WIN TV PVR USB and Macrovision

[WinSpecToR]

I've been trying to find info on this on google but came up with a bunch of irrelvent results, does this card by pass MV or is there a patch that we can apply ?

[FulciLives]

This capture device totally ignores all forms of copy protection. However it can be very sensitive to a video signal that is not very "stable" meaning that if you are using it with videotape catpures (like VHS) then you may need a TBC (Time Base Corrector).

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[WinSpecToR]

With my old card the 9800 AIW people said that I'd need a TBC as well but turns out I didn't, I'm going to hope its the same with this one. BTW Fulcilive, hows the quality when recording from tv, you have this tuner right ?

[FulciLives]

With my old card the 9800 AIW people said that I'd need a TBC as well but turns out I didn't, I'm going to hope its the same with this one. BTW Fulcilive, hows the quality when recording from tv, you have this tuner right ?

I don't have it myself but I have a similar type Hauppauge device and the quality is very good depending on the source of course.

One nice thing about this particular device is that you can capture in real time VBR and be done with it but if you want or need to do a lot of "post processing" you can do a capture at a CBR of 15,000kbps (it says that the device is limited to 12,000 but it can do 15,000) and then use that as a "master" capture for your post processing and then re-encode knowing that you captured at a very high quality resulting in little loss when re-encoding.

One thing I would absolutely do with all captures ... before doing ANYTHING to the captured file ... run it through VideoReDo or MPEG-VCR and use their "fix it" function. This will ensure no loss of A/V sync later on. Also know that for proper synced capture you will need to use MP2 audio so set it to the highest quality bitrate (which as I recall is 384kbps) and then convert to AC-3 for the final DVD (assuming you are going for DVD in the end).

You can capture to a WAV file but that will cause A/V sync issues so don't even try that unless you are doing an audio only capture (like from an LP or audio cassette etc.)

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[WinSpecToR]

The only concern I have is that I tried the Hauppuage 150 a few years back and the quality wasn't great, so I'm hoping this will be better. Thanks for your input.

[FulciLives]

The only concern I have is that I tried the Hauppuage 150 a few years back and the quality wasn't great, so I'm hoping this will be better. Thanks for your input.

I had also tried the Hauppauge WinTV PVR 150 and it sucked. I ended up returning it.

The Hauppauge WinTV PVR 250/350/USB are different and better than the 150 model. In fact I've been told they don't even make the 150 model any longer due to all the complaints and their inability to fix it via firmware updates. I tihnk the problem with the 150 was the chipset itself.

If you have HDTV cable and/or satellite then you may want to check out the new Hauppauge HD PVR which is capable of recording 720p and 1080i from a component input and RCA stereo inputs ... plus ... it will ignore copy protection ... HOWEVER ... it does re-encode the stream. Other HDTV capture cards will simply "copy" the digital data BUT they are limited by copy protection as to what can and cannot be recorded.

Here is a thread to check out: https://forum.videohelp.com/topic345063.html

Cheers !!!

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[olyteddy]

I'm assuming you mean Hauppauge PVR USB2. There is an older model that was USB1 and sucks. The Conextant chipset used in the PVR USB2 is the same encoder they use in some high end production gear. I've been very satisfied with mine (I've had it 2.5 years or so and haven't had an urge to upgrade)...

[WinSpecToR]

I don't have HD tv and probably won't get it for a while so this should be pretty good for me. The one I'm getting is 2.0 so it should be ok. The way I look at it is that most HD shows are avaliable anyways.

The only thing I'm concerned about would be the MV, if its not able to record an old vhs without a TBC then I'll probably end up returning the unit which would be a shame since it sounds like a pretty good unit.

[FulciLives]

Just make sure you are buying the Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-USB2 and NOT the Hauppauge WinTV-USB2.

The first is good and what we have all been talking about here ... the 2nd is a total piece of shit and simply must be avoided.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[WinSpecToR]

Yes that is indeed the one I got, just set it up today and playing with it, running XP PRO, and can't seem to get the remote working, the receiver flashes when I press a button on a remote but it doesn't respond, do I need MCE for it to work ?

[FulciLives]

I wouldn't know much about using the remote.

You might get better support over at the forums here: http://www.shspvr.com/

That is the unofficial but almost "official" site of Hauppauge.

The guy that runs it ... SHS ... knows his shit. He also posts here from time to time.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

P.S.
Here is a direct link to the SHS forums: http://www.shspvr.com/smf/

[SHS]

Which kit do you have
Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-USB2
or
Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-USB2 MC-Kit
?
The remote will not changes the receiver channel if your pointing it at your receiver you should be pointing it at the PVR-USB device or MCE USB device that come in the kit note that the MCE devie only work with in MCE.
You do need setup the IRBlaster for the reg WinTV-PVR-USB2 in order for it to changes channel.
Did you stick irblaster eye on the receiver maybe it in the wrong place.

[WinSpecToR]

I have the Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-USB2 MC-Kit, I dont have MCE/Vista atm so I guess the remote is useless until I upgrade.

[thecoalman]

With my old card the 9800 AIW people said that I'd need a TBC as well but turns out I didn't,

You will if it's the real thing, e.g. a commercial VHS tape. The AIW is picky as are many devices that try and detect MV, what happens is if you have some home videos that you shot yourself that are in poor condition it will misinterpret errors in the tapes as being copy protection and corrupt the capture.

