hauppauge

Remember ReplayTV? Once upon a time the company was about as well known as TiVo, which is to say not very. While TiVo eventually became synonymous with "personal video recorder," ReplayTV stopped making set top boxes a few years ago.

Last year the company emerged from the ashes to relaunch as a desktop software maker. ReplayTV PC Edition is a complete desktop PVR solution that lets you turn your computer into a video recorder. There were just two problems:

1. A ton of other companies already had a stronger foothold in this space
2. It's not really a complete solution if you still need to buy hardware to make your PC record TV shows.

Point number 2 is a problem for pretty much anyone who sells desktop PVR software, Microsoft included. When I tell people how easy it is to turn their computer into a PVR, the first question they ask is "great, but where do I plug my cable box in?" And there's the rub. You don't, unless you get a TV tuner. For a computer geek that's hardly a deal breaker. But until TV tuners begin coming preinstalled on all computers, ReplayTV, BeyondTV, SageTV, and other PVR packages will have a limited audience of people who are savvy enough to buy hardware to go with their software.

Does the fact that ReplayTV is getting ready to launch what looks like a standard USB 2.0 HDTV tuner change any of this? Probably not. But it does give the company a way to package an all-in-one solution. Buy a retail package with the ReplayTV hardware and software all in one box. We're guessing this tuner will probably work just as well with BeyondTV, SageTV, or free software like Media Portal or MythTV.

It's probably worth noting that the ReplayTV HD looks an awful lot like the Hauppauge WinTV HVR 950 recorder with a red and white paint job. So you can probably expect it to sell for about $100.

Elgato has released the latest in its line of TV tuners for Mac. The EyeTV 250 Plus is a USB 2.0 HDTV tuner, although you can also use the $200 box as a standard def tuner should the need arise.

There was a time when Elgato and Miglia were pretty much the only game in town for Mac users looking to add TV tuners and PVR functionality to their computers. But a few months back, Hauppauge announced that its popular PC TV tuners were now Mac compatible. So should we read anything into the fact that Elgato is calling this new tuner the EyeTV 250? After all, one of the most popular Hauppauge cards is the WinTV PVR-250.

Name recognition issues aside, the EyeTV 250 Plus looks like a pretty good deal. For your money, you get the TV tuner, Elgato's PVR software, and Roxio Toast 8 Basic for burning CDs and DVDs.

[via Macworld]

SageTV released a new beta of its PC based PVR software today. SageTV 6.2.5 Beta for Linux and Windows includes a boatload of bug fixes and new features, including:

• Added support for Hauppauge WinTV HVR-1800 TV tuners in Windows
  
• Added ClearQAM (unencrypted high definition cable) support for Hauppauge WinTV HVR-1600 and HVR-1800 TV tuners in Windows
  
• Added support for AverMedia M780 TV tuner in Windows Vista
• Fixed a Windows bug that caused music files to end early
• Fixed audio/video sync bug with H.264 files
• Support changing from over-the-air to cable TV tuning without restarting the application or having to pick a different input
• Added Apple TV transcoding profiles

As always, remember that this is beta software, so your results may vary. If you're the adventurous sort, and don't mind crashing your PC or missing a few recordings, it looks like a great update. For everyone else, you might want to wait until the next stable release.
[via Missing Remote]