Hauppauge HD PVR

[karebo]

I have a cable TV and a digital PVR (not HD PVR) and like everyone else sometimes would like to transfer a recorded program to a DVD. Having read several articles on Hauppauge HD PVR I still do not quiet understand what it does: Does it only handle recorded HD programs? Do I need a blue-ray player to view the DVDs it produces? Or can it transfer any recorded program on my digital PVR to a DVD that I can then play on any DVD player?
Would for instance Pinnacle Video Transfer be a better choice for me?

[SatStorm]

Basicly, since you have a PVR, why you don't try to transfer the files from the PVR to PC?
Which PVR you own?

Also, a good alternative for you could be a dreambox sat receiver. There are ways to watch Canal Digital or Viasat with this receiver and a legal subscription card and record to an external HDD, so to carry it to your PC, or record direct to your PC by using an ethernet port.

But back to your question: Under the name Hauppauge HD PVR, they are many cards. I believe you mean Hauppauge HD PVR TV Tunner. This is a USB solution that captures and encodes realtime whatever you feed the card to H264. You can watch the results to your PC, your BR standalone player or a PS3.

[karebo]

Thank you.
Just to clarify a few things: During the last few years television broadcasting in Norway has been digitalized so I have a dcoder to the TV set which is also a PVR. The trouble is for copyright reasons the box does not have a digital connector to PC so the recorded material stays in the box. The Hauppauge HD PVR box is said to exploit a analogue loophole to extract the recorded material of the PVR and transforming it to H264 to the PC to burn to DVD.
The question is: the manufacurer and review articles all state that you can extract HD material from the PVR to make DVDs to watch on a blue-ray player. Can the Hauppauge HD PVR use other than HD material from the recording digital PVR? Can the Hauppauge box burn ordinary DVDs to be watched on ordinary DVD players?

[SatStorm]

This card gonna encodes realtime whatever you feed it to H264. The analogue way (through composite / s-video and Component, which is what we can use for capturing to HD the analogue way.)

But since your PVR is inside your TV, you won't be able to extract that to your PC.

So, why not go the DVB root?

For DVB Terrestrial / Cable broadcasts, there are countless USB devices, very cheap, capable to convert your PC to a PVR. And since the files stay inside your PC, you can use them to convert them to DVD or other formats.

For DVB Satellite broadcasts, there are some PCI and USB cards, with build in tuners, that do the same but with satellite signals.

There are HD solutions too. Search for example for SkyStar 2 HD.

IMO, this card you are looking at, is not for your needs.

[noemi7]

DVB-T and DVB-S services allow to record AV stream as it is, without any re-encoding. This apply not only to FTA but PPV channels.

It's usually different with DVB-C. Most cable companies provide the service such way that the subscription card is paired with dedicated DVB-C receiver one gets from the cable company. Such receiver doesn't allow to i.e. copy HD contents to PC, and/or capture digital signal but analogue only. If I understood correctly you have such cable subscription service now.

http://www.hauppauge.de/de/site/products/data_hdpvr.html can record from both DVB-S2 (including High Definition, digital) and DVB-C (analogue, and digital if possible).

I use Technotrend S2-3200 DVB-S2 card which has CLI module for a subscription card.

[jagabo]

I have the NTSC version of the Hauppuage HD PVR.

The Hauppauge HD PVR records standard definition composite and s-video, and standard or high definition component video. It doesn't pay attention to macrovision, AACS, CGMS-A or any other copy protection or recording restriction signals.

I assume for standard definition PAL it saves as 720x576 25 fps (720x480 29.97 fps for NTSC). High def will be saved as either 720p or 1080i depending on the source. All sources are saved as h.264 video and either AC3 or AAC audio in an MPEG transport file, either TS or M2TS containers.

None of this is directly compatible with DVD which requires standard definition MPEG 2 encoded video with AC3, MP2, or uncompressed audio. So everything has to be converted to MPEG 2 and HD material will have to be downsized to standard def frame sizes.

The software that comes with the HD PVR includes a program that will remux the TS files into a form (AVCHD) that can be burned to a DVD and played in Blu-ray players.

[karebo]

Thank you all.
So if I understand correctly, I would be well advised to buy a Hauppauge HD PVR to burn DVDs from the material extracted from my Standard Definition Get digital PVR, but I´ll have to buy a stand alone or PC Blue-ray player to view the DVD. Also, I might consider upgrading to a HD PVR.
But then again: When Hauppauge HD PVR is reviewed, I often see referrals to SD solutions from Pinnacle, Neuros or Archos. Which are these solutions?

[prouton]

So if I understand correctly, I would be well advised to buy a Hauppauge HD PVR to burn DVDs from the material extracted from my Standard Definition Get digital PVR...

No. The Hauppauge HDPVR will not aid you in creating a standard DVD. Standard DVDs are not HD (hi-def), and the HDPVR is a hi-def solution. Any of the other Hauppauge tuner cards will be sufficient for converting an SD (standard def) analog source (composite or s-video connections) into an MPEG2 file on your computer from which a standard DVD can be created.

