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Hauppauge HD PVR recording requirements

post #1 of 7
11/2/09 at 9:29pm
Thread Starter 
Hi, I already know that my computer is pretty much incapable of playing back footage recorded by the Hauppauge HD PVR, but I was wondering if my computer has enough to simply allow the *recording* of content.

It's a Dell Dimension 4700 with 512 MB RAM and a Pentium 4 2.80GHz processor.

So far I just plan on uploading 480p content onto sites like YouTube, completely unedited (maybe a simple cut of huge chunks of content, but that's it; no adding effects or need to preview the footage). All I'd be doing is recording content, using Sony Vegas Pro 9 "blind" (video-wise) to convert into a high quality .mp4, then upload to a video sharing site.

Do you think this would work? Would 480p content be less taxing on the computer than 720p content?
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post #2 of 7
11/2/09 at 10:16pm
The act of recording is not intensive. Decoding the HD stream for display is the intensive part. Unfortunately, the bundled software does not provide the means to record without decoding and display; the bundled software always decodes and displays the current liveTV capture. Thus, it requires excessive resources to use.

Over in the HTPC forum, members created other software to record without simultaneous decoding and display. You can use that, although it may not be quite as intuitive.
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post #3 of 7
11/5/09 at 10:40pm
shoopdopp,
Check this out it may help you out! I was concerned about my computer + I was interested in recording HD to DVD-9 (Dual Layer) saves $$!! Nextoo knows what he is doing! There are 3-4 discussions within the thread which is 3 pages long. Hope this helps! Here's the link just look for Nextoo's responses. http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1075777
had1

Quote:
Originally Posted by shoopdopp View Post

Hi, I already know that my computer is pretty much incapable of playing back footage recorded by the Hauppauge HD PVR, but I was wondering if my computer has enough to simply allow the *recording* of content.

It's a Dell Dimension 4700 with 512 MB RAM and a Pentium 4 2.80GHz processor.

So far I just plan on uploading 480p content onto sites like YouTube, completely unedited (maybe a simple cut of huge chunks of content, but that's it; no adding effects or need to preview the footage). All I'd be doing is recording content, using Sony Vegas Pro 9 "blind" (video-wise) to convert into a high quality .mp4, then upload to a video sharing site.

Do you think this would work? Would 480p content be less taxing on the computer than 720p content?

Quote:
Originally Posted by nextoo View Post

I record via component and optical audio from my satco STB. This STB allows for simultaneous output via HDMI and component. Something that most TWC boxes won't do. If that is the case then I would run component and Toslink audio to the HD PVR and then use the passthrough feature of the HD PVR to the TV.

The quality is excellent. Stunning actually. Finally high definition recording with 5.1 audio. I should add that video quality is of course dependent on the quality of the source.

As far as computer specs are concerned I would suggest going to the Hauppauge site where the specs are listed. I can say that I use what I would consider a low end underpowered notebook PC for capuring that is not what Hauppauge recommends as far as minumum system requirements. The caveat is that I use graphedit to capture. When I use the included TME software for capturing my notebook maxes out at 100% CPU utilization and I can't capture at high bit rates. This is because TME has a preview window that hogs CPU cycles. It is not easy to render a 720p or 1080i video on a single core machine. With graphedit there is not a preview window. I can record at maximum bit rates with essentially zero CPU utilization. Which means that while recording I can use my notebook to surf etc.
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post #4 of 7
11/5/09 at 10:46pm
Graphedit is what I referred to in my previous post.

That said, I saw it mentioned elsewhere that Arcsoft released a new version of TME (the software included with the Hauppauge HD PVR) that allows one to capture without the video window, and therefore without all the cpu utilization. This should be available through the Arcsoft software updater.
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post #5 of 7
11/5/09 at 10:57pm
bfdtv,
I had read that also in a thread somewhere. I'm waiting to hear some feedback on the new software. Thanks for your help!!
had1
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post #6 of 7
11/7/09 at 10:21am
Thread Starter 
Thanks for the info, you two!

had1, I would much appreciate if you could post in here when you find out more about Total Media Extreme's new "preview-less" option and how it would work with a computer/laptop like yours. I think I'd be better off waiting for that than dealing with the less beginner-friendly Graphedit method.
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post #7 of 7
11/17/09 at 1:41pm
I can actually vouch for the preview-less option (when recording at least).

We have Street Fighter meetups every week here and we've made a habit of recording everything we can. Obviously we need a PC to do that and I actually use my netbook to record (I have an Asus EEEPC 1000HA with a 160gb HDD in it).

The results are amazing - it records 60fps without a hitch and there are no dropped frames that we could notice.

I also do direct upload to Youtube and it works beautifully - if you want to see what it looks like you can check my youtube channel (check my name on youtube)

BTW, for 60fps on Youtube, you need to set the output to HQ FLV to have 60fps.

All I need now is to find alternative software so I can use the device with ustream... The solutions I've found don't seem to work quite well and the adobe flash encoder doesn't grab the direct stream from the device (arguably because it's already encoded in h.264 and it doesn't like the format).
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