Hauppage PVR - A Reasonable Alternative? 62
"I have the following problems with Hauppage's software:
- When I set the "pause buffer" to 5GB, it doesn't work properly after 1 hour (1GB per hour, set at coarsest resolution). It works fine at 1GB, the default setting.
- There is a +10 second button, but it is not configurable. I would also like a +30 second button and +2 minute button.
- Sometimes, when using the +10 second button, it freezes for awhile.
Does anyone else out there have this hardware, and have reproduced these problems? I'm using Windows XP and have the PVR USB version of the hardware. I tried contacting Hauppage technical support, and they said that they may someday attempt to reproduce and fix the bug, if they feel like it. Yes, I downloaded the latest driver and software from their website.
Except for those problems, I'm really satisfied with the hardware. I recommend it to anyone considering a Tivo. I just wish Hauppage tech support would fix the obvious reproducible bugs. They are obviously software flaws, and not hardware flaws, so I'm looking for alternate drivers."
Where did you get the idea...? (Score:4, Interesting)
The box functions just fine without it. You just lose the ability to schedule recordings based on that program guide data.
And just like you would with a PC-based PVR, you have the ability to roll your own aftermarket program data solution and feed it to the PVR for use, should Tivo go under. However, it's the program guide data that keeps Tivo in business. And as one of, if not the most successful embedded Linux product ever to make it to market, it's in the community's best interest to support Tivo. That includes paying for the subscription that keeps the company alive.
Re:Where did you get the idea...? (Score:2)
I approve of embedded Linux as much as the next guy, but I can't see your logic here. As I understand it, you're saying that TiVo makes an embedded Linux device and sells it, so it's our duty to buy it?
That makes no sense at all. I'll buy it if I want it (I do) and if the pricing is reasonable (it's not). Not tying up a phone with long-distance calls (if they cut off any toll-free numbers they have in my area) is also a huge factor.
When TiVo has a lower subscription fee and/or they give the box away for free, and when it uses broadband access to download program listings and/or can get the listings from my digital cable box or satellite reciever, then maybe I'll consider it. At the moment, however, I'm not going to buy their product and pay their fees just because they used Linux when they made their product. When TiVo provides good hardware and good service for the price, then I'll buy into it. And before anyone brings up the idea of 'help and help alike', remember that they're not giving anything away, they're selling the boxes and the info. They're not sharing, and neither will I.
--Dan
Re:Where did you get the idea...? (Score:3, Informative)
The price I paid for my Tivo, new with warranty:
$170
I don't tie up the phone with long distance calls, or even toll free calls (I don't subscribe).
When TiVo has a lower subscription fee and/or they give the box away for free, and when it uses broadband access to download program listing and/or can get the listings from my digital cable box or satellite reciever
The subscription price can't get any lower than the $0 I'm paying per month. Giving away the box for free, is well... ridiculous. You can download anything you want over your broadband link, including tv listings from tvguide.com. The DirecTivo actually does use the satellite signal.
When TiVo provides good hardware and good service for the price, then I'll buy into it.
The hardware is outstanding. And in circumstances like these, dedicated embedded hardware will always kick the ass of generic trying-to-do-everything PC hardware.
Re:Where did you get the idea...? (Score:1)
Re:Where did you get the idea...? (Score:1)
I beg to differ. What is to say they don't send along a kill command right before they go under, that renders the unit useless?
Re:Where did you get the idea...? (Score:2)
Re:Where did you get the idea...? (Score:1)
Why whould they send a kill signal? they would gain nothing from it. That's just ridiculous. It's not the same as if you were stealing satellite service. There the sat company has a lot to gain by killing illegal cards, but if tivo goes out of business then there is nothing for them to gain by sabotaging legitimate customer's devices. (except a class action lawsuit)
Comparisons to TiVo (Score:3, Insightful)
You're paying a subscription fee for the program guide data that is downloaded, and upgrades to the software running on the TiVo. Where are you going to get your program guide data, how hard will it be to get it into your system and use it, and how correct is it going to be? I never have a problem with TiVo's guide data.
Besides, you may have control over the hardware, but my TiVo is incredibly cool and easy to use. I prefer that trade-off.
If Hauppage went broke or chose to stop supporting it, I can still use it in its present form (not true with Tivo).
