Will a Hauppauge HD-PVR allow me to record HD cleanly?

[rdefino]

I'm sick of not being able to record HBO, Showtime, and all the others. My cable box has component out, and the Hd-pvr has component in. So i guess I can record anything that come in through them. But how would it look. It's 480i...right?

If this doesn't work well, what are my alternatives?

Thanks

[dadof4]

The HD-PVR records in HD. I have mine recording at 1080i. I can not see any difference between the recording and the original live broadcast. Others have reported some minor degradation

Rich

[rdefino]

Great to hear. How does it integrate with Sagetv? It is easy and seamless?

Thanks for the info

[Taddeusz]

The cable box I have connected to my HD-PVR is set to output the native resolution of whatever channel is being tuned. The HD-PVR will record anything from 480i through 1080i. My recordings, whether they be 480i, 720p or 1080i all look excellent. The 480i recordings through component to my HD-PVR look much better than the recordings from my PVR150 done via s-video.

[rdefino]

Does the Hd-pvr get setup just like a tuner would?

[stanger89]

Works just like any other tuner, except it's got Input options for "Component" and "Component+SPDIF".

[sic0048]

I really does work that well. But you also have to find a way to control your cable STB so that Sage can change the channel when it needs to record something. You generally have 3 options.

1) If your box allows for a firewire connection, you can probably control it this way. This is the most preferred method.

2) You can buy a USB-UIRT - a IR receiver and blaster that connects to the computer via a USB port. Hook an emitter from it on the STB and let Sage blast out the IR commands.

3) The Hauppauge HD-PVR comes with a built in blaster. It seems to be the most difficult method to set up and is the most tempermental, but it won't cost you anything but time to get it to work.

Once you are using the HD-PVR to record the STB, you probably will need to watch TV either via another STB not being used by a HD-PVR, or through Sage itself. That way you don't manually change a channel using the STB remote when Sage is recording something. If you try to change the channel with Sage, you will at least get a pop-up that warns you that you are currently recording the channel. That will give you the option of cancelling the recording, or not changing the channel.

[Sam]

Originally Posted by rdefino

Does the Hd-pvr get setup just like a tuner would?

Yes, but be aware the HD-PVR performs internal encoding to H.264 (you can set the bitrate you want for a tradeoff on size vs quality). There are a few ramifications to this:

- The files are recorded as *.ts, not *.mpg
- Playback to a HD100 is excellent since it has native support for H.264
- Playback to most anything else requires horsepower
- Commercial detection on H.264 is still slower than real time, so no auto com skip on pseudo "live" TV
- Video editing tools like Video Redo do not work on H.264 video

That said, the HD-PVR can produce excellent quality HD recordings which are free of DRM, regardless of the channel. If you are using it for things like HBO, commercials and trimming aren't an issue anyway.

Comskip has a beta release working with H.264, available in the early access section for donators, which will work on the H.264 files directly. However, on my quad-core it takes about 1.5 times the length of the video. That is, I get around 40fps but the HD is 59.94fps so a one-hour show takes about 90 minutes to process for commercial detection. YMMV, and bare in mind that it is still beta and more optimizations may be possible by the time a stable release is made public.

On the other hand, I can convert to a 720x480 mpg in about 20 minutes, and run commercial detection on that in under 5 minutes. Or I can convert to a full resolution HD mpg in about 30 minutes.

[dvd_maniac]

If your box allows for a firewire connection, you can probably control it this way. This is the most preferred method.

I use the USB-UIRT to change the channels on my STBs. Every once in a while my cable Co. sends out an update which powers the STBs off or I get a quick power outage which also shuts them down.
If I use the Firewire connections instead would the STB turn on when receiving a channel change request from the PC?

- Playback to most anything else requires horsepower

I have 1 HD100, 2 MVPs and 2 clients.
How is it transcoding to the MVPs?
My Clients are both Dual-Core and hopefully up to it, but I'm more worried about the MVPs.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by dvd_maniac

How is it transcoding to the MVPs?

Not possible, I don't think a processor exists that can do it yet.

[mikejaner]

On the other hand, I can convert to a 720x480 mpg in about 20 minutes, and run commercial detection on that in under 5 minutes. Or I can convert to a full resolution HD mpg in about 30 minutes.

Sam,
I saw you talking about this in another thread. I looked at the software you were saying you do this with (DVRMS Toolbox), but got confused how you would do this. Could you PM me or detail here a little more, on how to do this? I am very interested in converting a few shows this way. Thanks in advance.

