Hauppauge 1212 HD-PVR: It Just Works

Nice write-up. I’m using the HD-PVR with SageTV and its working very well. One thing I want to point out though. You do realize that the HD-PVR does not currently support 5.1 audio right? Hauppauge has a driver update that hasn’t been released yet that will give us that 5.1 audio, but as of right now we’re stuck without DD.

Correct, sorry for not mentioning that. Hauppauge has said that the driver for 5.1 was supposed to be available at launch, but that they had to delay it due to bugs.

This, of course, was because they were busy with a Media Center driver… which Microsoft backed away from when they yanked H.264 from TV Pack 2008…

Thanks for the review, I think I am going to pick this up. I’ll be real happy if I can just run this on Sage TV out of the box.

~Bear

Looks like VirtualHub is only for the Mac. Do you know of a good PC converter program for the HD-PVR .TS files?

Might want to give Badaboom a try… you may have to run it through WinTV’s MP4 converter first.

Quick update on the 5.1: Hauppauge has just added 5.1 and AAC support for the HD-PVR in their latest beta driver.

Hi Chris,

I thought the Hauppauge used M2TS, not “standard” MPEG-2 TS files. But still, why is it “horrific”?

I might have a different view than you on this, I have an eGreat EG-M31B Networked Media Tank (think: Popcorn Hour A-110 if you’ve heard of it) and it plays back TS files just fine.

I got here looking for Mac support discussion of this Hauppauge device; my interest in this thing would be to allow me to get DVR recordings out of my DirecTV HR-21/100 into the eGreat – which would allow me to either consider the HR-21’s puny internal drive as just a cache or allow me to migrate existing recordings to the eGreat so I could slap on an external 1 TB RAID unit onto the HR-21’s eSATA port.

Right now if you replace the internal drive (or override it) on a DirecTV box you can’t access your existing recordings any longer, so to me this would be a neat thing to have to provide a way of getting them off the internal HDD before replacing/overriding it with an external. Unfortunately without Mac OS X support this isn’t so easy, I don’t like booting my MacBook Pro into Boot Camp for very long!

Lots of things can playback transcoded files… VLC being the most known and trusted app for the task. It’s when you want to edit them that it becomes a bang-head-against-wall-facepalming process. VisualHub is the only truly reliable app I’ve come across that can convert TS files properly.

You may want to try VMWare Fusion, which offers USB support… the PVR may pass through to that properly (then again, it may not). I haven’t tested the HD PVR on a Mac running Windows in any fashion… I have an Inspiron 530n plugged into my TV for that.

Christopher, good write-up. the techspansion web site has an announcement that VisualHub has been discontinued. So I’m on the hunt for an alternative to convert the .TS files

The ArcSoft package that comes with the HD PVR contains a conversion tool. It seems to produce usable output in a few different formats, but it’s really really slow.

I’ll try badaboom, but I’ll probably have to upgrade my video card…

Thanks for the heads up, I’ve disputed the charge for VisualHub… as it looks like the developer won’t make good on the promise to fix the known issues in it.

As I noted in the review, the WinTV MP4 conversion tool does work… but the header that it produces is malformed. As such, no Apple application (iTunes, all the way to Final Cut Studio), will touch the files that it makes. Hopefully Hauppauge will update it to fix the bug.

VisualHub was just a smart veneer over “ffmpeg” anyway, and in my (limited) use of it, it most always got things wrong if I didn’t use it for fairly simple stuff. You can probably coax “ffmpegX” to do what you want if you learn more about what to feed to “ffmpeg” – admittedly, it was nice that the VisualHub guy did the heavy lifting for us.

As for VLC playing back transcoded files, maybe my 2006-vintage 2.16 GHz Core Duo MacBook Pro (with only 2 GB) is just too slow to handle it, but VLC 0.9.x still chokes a lot on 1080p content.

I do hear you on the editing-is-a-bitch comment, however.

I have VMware Fusion installed but I don’t think it’s got the oompha to handle the HD PVR. Probably would have to boot into Boot Camp directly (I’ve got XP SP2 installed) to do anything useful, and I don’t like to do that for any length of time longer than absolutely necessary (like ripping a copy-protected CD-ROM that requires direct raw metal hardware access).

I will note that I had a nice e-mail exchange with a techie from Hauppauge where I pleaded my case to him that even basic capture support for the Mac would make me a very happy man and a potential purchaser of the device (that otherwise I won’t buy, not having a dedicated Windows PC to use with it). I wonder whatever became of that idea …

To quote the Hauppauge tech (who shall remain nameless) directly:

“I’m wondering whether I want to create a true Mac USB driver and a small set of capture-only tools. Obviously offering support. I can’t afford to do that work for free.