Well I could still use TiVo, but it would be just a big VCR until someone comes along that can send guide data updates to it. Since so many other hacks have been done on TiVo already, I would be VERY surprised if a new hack wasn't released to allow this to happen somehow (scraping guide data from some other service). The main reason no one is working on this for TiVo now is because most of the hackers that mess with TiVo respect the company enough to leave things alone which would cause TiVo to lose money (and go out of business).
And if TiVo ever does go out of business, you can bet your sweet bippy there will be companies lined up to take them over. Imagine being able to buy TiVo for pennies on the dollar at a bankruptcy sale, and have all their subscribers and technology, without any of their debt?
TiVo is Hackable (Score:1, Offtopic)
Since I got my unit 2 years ago, I've broken even on my lifetime subscription compared to monthly charges. If TiVo goes under, I think I've got my value out of the purchase.
More anti-FUD (Score:3, Informative)
Re:More anti-FUD (Score:3, Interesting)
That's nice, but I can think of two problems:
1. The people with the backdoors would probably be legally enjoined from releasing them if TiVo were to die, say, by a bankruptcy court. If you were a creditor that was going to own the remnants of TiVo, wouldn't you want control of the boxes? There's no revenue without that control.
2. TiVo could be taken over by a more rapacious company, which could, say, triple the subscription fees. (The "lifetime" subscription isn't an option, since it's only for the lifetime of the box--deceptive advertising, IMHO.) There is no danger of this with a non subscription-based solution like the Hauppage PVR.
I have been hesitant to buy a PVR because I don't watch much TV to begin with, and because I don't want to become a lifetime cash cow for one of these companies, only to have them remove features (30 second skip, for example) and force updates (like the one that removed the 30 second skip) at their whim. They have a right to use that business model, so long as they're honest about it--I'm just not interested myself.
Re:More anti-FUD (Score:3, Informative)
Re:More anti-FUD (Score:1)
Re:More anti-FUD (Score:2)
(BTW, I think this lifetime arrangement it better then most other 'lifetime' things, that don't transfer to a new owner. What 'lifetime' contract or guarantee have you ever heard of that continues on to something new you buy?)
Re:More anti-FUD (Score:1)
What TiVo's doing is directly analogous to a company offering a "lifetime warranty" on a washing machine, then saying out the other side of its mouth that "lifetime" means the lifetime of the washer--when it breaks, the warranty is over.
They could have called it a "unit subscription" or similar if they had wanted to be forthright.
And calling out a disingenuous marketing practice isn't being a conspiracy theorist, thank you very much.
Re:More anti-FUD (Score:2)
http://www.tivo.com/get/tivo_service.asp [tivo.com]
Re:More anti-FUD (Score:1)
Sorry to poke holes into your argument.......
Re:More anti-FUD (Score:1)
Re:More anti-FUD (Score:1)
I made the judgement that TiVo expected the life of the hardware to be at least long enough for the cost of the monthly subscription to intersect with the fixed cost for the lifetime subscription. I expected the hardware to last at least that long, so my only gamble, in my opinion, was betting that TiVo, as a corporation would survive beyond that cost intersection.
I don't watch that much TV, but in the 16 months I've had it, I feel like I've already received my moneys worth. At least for me, a lifetime subscription was the right choice.
Re:More anti-FUD (Score:2)
Re:More anti-FUD (Score:2)
Give some specific examples. From what I've heard, the opposite is true.
Re:More anti-FUD (Score:1)
I don't know about Tivo, but with ReplayTV, you can set up a manual record with all the same options as a normal VCR - start time, end time, channel, record quality....
Not to mention a real 30 second skip button.
Re:More anti-FUD (Score:1)
Re:More anti-FUD (Score:2)
Tell me again which brand Microsoft is associated with?
Like the idea of a USB PVR? (Score:2, Interesting)
The thing about these products that concern me is that they are USB based-- I suspect that the MPEG2 image quality will not be that nice.
I'm wondering if there's a market for a good quality computer based PVR. One that encodes in real time to an advanced format (say MPEG4) from a high quality image stream.
This would result in a much better recording ratio-- more hours to a gigabyte and better video quality. (And it can be done in real time in software on good hardware)
The problem with people making PVRs in the past has been lack of acces to hardware drivers for All In Wonder cards, etc. This seems to be the insurmountable problem so far. (Though I think I have a great solution.)
So, what do you think? Know of any open source projects trying to do this?
If my solution works, it will result in better video quality than you get from Tivo or the USB product in this article, both because its compressed in MPEG4 rather than MPEG2, and because the source signal is much better . (At least in the USB case, the advantages over TIVO would be codec choice and flexibility of being an open platform-- you can easily move video in and out, etc.)
