it do? It takes the HD signals streaming into it and compresses them in a format that preserves the HD quality in a savable AVCHD file; you can record/save manually or on a schedule. These signals can come from a set top box, camcorder or other video source that can connect with the above inputs. The included ArcSoft Media software for Windows allows you to record on either the computer hard drive or an external one. Once the files are saved, you may use your computer's DVD-R drive to burn a Blu-Ray-compatible DVD or HD-DVD, edit, play back on your computer or television, convert to iPod-, Xbox-, or PS3-friendly format (MOV, MP4, M2TS, or WMV), or share playback within the same wireless network. The included IR blaster can change the channels on your set top box to the one you've programmed to record. Note: the blaster works with the included software and therefore only on Windows.
Chances are, you're going to have to do some thinking before you decide how to set up the PVR. The conversion box is 7.5" w by 6.5" d by 2/5 " h, so it doesn't take up much space itself. However, you will need a computer next to the HD source. For those who don't have their computer in the same room as the set top box, this may mean buying a computer specifically for video, and naturally, that increases the price of the set-up. However, if you don't plan on recording every day, you can hook up/unhook a laptop very easily - just pull out the USB cable and your connection, if any, to the television. Hauppauge includes the basic component cables (HD source to PVR) and USB cable (PVR to your computer), but, if you want to play the video back on your TV, you will need to buy the necessary cables/connections for that. As of June 2009, the bundled PC software includes a program that allows your PC DVD drive to play the PVR Blu-Ray-format recordings. Depending on your set-up, you may want to add a USB hub, an external hard drive, and/or Apple TV.
Unfortunately for Mac users, Hauppauge does not support OS X, which means you'll have an additional software expense. Two software packages currently work with the Mac and the Hauppauge. The cheaper and less elegant solution is a program called HDPVR Capture, developed and sold privately by a Hauppauge engineer. The fuller featured, more versatile option is Elgato's EyeTV , but unfortunately, you can't use several of the features because it doesn't communicate with the IR Blaster to change channels. Both programs are available only online, although EyeTV 3 comes bundled with Elgato hardware products. If you can find a workaround for the blaster issue, the EyeTV 3 will be nothing short of awesome. It converts the PVR files to a wide variety of formats used by iLife programs. Hauppauge really needs to work more closely with Elgato to satisfy the rapidly growing Mac population. If you are a serious videophile and Mac user, you'll probably also want a product like Roxio Toast 10 Titanium Pro.
The minimum systems requirements for the PVR are: Intel Core Duo processor, 512 MB RAM (1 GB recommended), graphics card with at least 256 MB memory, and a sound card. Windows users need either the XP Service Pack or Vista 32. I'm using a three year old Intel Core Duo MacBook without any difficulty. I bypass the MacBook's hard drive to save all my recordings on a portable external hard drive, the Iomega eGo 320 GB USB 2.0/FireWire 400 Portable External Hard Drive 34403 (Ruby Red).
Consumers expecting a DVR with onboard memory and playback may be frustrated with the Hauppauge since it requires a computer, but for those who want to capture HD content and do something with it, you've found your equipment.
With special thanks to fellow reviewer Frank Miller.
-- Debbie Lee Wesselmann
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This review is from: Hauppauge 1212 HD-PVR High Definition Personal Video Recorder (Electronics)
Hauppauge included a small note on a flyer sent with the unit. "Does not record bitstream audio at this time".
What this means for me is, no surround sound with my HD recordings. The flyer stated that an upcoming firmware release would solve this problem.
My first attempt to record HD produced great video but no audio because I selected SPDIF optical input. Can only record stereo audio until the firmware is fixed.
At least for me, it is collecting dust until then, as I don't have any reason to make HD recordings without surround sound for my home theater.
Would give it a 5 for video quality and ease of use. Suggest buyers contact Hauppauge to confirm bitstream audio is functioning before purchase.
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This review is from: Hauppauge 1212 HD-PVR High Definition Personal Video Recorder (Electronics)
This device finally does what I have been wanting since my purchase of a Sony CX7 avchd camcorder. I always wished I could just hook my cam internals to my hd pvr and record a show in HD.
Well this is almost like that , the box has hd component inputs (and outpus for passthru) with an internal processor to convert the video straight to avchd out the usb port.
