Anyone here ever used the Colossus capture card by Hauppauge?

[True Colors]

I am trying to verify the physical size of this thing.

I checked the manufacturer page, but I could not find any published dimensions:

http://www.hauppauge.com/site/products/data_colossus.html

I even called their customer support, but the person who answered the phone did not know.

FYI..... amazon.com says this card is 8" x 3" x 7.5"
http://www.amazon.com/Hauppauge-Colossus-Express-Internal-HD-PVR/dp/B004OVE2B4

If this is true, then that seems incredibly large to me for a PCI express card. How in the world is something this big supposed to fit into a standard sized tower?

I have a regular size Dell PC...... not mini, or sliim, or any of that stuff. It can hold cards that are 9" long no problem. But something 8" tall IS a problem.

I am hoping that the actual size of this is 5" tall by 7 or 8 inches long.

Can anybody here help with this?

Thanks!

TC

[jman98]

I have it. Others here do too.

It's about the size of a normal PCI-e video card. I would take Amazon's description with a grain of salt. No offense, but I am NOT going to open up my PC when I get home to measure this for you. If my word that it's the size of a normal PCI-e video card doesn't work for you, well, that's just how it is. Honestly, if you look at the photo and measure the distance between the PCI-e slots and the back end of your PC, you can work out the size well enough to be close.

If you have a normal size tower case and a normal motherboard I cannot imagine this not fitting inside your Dell.

If you buy the card, do note that it has a secret TBC feature that you can turn on with a registry setting. This is really useful for VHS captures. You can do a search on Google, Yahoo, etc. to find the forum that describes how to do this. One of our members runs that forum. If I remember correctly his handle here and there is SHS.

[jman98]

One final thing. You may wish to NOT update the free ArcSoft ShowBiz software that comes on the install disc. I did the upgrade and ended up deleting everything and reinstalling it with the version on the install disc. The newer version of ShowBiz does not allow captures to have a bit rate specified for them and that is unacceptable to me. The version on the install disc allows this. The updated version allows various other options to be set that I cannot currently set with my version of ShowBiz, but I'd rather have the ability to do captures at specific bit rates than to give that up for the ability to set the other options.

[usually_quiet]

If nobody can measure their Colossus, I can give you an estimate. I found a good picture of the Colossus at Newegg and scaled it so the bracket was the same size as a full-height slot cover I happened to have on hand. The card is about 6 inches in length and the top edge would sit about 4 1/3 inches above the motherboard once installed.

[usually_quiet]

duplicate post removed

[Seeker47]

The size of the card would likely be an issue for users like myself, who favor the Shuttle XPC line of sff desktop units. Historically, a lot of their more desirable models that did not go the Crossfire route had one additional PCI-E slot, best-suited to a low-profile expansion card, which should also be slim in thickness because most of the graphics cards (with fan or fanless) -- directly adjacent -- are not. And yet, the Shuttles have been the preferred choice for HTPC type rigs. If dedicating one to that role, I would not be inclined to limit it for playback only, but rather go for more of a full-featured setup. And that would most certainly include Video Capture. (They've tried introducing a couple newer lines more the size of a hardcover book, though these have been far more limited in what they can do, and I don't know that they have caught on to any great degree.)

Shifting gears a bit here, I thought that there was a conspicuous lack of software alternatives for the Colossus, but what's the story with this ?

https://www.videohelp.com/tools/Capture4ME

[jman98]

Shifting gears a bit here, I thought that there was a conspicuous lack of software alternatives for the Colossus, but what's the story with this ?

https://www.videohelp.com/tools/Capture4ME

Hmm... I had not heard of this one.

However the screen shots do not show the "Advanced Options" tab and if it offered something useful there I'd consider it, but I'm probably too lazy to install it and just try it. The regular screen shot offers me nothing I can't do already with the programs that came with it.

[usually_quiet]

I forgot to mention that, based on the photos at Newegg, the Colossus is not any thicker than the slot cover, if that thick.

I took a look at the description for the Hauppauge Colossus at Amazon. The dimensions in the description likely refer to the size and weight of the packaged product, not the card by itself.