Here's an interesting bit of information about the Hauppauge HD-DVR which has recently become available. Don't have one, there's no OS X recording software yet, but I did download some samples and played them on a 1.66CD Mini. These files were h.264 in a .TS container. They are 720p (1280x720) and ought to play great on a mini, but they don't. The bit rates were 5 and 12 Mbit/sec. VLC choked. Plex was unwatchable. CorePlayer Pro, however looked fine, but with a few more dropped frames than a typical 1080p. Video quality in CorePlayer Pro was very, very good--exceptional for at home A/D.

Inputs were component video. The Ambarella chip at this heart of this device is going to cause a lot of heartburn in the video industry. Note that playback may have implications for the cheap camcorders that will use this chip. Some simple work on the open source codecs may fix this problem, but be sure you can play the video back before you plan on acquiring a lot of this format. I doubt that transcoding to .MKV will be enough to fix it.

Oddly the HD-DVR will output AAC Audio which the CorePlayer Pro can do.

Expect to see legislation to put a stop to all this.

There's been an active thread for months on this device in the main HTPC forum:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1015617

is that where you got your samples? At least one Mac and aTV owner over there--MichaelLAX--has been posting frequently about his experience with the device, transcoding captures to MP4 with VisualHub to play on his aTV. He's been doing the heavy-lifting for all of us Mac hopefuls, and he's got good cross-platform instincts.

Elgato can't afford not to do this--if it remains legal. Tivo: duck!

Didn't Hauppauge (brand name: FAIL) promise Mac OS X software? That or they should do a support deal with Elgato.

Mike over at El Gato posted that they're considering support of this device and looking for a few beta testers:

http://forums.elgato.com/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=1755&p=15537#p15537

If you own one of the Hauppauge HD PVR devices and would be interesting in beta testing a version of EyeTV which supports it (when such a version exists) please send me a PM with your name, preferred email, and summary of the Mac you'd use it on (processor, speed, RAM).