What's this? A DivX Connected device made by Hauppauge? Judging by the image above and information from Karolis, that's exactly what it is. The same folks who (finally) delivered the HD PVR seem to be hard at work on another home entertainment box, though your guess is as good as ours when it comes to purpose, specifications, color options and price. So much for that whole "worth a thousand words" thing, huh?

[Thanks, Karolis]

Just about the pull the trigger on that warmly received AVerTV Bravo Hybrid, are you? Hold your horses just a moment. Hauppauge's WinTV-HVR-2250 recently hit the test bench over at PC Magazine, and we'll just get right down to the dirt: it was called "the gold standard of home theater PC TV tuners." That's right folks, the gold standard. Said card boasts twin hybrid tuners, dual hardware MPEG encoders and integrated QAM support, and apparently, using it was a real joy. Setup and installation was "a snap," and image quality was "crisp and clear." Really, the only dig reviewers had was that the QAM plug-in was still a bit unstable, but given that it is still in beta, that really shouldn't come as a surprise. Of note, this card will run you a touch more than the aforementioned AVerTV at $129, but it just might be worth it based on this glowing review.

After a little bit of a delay the highly anticipated Hauppauge HD-PVR has finally gotten into user's hands and we're starting to get some first impressions. Our friend Brent Evans takes the time to write up his highs and lows with the new device. He is really happy with the picture quality -- despite the 2nd generation copy -- he loves having freedom to recording any source he wants in HD without worrying about DRM, but He isn't thrilled to pay the HD STB rental fees to the cable company, he's not a fan of the Ir blaster and says that setup could be easier. Overall he seems very pleased, but does point out that not everyone is so lucky, as many Hauppauge HD-PVR owners have apparently been experiencing over heating issues and can't use the device at all. Hauppauge is evidentially aware of the problem and believes it may be addressable in a firmware update, but nonetheless it is issuing some RMAs.

The wait has been long, but according to one particular fellow who pre-ordered a Hauppauge HD-PVR, these puppies are finally leaving the dock. Just yesterday, his credit card was at long last charged the $249 required to take one home, and according to company sales, 500 or so have already had shipping labels applied, with another 500 expected to ship before June 4th. We're hearing that the hold-up had something to do with a faulty power supply, but regardless of the cause, folks who've been waiting patiently can finally look forward to pushing patience aside.

[Via TVSquad]

Folks possessing a Hauppauge HVR-1250, HVR-1600, HVR-1800 or HVR-2250 -- have we got an interesting tidbit for you. A fresh new beta plug-in has surfaced, which promises to give the aforementioned cards ClearQAM support within 32- and 64-bit Vista Media Center environments. Initial reports are somewhat disappointing, but encouraging nonetheless. Those with nerves of steel can hit the read link and proceed to download the beta -- but only if you promise to tell us how it goes in comments below.

[Via Chris Lanier's Blog, thanks Will]

If you've been looking beneath couch cushions in an attempt to scrounge up enough cash to pick up a pair of Hauppauge HD PVRs for some sweet dual recording action, hold your horses just a second. We're seeing conflicting reports floating around the web stating that Hauppauge isn't officially supporting dual tuner setups, yet some inquiries are yielding the opposite response. Interestingly, we've heard that the HD PVR drivers actually do understand multiple tuner setups, but the outfit has yet to test and officially acknowledge support for such scenarios. For those who already grabbed a couple, why not give it a go and let us know how it turns out? Either way, we're hoping Hauppauge clears this up in short order, but we'd probably steer clear of ordering several until that happens.

[Via TV Squad]

Read - HD PVRs don't support dual tuner setups
Read - HD PVRs do support dual tuner setups

For those in the UK looking for a travel-friendly way to pick up free-to-air satellite TV (including Freesat), Hauppauge has just the thing. The not-exactly-cute WinTV Nova-S USB2 gives users the ability to watch full-screen programming on their laptop or PC, and better still, it can be "linked to a card reader [the optional WinTV-CI, we assume] to give access to subscription channels." Per usual, users will be able to pause, rewind and record live TV for watching back later, and considering that a remote and WinTV software are already bundled in, you should be all set right out of the £79.99 ($158) box.

