Hauppauge 1212 HD-PVR High Definition Personal Video Recorder by HAUPPAUGE
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Digital camera reviews of Hauppauge 1212 HD-PVR High Definition Personal Video Recorder
Digital camera Review: Extremely difficult to install & Glitchy!
Summary: 1 Stars
This product was extremely difficult to install. I worked at it for about 6 hours before figuring out that the component cable they supplied was defective. It had the green and blue markings transposed on one end. Yikes! The tech support guy I called had an attitude and was not helpful. During the software installation, it caused my computer to lock up and then it wouldn't boot. Later I had to go through Windows 7 startup repair, etc. I then had to re-install the software, uninstall it, and start clean. After I figured out what was wrong with the cable, I was able to install it with no further problems. The video quality is very good, but if I had it to do over again, I wouldn't buy this. The remote doesn't work at all. It is for 3rd party software and doesn't work with Windows Media Center. You can program it to work with your set-top box, but what's the point? I just use the regular set-top box remote instead.
Update 8/29/2010:
This product is also very glitchy. The image will sometimes lock up, the sound will sometimes go out, the COMPUTER will sometimes lock up from it. I have a really good system with quad core, NVIDIA Quadro 4800, etc. You have to unplug the USB to the device to get the computer to boot. Sometimes it will say there is a weak signal and then 2 seconds later be fine. I would avoid this product.
Update 1-20-2010:
The sound is always lagging a few seconds behind when recording surround sound. Lousy product. Tried tech support with no luck and countless hours of troubleshooting. Many complaints on the internet about this product. Does anyone know of a class action suit going against this company?
Digital camera Review: Few alternatives exist
Summary: 5 Stars
<Update 01/2011. I have moved my HTPC into the basement and now this is on a Koutech IO-HU430 4-Port SuperSpeed USB 3.0 External Hub via this cable: Tripp Lite U324-010 USB 3.0 Super Speed 5Gbps A Male - A Female Extension Cable (10 Feet, Blue) and it has not frozen up even once since. About 2 weeks now (14 run time hours). Very nice. I was previously worried because had read that it is fickle about sharing a USB controller.>
<Update 09/2010. It is still going strong. Occasionally, but very seldom, it does freeze up before the show is finished, however I am uncertain if it is software or hardware related. I have found that it is less likely to lock up if you uncheck the "Enable Preview on Recording" checkbox and minimize it.>
<Update 02/2010. My first unit was defective. It kept stopping the recording (locking up) at random. Hauppauge was very helpful in getting me a replacement, which so far has been working without any problem. They do have an option to ship the replacement first and you can ship the faulty unit back after you receive the replacement>
I have had my eye on this for over a year now, thinking they would release a new version at some point. I finally gave up waiting when I purchased an HTPC.
I had been using a DVD-R to move stuff off the Comcast HD-DVR (because the hard drive on that thing is TINY!!!), but the quality was very poor. The 1212 records in 1080i and it looks great.
I have a new Win7 64bit Intel-i7 machine with 4TB of hard drive space, so I figured it was about time to get this thing because at some point the movie industry may decide to stomp their feet and pressure Hauppauge to stop selling it.
I love the quality I get when it works.
It was frustrating when it didn't (problem solved, see update above)
My HTPC is fast enough that working with TS files is no problem at all for me hardware wise.
The Arcsoft TotalMedia Extreme software that came with it (version 1) to capture the stream, kept crashing, every single time. Downloading version 2 fixed that, but that was another $40 or so.
As far as the remote... I was unaware when I purchased it that it can be used as a standard remote control for Windows Media Center. When it works it works. A bit slow, but it works. I downloaded the codes from Logitech/Harmony no problem. However, every time the device freezes, the remote stops working until you re-start the Auto-IR in your computer's startup folder. I wound up disabling this remote functionality and simply using another Win7 remote IR receiver by Pinnicle.
I have had no problem using either the analog L+R audio inputs or the optical Toslink digital inputs.
I do not use it as a pass-thru device (I have the hdmi cable going from the cable box to the A/V receiver to the TV). I have no problem with my cable box or my bluray player outputting the signal simultaneously to both the component/analog and the hdmi/toslink outputs.
One unexpected side effect of this setup however is that when I turn off the A/V receiver to goto bed while it records, I sometimes got a message on the component output that my hdmi cable did not have HDCP. So now I just turn off the TV without turning off the receiver and all is well.
Based on the reviews, I knew going into it that it was tempermental and the probability of getting a defective one was high, but it is still the best option I have found so far to record in 1080i.
Digital camera Review: Finnicky: Be prepared to fiddle for optimal performance
Summary: 3 Stars
I purchased the HD-PVR to record gameplay from my Xbox 360 onto my laptop. Unfortunately, I ran into many problems and ended up spending a couple of hours and another $85 to get it working in a usable fashion. On top of that, I'm never quite sure if the finicky thing is actually recording because it only tells you the recording failed AFTER you STOP recording and it fails with very little explanation.
