Microsoft Windows 8, 8.1, Windows 7 or Vista (32 or 64-bit), or Windows XP with Service Pack 2 or later.

Yes, a PC or laptop is required to use HD PVR 2. The PC is used to both run the HD PVR 2 application plus is the place where HD PVR 2 recordings are stored. HD PVR 2 does not have any internal disk storage. HD PVR 2 connects to a PC or laptop computer through a USB 2.0 port. The HD PVR 2 recordings are stored on the PC's disk drive.

If you want to record your HD videos without a PC, you should use the HD PVR Rocket.

If you have a Mac, there is an application from HDPVRCapture which can be used. Go to http://www.hdpvrcapture.com for more information.

With the Hauppauge Capture application, you can plug your microphone into the 'mic input' on your PC and mix your game play audio with microphone audio. With Hauppauge Capture, there are seperate volume adjustments for game play and microphone audio. With Hauppauge Capture, you can also add PC sound (music or Skype audio) and mix the audio with the game audio and your commentary.

http://www.hauppauge.com/capture

Here is a video which shows how to record game commentary with an Xbox 360

Here is a video which shows how to record game commentary with a PS3

• 1. Go to the Xbox Guide Menu
• 2. Go along to settings.
• 3. Select Voice.
• 4. Go down to voice output and select 'Play though both'. This will make the audio play out your TV and through your mic at the same time.

Depending on what game you are on, I highly recommend you turn down game volume as well as sometimes voice chat can't be heard because the game volume is too loud. However I guarantee that there will be a way to turn down your audio setting on whatever game you are on. Make sure you make it loud enough to hear, but quiet enough to make the voice chat clear and easy to hear.

• On the PS4, go to Settings: from the main user interface, push up on the DualShock 4 to reach the top-level of the system’s menu, and select the toolbox labelled ‘Settings’
• Enter the System submenu: When the long list of options appears, scroll down to the icon named ‘System’ and select it
• Turn off HDCP encryption: You’ll find another long list in Settings. Scroll down to ‘Enable HDCP’ and ensure that the box to the right of the label is not ticked. It will be enabled by default, so simply click on it to disable the irritating feature. If you have any applications open, the system will ask you to close them, so make sure that you’ve saved your game before completing this last step.

The following is from the Xbox support site

Problem: Playing premium content on your console establishes an HDCP connection with your television. Some unintended video and sound behavior may occur if you plug in a DVR or home entertainment system while the console is turned on.

To resolve this problem, try the following solutions:

• Restart your Xbox One console:
  • Press the Xbox button on the console for ten seconds until the console turns off.
  • Touch the Xbox button on the console again to turn it on.
  • Try to play the content again.
• If your Xbox One console is in instant-on power mode:
  • Go to the Home screen.
  • Press the Menu button on your controller and select Settings.
  • Go to Power & startup, then Power options.
  • Select Power mode and then select Save Energy.
  • Turn off the console by holding the Xbox button.
  • Turn on the console by pressing the Xbox button, and then try to play the content again.

Sometimes the audio sampling rate of the microphone is not matched to the audio recording from the HD PVR 2. In order to match them up, set the sampling rate of the microphone to 48Khz. Here's how to do this:

• On your PC, go to the speaker icon on the right side of your desktop's toolbar, right-click the speaker icon and select "Recording devices".
• Then in the new window that opens, locate your microphone and the right-click it in the list and select the option "Properties". A new window called "Microphone Properties" will open.
• Go to the "Advanced" tab. There you'll see a section named "Default Format", click the drop down menu and select this from the list: 2 channel, 16 bit, 48000 Hz (DVD Quality). Then click apply, restart your PC and give the recording another try.

No. The HDMI output of the HD PVR 2 can only be used on an TV set with HDMI connectors. HDMI TV sets normally display 720p or 1080p video.

If you buy the HD PVR 2 Gaming Edition Plus, it comes with a free copy of Capture for the Mac.

If you have an HD PVR 2 or an HD PVR 2 Gaming Edition, you can buy HDPVRCapture separately. For more information, please go to:
www.hdpvrcapture.com.

Hauppauge Capture uses any webcam, either HD or standard definition, as long as it has a 'raw' YUV or YUY2 mode. MJPEG and other compressed formats are not used. Your webcam can be 4:3 or 16:9. Popular webcams include the Microsoft Lifecam HD-3000 plus, if you have a laptop, the built-in webcam.

Hauppauge Capture chooses the most suitable video mode supported by your webcam. You can set the size of the video, and the format (4:3 or 16:9) in the Settings menu of Hauppauge Capture.