[Via PC Advisor]

Lots of HTPC fans have been salivating over the promise of the Hauppauge HD PVR. That pesky "analog hole" looks like it might be the best solution for our imperfect tech world. Without integrated Windows MCE support yet, the race is on to deliver some PVR software that's step above the bundled apps. SageTV has already tantalized us with advance info on the hardware, so you know support in its product is coming soon. Now we see that SnapStream has a prototype unit in its mitts, so you can assume it's cooking in everything needed for Beyond TV. But neither of them is going to be first to deliver -- that honor goes to GB-PVR, which did a wayback machine number on us and built support in to its 1.2.9 release back on March 9th. Nice 0-day hardware support! Turns out the poor developer is just "too busy with other stuff" and doesn't have HD content to really show this off right now, though (they're located in New Zealand).

UPDATE: The developer himself wants to clarify the motivation behind his quote: because he's in New Zealand, which uses DVB-T for free OTA HD, he personally doesn't have a need for the HD PVR. He thinks the HD PVR will be huge in N. America, though. Thanks for the clarification and the hard work, Graeme!

Read - Hauppauge HD PVR on the SnapStream bench
Read - GB-PVR announced support for HD PVR in March

We've seen it announced, delayed and pictured -- now the time to place your order has finally come. The highly-anticipated Hauppauge HD PVR -- which sports a hardware H.264 encoder, component video inputs, NTSC / PAL / SECAM support and loads more for HD junkies to love -- is finally available to order. You heard right, for $249 you can drop this puppy in your shopping cart and await its presence in your humble abode. Shipping times, however, could be another matter entirely.

[Thanks, JAW IV]

March is almost over and we've just learned from our friend Brent Evans, that the most exciting HD product expected this year is delayed until May or June. What's so exciting about an HD PVR card for a computer? Well, with this USB device you can record anything you want, from wherever you want, using whatever PVR software you want. No longer will you have to wait for DirecTV's HDPC-20, or deal with ATI's CableCARD OEM requirements. You'll be able to slap this USB device into just about any computer and roll your own PVR, just like you could before HD came along and ruined everything. In fact, the only bad thing about this device -- besides the wait and the $250 price tag -- is that it captures the uncompressed HD signal and encodes it in real time with H.264, which opens up an opportunity for a degraded signal. Speaking of H.264, because it's required Vista Media Center isn't supported yet. Many have their hopes up that the Fiji release, that's also due this Summer, will include it.

[Via ZatzNotFunny]

Hauppauge has a rep for mixing up the PC and TV, so its no surprise the company is the latest to hook with DivX by announcing its plans for a DivX Connected box due in the second half of this year. HD from a local hard drive or streaming internet services should be no problem, since it shares the open platform of D-Link's DSM-330 but we'll have to wait 'til there's some hardware in our hands to know the fruits of this partnership, and if it's advanced over the original Gejbox.

Hauppauge has pulled the wraps of their HD PVR, which can take a HD signal from its component inputs and transcode it to H.264 in real time for storage on your computer. If you don't believe that old-school analog component connections are any good, keep walking. True, there will be some degradation after the signal makes its digital-to-analog-to-digital journey, but we like the universal applicability of this device. Hauppauge is tossing a copy of its HD encoder software so you can then burn the recorded content to a DVD for use on the run. Available Q1 2008 for $249.

[Via TVSquad]

Been on the lookout for a USB TV tuner with NTSC, ATSC and Clear-QAM support? Look no further than Hauppauge, which has proudly introduced the WinTV-HVR-950Q to handle all of the aforementioned needs. Additionally, the stick comes bundled with a credit card-sized remote capable of controlling the action from any given sofa, and it obviously supports the firm's SoftPVR and SoftMCE software MPEG-2 encoders. We know you're eager to cram one in your laptop and hop on a jet to a land far, far away, so you'll be quite pleased to know that it ships this month for $99.

There are never enough PCI slots to support all the tuners we want in a home theater PC . Sure if you are satisfied with one or two tuners you're fine, but if you go big with lets say 8, you need to get more than one tuner per PCI slot. The Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-1600 does just that, and now they have added support for QAM, which is great for watching HD cable channels without a set top box or even a CableCARD. Sure you can't watch HBO or any of the other encrypted channels, but there is still plenty of great HD programming out there. As with anything else there is a catch, the QAM support is only available on the retail version of the product, and as we all know; Windows Media Center Edition and Vista Media center, don't support QAM. So you will have to use the bundled software to take advantage of the new feature.