In your experience, is this something you and the rest of the community would be willing to pay $30 for?”

I told him yes, and it would make the difference between me buying one and not buying one. I am hopeful that I could just capture the video and directly download it into my eGreat EG-M31B NMT and have it play as-is, with no editing/transcoding/massaging needed.

Has anyone had problems with the ArcSoft Capture module locking-up as soon as the capture button is clicked? Everything was working pretty well for me for a few days — the capture module worked most of the time, but now it freezes-up everytime I try to capture. Oddly enough when the GUI freezes, the capture continues — I just have to make sure I am at the PC to kill it with Task Manager when it is time to stop the capture. A pain — it would be nice to use the capture duraiton capability. The resulting TS file is fine.

To resolve I have re-installed the software, and even reverted back to an old HDD image and re-installed — it still locks up every time. I almost suspect the HD PVR hardware of firmware is the problem since a software re-install does not change the behavior.

I haven’t had any issues with that… I would try downloading the beta driver for the HD PVR, and make sure your graphics card drivers are up-to-date.

Also, double check the system requirements… it is a demanding setup.

Thought I’d post this just in case someone runs into the same problem that I mention above with the ArcSoft capture module freezing up.

For an unrelated reason I upgraded my graphics card, and the problem with the ArcSoft capture module was resolved. This could be for a number of reasons — maybe the graphics card install over-wrote a corrupt file that the ArcSoft re-install did not fix. It could have been the slower performance of the old graphics card as well.

Just thought I’d mention that the AC3 of the box has some sort of incompatibility with the Verizon HD STB. It seems to be a known problem. I sure hope they will fix it or I am considering returning mine.

2 channel audio works fine.

It’s sad to say that after sending the box back twice and having Hauppage diddling with it, the AC3 finally works but has a serious A/V drift. Support was a disaster but I managed to work through it with many phone calls, emails and eventually having the box overnighted the last time on the RMA. I would have liked to say otherwise but recording that nice HBO HD with full DD off my Verizon STB just *does not work*. Scour the net and you will find many references to oodles of problems with the box.

A first quick look blew me away with the quality, a second look told me that I would recommend staying away from it and wait until a device is out there that really will give you HD (HD without 5.1 – do you really call that High Definition?).

Ok. Let me straighten out a few things here. first .TS format is not horrific at all. It produces the smoothest video of all other formats especially at very fast moving scenes. Second, there are mpeg editors such as VideRedo that can edit the .TS format and give you professional quality results at a fraction of the cost of a commercial solution. Third, any sub $100 converter I used such as Xilisoft, and AVS4You fully support this format and produce excellent results when you convert .TS to any other format such as DiVX at very high conversion rates. On my old Athlon machine, I’m able to get as high as 27 frames per second on 1080i.

Unbeknownst to me, Steven Toth of Hauppauge (the aforementioned “tech who shall remain nameless) started an HD-PVR 1212 Mac support thread on AVS Forum:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=15002333

Up to 20 pages now (as of Feb 16 2009)!

VideoRedo does *not* support editing of the h.264 .TS files that the box produces. There are some nebulous claims that it might at some point. The only true cut editor is either h.264ts_cut (freeware) or Elecard’s HD studio. Elecard kept blowing up for me with larger files. Yes, there are many others that will ‘convert’ this stuff for you but you really don’t want to recompress this (unless you want to recompress to SD as shown here: http://htpcmedia.net/faq/43-hauppage-hd-pvr.html)

I have RMA’d the box now 3 times (they wouldn’t let me RMA it if there really weren’t problems, now would they)? It has really worked for a week out of the two months that I had it. There are too many problems to mention to go through. The support is horrible.

I eventually found out it does not support the QIP-6xxx Verizon STB series (about 95% of all Verizon FiOS boxes). Only the very latest 7xxx version will work.

This box is not ready for prime time.

Wow, I’m slow on the uptake. Turns out Steven Toth already has a capture app made and it’s already up to version 2.0.9:

http://steventoth.net/hdpvrcapture/HDPVRCapture_v2.0.9.zip

Now if only I’d gotten in on the one-day Dell coupon deal last week to buy a 1212 for only $173. Oh well.

