Hauppauge Colossus: HD PVR with HDMI Support
by Andrew Van Til on April 14, 2011 5:40 PM EST- Posted in
- HTPC
- Home Theater
- Hauppauge
Software Analysis
As mentioned earlier, an OEM version of Arcsoft’s ShowBiz comes with the Colossus, providing a good way for capturing non-TV based content. Features such as automated Electronic Program Guide (EPG) based recording, conflict resolution, and tuner selection found on modern DVRs are not included in the product. It can capture in a variety of different formats depending on need including TS, M2TS and MP4. The device’s HDMI and component + TOSLINK inputs are the most compelling, since they provide the most capability. Should other inputs be required, the table below summarizes the supported audio/video input mappings. There’s not much to say, but more flexibility when matching the optical input to analog inputs would be ideal. UPDATE: Hauppauge heard our feedback and updated the device to allow for much greater flexibility in an updated driver (29111). With the updated driver, any audio/video input (with the exception of HDMI audio) can be mapped with any other input.
| Input Matrix | ||||
| HDMI | TOSLINK (S/PDIF) | Analog Line In | Auxiliary Line In | |
| HDMI | X | X** | X** | X** |
| Component (YPbPr) | X | X | X** | |
| Composite (blue input) | X** | X | X** | |
| Auxiliary Composite* | X** | X** | X | |
| Auxiliary S-Video* | X** | X** | X | |
* - Requires additional daughter card (not included)
** - 29111+
For those planning to use the Colossus on Windows XP or Vista outside of ShowBiz, it is important to note that globally registered DirectShow filters are not provided. This is a change for the version of Total Media Theatre bundled with the original HD PVR. Windows 7 includes support for H.264/AVC (and AAC, if encoding PCM audio with the device), so this is not an issue on that platform. It might be possible to use the “checkactivate hack” to work around this issue and provide support in third-party applications, but I did not test it.
For what it does, ShowBiz provides a good solution for encoding audio and video with the Colossus. Unfortunately, it does not enable the more interesting use case (i.e. recording HD cable/satellite content at native resolution) with a reasonable degree of usability, nor does it provide the codecs necessary to consume the content produced by the device in a friendlier environment. As such, I question the value of the software for those who will use the Colossus with other software, and again would like to see Hauppauge offer a barebones version of the card without ShowBiz.
Currently, SageTV (shown above with Sage Diamond Theme) is the only HTPC DVR product with native Colossus support. It is possible to use the device in Windows Media Center via a third party product, and native driver support is supposed to be coming soon. Since neither is official yet, and they should be functionally equivalent (more on this later) to the capture capability provided, we will use SageTV as a proxy for the “recording TV” scenario.
The input matrix is a limitation of the device, so it is consistent across capture applications with a simplified set of the same options observed in ShowBiz also presented by SageTV. Like the original HD PVR, the Colossus preserves the native format of encoded audio (i.e. Dolby Digital is stored as Dolby Digital), but currently encodes uncompressed audio (PCM) as AAC with video content encoded to AVC (H.264) in the native resolution and frame rate. We tested both HDMI and Component + SPDIF as they provide the most flexibility for capturing 480i (720x480@29.97 FPS), 720p (1280x720@59.94 FPS), and 1080i (1920x1080@29.97 FPS) video with analog, Dolby Pro Logic (two channels), or Dolby Digital (5.1 channels) audio.
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Casper42 - Monday, April 25, 2011 - link
PS: This is even worse with U-verse here in the USA.Microsoft developed product (aka MS Media Room) that streams over Multicast IP networks to a Windows CE 5.x based STB/DVR, and is supported by MS/AT&T with a Xbox 360 client, but yet there is no Win7MC Client that can do the same on a PC thats 10x faster?
Absolute lunacy. I'm sure it exists but companies like Cable Labs are preventing it from being released. Just think, 100% digital copies of the shows you want delivered straight over a simple network connection. Its so easy it must be illegal!
