Will my computer be able to handle a Hauppauge HD PVR?

[FinalGypsy]

Hey, my name is Spencer.

I am interested in purchasing an HD PVR, but I do not know if my new computer will be able to handle it. I will be receiving my new computer this evening. The intended purpose is to record Xbox Live gameplay in HD.

I have a friend, who knows muchmore about computers than I, who says that I don't have te 256mb Dedicated memory that the PVR requires. Can you confirm this, along with the other requirements?

My new computer is a Dell Studio 17. The stats are as follows:


Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T9600 (2.8GHz/1066Mhz FSB/6MB cache)

8GB Shared Dual Channel DDR3 at 1066MHz

17.3” HD+ (900p) Bright LED Display

Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD

500GB SATA HDD (7200rpm)

Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit, English

8X Slot Load CD/DVD Burner (Dual Layer DVD+/-R Drive)

Soundblaster X-Fi Hi Def Audio - Software Enabled

Dell Wireless 1397 802.11g Half Mini-Card

Please get back to me as soon as possible. I will be more than glad to help, if any more information is needed.

[fritzi93]

The Hauppauge HD-PVR does hardware H.264 transport stream encoding. I have one and it works just fine, look at my (HTPC) computer stats.

The question mark is playback with onboard graphics. I looked up Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD and it supposedly can handle 1080 p/i high definition video with full hardware decode for AVC/VC-1/MPEG2. It has no dedicated memory of its own and must use system RAM. I guess that's what your friend was concerned about?

I don't see a problem, but someone will correct me if I'm wrong.

[EDIT] You do realize that to play the game, you must use pass-through to a monitor? The capture will have a delay.

[jagabo]

Basically you need either a dual core CPU or a graphics card with hardware h.264 decoding. You have both so you should be fine.

[FinalGypsy]

My friend said that the graphics card should use my RAM, which wouldn't be a problem, because I had 8GB. He wasn't sure, however.

@fritzi93: I do not understand your edit. What is pass-through to a monitor?

Thanks for all of your help so far. Hauppauge never emailed me back when I sent them this question twice.

[jagabo]

There is a delay between the time the analog video enters the HD PVR and the time you see it on the computer screen. This delay is on the order of half a second. So you can't play realtime video games by watching the computer screen.

The HD PVR has a component output with no delay. You have to connect a TV to the HD PVR's component output to get a realtime image.

[FinalGypsy]

Okay, that's what I thought you meant. I was just checking.

It's fine. I do not plan on off of my computer screen, I just want to record on my computer.

Thanks for all of your help guys!

One last question, though. Are there any extras that I need to get in order to get the HD PVR working? For my Dazzle, I had to get some extra cords and splitters.

[bigass]

One last question, though. Are there any extras that I need to get in order to get the HD PVR working? For my Dazzle, I had to get some extra cords and splitters.

The package comes with two sets of Component (the red-green-blue) cables. Anything else, you'll need to supply yourself -- that'd mean a stereo RCA cable or optical SPDIF (TOSLINK).

[INT3NSE F34R]

I am Asking the same Question "Will my Computer handle a HD PVR" because i dont think it will, Here are the Details anyway.

Operating System: Windows Vista Home Premium (6.0 Build 6002)
Processor: Intel (R) Pentium (R) Dual CPU T3400 @ 2.16GHz (2 CPUs), ~ 2.2GHz
Memory:2938MB RAM
Page File:2605MB Used 3509MB Available


It sounds like it cant Handle a PVR, Please can someone who knows their computer's well help me do this



THANKS

[jagabo]

Operating System: Windows Vista Home Premium (6.0 Build 6002)
Processor: Intel (R) Pentium (R) Dual CPU T3400 @ 2.16GHz (2 CPUs), ~ 2.2GHz
Memory:2938MB RAM
Page File:2605MB Used 3509MB Available

It should be ok. See if you can play some videos created by the HD PVR. If so, you should have no problems*. I think this site still has some samples available:

http://blog.arogan.com/2008/06/hauppauge-hd-pvr-model-1212.html

I can play them cleanly on a 2.4 GHz Celeron E3200 with software decoding.

You may need to install Haali and an h.264 decoder (ffdshowmt is free).

* Because the HD PVR is a hardware h.264 encoder. All the computer is doing is saving the USB stream to a file (~1 percent CPU usage) and displaying the video (probably about 50 percent CPU usage on you computer).

[fooledagain]

I have an old (6 years) dual core with XP that runs mine pretty well most of the time. I did put a cheap 512mb video card in and that seemed to improve the performance. I also use it on a much newer i5 system and have no issues at all. I think a lot of the reported problems with the HD PVR are system related so I recommend as much CPU horsepower as possible and a decent video card.

[jagabo]

If you don't need to see the video while capturing you can disable the display (in the Arcsoft capture module) and capture with any single core computer that can run Windows. In that case all the software is doing is taking data from the USB port an putting it in a file.

[fooledagain]

If you don't need to see the video while capturing you can disable the display (in the Arcsoft capture module) and capture with any single core computer that can run Windows. In that case all the software is doing is taking data from the USB port an putting it in a file.

I know that's the way it is supposed to work (and I had the video off during capture), yet before I put in a video card the captured file had issues on play back- even on other computers. It would also only capture at lower bit rates. Though it is only anecdotal evidence, I think newer, more powerful systems will not have many of the issues that users often have with the unit.

[jagabo]

I used to capture all the time on a Core 2 Duo E6400 (not to different from INT3NSE F34R's CPU), with and without the video display. I forget which graphics card I had but it was less than the Nvidia GeForce 8600 GT that eventually replaced it (the older card didn't have hardware h.264 decoding). Never had any problems. Obviously, the system has to be set up properly -- with a TS/M2TS splitter, a multithreaded h.264 decoder, and AC3/AAC decoders.

[xzombiezjesusx]

Im thinking of getting an HD PVR to record game play and i just wanna know would my laptop handle it my friend says my ghz is to low and i just dont wanna spend money i really dont have for something i cant use

[jagabo]

Should be ok for basic capture.

[jman98]

The HD PVR uses a chip internal to the device to do the encoding so this means that your laptop just has to be powerful enough to playback what it encodes, not powerful enough to do the encoding itself. Your laptop is fine.

[xzombiezjesusx]

thank you guys i really appreciate this

[jagabo]

In a worst case scenario, you can capture without displaying the video that's being captured. That can be done on single core sub GHz Pentium 3.