Dat thing. It is lacking information on some of the more subtle technicalities. But still... if all else fails it can be used as a 1TB external HDD. Anyone tried that thing? http://www.btecanada.com/products/i...order-record-tv-through-cable-box-settop.html
I actually bought that unit and I just received it. Took it out of the box and at first glance it looks like a pretty nice unit, does not feel too cheap. I do not know If I will fully test it tonight but will be giving you guys a nice review in the following Days
This looks impressive for the price. I'm interested in your review. Do you have any sources that would output via SCART? I'm interested in how it handles a PAL SCART in -> NTSC HDMI out... and of course if there is any lag when recording videogame playback.
I just tried using it as an upscaler transcoder with SNES NTSC SCART --> Component 480p. It worked fairly well. There was a little lag and the image was overscan but I was actually expecting worse. I tried setting it to NTSC output via Component but I had a black screen, but that might be because my HD CRT does not like NTSC component. Tomorrow I will try with a regular CRT and NTSC output, maybe I will get a better result? What I really want to try is to output it back as RGB scart into my PVM and see if there is any loss/Lag but I just realized I do not have a regular Male - Male SCART Cable.... Anyway, assuming it outputs the signal as is with not upscaling-transcoding maybe It would be lagless, but somehow I still feel it might get processed. I will do more tests tomorrow and possibly try some RGB recording.
Now, this looks quite interesting. I have not seen something like this in my area, and if you do get the chance to run some new tests...It would be great to know some more details
I have made some new tests and have made some recordings. However my unit had a problem and I had to return it for replacement. I was planning to wait for the replacement then do some more testing and then write a review but I will give you a partial update later on today, stay tuned.
Ok time to give you a quick update about this device: My unit was partly defective as it could not use the internal HDD. I tried 3 different HDD and it just did not work so I sent it back for replacement. I had time to do some tests though. Turns out you can connect a USB storage device to this unit and record to it instead of the HDD. So I did some recording tests using a 4gb USB key. On the bright side the unit genuinely records RGB but on the other side you have little control over how the data is processed. It generates MPG and even using HQ setting there are some compression artifacst. The image is not stellar, it is pretty good but not stellar. Sound is quite good and it records 60 FPS. I will let you judge the results by yourselves, I have two demo files for you two check. Genesis and SNES. https://mega.co.nz/#!w5EXVKzR!p2ntVCQGzMt3d73kfjrxuKwjLWCcm86fiVXnaOiow2E https://mega.co.nz/#!BxtDnAQA!XGwsKU7lhYC47FalwVSRDdk4qRUWyv80b3_NDWeoIc0 Another ''Problem'' with this unit is that it upscales everything and only outputs 480i or higher. Furthermore, it adds a little input lag to its outputs. As a result, playing while looking at the machine outputs is less than ideal. It will do for some quick demo and monitoring, but not for serious playing. A solution is to use a SCART splitter at the scart input, also called a Y plug. I noticed no change in the recording quality when splitting the RGB signal to my PVM. The picture on my PVM was possibly a bit darker but still very good. This means it is a good solution to record while playing Lagless in 240p. Not perfect but still pretty good. I will do some more tests when I receive my replacement unit. There is also the question of reliability, my own experience, the fact that this unit gets pretty hot, and user reviews I have seen on the net might indicate that long term reliability might be a problem with this unit. Though hard to tell really. I would still say it is quite interesting for the price. Not perfect, but at this price tag you cannot complain too much I guess. You do get the possibility to record RGB to the push of a remote button while playing your game on your couch. Certainly beats the hassle of using my secondary computer with a old S-video card.