Shadowmaster625 - Monday, April 18, 2011 - link
You can say that again. Every time I buy a TV tuner card, even the ones that get the best reviews on newegg and other sites, I end up being sorely disappointed and am left wondering what the heck all those people were smoking when they recommended the card. These things just do not work and it will take me a hell of a lot of convincing to fool me into trying another one. Especially when a seedbox only costs $8 a month. lol. I just let some other sucker record my stuff for me. (What is the difference anyway?)strolfey - Monday, April 18, 2011 - link
It was briefly mentioned that none of the PACE codes worked with the RNG 110, but then the ir blaster wasn't ever mentioned again. Did you get a different code that worked with it? I bought the HD-PVR last december and haven't actually used it since because of that issue, and hauppage never got back to me on that or other issues I've had. Google results on the issue at the time were mixed, with some saying that it worked with the old comcast code (fairly certain they're liars since most of the results were talking about how comcast changed remotes and lots of people had problems) and many saying they returned the STB back for an older model.babgvant - Wednesday, April 20, 2011 - link
I was not able to find a code that worked with the Pace STB. It should be possible to train the blaster, but the software doesn't work very well so it's better to go another route (FW, ethernet, serial, USBIRT, etc).don_k - Thursday, April 21, 2011 - link
What's the word on Linux support for these cards, anyone know? Hauppauge site claims no support as of yet.http://www.hauppauge.com/site/support/support_colo...
chordo - Saturday, April 23, 2011 - link
Hauppauge has released a new driver plus beta software to integrate Colossus with Media Center. Pretty good start, although it only currently supports stereo audio. According to the website, optical will be supported in the next release. I have been using DVBLink up to now, and I have not had any problems using optical (no audio sync issues).Octavean - Saturday, April 23, 2011 - link
I have two Hauppauge HD PVR units. I bought my first unit in 2008 and I have never really had any significant problems with them. I started off using the bundled OEM Arcsoft TotalMedia Extreme software and then graduated to the DVBLink solution. I also beta tested the Hauppauge Media Center solution but found the DVBLink solution to be more stable.I bought one Colossus for ~$139 or so via the special pricing for the pre-order and I am very pleased with it. It is extremely stable when used with DVBLink and has never shown any sign of an issue small or otherwise.
Right now I use a Hauppauge HD PVR USB in the bedroom and a Hauppauge Colossus in the living room. An HP MediaSmart EX490 Windows Home Server provides whole house DRM free entertainment to every system by acting as a repository ~12TB.
I wouldn’t trade two Hauppauge HD PVR / Colossus 1080i / 720p DRM free streams for 4 Ceton InfiniTV quad streams with DRM.
heric1 - Friday, May 27, 2011 - link
About this comment : "the final result is an 8.33% fail rate". I am curious to know if the last driver version (29111) was tested...? The release date was 4/22/2011.http://www.hauppauge.com/site/support/support_colo...
The web site pretends this release fixes:
-"Colossus audio lost when another recording starts in Sage TV"
-"My player loses audio if the audio format changes in the middle of a recording"
I think it's also the first version with MCE integration:
"This version now has support for Windows Media Center."
Tosa - Wednesday, June 15, 2011 - link
I was in the market for a HD capture card and bought the Blackmagic Intensity Pro card just before the Hauppauge Colossus came out. (I don't want an external box like HD PVR). Price is about the same. I kicked myself for not waiting a bit for the Colossus and see how it perform.Anyhow I now have 3 month using the Intensity Pro, and compare it with this review. My use is to record from sat channels, and occasionally record games (HDMI connection, 1080i/59.94). After the usual teething problems with PC and the Intensity product, here's my experience:
- Record 1080i/59.94 for hours with no problems - no frame drops, no audio drops, no blue screen. Thus app & drivers are stable. (Windows 7-32)
- Can record to 480p
- HD quality is absolutely superb. Indistinguishable from the original, no matter what kind of scene, as critically viewed from a high end HDTV.
- The Intensity Pro record HD at a frame rate of 15 mbps, sustained.
- The only issue is it records using Motion-JPEG compression and thus yields huge AVI files at a rate of 35GB/hr. This is 'fixed' by importing AVI file into my video editor (Corel VideoStudio Pro X3) and convert it to H.264 compression and AVCHD file. The result reduce a 36GB AVI file to 6GB. The AVCHD file can be played by most players.
So the Intensity Pro is completely satisfactory. In this review, I notice that the Colossus:
- Record HD to 1080i at 30/fs only
- Bit rate is slightly less than 15mbps
- Record direct to AVCHD file, smaller size, and immediately usable
- Drivers not stable
But I can tell you this: both cards spits out a lot of heat. That's the nature of the beast. In my case, the Intensity card plus the Radeon HD 5670 graphics card generate so much heat I have to do a lot of cooling work to fix it.
arshaavin - Sunday, July 3, 2011 - link
Hi all, I wanna know where i can buy hauppauge hd pvr in india at reasonable price.I really need this.arshaavin@yahoo.com