Would such a product be valuable to you? Woudl you buy it? You'd probably be spending about as much as to buy a TIVO for the hardware & software solution I'm thinking of-- but your capacity, ability to move the files around, ability to share the video to other TVs, etc, would be greatly improved.
Or put another way, my hypothesis is that the TIVO solution is pretty good- decent quality, all in one box, fits like a VCR and controlled by remote. The PC solutions have not been so good- bad Windows software, or lack of access to drivers or poor shovelware to bundle with the cards. So, I think a solution that provides the advantages of using your PC to do the recording, with better format, and high quality imaging (As well as the other features of Tivo- speculative recording, IR control, etc.) is a market opportunity... Am I right?
Re:Like the idea of a USB PVR? (Score:2)
Re:Like the idea of a USB PVR? (Score:2)
Most of these USB devices are for people dealing with VCR tapes or for web streaming, so 320x240 is fine for them.
Back of the envelope, USB can- just barely- fit a DVD video stream in it, but I wouldn't try to ship a product that was trying to do it for an hour without dropping frames-- highly unlikely that would work reliably. USB is only 12 megabits (not Bytes) per second. I think its also not isochronous.
Not that I'm knocking USB- its perfect for Modems, keyboards, joysticks and floppy drives-- what it was designed for.
MPEG2 does not mean "DVD quality". MPEG2 can encode to high quality (not "quite high") but you certainly can't then get that stream thru a USB buss!
At any rate, the USB video products that I've seen, including the one this thread is about, aren't even trying to do high quality video. That is my point.
Re:Like the idea of a USB PVR? (Score:2)
If you want to assume that a USB video device will be low quality based on available products, don't pin the blame on a perfectly capable technology. If you do that you'll just end up with the same crappy devices that plug into a more expensive bus.
I dream that one day future PCs will be designed based on technological merits instead of marketing doublespeak. Unfortunatly that day will likely never come.
Re:Like the idea of a USB PVR? (Score:2)
80.4%? Really? Did you know that %100 of statistics such as this are made up on the spot?
Seriously, though. USB has trouble streaming just audio thru hubs- that's why Griffin Technology made an "audio hub" so that their USB microphones would work.
From what I know the standard doesn't even support time sychnronous communication... it was NOT designed for streaming. It was designed for keyboards and maybe modems.
Please, if you're going to disagree with me, point to some evidence. Feel free to read Griffin's description of the audio hub issues on their website.
You love USB? Great. From what I understand, USB 2.0 will fix most of the issues I have, though its bandwidth will only be 480Mbits/second. Certainly enough to run DV over it if its compressed (not D1 video).
But the point remains-- there are NO decent quality USB video solutions. The evidence points to this being because USB wasn't designed for this, and you can argue about whether it can get "DVD" quality video or not-- the simple fact is that there are no devices that do this.
Given that USB is far more prevalent on PCs than FireWire (which *does* do it, and far better than DVD quality, in fact) if USB could do this, market forces would make it a desirable thing to do.
This isn't marketing, this is technology-- the protocol wasn't designed for streaming media. The new version apparently takes it into account, and maybe that will solve the problem. But there exists no good quality USB video encoders at this point.
Which is unfortunate.
Re:Like the idea of a USB PVR? (Score:2)
While that may be true, this is not a statistic, it's math. Maybe you should do some math before you shoot your mouth off.
A 9.4GB (byte, not bit) DVD holds 133 minutes of full quality video with a 5.1 audio track.
(((9.4*1024*1024*1024*8)/133)/60) = 10118469 bits/sec
USB has a sustained bandwidth of 12Mb (bits, not bytes) per second.
(12*1024*1024) = 12582912 bits/sec
10118469/12582912 =
I agree that there are no quality solutions on the market at present, but I happen to work with USB all the time, like writing actual code, and creating actual devices. I'm not talking out of my ass. The bus technology is not to blame. There are issues, and they can be overcome.
Re:Like the idea of a USB PVR? (Score:2)
USB does not do *sustained* 12Mb per second.
The reports I've seen is that USB offers, at best, 6Mb per second, sustained.
And, of course, USB is not isochronous. As I've pointed out twice now.
Furthermore, I did do the math, and provided it in my post.
I really don't think there's much point in continuing this debate. You are using marketing numbers to make a claim, rather than taking into account real world numbers and the real world experience of the companies providing USB solutions.