Windows 8, 7, Vista and Windows XP with service pack 3. Mac support from HDPVRCapture.com

You can record HD PVR 2 video on pretty much any PC. Older, slow, laptop or desktop PCs can be used to record HD PVR 2 video. Preview video on older PCs and laptops might be jerky and laggy but your recordings will be fine.

But when you playback an HD PVR 2 recording on your PC screen, you need a fast CPU and at least 256MB of graphics memory. Here is what we recommend for video playback (minimum):

• Dual core CPU 2.0Ghz or faster
• Graphics with 256MB memory (or greater)
• Sound card
• USB 2.0 Port

Yes. Connect the yellow cable from your console (Nintendo, PS2, Wii or any other game console which has a yellow composite video connector) to the Blue connector on the Hauppauge AV cable. Then connect the red and white audio cables from your Wii to the red and white connectors on the Hauppauge AV cable. Then, in Showbiz or Hauppauge Capture, select Composite under Video input and Line In under Audio input.

Here is a video which shows you how to use the HD PVR 2 with an Nintendo 64: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mb541Ww09jg

You can access the HD PVR 2 in your DirectShow application. Simply build a Directshow graph and add the crossbar, capture and encoder filters. Then connect them all up, and it'll output a transport stream containing H.264.

You can then demultiplex it or do whatever you want to it. And you can use standard Microsoft API like IVideoEncoder to control the bitrate. Here is a link to the Graphedit graph.

We are starting to test our Linux support for the HD PVR 2. If you would like to try this out, please send a note to us at: support@hauppauge.com

Yes. WinTV v 7 and WinTV v 7.2 are compatible with all models of the HD PVR 2.

If your satellite or cable box or DVR has Component video connections on the back of the receiver (normally Red/Green/Blue or marked YPrPb), then the answer is "yes".

By connecting the Component video output from your high definition cable TV or satellite TV set top box to the Component video inputs of the HD PVR 2, you will be able to record the TV programs coming from your set top box to the hard disk. Component video connections are normally the Red/Green/Blue connectors on the back of a set top box. Sometimes they are also called YPrPb or YCrCb connectors.

The HD PVR 2 model 1512 comes with the cables to connect to your satellite or cable TV set top box.

HD PVR 2 encodes in real time directly to the hard disk in an H.264 format. It records in TS or M2TS file formats, which is a basic H.264 'transport stream'. Many people would like to know if the quality of a TS or M2TS recording is as good as an MP4 recording. The video quality of MP4 and TS files are the same. The primary difference between TS and MP4 files is that TS files are flat while MP4 files have an index at the beginning of the MP4 file. Otherwise, the video bits inside the files are the same and therefore the video quality of TS, M2TS and MP4 files are the same.

All record file types can be used to burn AVCHD Blu-ray compatible discs but you will need to supply your own disc burning application.

There are two ways of bringing audio into HD PVR 2: through the Line In (RCA) stereo audio jacks on the A/V connector or through the HDMI connector. When bringing audio in through the stereo jacks, audio is recorded as MPEG 1 layer 2 audio. When bringing audio in through the HDMI connector, the audio is also recorded in the MPEG 1 layer 2 format.

DTS audio is currently not supported.

If you have the HD PVR 2 model 1512 or the HD PVR 2 Gaming Edition Plus and are bringing in 5.1 channel audio from either HDMI or optical audio, your recordings will be made with 5.1 channel AC-3 audio.

No, the HD PVR 2 itself does not have the ability to play back recorded videos to an external monitor. To playback recorded videos, you will need to connect your laptop or PC to your TV set.

The HDMI video output on HD PVR 2 acts as a pass through for live video streaming from your video source through the HD PVR 2 back to your TV monitor. The power of the HD PVR must remain in the on position in order to pass the video through to the external TV.

Yes. Recordings made with HD PVR 2 are either in TS, M2TS or MP4 formats, which can be immediately uploaded to YouTube without conversion. Hauppauge Capture records from HD PVR 2 in an H.264 form which is used by YouTube. And the Hauppauge Capture Edit tab allows you to trim your videos very quickly without the need to re-encode.

YouTube will not record your video streams unless you set a start time and an end time in your streams. If you simply start and stop a YouTube stream, YouTube will not record it.

The current Windows driver for HD PVR 2 does not allow your PC to go into Hibernate or Standby mode when it is either recording or previewing video.

Yes for recording, no for streaming. With the latest version of Hauppauge Capture, you can record your videos with a webcam in your recordings. This is called the 'Facecam' feature in Hauppauge Capture. Facecam allows you to specify the location and size of video from your webcam in your recordings.

This happens if you connected your PS3 using HDMI and now want to use Component video so you can record with HD PVR 2.

