Product Description
The new HD PVR 2 Gaming Edition from Hauppauge is the best way to record your Xbox 360 or PS3 game play on your PC--now with 1080p 'no-delay passthrough' and HDMI input and output. The HD PVR 2 Gaming Edition is the latest in Hauppauge's series of HD video game recorders. HD PVR 2 adds some great new features to the HD PVR, which was the world's first High Definition video recorder for making real-time H.264 compressed recordings (Blu-ray quality) from your Xbox or PS3 game play. HD PVR 2 records HD video gameplay using HDMI for the Xbox 360 or Component video for the PS3. To make setup super easy, you can leave your video game console at 1080p60 and record either HDMI (Xbox 360) or Component video (PS3) at up to 1080p30.
| List Price: | $199.99 |
| Price: |
$156.03 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details |
| as of Fri, 15 Mar 2013 13:45:14 GMT ***Remember, deals price on this item for sale just for limited time*** | |
Product Details
- Color: Black
- Brand: Hauppauge
- Model: 1480
- Platforms: Windows XP, Windows 8, Windows Vista, Windows 7
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 7.50" h x 7.50" w x 5.25" l, 2.00 pounds
Features
- Uses H.264 encoding in HD to capture your game play in stunning HD
- Uses HDMI to connect to your TV set from either Xbox 360 or PS3. Setup is a snap
- Comes with a 6 ft long HDMI cable to connect to your Xbox, and a Component Video cable to connect to your PS3 (Sony only allows gameplay recording through a component connection at this time)
- With no delay passthrough, so you can play your games while recording
- With one click you can share your game play with your friends and fans on YouTube
From the Manufacturer
Hauppauge HD PVR 2 Gaming Edition
The new HD PVR 2 Gaming Edition from Hauppauge is the best way to record your Xbox 360 or PS3 game play on your PC--now with 1080p 'no-delay passthrough' and HDMI input and output with 1080p60 passthrough. The HD PVR 2 Gaming Edition is the latest in Hauppauge's series of HD video game recorders. HD PVR 2 adds some great new features to the original HD PVR, which was the world's first High Definition video recorder for making real-time H.264 compressed recordings (Blu-ray quality) from your Xbox or PS3 game play. HD PVR 2 records HD video gameplay from either HDMI or Component video. To make setup super easy, you can leave your video game console at 1080p60 and record either HDMI or Component video at up to 1080p30.
Upload to YouTube and Share Your Best Games with your Friends in HD
HD PVR 2 Gaming Edition includes cables and software you need to capture your Xbox 360 or PS3 high definition gameplay in realtime. A 6-foot HDMI cable is supplied to connect HD PVR 2 Gaming Edition to your TV set so you can play your games while you record with no delay. For connection to a Sony PS3, an HD Component video cable and special Hauppauge adapter is included.
New Features for the HD PVR 2 Gaming Edition
The new HD PVR 2 Gaming Edition was specially designed for the dedicated Xbox 360 or PS3 gamer, and makes the installation easy yet still brings the excellent video quality of the original HD PVR. It features 1080p60 'no-delay passthrough' for HDMI in and out (with an extra long HDMI cable included to connect to your TV monitor), Component-In to HDMI-Out to support the PS3, plus a record button mounted on top of HD PVR 2 to start the recording without having to be at your PC. Our HD PVR 2 CD-ROM includes our Personal Logo inserter so you can "burn" your own logo into your recordings. And HD PVR 2 has a new, smaller design to make carrying to your friends home to record their game play super easy.
No-Delay Passthrough, for Zero-Delay Recording and Gaming
HD PVR 2's "no-delay" video passthrough gives zero delay on your TV monitor, and makes HD video recordings while you play your games at the same time. When using the "no-delay" video passthrough with a PS3, you will use the supplied HD Component Video cable from your PS3 into the HD PVR 2, and then you'll use HDMI to connect to your TV set. When using the "no-delay" video passthrough with an Xbox 360, you'll bring HDMI in from the Xbox and then HDMI out to your TV set.
