Question about Hauppauge HD-PVR 2?

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http://www.amazon.com/Hauppauge-Gaming-Definition-Capture-Device/dp/B008ZT8QKO/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1437109074&sr=1-1&keywords=hauppauge+hd+pvr

I know this and the Gaming Plus edition has 5.1 surround recording through digital audio (SPDIF), but can it also encode 5.1 from the HDMI audio stream?

Also, if it only downfolds and encodes stereo from HDMI audio, how is the quality and bitrate? Does it encode the audio on the m2ts's as DD, PCM, or AAC?

I ask because I have this http://www.amazon.com/AGPtek-1080P-Click-Recorder-Capture/dp/B00MQQKDYE/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1437109450&sr=1-1&keywords=agptek+game+capture

While the picture encoding quality is very good, the audio is horrible! Not only is it AAC at varying low bitrates, but it has that horrible compressed metallic ringing sound when a sound plays at high volume. I am aware there are video capture cards with 5.1 audio capture that go on the PCI slots, but most are for PCIx16 and my desktop is PCIx8 (I believe).

Case your wondering, my unit is a HP Pavilion s5610f Slimline Desktop with:

H-Apricot-RS780L-uATX Motherboard

AMD Athlon II X2 250 Dual Core 3.0GHZ Processor 

8 GBs of DDR3 RAM (upgraded from a measly three) 

64bit Windows 7 Home Premium preinstalled (OEM)

ATI Radeon 3000 Integrated Graphics

640GB Hard Drive SATA 7200RPM

And I cannot afford that many upgrades (motherboard, etc) to it if I need to get PCIx16 slots in it, so if I have to I'll buy a new desktop for the same amount as upgrades would be. But for now the USB capture cards seem to be my only option.

Supermartyoh said:

I know this and the Gaming Plus edition has 5.1 surround recording through digital audio (SPDIF), but can it also encode 5.1 from the HDMI audio stream?

Technically, no Hauppauge HD PVR version can encode 5.1 audio, but if passed a Dolby Digital 5.1 stream via SPDIF or HDMI, yes those versions can capture it. (No DTS or PCM.)

Also, if it only downfolds and encodes stereo from HDMI audio, how is the quality and bitrate? Does it encode the audio on the m2ts's as DD, PCM, or AAC?

All stereo encoding is done as AAC only.

I am aware there are video capture cards with 5.1 audio capture that go on the PCI slots, but most are for PCIx16 and my desktop is PCIx8 (I believe).

I don't think any PCIe capture cards require 16 lanes. Even the DeckLink 4K Extreme 12G that captures 4K@60 is 8-lane Gen 2.

But your mobo only has x1 slots. You could buy the Decklink Mini Recorder (1-lane card with support for 8-channel uncompressed PCM via HDMI -- only up to 1080i though).

Thank you for the reply. Do you know offhand the bitrate and quality of the AAC audio coding the Hauppauge uses?

Regarding the Decklink Mini Recorder, are you referring to this one? http://www.amazon.com/Blackmagic-Design-DeckLink-Recorder-Capture/dp/B00CDIXCSO/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1437337750&sr=1-1&keywords=Decklink+Mini+Recorder&pebp=1437359546888&perid=12EQE3Q9SFFAPA8PGPD8

If so, this one should work perfectly as that has the correct PCI lane my MB can accept. Since audio quality matters more than video (5.1 PCM sounds tasty!), I can settle for even 720p (as the TV I have is 720p only, that's what I have all my equipment outputting to) if the video quality is good or better than the AGPTek box I have.

Now, some questions regarding the Mini Recorder:

- It should come with some type of recording software, right?

- Are my PC's specs good enough to handle the card without "bottlenecking" anything? Are there any known issues with the card like causing BSoDs or something or other?

- Does it encode the recorded videos as m2ts, MP4, or RAW? (I guess the latter since PCM is also an uncompressed format).

Again, thank you for your help and knowledge! If all the cards play right, I may lean to the Mini Deck rather than the Hauppauge, since its in the same price range. However, since the Hauppauge has a easier setup, can do 1080p, and capture 5.1 even through HDMI (from what I'm hearing), but through DD streams only, this may be a tough call.

I've seen one poster who claims the AAC quality was atrocious for him, while most people seem fine with it. Up to 384kbps can be selected. I'm not an audio guy so I can't offer any opinion, but you can grab a sample to listen for yourself here.

Yes that is the Mini Recorder. It sends uncompressed 4:2:2 video over the PCIe bus, so your computer is tasked with doing the encoding unlike the HD PVR2 or your AGPTek box.

It is possible to have a CPU do compression to H.264 using x264vfw on-the-fly, but I suspect yours isn't fast enough. If you use a speedy enough storage hard drive (not your Windows drive) or a large SSD you could capture lossless and then compress to H.264 or anything else at your leisure, with better quality for a given bitrate than is possible with any realtime solution. This is what I do, so it's what I'm most familiar with.

Unless I missed it, you haven't mentioned what your video sources are going to be. This is critical to deciding on the most appropriate solution, because if you're capturing from something like a cable box then 5.1 PCM does you no good. Most cable boxes will output only stereo if the HDMI handshake tells them that DD 5.1 isn't supported.

The Mini Recorder can actually be forced to record DD 5.1 bitstreams from a PS3 into a WAV pulse file that can be recovered back to the original format, but that's because the PS3 can be forced to output any format even if the device it's hooked up to says it can't use it and the Mini Recorder doesn't detect and mute bitstreams like most PCM HDMI capture cards. None of that helps a cable recording, where the box can't be forced to do anything.

drngr said:

I've seen one poster who claims the AAC quality was atrocious for him, while most people seem fine with it. Up to 384kbps can be selected.

Unless I missed it, you haven't mentioned what your video sources are going to be. This is critical to deciding on the most appropriate solution, because if you're capturing from something like a cable box then 5.1 PCM does you no good. Most cable boxes will output only stereo if the HDMI handshake tells them that DD 5.1 isn't supported.

 I plan to capture BD bits from my PS3 where the ripping programs cannot "crack" the disc due to newer protection methods, ala recent Fox BDs (BTW, I have a View HD 1x2 splitter to undo HDCP and tis working so far as my AGP box is recording the signals from my PS3, BD player, and so on). Sorry I didn't mention this in my first post (wanted to get the main questions out of the way first), but my video sources are mainly MP4s and m2ts (H264 codec), as Windows Media Player can play any MP4 file (even 60fps) fine, while VLC is choppy with MP4s but can handle m2ts videos flawlessly. 384kbs AAC for the Hauppauge is pretty good, better than 111kbs on the AgpTek box I currently have. I'll be listening to that sample to determine if the Hauppauge has good enough quality for my needs, as I spruce up the sound anyway and increase the bass and such (of course, I also upsample the audio to 5.1 as a WAV).

Thank you for your help! I was getting nowhere with my questions on Amazon, and I'm glad I got a membership here to answer my questions.

Heard the audio on some of the captures posted on the site you linked. While AAC and a stereo downmix, it doesn't have that heavy metallic ringing present in the AGPtek, because it seems the HP has a much higher bitrate with its AAC encoding. I may stick to the Hauppauge because it seems easier to use, and I don't feel like spending any more money on internal upgrades for my Pavilion, when I'll likely be getting a Win 10 unit down the road (hopefully with much better specs, ala Intel I5 and 16GBs of ram).