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This is disappointing. Apparently the new “hardware encode HD video from component inputs” box from Hauppauge won’t be shipping tomorrow. According to Brent over at blogspt (http://brentevans.blogspot.com/2008/04/hauppauge-hd-pvr-shipping-delayed-to.html), the shipping has been delayed.

Order numbers 32700 - 33600 should ship by mid-May while order numbers 33601 - 34600 should ship prior to the end of May. My order number is 33756. Ugh.

Why is this important? Right now the options for recording HD on a PVR are limited. Basically you have the firewire hacks, various QAM/OTA tuners, and CableCard (if that even counts). The firewire hacks are expensive. The various QAM/OTA tuners work great for local channels, but you can’t get SCIFI HD or HBO HD on them. The CableCard would be great if it wan’t so locked down. And, yes, I know the whole point of the CableCard is that it is locked down. Ugh.

With the release of the HD-PVR from Hauppauge, there will be another option. COMPONENT! Pretty much everything HD related has component outputs from DirecTV HD receivers to Blu-ray players. With this box you’ll be able to record literally anything you can see on a TV. It *IS* the analog hole. All recorded in nice and compact h.264 video and AAC audio.

ShowAnalyzer, of course, doesn’t support h.264 or AAC audio yet. I’m hard at work on the next version that does. It already decodes the sample file that is floating around but samples aren’t the real thing and I’d like to get my hands on one for testing before I release the new generation of commercial detection into the wild (meaning your hands ).

I guess this will push back ShowAnalyzer’s version 1.0 release back a couple weeks.

Take care,
Jere