High Performance, High Definition Recording
At long last, a video game recorder that offers high quality recordings from your HD gameplay. At the heart of the HD PVR 2 is a pro-quality H.264 high-definition encoder that was originally designed for the broadcast TV industry. The HD PVR 2 makes high performance, high quality video recordings at up to 1080p30 resolution, 720p, or 480p. The box includes all cables necessary to connect your Xbox 360 or PS3. The HD PVR 2 records in the AVCHD format, which is the format used to master Blu-ray discs. You have the option of recording at data rates from 1 Mbs to 13.5Mbs, so you can choose the video quality you need.
There are three H.264 formats you can choose when recording a video:
MP4 files are used with many video editors, like Sony Vegas, for editing. TS files are also called 'AVCHD' files and are used to burn Blu-ray DVD movies (Blu-ray burner software not included).
What's in the Box?
Technical Specifications
- Encoder: H.264 encoder, at datarates from 1 to 13.5 Mbits/sec
- Input: Xbox 360 (unencrypted HDMI), PlayStation 3 (Component video)
- Output: HDMI
- Video resolutions: 1080p60 passthrough (records at 1080p30), 720p, 576p, 480p
- Interface: USB 2.0
- Dimensions: 6.0 x 6.0 x 1.56 in
- Weight: 5 oz
Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
49 of 54 people found the following review helpful.
By John OC
Look & Feel:
The device looks pretty slick and has a slim profile to it. It is very light and does not take up much room at all. This is a major improvement over the previous version of the Hauppauge.
Setup:
Comes with easy to follow directions and all the cables you need which is aweosme that I didnt have to buy the HDMI cables separately. Everything went smoothly for me, I followed the directions, hooked up the cables in the order directed, and put in the installation CD to install the driver and software. Everything went great, there was only one hiccup where I was directed to the company website to install a newer version of the driver. Nothing failed, I recieved no error messages.
FYI here is my setup:
PC - Sager customized laptop
i7 3610M CPU
Intel 520 SSD, 120GB
Nvidia 680M GPU
16GB RAM
Windows 7 Home Premium
XBox 360
I even have the HDPVR routed through a 4x4 HDMI matrix (allows me to hook up multiple input/output devices to the matrix and easily switch among them with a remote rather than switching cables around)....and it still works great!
I experience zero lag while playing video games through the HD PVR 2.
Features/Customization:
There are lots and lots of configurations you can change to fit your needs. I am still exploring the menus but so far I see everything I need to capture HD video. I have done a few test videos and it looks great so it doesn't even seem like I will have to change much. This may be overwhelming to some folks, but if you just call tech support and let them know what you are trying to do, they will tell you exactly what configurations to choose!
Reaction to other ratings:
Hauppague is a great company with great products. There is pretty much a 50/50 split right now for 5 star and 1 star ratings. This seemed a little fishy to me when I ordered the product, I was worried there were goign to be issues. After my experience it is clear to me that the people giving it one star either A) dont know what they are doing and can't follow directions B) get frustrated very easily and run to their computers to write a negative review before trying to call tech support (who are very helpful by the way, CALL THEM! it is amazing how many people are reporting issues here but do not mention calling tech support...craziness...) C) have a unique computer setup or personal computer issue (which can be determined and fixed if you CALL TECH SUPPORT)
Conclusion:
Great price, great functionality, great support, excellent device
If you are having any kind of difficulty, just call tech support, they are great. They have people dedicating their time to go through reviews of the product and address issues through comments...if they are that helpful in a comment section without being contacted directly, imagine if you just call them yourselves!
52 of 59 people found the following review helpful.
By Brent Dabu
Let me say on the record I am very experienced with Hauppauge's line of HD PVRs, having owned the original HD PVR for years. When I heard about the HD PVR 2, I was ecstatic. On to the product.
The unit comes in a slightly smaller, stout box than the HD PVR1. It came with the main unit, power adapter, 2 HDMI cables (cheap, generic kind), AV connector, PS3 Component Cable, USB cable, Install CD, and various booklets.
Installation: 3/5
I plugged the unit in immediately to my Windows 7 PC hoping the advertised pass-through would work out of the box. Nope. The unit requires being on and the driver installed. So, I installed the latest drivers from the website. I eventually reverted to the on-disc drivers because of audio being flipped on the website drivers and problems with the component recording side. I also installed the Arcsoft Showbiz application included easily.
