Review: Hauppauge HD PVR Gaming Edition

by Steven Williamson on 2 February 2012, 09:56 4.0

Tags: Hauppauge (NASDAQ:HAUP)

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Gameplay footage, final thoughts and rating

In the ‘Produce’ section, there’s a handy feature allowing you to upload directly to YouTube, with the ability to choose a variety of quality settings from 320x240 up to full-HD 1,920x1,080. The higher quality the video the longer it takes to upload – it took me in excess of two hours on my home broadband to upload the 2GB 1080i Soul Calibur V video you see below. If you want to upload more quickly you simply choose a lower resolution with a lesser quality bit rate, which speeds up the processing time.

After choosing the resolution you want to upload at, the software automatically converts the file, you’re prompted to input your YouTube details and next thing you know, it's on the net. It’s simple, effective and does exactly the job you want it to do.

Within the ‘Produce’ section you can also create files in a variety of formats, including WMV and MPEG 1 and 2, for saving onto your hard drive where you can keep them for your viewing pleasure or upload them to other video sites. Finally, the option to burn directly to a DVD also comes in handy if you want to take your footage on the move or file it for prosperity.

1080i (1920x1080) Xbox 360 footage - Soul Calibur V


Overall, it's a very basic editing package, but superb at what it does. The HD PVR is simple to use and efficient at getting your files online, though, if you’re planning on doing voice overs or serious editing you may want to look at grabbing some professional software to go with it.

Recorded at 720p on Xbox 360 - Soul Calibur V

Summary

Video capture cards do the same thing as the HD PVR Gaming Edition, but Hauppauge's little black box provides an incredibly simple solution that is easy to setup and captures the highest quality footage that you could possibly want.

While the video editing software isn’t the most in-depth, it has some great features, such as the automatic upload to YouTube, and it does provide a very effective and intuitive way of editing.

The proof is really in the recordings though, and despite being disappointed at the slight input lag between HDTV and PC preview window, the Hauppauge HD PVR has an abundance of options to cater for those who just want to produce good quality gaming videos and get them up on YouTube quickly. It’s maybe a little expensive at £199, but from the moment you plug it in and start capturing footage, the whole process is simple and silky-smooth and the final result is outstanding.

The Good

Minimum fuss to setup and use
Good software for instant editing, uploading to the net or burning to disc
Smooth process from capturing right through to upload
Produces high-quality footage

The Bad

Serious editors may want a more in-depth video editing suite
Some input lag between HD TV and PC Preview window

HEXUS Rating

4/5
Hauppauge HD PVR Gaming Edition

HEXUS Where2Buy

The Hauppauge HD PVR Gaming Edition is available to purchase from Play.com

HEXUS Right2Reply

At HEXUS, we invite the companies whose products we test to comment on our articles. If any company representatives for the products reviewed choose to respond, we'll publish their commentary here verbatim.



HEXUS Forums :: 7 Comments

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The bad should include why on Earth is there no HDMI on this?
billybear
The bad should include why on Earth is there no HDMI on this?

This, a hundred times this. Who even uses component any more? HDMI is hugely better quality, on the Xbox 360 anyway.

I presume this is another DRM fail.

PS, on my home internet it would take around 5 hours to download that 2GB video, and you can more than double that for uploading :(

Or, incidentally, an hour fifteen via my phone to download, or <4h to upload - lol.
I recommend the Intensity Pro over the HD PVR. You will get fed up within a week thanks to the amount of cables needed for pass-through and the ridiculous belt component cable it provides (which continuously pulls the device backwards because it is so heavy).

Not only is the Intensity Pro cheaper but internal too (PCIe x1 lane) and records uncompressed if you really want the best quality (and have enough hard drive space).

Hopefully HEXUS will do a review for it too and then compare them both.

Edit: Intensity Pro is HDMI too.
Yup DRM in the form of HDCP.

Hollywood don't want you making a 1:1 digital copy of the content….even though all their “on disk” protection was broken VERY early on and it's much easier and faster to make your 1:1 copy at the file level….

Ho hum.
You're not allowed to make digital to digital conversions, this proves a complete nightmare for me at work as a lot of our customers are broadcasters who just want a cheap solution of making off-air recordings and playing them back into their digital broadcast system (HDSDI) for monitoring purposes. Receivers have also disabled the analogue HD outputs now so you cant even do that conversion.
What you can do, by means of an HDFury, is convert HDMI to analogue HD. This conversion is entirely legal (according to their website anyway) but for us it means i have to go HDMI -> Analogue HD -> HDSDI which is just nasty!

Been wondering if a PC could be used as a Freeview/Freesat PVR just using windows media centre then the DVI output could be converter into digital or would HDCP be thrown in there aswell?