During CES Happauge announced a new HD PVR USB device which will give PC’s the ability to capture HD component video in real-time, encoding it as H.264 or AVCHD. The MSRP will be $249 and it will ship by the end of 1Q08.
Now Rakesh has posted a number of details in the SnapStream Blog. He writes that it will encode 1080p component video as H.264 at a bit rates from 1Mbps up to 25Mbps, and it includes Hauppauge’s standard IR blaster library to control set top boxes. The design is based around an all-in-one chip from Ambarella and the design is almost finalized, they’re just working on the final case design. Similar chips from Ambarella are used in HD camcorders. The chip in the HD PVR also has an H.264 decoder, and the HD PVR will have a video out, but it will probably not be enabled when the box ships. As with all HD content, you’ll need a reasonably powerful PC to play the recordings.
A tip of the hat to Brent Evans at Zatz Not Funny for catching this.
