Hauppauge, the makers of many tuner and video capture devices have announced a new capture card that many HTPC fans have been waiting for. You might ask why anyone would want a component capture device in their HTPC since we have CableCARD tuners that do a much cleaner job. Well, if you are like me then the answer is simple. I live in the boondocks!! Satellite and over the air stations are all I am privied to in my little spot in the Midwest. But that doesn’t mean I do not have access to all that HD Goodness in my Media Centers. With a combination of a Hauppauge HD-PVR and an HDHomerun, I can record all the HD I need. The problem lies in getting the satellite content out of my set top box and into the Media Center. The HD-PVR became an in between box that took the signal and made it look like a tuner in Windows Media Center. While this is not ideal, it does work.
Now arrives the Colossus from Hauppauge. This eliminates the need for an external box and simplifies the process a bit. You still cannot get away from having an IR blaster and the inherent lag in channel switching that comes with it unfortunately. I do believe that 1 or 3 of these cards might find there way into my Media Centers. Even though the $169 suggested retail price tag seems a little high for one HD “tuner”, it is well worth it to have a total “in” Media Center Experience for all of my TVs until they trench that cable line to my house.
Picture Source: Hauppauge
I think you can use USB to channel change with DirecTV and most STB from cable CO’s will still work with fire wire channel changing. It’s still a poor experience using a HD-PVR with IR blasting IMO.