I really don't feel like I got my money's worth with the Hauppauge HD PVR

[BrianFifaFan]

Re: I really don't feel like I got my money's worth with the Hauppauge HD PVR

Found a new use for it. I've been watching my Netflix on it and capturing the feed. Don't think that's illegal, but it's nice to get some of the movies on the HDD before they go away, possibly permanently. Got Rocky IV last night and 2012 a few days ago. I'm going to do all the first four Rocky's, they get dropped the 1st of January.

[ehh]

Re: I really don't feel like I got my money's worth with the Hauppauge HD PVR

Wow, funny this thread just got bumped.

I got a Hauppauge TV tuner card for Christmas (the $140 model) but I was going to return it for the HD PVR since it's only $60 more. The tuner card is okay but for $60 more it seems like the PVR is much better. Thoughts?

[gschwendt]

Re: I really don't feel like I got my money's worth with the Hauppauge HD PVR

Wow, funny this thread just got bumped.

I got a Hauppauge TV tuner card for Christmas (the $140 model) but I was going to return it for the HD PVR since it's only $60 more. The tuner card is okay but for $60 more it seems like the PVR is much better. Thoughts?

Depending on which model you have, they're most likely designed to do two different things... the TV tuner card is for hooking up a cable connection and/or OTA signals. The HD-PVR is for hooking up a component connection.

If you're wanting to record games, then the HD-PVR will definitely be better. If you're wanting the card to operate as a true DVR, then the tuner card will likely be better.

[BrianFifaFan]

Re: I really don't feel like I got my money's worth with the Hauppauge HD PVR

Wow, funny this thread just got bumped.

I got a Hauppauge TV tuner card for Christmas (the $140 model) but I was going to return it for the HD PVR since it's only $60 more. The tuner card is okay but for $60 more it seems like the PVR is much better. Thoughts?

Get the PVR. Even if you want to do TV, you can get a component selector and hook your cable box through it to the PVR. The card is too limited in it's capabilities. Just my .02, Brian

Here's a better price: http://www.provantage.com/hauppauge-1219~7HAUP13C.htm

[BrianFifaFan]

Re: I really don't feel like I got my money's worth with the Hauppauge HD PVR

Well, two Rocky's down, two to go. Couldn't stand 5, just the first four and "Rocky Balboa." Already have that on DVD. Man, the capture sizes are bad. 13.5 GB a movie. But it does look really good, captured at 720p. I wasn't going to burn them anyway, no biggie.....

[ehh]

Re: I really don't feel like I got my money's worth with the Hauppauge HD PVR

My main goal is to be able to record TV to my HDD. Not going to use it for video games too much or DVD's.

I haven't been able to get the HD-over-air/Clear QAM to work on the tuner yet which is frustrating. I also need to upgrade my video card I'm assuming since the picture stutters when I max it on my 50" TV.

But with the TV tuner I imagine I can only record in HD from the Clear-QAM, not from TNT, TBS, etc - correct? While the PVR will let me record any HD programming in HD to my HDD?

[23]

Re: I really don't feel like I got my money's worth with the Hauppauge HD PVR

Get the PVR. Even if you want to do TV, you can get a component selector and hook your cable box through it to the PVR. The card is too limited in it's capabilities. Just my .02, Brian

Here's a better price: http://www.provantage.com/hauppauge-1219~7HAUP13C.htm

Thats a nice price. I remember that thing used to be $300+.

Id buy one but everyone I read about having one said the converting of the recordings was one of the most difficult things to do

[BrianFifaFan]

Re: I really don't feel like I got my money's worth with the Hauppauge HD PVR

My main goal is to be able to record TV to my HDD. Not going to use it for video games too much or DVD's.

I haven't been able to get the HD-over-air/Clear QAM to work on the tuner yet which is frustrating. I also need to upgrade my video card I'm assuming since the picture stutters when I max it on my 50" TV.

But with the TV tuner I imagine I can only record in HD from the Clear-QAM, not from TNT, TBS, etc - correct? While the PVR will let me record any HD programming in HD to my HDD?

