Hauppauge WinTV-PVR USB2

[dan100]

Has anybody used this device, does it work, how well????
Searched the forums didn't find any listings just wondering.
Thanks
Dan

[Cayars]

It works well with BTV. Make sure your computer supports USB 2 or you will want to pickup an add-in card that supports USB 2. It's a plug-in-play solution works well.

Disregard the drivers that come with it and download the current/beta drivers from Hauppauge's site. The drivers in the box don't allow BTV to change some settings but the new drivers on their site seem to work.

Carlo

[dan100]

If you were in early stages of building pvr, Do you think external (such as Hauppauge wintv-pvr usb2) has any advantages or disadvantages as compared with say for instance the Hauppauge wintv 350 pci card????

I really don't want to have to fight hardware issues, as most of my interaction will be remotely via the web, then when I get home I just want a hard drive full of TV to watch.

[dan100]

Why is a usb 2 device supported, but firewire is not supported, mabey I just dense, and I know that I'm no programer but can anyone explaine reasonably simply why btv will accept digital mpeg 2 input from a usb2 device, but btv can't accept avi input from 1394 device. Maybe I'm over simplifying this but a digital input is a digital input, is it not. The avi output from 1394 device is just more digital info than mpeg2 output from usb2 device.
Confused
Dan

Please don't just say thats the way it is.

[MonsterHTPC]

To your earlier questions.

I personally would prefer internal solutions for a PVR, for a few reasons. If the system is going to be in your entertainment stand or in your home theater area I like it to be as clean and neat as possible, which means the less devices and cables the better, which means going with an internal solution. I have not had a USB version of that device so I can not compare the qualities. Now with the USB device it is a bit more portable if you wish to take it to someplace else, but I could never think of a situation where this would be desireable, but that is just me.

hope that helps some.

the PVR-250 PCI card is a great deal, and reasonably priced.

[dan100]

Thanks for the reply monster, I was beginning to think nobody was going to.

What I am planning is to build system

1 will have lots o storage, would like to use 1394 hd array or at least several drives. The reason for external storage is that I drive a truck for a living and will have a mirror image of basic system in truck, that way I can swap drives when I get home, and take up to a month or more of TV with me while I'm on the road to watch, just be watching stuff thats a few weeks older than when the rest of the world watched it live, then when I'm home again, just swap the drives out and take more new stuff with me again.

2 Will probably want to burn some stuff off to dvd or svcd for long term storabilaty.

3 Will have to be able to program via the web, and or possibly even touch tone phone, "maybe"

4 The whole thing will aslo have to control my sat reciver as I live out in the boonies so no worry about cable tunning just one channel into capture device, with htpc tunning sat reciever.

5 Don't really worry about size of system in house, just rock solid performance. And ability to recover from possible power failure so big UPS with pc interaction, ie graceful power down and reboot is a must as its all unattended almost all the time.

6 Quality is formost disk space is Cheap, Proccessor power is cheap, and there is plenty o time to post proccess files when no recording is taking place, ie re-encode or whatever.

7 Could even off load re-encoding to another machine on lan if needed.

Just a few lines about what I want (need) to make whole thing work for me. May not even be doable yet. I still feel like something is not right when a video system is able to use a usb interface and not able to use firewire (1394) when it (1394) is the ideal bus for video work, why has it been so adopted into camera and DV market if its not the better interface???

Thanks
Dan
ps will try keep up with boards better, but please refain from flaming if I ask somthing thats been covered, since i do have very limited access and time to read all posts.

[Jason Bottjen]

There aren't any 1394 external encoders because of a few reasons:
1. there has not been enough demand for one
2. USB2 is more common in computers than 1394. Although that is less and less true these days
3. For the hardware developer 1394 controller chips are more expensive than USB 1 or 2 controller chips - so the devices would be slightly more expensive
4. Customer perception. Ask 10 non-computer geeks and probably 8-9 will know what USB is, probably 2-3 (maybe) would know what Firewire is, Probably <1 would know what 1394 is by name.

Only reason 1394 became so popular for camcorders is that it came out a long time before USB2. If USB2 would have come out sooner (and been more available) then 1394 probably would have never been the camcorder standard in the first place...

