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
System Impact
While recording quality is critical, it cannot be the only criteria used to measure a “tuner”. We performed some additional testing to assess the overall impact on a typical HTPC system when using the Colossus. It is more difficult to create a “worst case” environment with a full height card than would be possible if it were low-profile, since we can’t put the Colossus into some of the smaller HTPC cases. However, we did try to simulate use in a hotter chassis by utilizing the highest TDP CPU we had on hand as well as removing all but one of the case fans in the Ahanix D4 used in testing. Here are the specs for our test HTPC; this is hardly state-of-the-art, but it works well for our purposes.
| HTPC System Specifications | |
| Case | Ahanix D4 (Modified for better cooling) |
| Cooling | SilenX 60mm (Exhaust) |
| PSU | Antec EarthWatts 380 |
| CPU | Intel Q6600 (4x2.4GHz 105W TDP) with retail HSF |
| Motherboard | ASUS PK5-Pro |
| RAM | 4GB (2x2GB) ADATA DDR2-800 |
| Storage | 500GB Samsung F1 (7200RPM) |
| GPU | NVIDIA GT 430 |
| Optical | Lite-On iHOS104-04 |
| OS | Windows 7 32-bit |
With our test setup, we measured five temperatures at sixty-minute intervals while recording HD content. The five points we measures are the system (chipset), CPU, hard drive, and case, and the surface temperature of the ViXS encoding chip on the Colossus. System, CPU, and hard drive numbers were captured using SpeedFan, while internal case temperature was measured with a thermometer placed inside the case. We used an infrared thermometer to check the ViXS chip (after briefly removing the top of the case).
As we can see from the graph above the Colossus has almost no thermal impact in its environment, with the only significant gains measured by the hard drive and the card itself—both understandable given that is where the majority of recording load is realized. While temperatures weren’t noticeably impacted, we also checked system power use.
| System Power Draw | ||
| Baseline | Colossus Installed | |
| Idle | 68.5W | 76.1W |
| Recording | N/A | 77.1W |
Taking a look at power usage, the system’s draw was measured at the wall with a P3 Kill-A-Watt EZ P4460. We checked power draw first without the Colossus, then installed it and checked idle and recording power use. I was somewhat surprised by the initial difference (7.6W) after installing the card, but after looking at the results while recording where the delta between the two states is probably due to additional hard drive load it appears that the card does not utilize a low power idle state when not capturing data.
Having had a somewhat rough experience with the original HD PVR’s stability, we put the Colossus through a series of extended stress tests. The good news is that I was not able to reproduce the lockup problems that plagued its predecessor. Unfortunately, the device consistently caused BSODs (Blue Screen of Death) after sixteen to twenty hours of continuous recording. The conditions required to reproduce this issue are uncommon for HTPC DVR use so it is unlikely that most users would experience it. However, it does make the device currently unsuitable for some scenarios like a security system. We notified Hauppauge of the issue and provided a memory dump to help isolate the root cause. Hopefully they can trace the problem and patch it in the near future.
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Anthony Toste - Friday, April 15, 2011 - link
Frist your cable need be copy-freely flags good luck that not going to last long and MCE is use less any way with all DRM junk it has."extender functionality, you're willing to use an Xbox 360"
Don't you still have buy the Membership for that work beside there no PC MCE Client that why SageTV Rule's and SageTV Extender Rules for NoN Console user.
babgvant - Friday, April 15, 2011 - link
I don't agree with that. Ceton got Cable Labs to clarify/change the rules on Copy Freely content specifically to enable that scenario. Obviously they know about the use case, and opted to do the right thing for end users (I know it's strange :)).Anthony Toste - Friday, April 15, 2011 - link
Your forget that it not up to Cable Labs it the Studio and some of the Distributed that got the rigths to shows or moive that have the final say so.babgvant - Friday, April 15, 2011 - link
Cable Labs owns the DRI specification; content producers have a say, but only cursorily - currently it is up to the Cable company to mark/not mark content.It would be one thing to exploit a loop hole but the use case is known, and has an explicit OK from Cable Labs. I don't see how you (or anyone) can make statements like "good luck that not going to last long".
glugglug - Friday, April 15, 2011 - link
There's no membership needed for using an XBOX as an extender. And the DRM won't limit your extender use. The Ceton with MCE really is by far the best option out there.babgvant - Wednesday, April 20, 2011 - link
The 360 is a good extender device for TV based content, but once you move beyond that its support for other formats (DVD, BD, MKV, etc.) is very limited.glugglug - Friday, April 15, 2011 - link
Actually, FIOS is even better for it than cable for most CableCARDS. Unlike TWC, they don't require a truck roll to deliver the cablecard (you can pick it up at a payment center), nothing but premium channels ends up with DRM in the recordings, and in most areas the CableCARD from FIOS doesn't even need to be paired, so you can move it between devices without a phone call.jonp - Tuesday, April 19, 2011 - link
I think your point on cablecard is well taken. Since all HD content on cable requires a cablecard (I think--yes?), what good is a tuner without cablecard capability for the 60% or so of TVs connected to cable?Macoy - Thursday, April 14, 2011 - link
Can this do streaming captures? I used to have a K-World SD tv tuner, and I would be able to select it in my ustream flash options, and stream it live.babgvant - Thursday, April 14, 2011 - link
Can you explain this use case a bit more? I'm leaning towards "no"; the device only takes external input AFAIK it does not expose the capture filter for internal input.