Hauppauge Colossus experience?

[thehobster]

I know the Colossus is, strictly speaking, not a tuner, but I think I'm posting in the right place. I can post elsewhere if deemed appropriate.

I'm just looking for some feedback on those using Colossus with MC7:
Do you like it?
Do you need DVB Link software to make it work with MC7?
Are the output files easily editable?
etc...

I had the HD PVR until it died (early adopter - out of warranty). I'm using the Ceton USB today and am fairly happy thus far.

I want to supplement the Ceton tuner with the Colossus and an HD tuner so I can capture and EDIT (read: remove commercials) from cable TV channels that are "protected" today. ABC Family shows alot of good Christmas movies I'd like to make available to young kids (under age 10) in the coming weeks, sans commercials, but I don't want them mucking about on my MC.

The plan is to capture ABC Fam HD, transcode as needed to MPEG, cut commercials with VideoRedo, place on external drive, connect drive to media player (eg, Western Digital media player), etc.

But before I go down this path, I want to gather experiences with Colossus and MC7. Is it better at what I'm planning on doing than HD PVR? Is there a more reliable solution such as the Black Magic Intensity Pro or the AVerTV HD DVR (which I think doesn't work with MC7)?

Note: I'm looking for opinions and experiences. I don't meant to start flame wars. If this has already been discussed elsewhere here (I didn't find it), please point me to it.

Thanks

[Venom51]

The Colossus is essentially a newer non-external HDPVR. Everything that applies to the HDPVR applies to the Colossus.

[TheQueue]

I own both a Colossus and an HD PVR, and I have to say that I find the Colossus is a much better device than the HD PVR. I've been using the HD PVR with the DVBLink software and I find I still have to reset it regularly even after trying just about every combination of drivers and versions of DVBLink. On the other hand, the Colossus seems to just work. I've had it installed using the native MCE software from Hauppauge and have had absolutely no problems at all. Of course, you're experience may be different, but I would recommend the Colossus any day.

[vincewarde]

I also have Hauppauge Colossus that I use in WMC to record Directv. My experience has not been perfect, but I finally have everything working.

Here are a few observations:

1) I had a lot of problems with WMC 7 crashing during set up (during the channel scan). I finally managed to get it up and running by uninstalling ALL my tuners and doing a manual set up. I think the problem may have been the fact that in addition to the Colossus I have three OTA tuners (a Hauppauge 950 USB and a Dual HD Homerun).

2) IR Blasting is good, but not perfect. It would be wonderful if Hauppauge supported http tuning of DTV boxes. I briefly ran MediaPortal and used this method. 100% reliable.

3) HD 16:9 channels are perfect. Absolutely wonderful picture quality.

4) SD channels are sharp, but stretched horizontally. Not easy to watch and none of the "zoom" settings properly compensate for it. In addition the SD channels are recorded in 1080i, so they take up a lot of space. The greatest problem is watching live, because VideoRedo can be used to crop, change aspect ratio and recode as needed,

All in all, I'm happy with the Colossus - I just wish I could solve these minor problems.

[Venom51]

I also have Hauppauge Colossus that I use in WMC to record Directv. My experience has not been perfect, but I finally have everything working.

Here are a few observations:

1) I had a lot of problems with WMC 7 crashing during set up (during the channel scan). I finally managed to get it up and running by uninstalling ALL my tuners and doing a manual set up. I think the problem may have been the fact that in addition to the Colossus I have three OTA tuners (a Hauppauge 950 USB and a Dual HD Homerun).

2) IR Blasting is good, but not perfect. It would be wonderful if Hauppauge supported http tuning of DTV boxes. I briefly ran MediaPortal and used this method. 100% reliable.

3) HD 16:9 channels are perfect. Absolutely wonderful picture quality.

4) SD channels are sharp, but stretched horizontally. Not easy to watch and none of the "zoom" settings properly compensate for it. In addition the SD channels are recorded in 1080i, so they take up a lot of space. The greatest problem is watching live, because VideoRedo can be used to crop, change aspect ratio and recode as needed,

All in all, I'm happy with the Colossus - I just wish I could solve these minor problems.

2.)You can replace the Hauppage tuning mechanism with this --> http://diablo.homedns.org/dvblink/directv.zip. That will get you the IP tuning. You'll need to hook your DirecTV box to the network and set a static IP on it. Done. Perfectly reliable tuning everytime.

4.) You can set both the Clossus card and your DirectTV box to not stretch 4:3 content. The Clossus card is done in the drivers and the DirecTV box has a setting for that as well.

[vincewarde]

Thanks for the advice!

I was able to set the DirectTV box to crop all the 4:3 SD channels to 16:9. Not a perfect solution because it crops not only letterbox 4:3 but fullscreen 4:3 as well. It's still a great improvement since nearly all the SD channels are broadcasting 16:9 letterbox.

The link above to the alternate tuner was dead when I tried it. Is there another download link for it?

Thanks!

[Venom51]

Thanks for the advice!

I was able to set the DirectTV box to crop all the 4:3 SD channels to 16:9. Not a perfect solution because it crops not only letterbox 4:3 but fullscreen 4:3 as well. It's still a great improvement since nearly all the SD channels are broadcasting 16:9 letterbox.

The link above to the alternate tuner was dead when I tried it. Is there another download link for it?

Thanks!

Try it again. The idiot that posted it put too many n's in dvblink.

[TW_Canada]

I tried it. The board does a great job on picture quality and the accompanying video cables are first rate. However:

1. The IR cable that came with the board was DOA. Phoned Hauppauge and they sent a new cable with no problem.

2. Couldn't get the IR subsystem to learn and retain my satellite tuner codes. The config program appeared to learn the codes and changed the satellite tuner channels during the learning process, but it wouldn't remember them after I quit the config program. Extremely exasperating as the program crashed twice (on average) for every time it completed (apparently) successfully and it's a long and messy procedure to get it to learn 12 buttons.

3. The range on the IR receiver is 5 - 6 feet max. As I use this for my main TV in the family room, I need at least 15 - 20 feet. The standard MS IR receiver handles 25 - 30 feet easily (with the same remote). Unfortunately you can't use the standard MS IR receiver with this product.

4. I can't turn on the WMC PC using the remote with the Hauppauge IR subsystem. Not acceptable.

If they can get the IR subsystem figured out, and preferably get it to work with the standard MS IR blaster, this will be a great product. But as of now, it's unusable in my situation.