Jason

Originally posted by dan100
Just a few lines about what I want (need) to make whole thing work for me. May not even be doable yet. I still feel like something is not right when a video system is able to use a usb interface and not able to use firewire (1394) when it (1394) is the ideal bus for video work, why has it been so adopted into camera and DV market if its not the better interface???

[dan100]

Please take a look at this device, I think it would be perfect capture device. IMHO

http://www.datavideo-tek.com/content...ac100_page.htm

Let me know what you think of hardware

Dan

The way I understand it firewire (1394) is less computer intensive as it does not even require a computer to operate, devices can communicate directly. USB (1 or 2) still requires a commputer in the middle, as it's devices lack the ability to communicate standalone, 1394 (firewire or 4 pin ilink) and or dvi moniter ports are even showing up on some high end telivisions if I'm not mistaken, and the new 1394 800 standard is still faster than usb. If I'm not mistaken usb was developed to repalce legacy com (serial) ports, parrall (printer) ports, ps2 ports and any other (low speed data buses) used in computers, while 1394 was a higher speed bus to relace legacy ide, and or scsi buses. And I believe that people (manufactures, developers are tryin to make usb something it was never intended to be. Once again IMHO

[MonsterHTPC]

Most all of what you state should be doable.

I still don't see the need for a USB or firewire device. You say quality is foremost then go with the internal solutions. Just IMHO.

I would suggest a dedicated rig at home with snapstream and a very large external hard drive of choice, buy two of these obviously, both identical, since one will be on the road with you while one is at home.

Have a laptop for on the road. This will allow you to use hotels with internet access to change settings on your pvr. I would also recomend Symantec's PC anywhere so incase by some rare chance snapstream hangs you can restart the app. Also this will allow you to effect updates, patches, windows updates etc... Also you can watch the shows on the laptop.

5. An UPS system will keep you safe from brownouts, but you can set the system to come back on after a power out, motherboard bios usually. Also you can set windows to autologin if needed.

The hardware you posted a link too looks good, but i don't know if it works with snapstream, it very likely could. if cost is not an option then go with an external solution. I prefer internal as its usually chepaer and allows me to squander the money saved on other bits of hardware like hard drives and cpu or vid card, but then I do some gaming. hehehehe

[dan100]

Just seems to me that the dac 100 is a natural for this app, if a person were not going to pause live TV then the whole deal is right there, anolog into dac then digital at 25 Mb out to pc via 1394 for recording, and anolog out to TV on other side for viewing, it only costs about $200 bucks and is offering twice the thruput of usb2 devices, so you would then be able to post process any way you want for deep storage and or burning purposes. Like I said it just seems natural for PVR, while to pause live tv you would then still have to process thru ss, just that I don't have that big a need for that particular function, just feel like it would be gr8 with ss front end scheduler for recording purposes. Just have to keep wishing I guess, there are some other software solutions for scheduling I may have to revisit them refresh my memory of what they can and can't do, I can always vpn my way back into the houes here and do it all with some clunky console tools.
Thanks again
Dan

I hope all the right people at SS and BTV are monitering these posts
I'm getting ready to leave home again as we speak, Have fun all

[MonsterHTPC]

True it could have some real applications but we don't know all the numbers.

It comes down to cost normally from what I have found and like mentioned above. 1394 may have all that bandwidth but if its not all needed why pay the extra to use it.

I can't really see how it would be beneficial to have the splitter function, IE cable box to 1394 device to computer and cable box to 1394 device and monitor for viewing. I could see problems with this however. If the system needed to record something, your channel would change and whatever you are viewing would be changed also, and the reverse would happen to recordings in progress.

Also if you don't have a need for some of the functions, don't use them. Live TV is a cool funciton of SS but I don't usually use it either as I prefer to have the system available to record. Although for some instances like sports games it does come in handy in case you want to see a play over again.

I am not sure why you are hard set on a firewire device especially if the quality is the same, but as the saying goes the customer is always right, and above and beyond all else get what you want and prefer. Heck if you aren't happy with it then why buy it.

Hmmm I bet you could mount that baby internally with a dremmel and some ingenuity

Wish I had experience with the device you posted so I could let you know if it works with SS BTV or not.