Now , for the cool part... since my computer was no where near my hd sat receiver I decided to try using 2 usb active extension cables to bring my usb port to the box. Worked great!
[...]
The software included will make a .TS file (avchd) now you can play this file directly on a PS3 by just renaming it with a .m2ts extension ! just rename it and your done... no further transcodes needed!
But the best part is to make a hi def blu ray dvd using a cheap blank dvd-r . You can put 1 hour of HD avchd video on a standard 4.7gb dvd-r - your blu ray player / PS3 will see this disc as a valid hd blu ray disc and play it! No blu ray burner needed to actually make blu ray discs.
Creating the disc does not take very long since its putting your file in the proper blu ray structure... its just copying it not transcoding it.... so quick and painless.
Now if you want to make a standard SD dvd this will take longer because it will have to transcode it..
I found the included software pretty straight forward and easy to use. Making a avchd playable disc was totally painless.
If you want to record a show in HD and keep it for later playback on a ps3 or bluray player on cheap dvd-r media - this is it ! I love it... there is nothing else like it.
I used a intel dual core system with 2gb of ram and an 8500 video card with Vista and the software ran very smoothly. I do not use the pc to playback any of the video - thats the job of the ps3 or bluray player... so think of your pc as the recording and making dvd device not the playback device. playback of avchd file require too much pc muscle - so use a ps3 - its easier and you can load .m2ts files on it to your hearts content!
The other reviews I read about quicktime and stuff are kinda missing the point... its really to get the hd content off your dvr and get it into a dvd-r thats playable over and over again.... in HD
What I hope to see in the next rev:
Ethernet port rather as well as usb to send the data stream.. this way you can send the data to a computer that is not near your home entertainment system.
A hard drive or external hard drive hookup with a record button... eliminating the need for a pc all together for the recording of the show.
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This review is from: Hauppauge 1212 HD-PVR High Definition Personal Video Recorder (Electronics)
I have had two of these units, and both were sent back (I am using with SageTV HTPC and a DirecTV signal source). The first one, a "D2" version, took forever to get working, and then it would only work intermittently (would get the dreaded black screen and "no signal" or "error"). I tried for many weeks to fix the problem as I ran across many hundreds of posts in discussion threads about how to get it to work (this, btw, is never a good sign), but to no avail.
I sent it back and Amazon sent me a new one. This was an "E1" version so I thought I was set (a common comment in the boards was that the E1's were supposed to work). This version did work better for about a week, then it quit working entirely and after another week of trouble shooting I could never get it to work again. I took it to a buddy's house with a similar set up as mine and he also could not get it to work so I know it was the unit.
This one just went back as well, and now it looks like Amazon does not want to replace it. Note that they are refunding my money (nothing but good things to say about Amazon), but I guess they have decided either I am a scammer of some sort or this machine is a lemon so they are not replacing it. I can't blame them, the boards are full of folks who have sent them back and they are probably doing me a favor.
When it did work, it did a great job capturing the video in HD, but it would take from 5 to 20 seconds to tune in both the audio and video of a channel when you changed stations. This was OK for capturing and watching later, but not really great for live tv.
Do yourself and your girlfriend/wife a favor and wait until a more reliable solution comes out. Because once you get it, you can count on about 30 hours disappearing from your life with only about a 30% chance of being fully satisfied.
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This review is from: Hauppauge 1212 HD-PVR High Definition Personal Video Recorder (Electronics)
There have been many times over the past few years that I wished I had the ability to permanently save high definition programs stored on my HD DVR. But thanks to Hollywood's piracy paranoia, many HD DVRs lack the ability to permanently archive stored HD programs.
The Hauppage offers a way around this limitation by making it possible to take the component video outputs from a DVR or HD tuner (satellite, cable, or OTA) and redigitize them. The resulting file can be viewed on a PC or can be burned to DVD in a format that is compatible with many Blu Ray players.
The good news is that this product works as advertised, with the included software installing quickly on my PC. Recording a program with this device is simple as can be, and the software for burning a Blu Ray compatible disk (in the AVC-HD format) is simple to use.
Highly recommended for anyone who needs the capability to permanently archive HD programs off a tuner or DVR that has component video outputs.
