H.264

We spend a good deal of time covering digital cable tuners (DCT) because they are popular and quite possibly the easiest way to get premium content into the home theater PC (HTPC). They do have some downsides, however. For example, if the content the DCT records is copy-protected, it can only be played back within Windows Media Center and can’t be analyzed for automated commercial skipping purposes. There is also no support for utilizing a service provider’s video on demand (VOD) offerings.

There is an answer to those two problems when using an audio-video (AV) capture solution. Today, we’ll be examining the AVerMedia AVerTV USB HD DVR which, like the Hauppauge Colossus we reviewed, is an AV capture solution that can handle both SD and HD video and can be utilized not just to work with HTPC DVR software, but also to capture any type of video for applications such as recording video gameplay, video stored on a camcorder or VHS tape, etc.