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: Easy to use and OK video quality but NO HDMI inputs
Summary: 3 Stars
Pros:
1. Easy to setup and easy to use (except if you try to record PC games)
2. The video quality is good (not great)
3. The device works as intended.
4. Has component pass through so you can put it directly in line with the signal you are trying to record. This makes it great for recording from gaming consoles.
6. Software UI is extremely intuitive.
7. Software is light weight.
8. All the hard work of conversion and compression of the video is done by the box itself which takes the load away from the computer so it can be used with older and slower computers.
9. The video output is in H.264 MP4 format which offers the best quality for a given file size and will likely be the default video standard of years to come.
10. Works with Windows 7
Cons:
1. I found the quality lacking for recording PC game play which is the primary purpose I purchased the device for. You can record with a high bit rate but it doesn't do a good job compressing motion. A lot of information is lost in fast action scenes and the video becomes blocky.
2. No local storage in the device. You MUST have a PC hooked up to it to record the video to.
3. No HDMI inputs so you must have a device with component outputs (red, blue, green cable). This means it doesn't work well for recording PC games because most graphics cards in PCs don't have component outputs anymore. This is a major negative in my opinion.
4. Not enough video compression settings. I would have liked more control of the video compression so I could adjust the quality more.
5. Only records up to 1080i 30fps (i = interlaced, p = progressive) so it isn't full HD capable.
If this device was capable of recording unencrypted HDMI signals or DVI signals as well as the component signals, it would have a much larger customer audience. It would be used heavily by PC gamers for recording PC games and it would be used by tons of other people for recording things from the PC such as instructional videos. I really hope this feature is added in a future device.
Digital camera Review: Easy use
Summary: 5 Stars
Product worked as advertised right out of the box. Easy recording and DVD burning. No whistles or bells to get in the way.
Thanks
Don D
Digital camera Review: Everything I needed
Summary: 5 Stars
Since my wife has filled up our DirecTV HD DVR with movies she already has on DVD, I needed a way to pull HD content out and archive it. This device fit the bill. However, for a while there, I was so disappointed in the apparent audio sync issues that I almost returned it. Good thing I didn't as it wasn't this device's fault.
The files are saved as M2TS H.264 files, and my AMD Phenom X3 8650 based system seemingly couldn't play the files without serious audio sync issues. After replacing my Vista 64 installation with Vista 32, I was still having the audio sync problem.
Well, it turns out that my problem was that I was using Media Player Classic and VLC to play the M2TS files. They apparently don't take advantage of the ATI hardware based H.264 decoder. After installing a trial version of Cyberlink PowerDVD, I found out that all of the recorded files play great. Low CPU utilization, and absolutely no sync issues. Highly recommended.
Digital camera Review: Exceeded expectations
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm fairly incompetent when it comes to technology but wanted to capture Blu Ray quality programming on my computer since I travel a ton and always find myself sitting on airplanes looking to kill time. This little device is pretty amazing. It took me about 15 minutes to figure out how to hook it up and another 10 to actually execute the hookup. Voila - streaming hi-def quality programming right into my computer. I think it's a steal for the price as I don't anticipate any Blu Ray recorders hitting the U.S. market for at least a couple of years thanks to our rich movie executive friends in Hollywood.Digital camera Review: Exceeded expectations!
Summary: 5 Stars
Some reviews read here almost turned me away. I'm glad I realized they were dated, and based on my satisfaction with other Hauppage products, ordered it. It arrived about a week ago, and I've been "crashing and bashing" it and the ArcSoft and Titan TV "hooks" to the hardware. It does everything promised, a little bit better than promised.
The included remote control is useless, but I expected to put it into the same drawer with dozens of other remote controls that don't matter when working with a computer monitor, rather than a large HD TV. By the time I can afford a 90" HDTV monitor for my computer, I imagine Hauggage will have theirs working.
I have to get up very early, so usually can't stay up late to watch the good shows on TV. I use this for "time shifting" more than anything else. It's nice to be able to watch last night's show in Hi-Def.