After my short and disappointing tour of duty with the Blackmagic Intensity Pro I wanted to make absolutely certain that I gave the Hauppauge HD PVR a solid run through before I even considered a review. After 10 or so hours of recording and an entire day screwing around in different video editing suites I can say without hesitation that the HD PVR is EXACTLY what I was looking for. Setup was intuitive, recording options made perfect sense, quality is fantastic, and hard drive requirements are low.
More on Hauppauge's HD PVR after the jump
What I Wanted vs What I Got
It makes me feel old, but what I really wanted in a capture device was a VCR. I wanted to be able to record hours of video at a time and worry about editing it later. I wanted the quality to be outstanding and the file sizes to be manageable. I wanted to be able to turn on my xbox and play hours of games with my friends and have a recording of the night that I could mess around with, share with my friends, upload to video sharing sites, and enjoy. I wanted to be able to share those moments that nobody would believe you pulled off without seeing it with their own eyes. I wanted to laugh again at the funny moments that make playing games so enjoyable...
What I got with the Hauppauge HD PVR was EXACTLY that! With standard settings I'm seeing file sizes around 4 gigs an hour with 1080i resolution and flawless sound. I'm able to go back and relive the fun times and share them directly to youtube thanks to the device encoding the videos in H.264 MP4. The files are easy to work with in a wide variety of video editing suites and with how cheap external solid state drives have become, they are easy to carry around and share with friends... just as if it was an old VCR tape.
There is one other benefit to the HD PVR over an internal card like the Intensity Pro... you can use it anywhere. I don't have a Playstation 3, but other writers here at T6SROF do. I can easily bring my laptop and PVR with me and record at will. Not being tied down to my desktop for video capture isn't the main attraction, but to me it's the icing on the cake.
Basics
This device sits in between your video source (in my case, an xbox360) and your TV and splits the signal so you can record what is coming out of the source to your PC. It does not have HDMI functionality, so the money I just spent upgrading to HDMI was wasted, but it does come with its own set of component audio/video cables, so at least I didn't NEED to buy anything right out of the gate. What I did end up buying was a six foot optical cable so I could run my audio from the PVR to my Turtle Beach X41 headset in the highest quality. The PVR attaches to your computer using a USB cable.
Setup:
Since the PVR is a USB device, setup was simple. If you can hook your xbox to your TV using component video cables then you will have absolutely no problem setting up the PVR. Just be sure to have an available USB port and an extra optical cable (NOTE: you will not need an extra set of RCA "Red/White" cables if that is how you transfer audio)
Software and Capture:
The device uses a program called ArcSoft Total Media Extreme to capture, edit, and convert video. I do not use this program for the converting or editing of my media, so I can't speak to the quality of those functions. It does allow you to burn DVD discs that are playable on blu-ray players, but I don't have a blu-ray player either, so if that's your thing... go crazy... but I won't be able to confirm or deny that it works.
ArcSoft Total Media Extreme
The program is simple. It only gives you four options: Record, Create Disc, Playback, and Convert. Here I've selected that I'd like to record video which brings me to the capture preview window:
The options on the bottom are just presets. If you select Playstation 3 or Xbox360 it just changes the settings for optimal playback on those devices. You do not need to use the setting for the game system you have. The PVR can also record from set top boxes and any other video source that uses S-video or composite connetions and you could use any of the presets without any problems. You can also decide which of the settings you'd like to change ala carte using the drop-downs if you are more of an advanced user than I am, but I just left everything as is and went to town. To begin your recording all you have to do is click the capture button on the bottom and you're off. When you've finished recording you just press the button again and the file is saved to the hard drive. It's that simple.
Unlike the Blackmagic Intensity Pro, this device does not require a RAID ZERO hard drive configuration. Using the settings above I am seeing file sizes of around 4gigs per hour and the quality is fantastic.
HERE IS AN EXAMPLE
HERE IS AN EXAMPLE
Problems:
So far the only problem I've run into is that the device has a tendency to lock up in between uses. That is why there is a "refresh device" button on the capture window. It really is not a massive problem, but the device has to be on in order to get a signal to your television. If it locks up in between uses and you have to reset the device using your PC then you have to have your PC on even when you are not recording. I am sure you could turn off the PC once everything is good to go, but I haven't really tried that as I've been recording everything I've done for the past week.
TL:DR
If you want to record and share your games online this capture device is PERFECT for you.
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