Set up was a nightmare. Even though I'm using composite video cables, it turns out the software wants me to choose "YPbPr" instead of "Composite Video" as the input. Next, I accidentally mixed up the input and output optical audio cables. This audio mistake mysteriously killed the video feed! This led me to debug video for an hour, before realizing it was an audio problem. Next, I discovered that after passing audio through the HD-PVR, my bass suddenly got much higher in my rear speakers, so I had to manually tweak my receiver's bass when I switched from HD-PVR to other inputs. To get around this, I purchased an optical splitter ($10) and another optical cable ($25) and go straight from my Xbox to my receiver. This was on top of the optical cable I had to buy already to go from HD-PVR to receiver ($25.)
Then, I noticed that the pass through video from the HD-PVR was a little bit jumpy. It would maybe skip a couple of frames every three seconds. This made no sense, as it's supposed to be a pass through, but I checked a direct connection from Xbox to TV and problem went away (maybe it was too many connections? Xbox -> HD-PVR -> Receiver -> TV?) Another splitter later ($25, Xbox -> VGA Out -> VGA/Component Splitter -> TV/HD-PVR)and things finally smoothed over. Plus now I could play with VGA graphics on my TV instead of slightly degraded component video (note, the HD-PVR doesn't support VGA. It's recording the component video from the splitter.)
Finally, I ran into problems with recording failing for no apparent reason. I would record a video, hit stop recording and the software would tell me it failed to record, with no explanation. I narrowed it down to the boot order of my computer: The HD-PVR must be on and attached before booting the recording laptop. Another half hour wasted. Now, I always hit record then stop to make sure everything is working before actually doing a real recording.
Now, with a snake pit of cables in front of my TV, a laptop and the HD-PVR itself, I'm recording HD video 1280x720 gameplay videos without loss of performance while playing! The recorded picture quality is quite clear, with only a tiny bit of aliasing when moving quickly and awesome stereo sound quality (I record stereo audio only to reduce file size.) If working, the HD-PVR is very solid. It's just getting there that will have you tearing your hair out.
Digital camera Review: Flicker issue, hopefully a fluke. Replacement will tell.
Summary: 3 Stars
OVERALL REVIEW: 6.2 (temporary)
My review is biased because there seemed to be a technical issue with mine, though the packaged USB cord is also rather short for this objects purposes. Hopefully my replacement PVR will prove that this was just a fluke. I'll try to change my rating then if necessary.
Despite the issue(s), it was still able to record high quality videos of gameplay with only a reasonable amount of hassle, as seen below.
THE LONG STORY
The one I received ended up causing a strange flickering effect on my LG TV screen. However, the preview on record image (and therefore, the recorded image) did not have these flickers, which is why I ruled out it being an issue with the PS3 or the entire PVR, since otherwise all the images would be messed up.
After trying several varieties of component cables (ruled out cables: flicker persisted) and the direct connection to between PS3 and TV (ruled out TV component-in: flicker did not persist), the only thing left seemed to be the component-out ports on the PVR. As of yet though, I can't be sure if this was an issue that was caused by Hauppauge (the manufacturer) or Amazon (where I ordered it from).
In addition, it comes with a pretty short usb cord, so you'll have to either make sure your PC is within reach of your entertainment system, or risk getting a USB extension. Hauppauge, however, makes a point to highlight how they don't suggest using anything that wasn't packaged with it, and therefore, aren't responsible for it screwing up when you use a usb extension or (god forbid) an alternative cord entirely.
Digital camera Review: Funtional device, but not without problems
Summary: 4 Stars
I bought this box because I save lots of sports events, and I wanted some way to capture and keep them in high definition. The good news is, it does work, and it works on any HD channel, which is a must, since a regular tuner for a video card typically only works on broadcast TV. I have now captured a bunch of events off of ESPN and The Big Ten network in HD, and a few HD movies off of HBO. The ability to do this is like a godsend for me. No longer do I have to archive my favorite sports events in standard definition using old technology.
However, there are some problems. The biggest problem with this device is that the software that comes with it is extremely primitive. You can basically only do two things with it -- capture and convert to .WMV format. Forget about editing. The editing software is worthless. This package would have been much better if there had been a way to convert and edit in one step. As it stands, the editing function is tied directly to the "burn to DVD" function.
This box is also extremely unstable with a VCR feed. I have tried to capture many of my old videotaped events, and I have had all sorts of problems. Any time that the tape skips or bobbles, the box completely crashes, forcing you to unplug it and plug it back in again to get it going. This is an extreme nuisance. If you are planning on using this box to rip all of your VHS collection onto your computer, then forget about it.
One other problem that I had with the software is that the video codecs that came with it screwed up at least one of my games (Fallout 3). I had to turn them off to get the game to play. It wasn't hard to do this once I had found the problem, but it took at least a few hours of troubleshooting to find it.
Still a worthy purchase though, as it's the only device capable of doing what it does. There's a ways to go before I would call this an outstanding product.