Hauppauge HD PVR Support Request

The Hauppauge HD PVR is a spectacular USB capture device that captures video up to 1080i / 720p H.264 / AVCHD in TS. , M2TS. and MP4 formats at up to 13.5 Mbits/sec bitrate. There are a number of additional USB models as well as the Hauppauge Colossus and Colossus 2 PCIe cards that serve the same function.

These devices capture via component and are analog yet produce crisp HD 1080 / 720p video recordings.

These capture devices are not tuners. Nevertheless, they eventually gained Microsoft Media Center support from two sources. The first was DVBLink which produced a software package to allow (Windows) Media Center to see the Hauppauge HD PVR as a DVB Sat tuner. The second was Hauppauge which released beta software that allowed Media Center to see the Hauppauge HD PVR as a cablecard tuner. Both methods had a necessary mechanism to control the video source (cable Box via a blaster).

The advantages of such a configuration were that one could match the powerful guide and clean interface of Media Center with the HD video quality of the Hauppauge HD PVR anlog capture device and record anything broadcast in HD without the restrictions of CableCard DRM. That means HBO, Showtime, Cinemax ect without restriction.

So naturally my request is that you find a way to support or allow the configuration of this line of Hauppauge products:

HD PVR
HD PVR 2
HD PVR 2 Gaming Edition
HD PVR 2 Gaming Edition Plus
HD PVR 60
Colossus
Colossus 2

As a test-bed the the existing DVBLink for Hauppauge HD PVR, DVBLink for Colossus and Hauppauge’s own Hauppauge HD PVR support for Windows Media Center (beta version) should work in Windows. There are Linux and Mac drivers too but no equivalent software that makes these devices look like tuners for Linux and Mac.

I suspect that the DVBLink server software found on Linux based NAS units (Synology / QNAP) wont work with these Hauppauge products.

Anyway, support for these Hauppauge products in Plex DVR would be phenomenal!!!

So humble request has been made.

Thanks for your consideration in this matter.

Link:

http://www.hauppauge.com/site/products/prods_hd-recorders.html
http://www.hauppauge.com/site/products/data_hdpvr.html
http://www.hauppauge.com/site/support/support_hdpvr.html

Honestly, us supporting this directly is unlikely. We’re working on opening up the floodgates further and it’s possible when that happens the DVBLink software may work… But because these arent’ actual tuners, we won’t be adding 1st party support, esp since it’s only on a single platform, and we’re trying to focus on multi platform tuners.

Understood.

Thanks for the quick response.

Either way though it really is an amazing device. It works on Windows, Linux and Mac OS X so I consider it a multi platform device. Since it outputs H.264 natively it’s fairly versatile with respect to what device can make use of its output and the bitrate is adjustable.

Even if nothing comes of it I highly recommend that you get a Hauppauge HD PVR into your test labs and play with it.

BTW, there is also an Algato Eye version of the Hauppauge HD PVR (rebrand) and their Algato software works on any version of it I believe.

The Hauppauge WinTV 8 software works with it as well as NextPVR.

Basically there were only a few options:

NTSC
ATSC
Clear QAM
CableCard
DVB

None of them allowed recording HD 1080i / 720p from premium channels without restrictions of DRM.

The Hauppauge HD PVR is miraculous in this respect.

It’s a capture device though, and not a tuner.

I understand the appeal and your use cases, but its ‘hacky’ since you need a settop still/etc and then a device to control channel changing, etc. There’s much work that goes into a setup like this and there’s tons of options for folks who want to put in that work already. We’re trying to make a solution that’s easy as possible for as many people, and supporting capture devices is outside of that target market.

With that said, you can definitely use those devices, drop recordings into Plex and still have recorded content playback, just not Live TV through us.

Fair enough thanks.

Too bad…but I also understand. What are others PVR are others using with these cards? Was looking at NextPVR to start using.

NextPVR works with the Hauppauge HD PVR (various versions) and Colossus cards. I’ve tested it out and it worked fairly well. For that setup though I’ve found that you need a schedulesdirect account to make the implementation of guide data easy.

Kodi has a kind of NextPVR integration but it was a bit buggy. Many of the channels that were present in NextPVR were missing in Kodi.

BTW, I was also reading a thread recently over at thegreenbutton.tv Windows 10 section where they were saying that Media Center (installed on Windows 10) still works with the old DVBLink for Hauppauge HD PVR software.

Near as I can tell Media Center was and still is the most robust DVR PC software you can get. Everything else is playing catchup, reinventing the wheel or simply have different priority / design goals.

Something else to consider is the impact supporting it for cablelabs certification. If they every plan to attempt to get that support from cablelabs for full drm content providing support for a product that’s main purpose is to circumvent cablelabs methods for protection would likely cause issues.

@mavrrick said:
Something else to consider is the impact supporting it for cablelabs certification. If they every plan to attempt to get that support from cablelabs for full drm content providing support for a product that’s main purpose is to circumvent cablelabs methods for protection would likely cause issues.

That would be worth considering but unless you have heard something I haven’t there isn’t currently any plans for Plex to support cablelabs certification / DRM anymore then there are plans to support the Hauppauge line of capture products. I could be wrong mind you but I think I recall a thread where just about as much was stated.

Also, these Hauppauge line of capture products were not developed specifically to "circumvent " anything let alone CableLabs CableCard protection scheme. If there were some nefarious purpose associated with the products intended use Hauppauge wouldn’t likely be able to sell them so openly without recourse.

As I understand it, Analog / Component video had no provisions for protection. It is sometimes referred to as the Analog hole and HD component video typically looks as good or very close to digital HD video without the ubiquitous DRM.

I understand what you are saying nevertheless.

Its understood though, I can accept the fact that Plex development isn’t going in the direction of supporting these Hauppauge capture devices.

This is unfortunate IMO but it is what it is.

One can hope that the Hauppauge (in house) beta software that allowed the Hauppauge HD PVR USB unit and the Colossus to work in Microsoft Media Center as a tuner will also work with Plex DVR. One can also hope that the DVBLink for Hauppauge HD PVR / Hauppauge Colossus software which were also designed to facilitate Microsoft Media Center support will also allow these products to work in Plex DVR .

PLEX will be fulfilling my dream if they start on supporting those capture cards.

@Ramx2 said:
PLEX will be fulfilling my dream if they start on supporting those capture cards.

I think it would be great too.

Still one should think of a contingency plan if the Hauppauge Beta MCE software and DVBLink for Hauppauge HD PVR / Colossus don’t work in conjunction with Plex DVR.

Software that works with the Hauppauge line of capture product:

Microsoft Media Center (with supporting software)
NextPVR
MediaPortal
WinTV V8
Myth TV
BeyondTV

and I believe there are more.

So one can setup their Hauppauge capture device with said software and direct Plex to stream media from its recording library.

I recall that before there was a Media Center solution for the Hauppauge HD PVR I was able to get Media Center to play the recorded files while they were actually being recorded.

Thanks to Psycik, I’m able now to use the colossus 2 with Plex NextPVR Plugin. NextPVR required to detect the capture cards. Configure your NextPVR Plugin then you’re good to go. I assume all Hauppauge capture cards should be detected by NextPVR.

You can download the required files from:
NextPVR Website http://nextpvr.com/
Plugin Download: https://github.com/psyciknz/NextPVR-Plex

Well I’d like to see official support from PLEX.
Regards,

Good news,…

I didn’t even know there was Plex NextPVR Plug-in. I’m assuming that comes with the full screen guide that NextPVR has.

I think I stumbled across the thread where you were getting help with NextPVR-Plex:

I guess I will take a look at it and see if its a viable solution for me.