[Sam]

Originally Posted by mikejaner

I looked at the software you were saying you do this with (DVRMS Toolbox), but got confused how you would do this.

You first need to setup the DVRMSToolbox "profile", then optionally define the processing conditions to make it happen automagically. If you only want to do a few files, you may skip the automagic conversion setup.

First, you need to install the prerequisites:

- DVRMSToolbox ( http://babgvant.com/files/folders/10409/download.aspx )
- ATI's AVIVO converter ( http://ati.amd.com/support/drivers/x...xavivo-xp.html )

If you don't have an ATI card, the above installer may not run. In the other thread you mentioned, there are instructions for working around that.

Once the installs are done, verify DVRMSToolbox can perform its precofigured profile for conversion to 320x200 mpg for commercial detection:

- Start DVRMStoMPEGGUI from start menu
- Dbl click Input File to browse to existing *.ts files and select one
- Dbl click Output File and set path and filename for converted video
- Set profile combo to "Convert a file for commercial scanning"
- Click Run

That should produce a 320x200 resolution mpg for you (which is all that may be needed for commercial detection). If you get an error, then you may need to post it on Andy's forums for assistance. See http://babgvant.com/forums/

Once the above works, you just have to modify it to a higher resolution output, or create a new profile and graph. The simplest thing would be to alter the existing profile:

- Start DVRMStoMPEGSettings from start menu
- Highlight profile "Convert a file for commercial scanning"
- Click "Edit profile"
- Highlight "Convert DVR-MS with an explicit graph"
- Click "Configure"
- Click "Configure Filters"
- Click OK on the first two filters to come up (no need to change them)
- On Video Encoder tab, change to a higher quality output:
- Change standard combo to MPEG-2 DVD
- Change avg bit rate to 6300 Mbps or whatever
- Change VBR Peak bitrate, or uncheck VBR for a constant BR
- Click OK
- Click OK on the next two filters to come up (no need to change them)
- On Video Scaling, change to 720x480 or 0x0 to keep original size
- Click OK until all filters have been presented
- Click OK to close the configure dialog
- Click Save to finish saving the changes to the profile
- Click Close to close the DVRMStoMPEGSettings configuration program

Now if you run the profile, you should get a higher quality mpeg output instead of just a 320x200 at 500Kbps.

On my machine, a 720x480 output @ 6.3Mbps takes about 20 mins per hour of video. A 0x0 output (to keep original scaling) takes about 30 mins per hour of video. YMMV

[mikejaner]

Awsome Sam,
Thank you very much. I didn't know about the AVIVO drivers. I will try tonight on my ATI integrated AMD motherboard to see if they will work.

[dvd_maniac]

Sam, I still get an error when trying to configure the graph profile. But I was able to convert some samples of HD-PVR recordings using TMPGenc XPress 4.0. They looked real good. I was wondering if anyone with the HD-PVR with TMPGenc XPress would try to record something at 1080i & full bitrate, then convert to MPEG-2 HD using it.

[mikejaner]

Originally Posted by dvd_maniac

Sam, I still get an error when trying to configure the graph profile. But I was able to convert some samples of HD-PVR recordings using TMPGenc XPress 4.0. They looked real good. I was wondering if anyone with the HD-PVR with TMPGenc XPress would try to record something at 1080i & full bitrate, then convert to MPEG-2 HD using it.

Make sure you have the Arcsoft stuff installed on the machine you are trying to run this on. I ran into the same issue until I installed Arcsoft from the Hauppauge CD.

[dvd_maniac]

Good point. I just ordered mine last night with a couple of 1.5TB drives to use them on.
I will try to install the Arcsoft stuff as soon as it comes in.

[bastian74]

When you use sagetv and the hd pvr, you can start watching a show before it's completed finish recording right? Ala pause live tv?

[Taddeusz]

Originally Posted by bastian74

When you use sagetv and the hd pvr, you can start watching a show before it's completed finish recording right? Ala pause live tv?

Yes

[Sam]

Originally Posted by bastian74

When you use sagetv and the hd pvr, you can start watching a show before it's completed finish recording right? Ala pause live tv?

Yes, provided you are not using Placeshifter. Placeshifter does not support the H.264 transcoding (yet?). The server and HD100 definitely let you, and I believe the client does though I don't have one of those.