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
Getting to Know the Colossus
When Hauppauge introduced the original HD PVR in 2008 its component plus TOSLINK (optical S/PDIF) capture of 5.1 Dolby Digital and up to 1080i analog video was a revolutionary, and long overdue, shift for the home theater PC (HTPC) based digital video recorder (DVR). Finally there was a viable option for recording DRM-free high definition (HD) content. The device was far from perfect however, suffering from stability (I RMA’d four personally); furthermore, as a large external USB device, it didn’t provide the most appealing form factor for many installations. Today we’re looking at Hauppauge’s second iteration of the HD PVR concept, this time as a standard height PCIe x1 device dubbed Colossus. It offers all of the previous capture options while adding HDMI input to the feature list.
Hardware
The single slot, full height PCIe x1 card has a simple layout with all of the components exposed. There is not much to point out besides the lack of any cooling on the ViXS encoding chip and the presence of Hauppauge’s standard analog connection header along the top. To utilize the auxiliary inputs a daughter card (not included with the Colossus) is required. I have one in the parts bin so it was possible to test the feature, which adds s-video and a second composite/stereo capture option to the options provided directly on the device.
Looking at the native inputs we find HDMI, two breakout connectors for component (YPbPr) / stereo audio, two TOSLINK (optical S/PDIF), and a port to attach the infrared (IR) receiver/blaster. The top breakout/TOSLINK combo provides input and the bottom output for audio/video pass through anytime the PC is powered including standby (S3), hibernate (S4) and soft-off (S5) states. HDMI is the most interesting not only because it is new, but because of the usage scenarios it could enable were the full capabilities of the connection provided. Unfortunately (and understandably due to legal and licensing issues), this is not the case; instead, the HDMI input provides the same feature set as component plus TOSLINK (up to 1080i and Dolby Digital support). Most important, there’s no support for High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP), so HDMI capture will not work with devices that require it.
In practice, the HDMI link did record most channels/programs from the cable STB (Set-Top Box), but it was not 100% reliable as some files had no audio or video—I assume because HDCP was active in those cases. I did not notice a significant difference between HDMI and component output from the RNG 110 (using Comcast in Chicago), but results will vary between STB and providers so it is worth an attempt if the box has an HDMI output, because the streams will skip a digital to analog conversion.
There’s plenty in the package besides the card; you get a remote with IR hardware and batteries, two breakout dongles, analog audio/video cables, a driver CD (not shown), and some “value-add” software including a copy of Arcsoft ShowBiz. One of the applications Hauppauge provides with the Colossus is a system tray application that drives the IR receiver and blaster, but compatibly with other software products is very limited for the remote and changing channels with the included device is very clunky. Only one blaster is supported per PC, there’s limited set top box compatibility (none of the Pace profiles worked with the RNG110 used in this evaluation), and we experienced general stability issues both with the system tray executable and IR blasting in general.
All of this led us to a cursory evaluation of the remote. For those using this—or any STB based capture device—options like FireWire, serial, or Ethernet based channel changing are much better options. I would prefer an OEM/bare version of the card with just the dongles for those planning to use it with SageTV (or when drivers are available, Windows Media Center), passing the savings for unnecessary hardware and software to end users. The current package starts at $139 online, so removing the frills should get the Colossus down to $100 or less.
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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.