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This review is from: Hauppauge 1212 HD-PVR High Definition Personal Video Recorder (Electronics)
Due to a minefield of legal issues and DRM standards, it's often impossible to grab the raw digital output from devices like cable STBs, game consoles, or blu-ray players. Instead, you need to exploit the analog hole to get at the high resolution component outputs - which is exactly what the Hauppauge HDPVR does.
If you envision using this device as part of a full featured software PVR solution, you need to be aware of something: the Hauppauge HDPVR is a hack. It's a very clever hack, and a very good hack, but due to its nature there are no guarantees that things are going to "just work." You're probably going to have to get your hands a little dirty with the setup, and even then you may not get the results you want. Realize that this is no fault of the HDPVR itself, but rather of the laws and standards that have lead us to require such a workaround to begin with.
I use this device with MythTV, a Linux DVR application. Linux support for the HDPVR is fairly good now, and I believe the drivers are in the mainline kernel as of 2.6.30. Fedora, and possibly some other distributions, have included the HDPVR module (which is 'hdpvr') in earlier kernels as well.
As of this writing there are two major limitations of the Linux hdpvr driver. First, it does *not* support IR blasting in any form, so you'll need an alternate way to control your STB if you're planning to do that. Second, you cannot yet update the HDPVR firmware from Linux. You must use the Windows software for this purpose.
Original versions of the firmware did not support SPDIF audio. This has been fixed in a subsequent firmware update and the device can use the AC3 stream directly from the cable box.
My HDPVR works quite well, but beware that setup can be quite cumbersome, especially in Linux. I'm going to include a list of the general steps that are required to use this device with MythTV:
- Ensure that your frontend can handle playback before you purchase the device. The HDPVR does the heavy lifting during encoding, so you don't need a lot of horsepower for it to record - however, you WILL need a dual-core era CPU (if using software playback).
- Configure your cable/satellite STB to force output in a fixed resolution (e.g., 720P). Resolution changes can sometimes cause issues with recordings.
- Update your HDPVR to the latest firmware (this requires the Windows software)
- Ensure that you have the Linux hdpvr module (either included with your kernel or by building from the linux-dvb source)
- Connect the STB outputs to the HDPVR inputs, and the outputs from the HDPVR to the TV inputs. You probably want to use SPDIF audio, if available. Make sure you can record a raw video file (by 'cat' on the device) and that it looks and sounds like what you see on your TV.
- Verify that your version of MythTV can support the HDPVR. 0.21 fixes does not and will not include such support. You currently must either use mythtv 0.22 from svn or apply patches to add HDPVR support into 0.21. In both cases this is likely not a task for beginners! If you use gentoo, check out the jmd-gentoo overlay.
- Find a way to change channels on your STB from a shell script, and configure this as a channel change command in mythtv. This can be a very frustrating step, though it's no fault of the HDPVR itself. Since the hdpvr driver does not include IR blaster support, you must either use a standalone IR blaster or firewire. I use firewire and the 'mythchanger' application (consult google).
So, having done all of this, it now works for me - usually. There are several quirks, which I can't blame on the HDPVR but are inherent to my setup:
- My STB must be rebooted every now and then, or it will stop working. If it runs for over a month or so, I think it runs out of RAM due to a memory leak and stops responding as expected until I power cycle it (turning it "off" and "on" is not enough, I must remove power).
- The STB should be on a UPS! My device will NOT power on completely after a power cycle (it will boot, but not display output until I hit the "power" button).
- The channel change script can fail. I use firewire for channel changing, but occasionally the STB goes into la-la land and firewire changes mysteriously fail.
- The HDPVR sometimes fails when starting a recording or handling a resolution change, and it records 0 byte or defective mpeg streams. This is technically a problem with the HDPVR's handling of "bad" input from the STB, but one which MythTV should be able to work around.
The key thing I want to convey here is that, once configured, the Hauppauge HDPVR is a very good, very reliable device, but due to the hackish nature of the whole setup some glitches are inevitable. Most of MY problems are related to the crappy set top box provided by my cable company, which I simply can't do anything about.
At any rate, the HDPVR is the key piece of this entire puzzle. Without it, there wouldn't really be *any* consumer level solution for this problem, and once again, I'm happy to support Hauppauge with my money. Keep up the good work, guys!
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