Oops, excuse me, I meant version 2.0.11:

http://steventoth.net/hdpvrcapture/HDPVRCapture_v2.0.11.zip

Sorry folks …

Ok — I’m a science teacher trying to record science channel shows for the classroom. I’m recording for educational purposes…which last I knew was still protected under U.S. Title Code although probably not under U.S. Hollywood Code. I’ve purchased almost all the published videos but many are NOT available for purpose ….silly paranoid Hollywood.

The current Comcast-DVD recorder only records in some low quality. Does this device allow me to record to a DVD, or, I guess I have to record to my computer and then rewrite to a DVD? Thank you, -Lewis

It won’t let you recod in higher quality than what you plug in there. After months of diddling with support I finally made the thing work with my Verizon STB. That is HD. I use that and compress it down to SD (DVD quality). The box itself only comes with software to record to HD and in some odd format (It records in 50 fps for technical reasons but that can easily be corrected, I put a tutorial together on how to do this here: http://htpcmedia.net/faq/43-hauppage-hd-pvr.html). However, using a few steps you can build a DVD from it using free tools (maybe I should write a tutorial on that, too and move the whole thing of the Htpcmedia site).

If your Comcast box has poor output, the Hauppage cannot improve upon it. If you have some better feed than what comes from the box, you get that quality. The degradation in quality, even after recompression, is very good.

Rolf – thanks.

The Comcast box I have — Scientific Atlanta – 8300HDC — I get great quality HD on the screen. I can record to the DVR in great quality HD, and replay onto tv screen. In Florida I was able to then rerecord to the DVD player and the recording was excellent. However, up here in New Hampshire, the signal is specifiaclly changed through the HDMI cable so that the resulting recording is just terrible — it has nothing to do with HD, or DVD, or my DVD recorder, or the cables — it is that built into the signal going through the HDMI cable is a check that prevents recording. Not sure how it is done.

So — this Hauppage box allows me to record. That’s great. I’ll look at your tutorial. thank you,

Again — all I’m trying to do is record the occasional show on the science channel that IS NOT available for sale, so I can show some small clip in class on solar wind or global-warming — the new standards prevent me from doing this. …….all those actors, movie executives — they managed to get Congress to care about this, to act like it was an international crisis, passed legislation establishing new industry-wide standards that are now built into the signal ….that’s the only thing I can think of.

-Lew

Lewis,

to be clear: The box does *not* allow you to record off HDMI directly, you have to go through component (you know, the three cables). I have a pretty good eye and two 50″ Plasmas and I cannot see any difference between the two. You cannot record off HDMI because it is part of a ‘trusted path’, the signal is encrypted. So far I know of nobody that has found a solution for that. But the component video will work for you, guaranteed. Make sure you have component output on the STB, though.

As for what you are trying to do: Since you are not breaking any method from duplicating the signal (such as decrypting DVDs, for example, and you are only using portions of it for academic purposes, I am fairly certain that this falls under fair use and you have nothing to worry about (I am no lawyer but have looked into this in more or less detail).

component — yes — I have my tv currently wired that way; I’ve disconnected the HDMI cable — don’t need it — thanks for your comments,

-Lew

Is anybody succesfull capture 1080i from DishNetwork using ViP(R) 622 reciever. My the sound is out of sync. But when I change the R622 to give me output to 480p the sound is fine using the same software the come with the device. Also used the try out version of segaTV same thing. Any help will appreciate. Thanks

Sorry, I forgot to mention that my PC is Windows XP profesional.

Are you capturing AC3?

If this is default the answer is yes using the software that came with HD PVR 1212. I haven’t play to much with the settings.

Just a quick update: after installing a USB2.0 CardBus card in an old 1 GHz PowerBook G4, I am successfully using the 1212 on a Mac with version 2.4.1 of Steven Toth’s HDPVRCapture software. I am therefore happy to say that even on a Mac, as Christopher Price says, the 1212 “Just Works”.

My box finally work using a PC machine. I went to the Hauppage site and find the Beta drivers that fix the out of sync that I have with my equipment. Thanks for your help.

Hi, does anyone know any good TS to MP4 converters? Or in Arcsoft how to I make the format MP4, and not TS?

See my site. It took me a *long* time to figure out. Note that the latest version of Totalmedia also has the ability to capute to MP4 but I presume very much this is still at the 59.97 rate.

Here is the direct link: http://24hourloop.com/component/content/article/38-hauppage-2

It’s very terse because I really wanted to get the info out but didn’t really have the time to spend on writing the article. If you have questions just shoot me an email.

I have converted dozens of movies this way and it is the *only* way to reliably do so (for reasons I cannot delve into here).