Yeah, that sounds like a PC issue. I used to have stutters even with my Quad when trying to watch HD programming. With my i7, no problems. I think it's more to do with the recording of it in WMC than a playback issue. Your PC is acting ike a DVR, recording a second before you watch it. HD programming is huge in size, it taxes your CPU and HDD heavily. That's why I never try to reord anthing without a outside device. Internal cards get half of their firepower from system resources. The PVR has it's own decoding/encoding chips. The internal card is more of just a tuner....

[BrianFifaFan]

Re: I really don't feel like I got my money's worth with the Hauppauge HD PVR

Thats a nice price. I remember that thing used to be $300+.

Id buy one but everyone I read about having one said the converting of the recordings was one of the most difficult things to do

Not too bad with my i7. The HD-PVR software has a .TS to .mp4 converter. I can fly through converts pretty fast. I can actually just dump the raw files in Vegas 9 and it renders straight from the .TS format. But it doesn't work with something simple like Windows Movie Maker. Then you have to convert everything.

[23]

Re: I really don't feel like I got my money's worth with the Hauppauge HD PVR

Yep that could be pretty rough, especially when trying to convert a video thats a pretty large file

[ehh]

Re: I really don't feel like I got my money's worth with the Hauppauge HD PVR

Yeah, that sounds like a PC issue. I used to have stutters even with my Quad when trying to watch HD programming. With my i7, no problems. I think it's more to do with the recording of it in WMC than a playback issue. Your PC is acting ike a DVR, recording a second before you watch it. HD programming is huge in size, it taxes your CPU and HDD heavily. That's why I never try to reord anthing without a outside device. Internal cards get half of their firepower from system resources. The PVR has it's own decoding/encoding chips. The internal card is more of just a tuner....

So in theory if I upgrade my video card and get the HD signal through the tuner watching HD programming should look as good on my TV (my PC is connected via VGA right now to my 50" Samsung) as it does through a Comcast HD STB?

I'm basically trying to figure out of I should spend the $ to upgrade my video card or just get the PVR. I should note that I don't have HD through the cable company, been trying to cut costs which is the reason I got the TV tuner to begin with.

[BrianFifaFan]

Re: I really don't feel like I got my money's worth with the Hauppauge HD PVR

So in theory if I upgrade my video card and get the HD signal through the tuner watching HD programming should look as good on my TV (my PC is connected via VGA right now to my 50" Samsung) as it does through a Comcast HD STB?

I'm basically trying to figure out of I should spend the $ to upgrade my video card or just get the PVR. I should note that I don't have HD through the cable company, been trying to cut costs which is the reason I got the TV tuner to begin with.

Let me do a little experiment real quick. I have just the cable hooked to my TV card, ( Hauppauge HVR-1800) the OTA antenna is just on the TV. I'm gonna see if I can get HD stable through this card. Like I said, I had a kick-butt card in my Quad and it was a choppy mess. What's your rig, anyway? If it's a dual core, I'd say videocard won't matter/help. Be back....

[ehh]

Re: I really don't feel like I got my money's worth with the Hauppauge HD PVR

It's a 5-year old Dell XPS 400, has 4 GB of RAM in it now but other than that everything is stock.

[BrianFifaFan]

Re: I really don't feel like I got my money's worth with the Hauppauge HD PVR

It's a 5-year old Dell XPS 400, has 4 GB of RAM in it now but other than that everything is stock.

I'd say you might not have enough horsepower. You might be able to get it running with a decent videocard, but your processor is a bit slow. I was successful with hooking my OTA antenna up to Media Center. It's running HD with no hiccups. That said, my quad 9550 with 8 GB DDR2 that choked, as opposed to my i7 820 with 8GB DDR3 RAM that works. I simply don't know what you should do. Even with PVR, you won't be able to capture at 13.5 mb/sec, which you'll need to get a good HD capture. 9.0 will get you a decent looking 720p, but it will vary if you unlock it to have a variable bit rate. That helps the PVR from crashing. It's really about how much you can upgrade your hardware. It's just barely enough to even run the HD-PVR. The internal card is probably even shakier, based on the amount of RAM you have. I'd say maybe the Hava is your best option right now. It's low-def. but you can stream TV throughout your house to your laptop. Oh well, best advice I have....