To fix, you need to reset the video settings on your PS3. To do this:
- Make sure you have the HDMI cable disconnected on your PS3
- Then push the PS3 power button on the front of the PS3. You should see the light go Red. This means your PS3 is turned off.
- Then hold down the PS3's power button until you hear two beeps (one beep, then about 5 seconds and a second beep).
Your PS3 should now be set to Component video out and you should see video in the preview window in Hauppauge Capture.

Most of the time this is caused by either one of the Component video connectors is not connected. For example, if the Red connector is not connected correctly, your video picture will look green.
Also try updating to the latest drivers supplied by your graphics card manufacturer.

If you are running an AMD graphics card in the PC which the HD PVR 2 is connected to, you may experience a slight change in brightness every few seconds while in the preview or edit screens. This is due to an issue with hardware acceleration that we have seen in some AMD drivers. This shift does not affect recordings and typically can be eliminated by either changing drivers for the graphics card or by disabling Hardware acceleration.

This is caused by either a slow processor in your laptop or desktop PC, or the display adapter is having a problem. Make sure your video card meets the minimum requirements. Also try updating to the latest drivers supplied by the manufacturer.
In September 2012, there was a problem with the ATI graphics driver which would cause jerky video or freezing of the video screen. This should be fixed with an update from ATI on their graphics drivers.

Some set top boxes will disable or turn off the component output if the HDMI or DVI output is being used. Check to see how you have your Television connected to your set top box. You might need to disconnect the HDMI connector on your set top box when you want to record TV programs.

In order for the audio pass through to operate, you need to configure the Audio settings in the Hauppauge Capture application. Click on the Capture tab. In the Audio input section, choose your audio source from the drop down menu ( RCA, HDMI ). Once configured, the HD PVR 2 will retain these settings. Note: the HD PVR 2 must be powered on for the pass through to operate.

Increasing the recording bitrate will eliminate motion artifacts in your recordings. In Haupauge Capture, in the Capture tab make sure Variable is selected. Than start with Quality set to 11 Mbits/sec. This should give you very good quality. You can continue to increase the Quality up to a maximum of 14 Mbists/sec.

You can experiment with other settings, but in our experience, these are good for uploading to YouTube.

• Video record resolutions are 1080p30, 720p60, 540p60, 480p60 and a number of downscale variants of these formats.
• You can record at datarates from 1Mbs to 13.5Mbs. If you choose Variable, the maximum recording datarate is about 1.5 times the selected rate. As an example, if you have Variable selected and set the Quality to 14Mbits/sec, the maximum rate will be about 21 Mbits/sec.

Hauppauge Capture records in a TS file or M2TS file directly. TS is also called 'AVCHD' and is the native format for Blu-ray DVD discs. Also, Hauppauge Capture has an Export to MP4 function, which adds an index to the beginning of a TS recording and creates an MP4 file. This usually takes just a few seconds and does not change the video quality of your recording.

Approximately 2 GB per hour at 5Mb/s setting.
Approximately 4 GB per hour at 9Mb/s setting.
Approximately 6 GB per hour at 13.5 Mb/s setting.

No, the HD PVR 2 requires a PC to operate. If you want to record without a PC, you should use the HD PVR Rocket.

If you are using the HD PVR 2, once you have connected your PC to HD PVR 2 and run Hauppauge Capture, you can disconnect the USB cable to your PC and the passthrough will continue to run as long as HD PVR 2 still has power.

It is not recommended to use a longer USB cable other than the 2 meter USB cable provided with the device.

You can burn Blu-ray compatible discs, but a disc burner is not supplied with HD PVR 2.

The power adapter is 6V 1.6 amps.

Check for the presence of "Constant Guard" from Exfinity and uninstall if present then re run the installation for Hauppauge Capture. Once installed you can reinstall Constant Guard.

Here's a tip from an HD PVR 2 user:
"With the Xbox One, to record game commentary I do this: in Kinect settings, use the Kinect mic which forces the party chat to come out of the TV speakers. The Hauppauge game recorder will then pick up the party chat when recording game audio.

In order to record your voice (which won't come through the speakers and be picked up), you need to have a Mic plugged in to your PC and place near your face as you do. Then make sure in Hauppauge Capture you select the mic in the drop down menu and set level.

Then you will get the game chat and the game audio recorded, and you speak to your party via Kinect microphone. Basically, one mic to chat with your party and one mic to record your game commentary."

Device Central is a Windows service which monitors the record button on the HD PVR 2. Sometimes Device Central will close. If so, you can restart it by going to Windows Explorer and looking in ProgramFiles -> Hauppauge -> DeviceCentral and then running the program HCWDCTrayTool.exe

HD PVR 2 can adjust the color settings of both the recordings and the passthrough video.

To adjust the color settings, open Hauppauge Capture and go to the Capture tab. Then click the Advanced button at the bottom and go to Video Proc Amp. Here you will see the color and briteness settings.