The Hauppauge HD-PVR could be what we've all been waiting for since approximately 2003. Ever since people have been connecting their PCs to their HDTVs, there has been a strong desire to watch, record, and store HDTV content on the PC.  The first option came by way of HD tuners for "OTA" (over the air) HDTV signals that can be received via a digital antenna.  This option is obviously limited to only those channels that can be received via antenna, which is primarily the "big" networks.  However, for those of us who subscribe to premium HD channels like Discovery HD, ESPN HD, etc. 

ATI proposed a possible solution to this problem via a CableCard tuner, which is designed to work with cable companies' systems to allow tuning of any cable channel (including HD and premium channels) on an HTPC.  Unfortunately, this system is currently bug-ridden, and is limited to only those cable providers that support a 3rd party cable card tuner (Charter cable in the midwest does not support this type of device).

However, Hauppauge, a company known for producing high quality TV products for PC users, might have just what many of us have been waiting for: a component-video capture device called the HD-PVR.

This device is designed to allow any component video source to be recorded to a PC over a USB connection.  The device has an h.264 video encoder built-in, so it will do a decent job of compressing HD video into a manageable size.  It will cost $250, and is scheduled for release toward the end of May.  Unfortunately, it isn't directly supported via Windows Media Center yet, but MCE and VMC users should be able to import captured video into the Media Center interface to watch at a later date.  In addition to TV, this box could be used to record and store your best gaming moments on your Xbox or PS3 as well. 

For the past 5 years I've been asking myself why somebody hasn't just built a relatively low-cost HDTV input option for HTPC users, and I'm glad to see Hauppauge is bringing this dream home. 

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