HauppaugeHD PVR 2 Gaming Edition High Definition Game Capture Device with Digital Audio

Working as advertised, the Hauppauge HD PVR 2 has been an excellent tool in my own video creation and you can see the end results at youtube.com/AdventuresInfinity with my Pokemon Snap and Paper Mario footage. Despite using it to record Wii U-emulated Nintendo 64 games at the moment the footage is still caught in a full HD 1920x1080 resolution so just plan on working with video in that size. I've had this for close to a month now and my computer is a mid-grade ($600) gaming rig from over 3.5 years ago and it was great to have the heavy lifting done by the device and my console so that I could have my machine only worry about recording audio commentary and editing the final clips. The last thing to keep in mind is that in any software that's going to actually record the footage (Such as the preview windows in ArcSoft Showbiz and Hauppauge Capture) the footage will have a delay in those applications, because they're working on actually recording it rather than presenting it. I've seen some people try to use these feeds to actually play the game but you are certainly better off just letting your computer manage the recording and using the intended pass-through to another display to actually play the game, as the pass-through does not have a (at least noticeable) delay.That being said it doesn't work absolutely flawlessly out of the box, mostly on the software side, but take some time to work around the short comings and you will end up with a high-quality, easy-to-use PVR. If I run into any more simple-to-fix issues like these I'll add them in the future.1st: Do not bother with the software "ArcSoft Showbiz" that the drivers install when you put in the CD or, even better, grab the most up to date drivers from (http://www.hauppauge.com/site/support/support.html). It is clunky, the editing functions will never replace the free versions of Lightworks, and there's a better alternative from the company themselves: Hauppauge Capture. This software works perfectly with this product and can be found at (http://www.hauppauge.com/capture/).2nd: This is mostly a naive mistake on my part, but also keep in mind that you don't want to plug this into a USB hub if at all possible. I did this for a while and ran into a problem where the device would disconnect and reconnect to the computer, sometimes (and I'm not exaggerating) even getting stuck in a loop of doing this constantly until you unplug the device manually. If you are running into this issue switch the USB cable going to your computer to one of the main ports in the back of your computer, this stopped this issue in its tracks for me.3rd: I also ran into an issue after switching to Hauppauge Capture where when I imported the raw footage into my editing software (Lightworks, though I heard this was occurring on Vegas and Premiere as well) the game audio and video would have been made out of sync to varying degrees, usually by a matter of a few seconds. This can be easily troubleshooted by going into the Hauppauge Capture software, under Advanced Settings go to Audio Encoder, and here simply switch the encoding from MPEG-1 Layer II to AAC. Example here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFkwxSHQhHI).

This is a very nice little device. It's light and portable, but has lots of features.I had several problems with it when I set it up with my TV/DVR box though. First the video signal was buzzing randomly, and a semi-transparent box popped up with an error message, but it went by really fast and I couldn't read it, so I took a picture of it and found out it said that the device was incompatible because it didn't support HDCP. I looked it up and it's apparently a protocol from Intel in some HDMI devices for content protection, and this thing doesn't support it for some reason. So I switched to using the composite video instead (which will work for as long as TV is only available in up to 1080i.)The second problem is that the reason I got the plus edition, the surround sound, wasn't working, through HDMI or SPDIF. I looked that up and found that there's apparently a bug in the firmware that prevents it from outputting surround sound through the HDMI pass-through. Hopefully they fix that, but I did find that Dolby Digital Surround Sound was successfully captured in the recordings through the SPDIF Optical input.This unit is really nice though. Here are some advantages that this unit has over many others:- Physical record button actually works, and triggers the software's record button.- Support for both PAL and NSTC, and auto-detection for which one is being used.- Live playback function. (5 to 8 seconds of lag, VLC player required.)- Looks awesome, and has multi-colored LED ring to indicate what it's doing.- Component input doubles as RCA input.- The LEDs actually look as awesome and bright as they do in the photo!(Far too many devices don't live up to such a standard.)- Small and portable, yet has many inputs.- Mac OS X support, with actual fully-working software.(Requires separate purchase on the non-plus models, good thing I wanted surround sound so badly.)- Comes with TWO HDMI CABLES!- You can tell people it's an apple TV, and make them think you can actually afford to get such a pointless device.There are also a few issues with it, of course:- The previously mentioned surround-sound pass-through bug.- No way to set it up like as if it's a USB camera.- Comes with useless PS3 component cable.- Strange bug that requires you to power-cycle it, and restart the software if your hard drive fills up during recording, and you don't take care of it within about 50 seconds. (That seems to be the size of the thing's buffer.)But look at how many more advantages there are! So all in all, this gets 4.826 out of 5 stars. Which rounds to 5.NOTE: I did see some older reviews saying they had driver problems. I don't know if that's still relevant, but on Mac OS X, I didn't have to install any drivers. I just downloaded the software, and it literally even licensed automatically when I plugged it in. 100% Plug-And-Play.

This is a good device and works well. I previously had the HD PVR-2 (not the gaming edition) but after about two months it stopped working. Anyhow I returned the product and got a full refund.

Advertised as recording and passing through in 5.1 surround sound. This is not true. At least not using the HDMI interface. For example, in NHL16, the announcers voices are gone. The PA announcer is barely audible. The recording, at maximum setting, is also losing half the sound available and, at 30 fps is very, very glitchy. This unit should have been spectacular at this price. I was told 5.1 surround sound was only achievable using a fibre optic sound cable, which my receiver has, but probably could not be assigned to this particular input without being a major hassle! There is also PS4 copy protection, even for playing your own games, which requires a workaround on the PS4. For this price I could almost BUY another PS4!!! The thing that bothers me the most is that my A/V receiver is capable of great sound reproduction and in NHL16 alone, the multi-in + Dolby Surround is gone and is not even selectable as long as this unit is in between the PS4 and the receiver. I wouldn't keep this unit installed even if someone PAID ME to do it!!!