Software: 3/5
I'll say right now I'm not a fan of the bundled software, as I was not a fan of the TotalMediaExtreme software from the HD PVR1. This software does the job, but it is sluggish to record. Before you could disable the picture of whatever you were recording, but that option is now out. Initially, the button on the top would work and simply launch the application and begin recording. However, now it no longer works and I have to manually open the application, which isn't that big of a problem since I don't use it. To get to the capture software, you have to open Showbiz which to me is a bunch of bloatware. It would be much better if the actual recording program was separate from ShowBiz, if it was, I might actually stick with their software. I actually use a command line interface which doesn't use CPU or memory at all compared to the ShowBiz software. Google rcTVCap for more information.
Tweaking the encoder overall works fine. You can adjust the bitrate and recording scaling just fine through the encoder settings. The only problem I have is that when feeding a 480p signal (HDMI or component), it doesn't come out through the recording as 16:9, but correctly through the pass-through. I've tried this with both on disc and website drivers. If for some reason you were to feed a 16:9 480p, it'll be 720x480 which isn't 16:9 (854x480 is 16:9). Oddly enough, there is aspect ratio control in the encoder settings, but they'r grayed out, most likely because it's getting the wrong source resolution. But for 720p and 1080p the unit takes 16:9 ratios just fine.
Build Quality: 4/5
The unit looks much better than the original HD PVR. It's also much smaller, I'd estimate about 30% smaller. The unit doesn't get hot, even running or recording for extended periods. The cables included were of course bare minimum. But I think it was a bonus that they included a component cable for the PS3 and 2 HDMI cables to boot. Really, as long as the HDMI cable works, it's just as good as those "high-end" and high priced HDMI calbes (looking at you Monster). As for sturdiness, it's pretty light and I would guess that if you dropped something heavy like a brick, it would break. However, it should be common sense to not load anything heavy on top of the unit. It's sturdy enough for just placing on a table for extended periods.
Pros:
-Cheaper than other HDMI capture solutions.
-HDMI Capture 1080p30 and 720p60
-"Pass-through" for lag free gameplay (i have a couple thoughts about this).
-Doesn't have very specific requirements (i.e. Blackmagic Shuttle) at least for Windows Platform.
-Comes with HDMI and Component cables
-External, no need for PCI-E slot or high-end computer for that matter.
Cons:
-Installation can be a headache for some people
-PS3 can only be recorded via component (not Hauppauge's fault, due to HDCP on PS3)
-Website support and drivers can be iffy
-Component capture doesn't work half the time (have to restart computer to correct).
-Pass-through requires unit to be on and switched to appropriate channel (hdmi or av/component)
Other thoughts:
As for the pass through. I'll just say I don't exactly believe in it providing lagless gameplay. I compared a straight connection from source to monitor to having the unit connected. The pictures differ. The picture out of the HD PVR2 is ever so slightly fuzzier or less sharp. The colors also seem slightly washed out. I also play fighting games with a passion and I can most often tell if there is some sort of input delay. Unfortunately, I haven't tested through the hdmi connection, but from just playing on the PS3 hooked up via component, it felt like there was some sort of input delay. From my understanding, when converting analog to digital, which I assume is what happens when recording through component, there is definitely delay introduced. To not worry about all this, I use a powered HDMI splitter.
Conclusion:
Overall, the HD PVR has its share of plus-es and minus-es. Normally, I would think about returning a product like this. However, it gets the job done. Right now, it's the only way I can effectively record from HDMI (1080p) without need of PCI-E slots, or ridiculous specific requirements. Plus, I'm able to record via command line which makes the unit even better. I mostly use the unit for recording PC gameplay and so far without a hitch. I won't be using this to record anything from the PS3.
PC Specs:
Windows 7
Intel i7 3.4GhZ
Nvidia GTX 670
16 GB RAM
2x 2TB RAID 0
I will try to update this review as I get more experience with the unit and tack on more hours of recording.
Update: Apparently, the delay introduced when hooking up component through the unit is 60 microseconds, which is no where near one frame delay (60fps setting). So my gut feeling about input delay is most likely wrong. Again, I don't have equipment to scientifically test input delay and can only go off conjecture.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful.
By Vance Tolentino
I was skeptical of the device after seeing so many negative reviews, but after using it myself I found that it's very handy and makes recording so easy! I use it with both my PS3 and 360 and the quality comes out at a beautiful 720p and 1080p/i when I want it to! Recommended to a friend of mine and he's going to use this for his gameplay videos as well!
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