Hauppauge HD-PVR / HD-PVR2 (01212 and 01512) anyone using them?

[SFX Group]

Hi

I am looking at either the HD-PVR (01212 with IR Blaster cable) or the version 2 (HD-PVR 01512), is anyone using these? I have a few questions.....

- HD-PVR (01212), says it comes with an IR Cable, so when i add this to NPVR (Hauppauge says its supported), if NPVR uses this will it change the channel and how would i set that up? (never used an IR Blaster), i am looking at this device as it has an IR Blaster built in so is a one stop solution (encoding and channel changing).

- HD-PVR2 (01512), doesn't say its compatible with NPVR, however doesn't look like i will get any benefit as the HDMI needs to have the HDCP stripped (which i am not sure my set top box does yet). However is anyone using this box (if so do you have the IR blaster working)?

- HD-PVR2 (01512) does the "record button" work on this for NPVR (i assume not)?

[darkfires]

Hi

I'm using the HD PVR 2 model 01519, it came with the IR blaster cable. I spent days trying to get the IR blaster to work, finally gave up and got a USB MCE blaster. Got the MCE blaster working perfectly with the IR Server Suite on Windows 7 64bit. I'm using the HDMI input with bell satellite (6400), it's working great with NPVR. Very impressed with the quality of the recordings. So far I have not run into any HDCP issues on Bell, but I have a splitter sitting here just in case they turn it on.
My only unresolved issue is that my PVR2 box seems to require a power cycle every ~4-5 days as it becomes unresponsive (rebooting the computer doesn't help), I have sent in a tech ticket to Hauppauge about it, waiting for a reply. I'm thinking of adding a timer to power cycle the unit everyday at 4am as I have my doubts that tech support is going to be useful in addressing that specific issue.
The record button on the box does not work with NPVR by default, but I didn't try to make it work either.

If you have not purchased it yet, Don't spend any extra money on the version with the IR blaster just get the gaming version and purchase a seperate blaster/receiver (I got one for $30 from canadacomputers).

Oh also, the IR server stuff doesn't work properly on windows 8 yet, so make sure you are using 7.

Hope this helps

[smajor]

I've used a pair of HD-PVRs with two cable set top boxes on my NextPVR server for many, many years. My STBs have Firewire ports, so I've always done channel changing that way.

Since they only have RGB ports, I've not had to worry about DRM/HDCP issues. Some say those don't give you the same quality picture, I've personally never noticed. At least not on our 42" LCD.

The set up runs 24/7 without issue.

[darkfires]

I've used a pair of HD-PVRs with two cable set top boxes on my NextPVR server for many, many years. My STBs have Firewire ports, so I've always done channel changing that way.

Since they only have RGB ports, I've not had to worry about DRM/HDCP issues. Some say those don't give you the same quality picture, I've personally never noticed. At least not on our 42" LCD.

The set up runs 24/7 without issue.

I wish my STBs had firewire ports Mine has ethernet but not for channel changing or streaming.

I have an older HD PVR as well and while I have not tested the IR features of it recently as my STBs are now HDMI only, they did work ok on PVR1. My main issue with the older HD PVR was overheating and pixelating on recordings over an hour, adding a fan solved the problem for a month but it later returned again. Having said that, I have noticed slightly better picture quality with the PVR2 version nor does it suffer from the pixelation issue. It's possible the quality issue is related to the component cabling not being as good as I thought and not a problem with the device itself.

As to the IR issue with the PVR2, if I were to guess as to what the problem was it feels like the devices firmware think its the gaming model without IR, tested on different computers and on XP, 7 and 8 before giving up on it. Both receiving and blasting did not work, even in WinTV 7. In the case of WinTV, it says it was working but nothing actually happened. Even tried the IR cables from the PVR1 and other devices like my old tivo incase it was a bad IR cable, no dice.

I also needed to install the not free WinTV to even get the IR driver part as it didn't come with the capture stuff for PVR2. I also noticed there are no Linux drivers for the PVR2 as there is with PVR1.