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
Final Thoughts
Obviously the Colossus still has some rough edges. Ideally, all HTPC and technology in general would work without issue, but unfortunately that’s not the case, particularly in this market. In context, it is regrettably normal for early drivers on devices like the Colossus to have problems, including much greater stability issues than observed with this device. Even the 8.3% recording fail rate is well below what I experienced with the original HD PVR during the first months of use.
Clearly Hauppauge has work to do, both in improving recording quality and driver stability under extreme duress. However, component (YPbPr) + S/PDIF (TOSLINK) and HDMI capture options, alongside greater reliability than even the original HD PVR can currently provide, makes the Colossus is a worthy successor in this space.
If you’re after hardware that just works, you might want to hold off a few more months to let the drivers (and the HTPC community) work out some of the remaining kinks. If you’re part of that community, or just an A/V enthusiast, the Colossus is a nice option to add to the list.
Pros:
- Native resolution capture for 480i, 720p and 1080i with Dolby Digital 5.1
- HDMI support for those with STB that do not use HDCP
- PCIe format
- Component (YPbPr) and S/PDIF (TOSLINK) pass-through
Cons:
- Not all recordings are watchable
- Software/hardware bundle adds unnecessary cost with not additional value for DVR use
- No HDMI pass-through
- BSOD when continuously recording for more than sixteen hours
- Full height card leaves low-profile HTPC users out
Thanks to Hauppauge for providing the review sample.
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bobbozzo - Saturday, April 16, 2011 - link
I think he wants to capture and stream to another PC live.e.g. the client PC has no tuner, and uses a 'TV server' to watch live content.
jnmfox - Thursday, April 14, 2011 - link
I see you have Sage with the Diamond UI installed.Is anandtech.com going to do a review of SageTV?
I got SageTV set-up a couple of months ago and love it. Sage is a great HTPC option, hopefully more people can be made aware of it. The HD-300 extenders are a great option to get content to you HDTV; small, low-power, customizable, high WAF.
babgvant - Thursday, April 14, 2011 - link
I'm a big fan of the Diamond UI. SageTV V7 is a solid platform, but the stock UI leaves a lot on the table; the Diamond team has done an excellent job of making it second to none in this space.Bob-o - Thursday, April 14, 2011 - link
I'm running Kubuntu linux on a machine in my home office. Is SageTV my best option for recording TV on this platform? I know about Myth but have never tried it.My HTPC in the living room is a modest machine running XBMC, mounting a disk from the office machine using NFS. I'd like to leave that as-is.
Thanks!
babgvant - Friday, April 15, 2011 - link
There is a Linux version of the SageTV server, so it should work but I've never tried it.queequeg99 - Friday, April 15, 2011 - link
Sage keeps the linux version as up to date as the Windows version. However, it is clearly aimed at OEMs so support can lag a bit (i.e. you better feel reasonably comfortable messing around in linux).tno - Thursday, April 14, 2011 - link
That said, it reminds me, bittersweetly, of all the time I spent configuring my HTPC when I had it fully loaded with tuners, drives and some complicated quiet cooling. When it occurred to me that I spent more time fiddling with it than the household cumulatively spent watching TV I needed to simplify. Now we're down to a quiet, low-power, SSD-only uber streamer. Only thing that ever breaks now? Netflix.eselig - Thursday, April 14, 2011 - link
Before anyone seriously considers this card, please be aware that Hauppauge has a proven history of not supporting their equipment. Essentially, this card will work for Windows 7, but when windows 8 comes out, they'll put out the drivers for whatever their new card is, but nothing legacy. After getting burned by them twice this way, I've learned my lesson and will never buy a Hauppauge card again.Anthony Toste - Friday, April 15, 2011 - link
That wrongAre you cry about lack 64bit drivers for old 250/350 well that not possable you see the can't fix after all it frist made in 2001/2 by iCompression know as iTVC15 which I think is base on 16/32bit hardware so there for Windows 64bit OS will not work
Oh think Hauppauge has a proven history of not supporting their equipment boy you should look at all other capture device out there which are far woste then Hauppauge.
silverblue - Friday, April 15, 2011 - link
AverMedia's support isn't the best either. I got a Nicam Stereo TV capture card in 2004 which was then not supported in Vista. Perhaps I should've spent more, however I was eager not to get something priced far more that offered basically the same (i.e. Hauppauge).My AverTV Studio203 is sat in my PC doing nothing as there's no drivers for it, nor was there a new version released after I bought it... shame. Not a stunning card, all things considered, but decent capture cards aren't exactly two a penny, and spending money unnecessarily isn't my cup of tea.