3 A Good bit of kit...
Posted:
I seriously did my homework before ordering the Hauppauge HD PVR. AvForums was full of useful comments, good and bad I may add. But overall most folk believed it to be a good piece of kit and having used it the past day or so, I agree. I can't comment on recording from SkyHD or other sat boxes but I can say the quality of recorded footage from my Xbox360 is excellent. It's simple to set up via Windows XP and even although my laptop isn't dual core, recorded footage on 720p plays well enough. I used Windows MovieMaker to edit footage after having converted it to WMV via the supplied software on the Installation CD. The software from ArcSoft is good and it's very simple to use if you're capturing footage that is right in front of you. As for scheduling recordings etc. I can't comment. The component (HD) input is "outed" again to your HD TV without any lag or delay, there is however obvious lag on your laptop or PC monitor by a second or two but what does that matter? If you want to use this device for more than capturing PS3 or 360 footage then I'm sure it will be an excellent purchase for you, particularly if you have a good spec laptop/PC which will handle the full HD recording and playback. The HD footage can be recorded to DVD or Blu-Ray using the software supplied. If I ever upgrade to SkyHD and the box has component output then the device would probably pay for itself considering how much I could archive. The component input/output is not protected/encrypted in any way so there is no problem catching what you want. Sorry I can't comment on all the devices capabilities, hence why I've only given it 3 stars. It does exactly what I want it to do, but giving it 5 stars would be unwise considering I'm not exploiting all the functions. A worthwhile purchase at a decent price for an item that will capture and record HD footage...