Hauppauge Colossus HD-PVR

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by vividweb

I just wonder if the switch from H264 to MPEG2 is too much of change and is more of a new product than a 2nd gen. I'm hopeful as well, especially because Hauppauge seems to be the only consumer level company to be building products for this need. They just need a dual chip version instead of passthrough.

As noted it's not a switch, it looks that they're ADDING MPEG-2 to the feature set of the HD PVR. And as far as a "change" MPEG-2 is an older and much more well supported codec so if anything, I'd guess the MPEG-2 will work better than the H.264, if only by way of compatibility.

And remember Hauppauge isn't making the encoder, they're buying one off the shelf that's already probably used in camcorders and the like. The encoding is probably the easiest, most stable part of the whole thing.

From what I've seen of the HD PVR issues, they seemed to revolve around two things, the USB interface, and the IR interface. They eliminated USB with this solution, and from what I remember reading about the IR thing, it sounded like they'd isolated a (the?) problem with that to the part/provider they chose so that should be fixable in a new product.

I thought that too until I bought my third HD-PVR. I have one (newer rev) that has audio drift issues over SPDIF, audio/video sync issues don't qualify as a solid encoding. For a large number of HD PVR's the encodings are solid.

Technically that's muxing, not encoding, I'm not sure what part does the muxing, it might be the drivers. My point was there's really nothing unstable about the current H.264 encoder, the HD PVRs problems seem to be outside of that.

Originally Posted by barney B.A.

So, if this thing has unencrypted hdmi input, would this work with an hdfury to capture from the hdmi port of an stb?

You'd have to use component with the HD Fury.

Originally Posted by Chriscic

My 2 HD-PVRs occasionally act up, but personally I wouldn't be running to "upgrade" to these. Still, happy to see a potentially better solution pop up.

I'll probably grab one, to compare to my HD PVR and my R5000. If it works well it will probably replace my R5000 since that seems to have occasional tuning issues I don't have with my HD PVR/USB-UIRT.

Too bad it's still from Hauppauge.

I've had very good luck with Hauppague. My WinTV PVR PCI and HD PVR were both first gen products that were "groundbreaking" in this market, they both had quirks but worked well enough to be relied upon. Outside of those their follow on products (PVR 500, PVR250) were both rock solid in my experience.

[wrems]

There would be some promise for Placeshifting with this too!

[Chriscic]

Originally Posted by stanger89

I've had very good luck with Hauppague. My WinTV PVR PCI and HD PVR were both first gen products that were "groundbreaking" in this market, they both had quirks but worked well enough to be relied upon. Outside of those their follow on products (PVR 500, PVR250) were both rock solid in my experience.

Yea, I kinda love 'em for creating and selling the HD-PVR (without them we'd have no like product), and kinda hate 'em for the enormous time suck and annoyance trying to get the things stable. Actually, I don't so much resent the fact that there were challenges, but rather that Hauppauge has always stayed completely silent. Is it too much to ask for a company to listen to and engage with it's customers online? They should have been able to figure out what the problems were and how to fix, or at least engaged the community and tried to help them.

[wayner]

What would be useful is to have multiple component inputs thereby negating the need to tie up two internal slots and eliminating USB issues.

But one problem, as vividweb said, is that it will push you to a full ATX board and they are getting harder to find - I know as I am looking for a new full size ATX board that supports the integrated graphics in some of the Intel i5 and i3 CPUs and they are hard to find.

[razrsharpe]

Originally Posted by wrems

There would be some promise for Placeshifting with this too!

i placeshift well with my hdpvr (recording 720p). Displaying 480i on an hd100 in the remote location. Support had me set the following property item to get acceptable playback.

xcode_fix_broken_hdpvr_streams=true

[wayner]

But Placeshifting of MPEG-2 files is much less fraught with problems. It also means that Placeshifting or Comskipping could be done with much less CPU since MPEG-2 files are much easier to decode than H.264. And it also means that you have more options for editting video.

[SHS]

The best optoin rigth now is AMD 4x or 6x CPU + Gigabyte GA-770 or GA-MA770 that way you get 4 1x PCIe slot there are some 7 PCIe but they cost a arm and leg and mainly build around for High End Gamer or High End Server

[Fuzzy]

Nevermind the fact that MPEG-2 streams seek much faster as well.

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by SHS

The best optoin rigth now is AMD 4x or 6x CPU + Gigabyte GA-770 or GA-MA770 that way you get 4 1x PCIe slot there are some 7 PCIe but they cost a arm and leg and mainly build around for High End Gamer or High End Server

There are also PCIe splitters on the market, that can split, say, an x4 slot into 4 x1 slots. (usually uses a ribbon cable, but some are the horizontal riser type). example

[SHS]

PCI Express Expansion case is a better go way to and just like thoses PCIe splitters there very high cost product.

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by SHS

PCI Express Expansion case is a better go way to and just like thoses PCIe splitters there very high cost product.

True, but their cost is based on infintessimally low demand. There really isn't much to them, as PCIe x16 really is 16 separate PCIe x1 expansion slots. They could be manufactured for a couple bucks, if the market was there for them.

[trini0]

Originally Posted by wrems

There would be some promise for Placeshifting with this too!

+1

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by Chriscic

Yea, I kinda love 'em for creating and selling the HD-PVR (without them we'd have no like product), and kinda hate 'em for the enormous time suck and annoyance trying to get the things stable. Actually, I don't so much resent the fact that there were challenges, but rather that Hauppauge has always stayed completely silent. Is it too much to ask for a company to listen to and engage with it's customers online? They should have been able to figure out what the problems were and how to fix, or at least engaged the community and tried to help them.

Not to much to ask, but I think it's too much to expect. Realize that we are very, very lucky here with a company as involved as SageTV. They are absolutely the exception. I can't think of another company that engages with it's customers in the same way.

I mean yeah, it would be nice if a Hauppauge rep would stop by and talk to us, but from what I've seen they've been very helpful, they just require individuals to contact them, and the support is private/individual. From the sounds of it they replaced quite a lot of HD PVRs, some several times.

[toricred]

Did I read this correctly? This thing takes HDMI as an input? Would the output from a DTV box be unencrypted?

[SHS]

Originally Posted by toricred

Did I read this correctly? This thing takes HDMI as an input? Would the output from a DTV box be unencrypted?

Today, the only unencrypted devices which provide this are the Xbox360 and most HD video cameras with HDMI ports.

[Bikeman]

Seems like an awful lot of unused space on that card. Looks like all components could fit on a low profile card.

I'm waiting for a dual tuner card if its gonna be a full size card.

Jeff

[Comitizer]

I think this seems awesome. From what I understand, USB was one of the biggest issues with the old unit. Moving to PCI-E would be great.

I'll think about buying one for sure.

[teesee150]

I can't wait to ditch my HD PVRs for two of these!!

[wayner]

Why not offer this in a dual tuner mode? Isn't every other internal card made by Hauppauge a dual tuner these days?

[craigap]

It's not a dual tuner??? Looking at the picture I thought it looked like it has 3HDMI connections. I assumed 2in and 1out for the passthrough.