And, while you continue to claim that it "can" do this, nobody is able to *show* it doing it, and I've repeately pointed out reasons why it probably *can't*.
You really haven't addressed my point, actually.
Re:Like the idea of a USB PVR? (Score:2, Informative)
There are several in various stages. Hit freshmeat and search for "PVR". Also check out the mjpegtools [sourceforge.net] for enough of the basic kit (recording, editing, etc) to get going (lacks only a nice integration with a scheduler).
The last bit of kit I'm looking for is something to do the "pause live TV" thing. I suppose one could tweak lavrec (part of the aforementioned mjpegtools) to record to a circular buffer, and dump it as needed...
-ZK-
Re:Like the idea of a USB PVR? (Score:2)
Thanks. it looks like mjpegtools provides some of what I need, but more specifically I've found a codec component to do it. Now I just need to get the code written.
Re:Like the idea of a USB PVR? (Score:1)
Re:Like the idea of a USB PVR? (Score:2)
I disagree. USB is a great low-bandwidth protocol. I think they should just stop trying to compete with firewire and use firewire! Its not like its expensive or anything.
That way we'd have USB and FireWire everywhere and both would be better supported.
Instead we have USB bringing a knife to a gunfight. Its never going to beat firewire, without trying to become firewire (which its unsuited to) and the "comparison" only detracts from the standardization we need.
FireWire is ready to go at 3.2Gbps over very long runs...
Another Comparison (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Another Comparison (Score:1)
Re:Another Comparison (Score:2)
Re:Another Comparison (Score:1)
Re:Another Comparison (Score:2)
This solution does produce a high quality image-- "broadcast quality" in fact.
However, DV, while compressed, is a very high bandwidth signal. With DV you can get -- wait for it-- 4 minutes of video stored. A tivo gets something like 1 hour per gigabyte.
But this is really an unfair comparison- the TiVO "hours per unit" calculations are based on their lowest quality video, not highest, and that DV example is EXTREMELY high quality.
The Formac site implies slightly better-- 4 hours in 48GB or 12GB/hour.
Still, even at best quality - a fairer comparison- TiVo is a much better storage deal.
So, encoding to some compression format is a good idea-- but as far as getting the signal into your computer in digital form- the DV format is a great one. And the one you quote at $399 has a tuner built in. If you don't need a tuner, you can get them for $299. (Dazzle and one from a company I can't remember the name of. Maybe Dazzle is $399, but the other one is $299 w/o tuner.)
Is a tuner really necessary? Don't most people have composite video out, or cable systems that won't let you directly decode the signal (ie: you need a proprietary box.)???
Re:Another Comparison (Score:2)
I've been looking at the product without an FM radio for $145. I'm turning in my mileage report for the last seven months (2300 miles) so maybe I can convince my wife to let me splurge on one. I'll write a review here if it happens...
BTW, anything has got to be better than the all-in-wonder software from ATI on XP.
-Adam
Re:Another Comparison (Score:1)
And good luck, too! I had a horrible time with their support staff. Very unresponsive and unhelpful. I eventually gave up on my WinTV-PVR (PCI card) and got a Matrox G400-TV. It runs nicely under Linux now. :)
The Tivo records at full D1 resolution (720x480, actually, which is cropped from "true" D1 of 720x486, but close enough). The Hauppauge product records at half that resolution. It is necessary because of the limited bandwidth of USB
Brzt. Thanks for playing! Oh, well, partial credit -- I don't know what the USB does I admit. But the PCI version recorded at full NTSC D1 (which tends to be 704x480 in actual use) in multiple bitrates.
if you want to record things and watch things later at the best quality, you should save for a Tivo.
Or get any of the cards supported by the Marvel drivers for linux [sf.net] and use the mjpegtools [sourceforge.net] to make your own PVR. That's what I did, and I'm quite pleased.
-ZK-
Re:Another Comparison (Score:2)
You guys are misusing the term "D1". D1 is an uncompressed video stream in digital format. What you mean to say is "SD" and the particular form of standard definition television. SD talks about resolution. D1 means no compression.
For instance, on a hundred gigabyte drive, you can get 58 minutes of D1 signal. (At NTSC SD resolution and framerate)
Your card is encoding into MPEG2 at some resolution and framerate-- might not even be 30fps. So, what you're talking about is an MPEG2 stream, not a "D1" stream.
Not flaming- just trying to correct mischaracterizations- there's enough confusion out there already.