The difference with the Hauppage line of cards is they don't look for the signal at all, you can copy even VHS tapes that contain the genuine macrovision protection. Note that I don't know if that applies to every card they manufacture.

[WinSpecToR]

I tried it on several commercial VHS and I DID NOT need the TBC.

[thecoalman]

Well that's strange as the issue with the AIW is fairly common on non-commercial tapes let alone commercial ones.

What VCR are you using? any other devices between the VCR and the AIW?

Here's the documentation regarding what I ran into with a AIW and a non-commercial tape.

http://www.nepadigital.com/mv/

[WinSpecToR]

I'm using the Philips VCR456, nothing between that and the AIW, the problem that you linked to previously, I had that problem once or twist but it only lasted 5 or 10 seconds and it corrected itself.

Whats a good program to use to record vhs from the WIN TV PVR ? I used to use the ATI MMC when I had the AIW, haven't used anything else.

[pinetop]

Whats a good program to use to record vhs from the WIN TV PVR ? I used to use the ATI MMC when I had the AIW, haven't used anything else.

I've had good results with Ulead which comes with the unit.

[FulciLives]

You should just use the supplied WinTV 2000 software for capturing. This software is made to work with the device and although some hate the interface it really isn't so bad and works well with TITAN TV although only if using the built-in TUNER otherwise you don't need that.

As I think I mentioned earlier you want to run the capture through VideoRedo or MPEG-VCR using their "fix it" feature which makes sure that everything will stay in-sync for post processing.

After that it is up to you. Personally I use MPEG-VCR for editing and then TMPGEnc DVD Author for creating a DVD. I also manually demux the audio (after editing) and convert to AC-3 format but TMPGEnc DVD Author can convert the audio for you to AC-3 format.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[olyteddy]

I use a similar work flow, but different progs. I record using WinTV2000, demux and fix using PVA Strumento and author using GFD in MuxMan mode. I'm too 'lazy' to edit so I just put a chapter mark at the end of each commercial break, allowing me to hit the 'next' key on the DVD player's remote to skip the ads. I leave the MPEG2 audio, all my players seem fine with it.

[WinSpecToR]

Maybe its just me but my WinTv only lets me watch and capture tv, not vhs, I dont see the option..

I've tried Ulead before and didn't like it much.

[olyteddy]

You need to add a new 'channel'. Mine uses 200 for Composite and 210 for S-Video.

[WinSpecToR]

Finalyl figured out what ti is, for some reason my install disc only came with WIN TV 6 and not WINTV2000 so I had to get that first before I could get the vhs going.

Seems to me that the VHS audio is lower then the the cable tv audio, I left my speakers on the same audio level and turned the sound all the way up in WINTV, but cable tv's audio is still better the VHS, is that normal ?

BTW I put in a commerical tape in there to see if it would bypass the MV and indeed it did which is nice.

[olyteddy]

There are some registry values that can fix that (the audio). Look for the 'Hauppauge Tweak Tool' to fix it. It can also adjust the PVR's temporal filter and some other stuff.

[pinetop]

You should just use the supplied WinTV 2000 software for capturing. This software is made to work with the device and although some hate the interface

I've never had any luck with WinTV 2000. Drop frames from VHS to digital cable. You have to correct anything it creates. Not to mention it locks up and rarely works at all. A shameful weak link on Hauppauge's part.
I don't have to correct every effort with Ulead. I use Ulead alone or Ulead to cap with TDA w AC3 plugin to author.

[pinetop]

I have the Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-USB2 MC-Kit, I dont have MCE/Vista atm so I guess the remote is useless until I upgrade.

You can buy the standard remote for $ 9.99 from the Hauppauge website. Just don't use the IR blaster with the standard remote, you don't need it.

[WinSpecToR]

What is the max bitrate of a VHS ? I noticed when the program was set to recording at the highest setting of 10mbps it looked exactly the same as the source but size is too big, whats the max the VHS is capable of so I can set it to that resolution ?

[olyteddy]

A major problem with VHS is it is full of noise. Noise, being random by definition, does not encode well. That said, I'd suggest trying different encode rates and see which is acceptable to you. Some folks use half D1 resolution (352 X 480) thereby doubling the effective 'clarity' of a given bitrate, because VHS is weak in horizontal resolution. You can also adjust the Temporal filter in the PVR to smooth some of the noise out. The Hauppauge Tweak Tool can do that, even though it claims to only work with th PCI card versions.

[FulciLives]

For VHS you could try 352x480 (NTSC) or 352x576 (PAL) with a MAX video bitrate of 5000kbps (higher bitrates at that resolution is usually a waste).

That would pretty much give you MAX quality for the Half D1 resolution. However some people find Half D1 resolution to look overly soft and prefer Full D1 resolution (720x480 NTSC or 720x576 PAL). In that case you would want a MAX video bitrate of about 8000kbps otherwise you will be outside (above) the DVD Video specifications.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[WinSpecToR]

Just tried to play some PAL tapes and the tuner had a hard time with a signal, its all scrambled.. my vcr is capable of playing PAL tapes as this is the same oen that I used before with the AIW to record with. Any ideas ? I'm trying to using composite to record.