The Hauppauge HD PVR USB add-on for PCs was supposed to start shipping May 1st, but it didn’t make it. Brent Evans over at Zatz Not Funny reports that Hauppauge tells him it has been delayed until mid-May at the earliest, as they work on driver issues. As he reports:

* For those with an online order # of 32700-33600 you’re first in line - your HD-PVR should ship by Mid-May 2008
* For those with an online order # of 33601-34600 you’re second in line - your HD-PVR should ship by the end of May 2008
* If you’re order number is after 34600, it will likely be after May 2008.

So if you’re waiting on your order, you’ll have to be a patient a while longer.

Since I’ve been pretty busy I haven’t had a chance to keep up with all the tech news recently, and one of the items that’s slipped through the cracks is the Hauppauge HD PVR USB device. I last reported on it a few weeks ago when it had been delayed, but in the meantime it has gone up for pre-order and some software support has been announced. Zatz Not Funny, BrentEvans Geek Tonic, and PVR Wire @ TV Squad have all been covering this:
- BEGT: Hauppage HD PVR available for pre-order @ $249
- ZNF: Hauppauge HD PVR specs
- ZNF: SageTV Says HD PVR support is coming
- ZNF: SnapStream & Elgato evaluating possible HD PVR support
- PVR Wire: Free GB-PVR already supports HD PVR

And I think that catches it all up.

Back at CES Hauppauge announced their HD PVR PC USB add-on, which will allow PCs to record high-definition content from component input into H.264/AVCHD video. Originally slated for ‘1Q08′, which ends today, it was pushed back to ’spring’, and now Brent Evans at Zatz Not Funny reports that it “should hit the market toward the end of May, early June.”

Additionally, the $249 add-on will not initially work with Windows Media Center, due to the latter’s lack of H.264 video support. Though support is planning for sometime later this summer. Brent hypothesizes that H.264 will be included in the ‘Fiji’ Windows Media Center update, which is now entering beta, and appears to be supporting the DirecTV HD PC tuner. DirecTV is, of course, using MPEG-4/H.264 for their new HD channels.

During CES Happauge announced a new HD PVR USB device which will give PC’s the ability to capture HD component video in real-time, encoding it as H.264 or AVCHD. The MSRP will be $249 and it will ship by the end of 1Q08.

Now Rakesh has posted a number of details in the SnapStream Blog. He writes that it will encode 1080p component video as H.264 at a bit rates from 1Mbps up to 25Mbps, and it includes Hauppauge’s standard IR blaster library to control set top boxes. The design is based around an all-in-one chip from Ambarella and the design is almost finalized, they’re just working on the final case design. Similar chips from Ambarella are used in HD camcorders. The chip in the HD PVR also has an H.264 decoder, and the HD PVR will have a video out, but it will probably not be enabled when the box ships. As with all HD content, you’ll need a reasonably powerful PC to play the recordings.

A tip of the hat to Brent Evans at Zatz Not Funny for catching this.

Hauppauge today announced a new forthcoming product, the HD PVR. It is a high-definition DVR USB add-on for the PC, which can record HD content in the H.264 or AVCHD formats from component video input. The HD PVR comes with a software application that allows the recordings to be played on the PC. It will also ship with software applications capable of burning DVDs, and recordings in the AVCHD format can be burned to DVD in what is known as the BD9 format and played-back in HD on Blu-ray players. It includes an IR blaster to control the external cable or satellite STB. It will be available in 1Q2008 with an MSRP of $249.

As I said the other day, chip technology has hit the point where component input DVRs are economically feasible. They’re still going to be a bit more expensive than other products, but the pricing will come down over time. I did discuss these developments with TiVo, with respect to possibly seeing an HD TiVo with component input. There are no official plans at this time, but they acknowledge that the chips are there with some very interesting capabilities. But also that if anything were to appear that takes advantage of the new chips, it would probably be a while. My gut feeling is that we might see something along those lines from TiVo at CES 2009. And it would be based on the TiVo HD platform, which is becoming TiVo’s primary platform for product development.

The press release:
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