I wonder if anyone has experience with trying to use the Hauppauge
WinTV-PVR-USB2 for video capture with a processor slower than what's
listed in Hauppauge's system requirements?

They list "Pentium® III processor 733MHz or faster" as a system
requirement, but I'd love to be able to use one of my old laptops as a
dedicated DVR. I would also retrofit the laptop with a USB 2.0 card
connected to an external SATA drive to maximize throughput to disk.

The Hauppauge boasts built-in hardware MPEG compression, but its listed
processor requirements are actually *higher* than those of cheaper
video capture devices that I've seen without hardwre MPEG. Maybe
Hauppauge's specs are just more realistic than the cheaper guys?

Any advice will be much appreciated.

JohnB

"johnnyzero" <johnbeekman@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1146756679.313391.122540@v46g2000cwv.googlegr oups.com...
I wonder if anyone has experience with trying to use the Hauppauge
WinTV-PVR-USB2 for video capture with a processor slower than what's
listed in Hauppauge's system requirements?

They list "Pentium® III processor 733MHz or faster" as a system
requirement, but I'd love to be able to use one of my old laptops as a
dedicated DVR. I would also retrofit the laptop with a USB 2.0 card
connected to an external SATA drive to maximize throughput to disk.

The Hauppauge boasts built-in hardware MPEG compression, but its listed
processor requirements are actually *higher* than those of cheaper
video capture devices that I've seen without hardwre MPEG. Maybe
Hauppauge's specs are just more realistic than the cheaper guys?

Any advice will be much appreciated.

JohnB


Your configuration has several bottlenecks: CPU speed, USB 2 interface with
slow CPU, External Hard Drive. In my experience, you should take the specs
required very seriously. I remember someone complaining of dropped data
with a 1 gigahertz processor with this device. It would not work for me on
my laptop (AMD 1.2 ghz...actual clock 8 megahertz).

Since you can order the Hauppauge through Amazon.com, you can just try it
and return it easily if it does not work.

Thanks for the feedback, Alpha.

Actually, I'm pretty sure that I'm gonna purchase the Hauppauge box
anyway - I'm mainly buying it to use for video captures & transfers
with my main rig (which is plenty poweful).

It'll just be "bonus" if I can also come up with a laptop that's
powerful enuf to work with it as a dedicated DVR - I'm looking forward
to never using a VCR again to record a TV program!

best,
JohnB