AverMedia adds a USB HD capture device to its lineup

While we prefer to record our HD without decoding and encoding the video again, sometimes that just isn't an option. Up until now Hauppauge has had little competition for its HD PVR, but no more. Today AverMedia announced the AVerTV USB HD DVR which is an external USB device that will capture up to 1080i HD and stereo sound via HDMI and other inputs. It is bundled with TotalMedia Theatre software for scheduling recording and playback. Now you might wonder why a company known for its Windows Media Center tuners would ship with recording software and the reason is that Media Center has some limitation that is holding this back from being supported. This makes sense since the Hauppauge HD PVR doesn't have native support for Media Center either, but perhaps DVB Link will come to the rescue here as well.

[Alton Posted Jan 7th 2010 11:15AM]

No 5.1, No Sale...

[FabDex Posted Jan 7th 2010 2:38PM]

@Alton

I agree.

[TotallyNerd Posted Jan 7th 2010 11:56AM]

AverMedia, where aver is short for average?

[Jaxx89 Posted Mar 21st 2010 1:41PM]

@TotallyNerd BELOW AVERAGE
I've had a really hard time with Ave3rmedia products.
Not to mention the pathetic support, quality of product and drivers filled with problems.

[jholmstadt Posted Jan 7th 2010 12:39PM]

Has there been any discussion of price? I guess it may not matter if it only supports stereo.

[FabDex Posted Jan 7th 2010 3:07PM]

@jholmstadt

Suggested retail price is $199

[FabDex Posted Jan 7th 2010 3:10PM]

@jholmstadt Suggested retail price is $199.

[rickatnight11 Posted Jan 7th 2010 1:39PM]

I'll stick with my HD-PVR 1212, thanks. I wouldn't use HDMI anyway, as I record live TV.

[Pain999 Posted Jan 7th 2010 3:32PM]

Isn't this just a external version of the PCI-E version which was already released. I don't have one, but supposedly if your cable box flagged it as encrypted then it won't record.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815100049

[FabDex Posted Jan 7th 2010 3:34PM]

Here's what I found:

The AVerTV USB HD DVR - is an external USB self powered High Definition video capture device. It’s equipped with a Component Video input and HDMI output interface. It allows users to connect Cable/Satellite Set-top-boxes and HD Video recorders to capture High Definition video content to their PC.

The AVerTV USB HD DVR is equipped with State-of-the-art hardware H.264 encoder, which will perform real-time H.264 encode functions without overwhelming your systems CPU processing power. Users can program scheduled recordings on their PC, to start recording HD content from their Set-top-box. Besides recording functions, the USB HD DVR also allows users to playback recorded content on their PC or thru HDMI output to TV at 1080p resolution.

Sounds like the Hauppauge but with HDMI, crippled by HDCP, like Avermedia's other HDMI capture devices. I believe it can capture up to 15mbits/s. And I'm pretty sure it will support 5.1.