ZOTAC mini-PC and USB Replacement for PICe Hauppauge PVR 150?

[jksmurf]

ZOTAC mini-PC

I saw one of these in a shop today and they are a really great size. www.gtr.com.hk
I have no idea of CPU specs etc these days, would this run NPVR OK? Playback OK?

ZBOX Mini PCs

ZBox Nano Series

Second thing is IF I got one I would have to ditch the now quite old PCI Hauppauge PVR 150, for a USB version that I can connect my cable box inputs to. Any recommendations, I prefer Hauppauge, with analogue inputs?

EDIT: Just looked at my cable box, it has mini-HDMI out as well, is there a PVR150 equivalent where I could input HDMI?

k.

[ccihon]

The ZBOX machines with AMD or Intel CPUs are adequate for HD playback - most can either run windows or linux/openelec - but if you want a true NPVR host/client then you really want a Windows 7 machine. The newer Hauppauge HD PVRs can be hooked up via USB to these boxes for a complete solution, or you can place Silicondust HDHomeRun units anywhere on your network for tuning. Their cablecard units replace your cable company box rather than capture its video-out. If its cable box video capture you want, the HD PVR units do not generally connect via hdmi but rather component HD and optical for audio - same quality, no copy-protect issues.

[sub]

EDIT: Just looked at my cable box, it has mini-HDMI out as well, is there a PVR150 equivalent where I could input HDMI?

There is a few devices that do HDMI capture, like the Hauppauge Colossus. If the set top box is using HDCP copy protection though, then you won't be able to record anything via HDMI. This is usually the case with TV video sources.

[jksmurf]

@ ccihon thanks for the great feedback :-)

• One of these wee devices with Win7 installed might be just the ticket to allow my main machine to sleep at night rather than record.
  

• Will look into the HDPVR solution, but to be honest I don't need anything that fancy as the quality of most of the Cable Box Channels (I only use 6 of them) is not that great. This http://www.hauppauge.com.sg/site/product...live2.html might be an adequate replacement (unless sub says it is a no go, I know I had to have special drivers for the PVR150 with NPVR) until the cableco provides an HD feed (the box has "HD" on it, but the channels I watch are not sent in HD!). That USB device has the same S-Video and analogue connectors as the PVR-150.
  

• The cableco I use here doesn't use a card solution unfortunately, otherwise that would be a nice way to do this.
  

@sub - thanks as always!

• Just read up on HDCP copy protection, understandable why they would do this, bit unfortunate to get a high-quality feed and not be able to record it via HDMI though; seems to mean you can watch it live via an HDCP TV at HiQ but if you want to record it (nearly 100% of my programs are due to kids...) you have to use component or composite. Ah well.
  

[johnsonx42]

that USB Live 2 will not work with NPVR afaik. People have asked before about similar tuner-less capture devices, and sub has said the app won't detect the device if it doesn't have a tuner.

[Reddwarf]

This device http://dx.com/p/hdmi-1-3-pci-express-hig...card-72046 can actually do HDCP capture, but you'll probably need a quite capable cpu...

[jksmurf]

that USB Live 2 will not work with NPVR afaik. People have asked before about similar tuner-less capture devices, and sub has said the app won't detect the device if it doesn't have a tuner.

Oh, that's a bummer. Would anyone know if any of the USB ones WITH tuners have a composite input, rather than an aerial??

[Graham]

Oh, that's a bummer. Would anyone know if any of the USB ones WITH tuners have a composite input, rather than an aerial??

Shurely shome mishtake. Why would it need a tuner if it had composite instead of an aerial? I can do you an external device with both ... http://www.hauppauge.com/site/products/d...r1950.html

If Hauppauge do it, then I suspect others will too.

[mikeh49]

The HVR-1950 looks like a modernized version of this:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Hauppauge-WinTV-...3a7fc4bb9a

the WinTV-PVR-USB2 seems to be a external PVR-150. It worked fine back in the GBPVR days.

Do you need PAL, NTSC?

[johnsonx42]

The WinTV-HVR-900-HD includes an analog video cable (http://www.hauppauge.com.sg/site/product...900hd.html). It doesn't have a hardware MPEG encoder like the old PVR-150 though, so you'd be depending on the CPU to encode the analog. I'm not sure how well that would go with the low-end CPU in those ZBOX units.

For a USB box with hardware MPEG encoding, the choices begin and end with the HVR-1900HD (http://www.hauppauge.com.sg/site/product...900hd.html).