...but I´ll have to buy a stand alone or PC Blue-ray player to view the DVD.

Blue-Ray and DVD are not the same thing. A Blue-Ray player can play a DVD, but if you're creating standard DVDs then a Blue-Ray player is overkill.

The Hauppauge HDPVR can create HD recordings from an HD analog source (component connections). The HDPVR does not have a tuner. Something else must do the tuning, or supply a HD signal.

[karebo]

Right now I am a bit bewildered. Do jagabo and prouton disagree or do I not understand? To state once again the premisses of my question: I want to extract the TV broadcast recordings saved on my combined standard definition digital decoder/PVR to DVD. I do have a Hauppauge TV tuner card on my computer. Before the digitalization of the TV brodcasting I did save TV programs on my computer to burn them to DVD or I could save TV programs to VHS. This is not possible anymore, lest I move the furniture in my living room to unplug the TV set from the decoder/PVR and plug in my computer. That is not an option. So I need a device to extract the sd recordings from my decoder/PVR.
The reason I am inquiring about the Hauppauge HD PVR is that this is the only device I have seen that does this, alhough HD recordings.
So my simple question is: Can it be used with a SD decoder/PVR or do I need to buy a HD decoder/PVR? If the answer to the first question is no, does there exist a device that corresponds to my needs?

[SatStorm]

If your PVR has a:

RF out
Composite Video out
SCART video out

Then, you can use any kind of capture card and capture the analogue way, on standard definition framesizes, what you have record to the HDD of your PVR.
Even if you had store there High Definition recordings, when you watch them from composite/scart/RF they downscale to S.D. And you can capture them with any kind of capture card that way.

If Hauppauge HD PVR is the USB model I mentioned, then you can capture on standard definition your content from PVR, but in a H264 form. You can burn this files on regular DVD-Rs, but you won't be able to watch them with standalone DVD players. You can watch them on PC, PS3 or with a nmt device (popcorn hour for example).

If you use a mpeg 2 hardware capture card, like Hauppauge PVR150 for example, then the results are mpeg 2 and you can burn them on regular DVDs and watch them on regular DVD standalones.

Finally, a DVD standalone recorder, a cheap one, could also be a nice option

All those solutions, require that your PVR has a form of video out in a standard defintion form.

Also, can you link us to the model of your PVR/TV and which model of Hauppauge have in mind?

[edDV]

Maybe you don't understand what the Hauppauge HD PVR does. It plugs into the uncompressed analog component monitor connection and can record what is sent to the monitor. If you play items off your PVR, it can record them. The HD PVR is not a tuner and doesn't communicate with your PVR. You operate the PVR and it records on or off.

It can also record from composite or S-Video inputs.

It records to h.264 which is not DVD compatible. DVD is standard definition MPeg2.
https://www.videohelp.com/dvd

h.264 can be converted and resized to standard definition DVD MPeg2 using computer software. Alternately it can be converted for playback on Blu-Ray or PS3 or other high definition playback devices.

Note that Hauppauge "PVR" devices are capture devices that can be used with computer PVR software. They are not a personal video recorder (PVR) themselves.

[jagabo]

Just in case it's not yet clear:

The Hauppauge HD PVR will not "extract" the recordings from your PVR (ie, it will not copy the recorded files from the PVR's hard drive to the computer). It records the analog outputs of the PVR. So you play one of your recordings on the PVR and record it with the HD PVR.

The HD PVR can record standard definition as well as high definition sources. Everything it records is saved as h.264/AAC or h.264/AC3 MPEG transport stream files. These are not compatible with set-top DVD players.

The TS files from the HD PVR can be authored onto DVDR media (with included software) as AVCHD. These can be played in many (most? all?) Blu-ray players. This allows high definition sources to be stored as high definition video on DVDR. It also allows many hours of standard definition video to be stored on DVDR. None of this will play on regular DVD players.

The TS files from the HD PVR can be converted with third party software into standard definition MPEG2/AC3 files that can be authored as regular movie DVDs that will play in any set-top DVD player. For a standard definition PVR you would be better off using a standard definition capture device that captures directly to MPEG2 (like the older Hauppauge PVR-250) or raw uncompressed video (like an old ATI All In Wonder).

Many programs do not handle the HD PVR's TS files properly.

[DVWannaB]

Many programs do not handle the HD PVR's TS files properly.

I have only found 2:

Transport Stream Packet Editor (all)

H264TS_Cutter (most)

[karebo]

Thank you all for suggestions and education. I have learned a lot.
It finally dawned on me that my Hauppauge TV card even can capture files from the PVR. I even have Pinnacle Studio 10 with a capture card that I use to digitalize VHS. I connected the composite line out (the only line out) of the decoder/PVR to the composite line in of the Pinnacle capture card (and of course audio to PC line in) and lo and behold: I captured the files of the decoder/PVR with sound and all, ready to burn to DVD.
I am going to turn my sd decoder in for a hd decoder/PVR though and buy a Hauppage HD PVR.
Thank you.