The pause buffer (Score:2)
I've seen this same issue with video capturing software, or other software which might record large amounts of data. The solution would be that they would have to split the pause buffer into smaller files, each under 2GB. If their software is designed intelligently enough it shouldn't be a big deal to fix this.
Re:no 2gb limit on real OSes (Score:1)
I think yuo're smoking better shit that he is.
pvr's (Score:3, Informative)
No fancy pvr software, but it shouldnt be hard to write a program that compresses dv to mpeg 2/divx, and writes to the hdd. Interface with an oline tv directory and you have no problems with your computer, architecture, os, company, service provider etc going bust, as long as you still have a firewire port somewhere.
It works great too.
Try asking this on arstechnica (Score:2)
No need for the PVR model (Score:2)
Re:No need for the PVR model (Score:1)
??? The WinTV-PVR PCI has a hardware MPEG2 encoder on it... it's most definitely not the same... perhaps you're thinking of the ATI AIW? That *does* do software encoding.
-ZK-
Just be aware of what you're getting into... (Score:1)
Now, as for the USB version, one of my friends has the USB version of the PVR, and apparently the drivers for that version are considerably less functional than the PCI version. This is likely due in part to the fact that Hauppauge has been focusing mainly on the PCI version drivers, since they are more widely used. Currently they are focusing on making the WDM drivers for the PCI (and possibly USB) version of the card, now that they've "finished" the VFW (Video for Windows) drivers. So, in short, I'd be wary of the USB version, as the driver support is lacking ever more than the PCI version.
If I may, here are two additional notes that will save you some aggravation:
1) If you end up getting the PCI version of the PVR, don't use it in a system with an SB Live! card, or you will have all sorts of problems (this is because the SB Live! is not a bus mastering card, and consumes so much bandwidth on the PCI bus that it starves the PVR card). A good majority of the people having problems with consistently corrupted PVR captures fixed the problem by replacing the SB Live with another card (such as the Turtle Beach Santa Cruz) -- Hauppauge even says on their support site now that they recommend replacing the SB Live if you have one!
2) (This applies to both the PCI and USB versions) If you plan on capturing from non-perfect analog sources, namely a VCR playing a VHS tape, you will most likely have corrupted captures, as hardware-based capture cards tend to choke when the video signal is anything less than perfect in terms of synchronization. This goes especially if you're planning on capturing home videos, or videos of shows you taped off TV but paused the recording to edit out commercials, etc. I ended up buying a time base corrector (TBC) to solve this problem, but this is an expensive solution (the cheapest TBC I've found is $300). Just be aware that, even once you get the card working to its fullest potential in terms of drivers and such, the hardware itself isn't capable of capturing from sources with bad or broken video signals on its own.
Now that I've gotten this card working, I'm very happy with it, as the capture quality is very nice (especially at, say, 12 MB/sec MPEG-2). But for the first seven months or so, it was HELL to get it working. The "Hauppauge community" has learned a lot since then, though, so it may not take you quite as long, but just don't expect any of the Hauppauge PVR cards to work right out of the box.
Sorry for the long post.
About the 5GB pause buffer... (Score:1)
Incidentally, if you *are* using an NTFS partition for captures, there was at one point a bug in their drivers that would cause it to cut off after 4 GB even on NTFS partitions. They've since fixed it, but you might want to make sure you have the latest version of the WinTV application itself (as opposed to the drivers, which you said you already have downloaded the latest drivers for).
I got one and have had a few issues... (Score:3, Interesting)
I've had a few problems with it. First, when recording in mpeg-2 mode, if I play it in other mpeg viewers, the aspect ratio is opposite, like 480x640 instead of 640x480.
If I cap to VCD (mpeg1) format, it's fine. But if I use any mpeg editing tools like Power Director, the audio and video get out of sync. Very annoying. Hauppauge has a "cuts only" mpeg editor on their site, but it's not the best. While the a/v stay in sync, for some reason, the frames where I make the cuts get off sometimes. So if I'm real careful to cut at the start and end of commercials, sometimes I'll get the first 5-10 seconds of a commercial and then miss the first 5-10 seconds of the show after it.
Overall, not real happy. I'm kinda of wishing I got a standard WDM capable capture card and used software-based encoding...
The other thing that ticked me off is I recently bought a dvd iMac and expected to be able to cap in mpeg2 on my PC, transfer to the mac and write out to the mac's DVD-R drive, but the damn iDVD software that comes with the iMac will only work with DV or quicktime movies (and qt pro won't import mpeg-2)
I just can't win it seems...