Hauppauge HD PVR Gains Full Windows Media Center Support

The Hauppauge HD PVR has a rather large following in the home recording crowd, as it's one of the few devices that allows component recording outside of an official DVR, enabling users to easily transfer content to portable devices for viewing elsewhere. The device itself has been out for awhile now, but a huge update announced this week really brings it up to speed.

Starting now, the HD PVR allows Windows Media Center to record premium HD TV content from cable or satellite TV. All that is required is a free software update, and once that's installed, Windows Media Center can use the HD PVR to record high definition TV programs from a cable TV or satellite set top box. Better still, it can record HD TV from any cable TV or satellite set top box which has a component video output, not to mention 5.1 channel audio through its optical audio connections.


Since Windows Media Center is a standard feature on Windows 7 Home Premium and Professional, there's a good chance your Win7 machine has this already. And if you want to record premium television on your box, this HD PVR can now assist. Tempting, isn't it? The HD PVR can be purchased now for $199, and of course, the update is available free of charge.

Hauppauge Introduces High Definition Video Recorder Support for Windows Media Center
 
A new update to HD PVR, Hauppauge's high definition personal video recorder, now allows Windows Media Center to record premium HD TV content from cable or satellite TV

HAUPPAUGE, N.Y., Aug. 5 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Hauppauge Digital, Inc. (Nasdaq: HAUP), the world's leading developer and manufacturer of analog and digital TV receiver products for personal computers, has announced that the HD PVR is now supported as a TV video recorder in Windows Media Center. With a free software update from Hauppauge, Windows Media Center can now use the HD PVR to record high definition TV programs from a cable TV or satellite set top box. HD PVR can record HD TV from any cable TV or satellite set top box which has a component video output. In addition to high definition video, HD PVR can record 5.1 channel audio through its optical audio connections.

Windows Media Center is a feature of all Windows 7 Home Premium and Professional versions, and has currently been installed in over 50 million PCs. Windows Media Center allows users to watch and record TV on their Windows 7 PC.  HD PVR adds to Windows Media Center the ability to record high definition premium TV programs, as long as the user has a subscription to those services through their cable TV or satellite operator.

With this new software update, users of Windows Media Center can now create libraries of their favorite premium TV programs in HD and with full 5.1 channel audio.

Hauppauge has other TV tuner products which allow high definition over-the-air ATSC and clear QAM digital cable TV to be recorded with Windows Media Center, but the HD PVR is the first high definition video recorder on the market which will allow Windows Media Center to record high definition TV from a cable TV or satellite set top box.

HD PVR records from cable TV and satellite set top boxes through component video, at HD resolutions up to 1080i.  To allow the Windows Media Center electronic program guide to automatically record a cable or satellite TV program on a specified TV channel, HD PVR includes an 'IR blaster' which will automatically change the TV channel on the set top box. For example, if a user schedules a recording of the popular HBO show "Entourage" on their premium cable or satellite set top box, the HD PVR will use the IR blaster to change the set top box to the correct channel before recording the TV show.

The HD PVR has a retail price of $199, and is available from Amazon,  Fry's Electronics and the Micro Center computer stores. All current users of the Hauppauge HD PVR can download the support for Windows Media Center at no charge from the Hauppauge website at:

http://www.hauppauge.com/site/support/support_hdpvr.html