Comments on: Hauppauge 1212 HD-PVR: It Just Works

By: Spin Marty

Spin Marty — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 00:09:26 +0000

As for overheating, I’ve noticed a distinct improvement(less freezing up) after I placed the box on its side, instead of flat. It seems to stay cooler that way.

By: Rolf Ernst

Rolf Ernst — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 22:41:36 +0000

>>> oh yeah, and maybe one time out of 10 it will record for about an hour then it freezes up… i need a lot of help!

I hate to say it but that sounds like a lemon. I had one of those as well, would disconnect very once in a while. Eventually it died completely. Hauppage exchanged it without questions.

However, before you do this make sure the device is not overheating. They did not add a fan (or the ones they used to place in it were so positioned that they didn’t effect any airflow ;-). It *will* work fine with the chipset I eventually got (had it now for quite some time and did countless recordings). It will *very rarely* disconnect. It’s so rare that I couldn’t tell you whether it’s actually a problem of the device or my PC.

Btw, if you lose connection simply turning it off and on should cause the PC to recognize it again. If it doesn’t you *do* have an issue.

By: Rolf Ernst

Rolf Ernst — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 22:38:04 +0000

>>> is smart cutter better than arcsoft TME?

Smartcutter does frame accurate cutting and re-encodes only a couple of frames at the beginning and end in order to establish frame accuracy (unless you are cutting exactly on an I-frame). I subsequently feed the cut stream into my own app (or mencoder) which then recompresses it. The PVR does not encode very well at low bitrates and you can get the bitrate down further and better by re-encoding using a good standalone x264 encoder.

I wasn’t happy with what TME itself was offering.

But the important part is that Smartcutter does not re-encode, i.e. zero generation loss.

By: DnY

DnY — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 22:23:29 +0000

@rofl erntst:
is smart cutter better than arcsoft TME? im recording my xbox (thousands do), and i rly just want to record and edit out bad parts of my gameplay, and then send to an editor, so he can edit it, and then it gets put on youtube, then i get paid by my sponsor…
i used pinnacle, but that ran out of room lol…

By: DnY

DnY — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 22:19:07 +0000

oh yeah, and maybe one time out of 10 it will record for about an hour then it freezes up… i need a lot of help!
reply as soon as possible…

By: DnY

DnY — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 22:17:49 +0000

okay, i started recording last saturday, only 5 days ago…
for the first 2 or 3 days it was flawless
now i keep getting this error msg “device is not applicable, or is being used by another program”, i reconnect, then it works for about another 5 mintues, then the same problem…
i have no idea what the problem is… is it arcsoft totalmediaextreme? or is it the pvr itself?
i need help…
plz reply…

By: Spin Marty

Spin Marty — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 05:04:06 +0000

I also have intermittent trouble with the comp recognizing the box through the USB. Sometimes I even get the “USB DEVICE NOT RECOGNIZED” when I’m not doing anything! I tend to agree with a previous poster who thinks the box is the source of the problems, not the software. What REALLY drives me nuts is the almost constant freezing up when the “CAPTURE” button in the capture module is pressed — the capture window and frame counter are frozen, but it’s actually recording into a file. Then you have to kill it through Task Manager, open the capture module AGAIN, and try it AGAIN. Very very buggy device, but I’m so dependant on it now, if I sent it in to the geniuses at Haupaugge for a replacement (judging by the posts here, that is a hit-and-miss proposition) I’d have to get a second unit so I don’t miss anything!

Why doesn’t anything work right anymore?

By: Rolf Ernst

Rolf Ernst — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 04:02:06 +0000

Same comment here. Must be turned on. Make sure you actually plugged IN into IN and OUT into OUT (it is not simply a hardwired connection), make sure you selected the correct inputs, make sure you got the cables correctly.

First thin you want to check is – does your computer even recognize the device. Plug it in, turn it on – after a second on the front a YELLOW light should come on. That’s when the driver touched base with the hardware. You should hear the familiar ‘ping’.

As the other poster said – I had it wrong a number of times myself. Just read the manual and don’t assume you already know where everything is being plugged in. One step at a time.

By: Spin Marty

Spin Marty — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 03:04:18 +0000

[quote]cant get a picture on my tv or the softwear i installed the updated drivers so i think and nothing HELP what am i doing wrong???????????????????[/quote]
You’ll have to be more specific. Did you connect everything exactly as the instructions say? Is the PVR box turned on when you try to watch tv? You won’t get a picture on the tv unless the box is turned on. Also, if the capture module input is not set to the right input source, you get no picture on the tv. For example- if the CM input is set to the front jacks on the PVR, and your cable box is plugged into the BACK input jacks – NO TV PICTURE. I had to reinstall the software several times to get a picture through the USB and onto my comp. Also, once while turning the HD-PVR off, it crashed my comp and destroyed my secondary hard drive — I and Hauppauge have no idea why. Be careful.

Oh, and Hauppauge tech support ALSO SUCKS!

By: Riot Nrrrd™

Riot Nrrrd™ — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 02:45:49 +0000

cREDRUM187: Re: “can’t get a picture on my tv” – you aren’t supposed to. It’s a Personal Video RECORDER, not a playback device. You feed it Component Out from your satellite or cable box as input, and it outputs digital video to your computer over the USB port.