Hauppauge HD PVR Rocket

The Hauppauge HD PVR Rocket was kindly made available to us by the manufacturer.

Hauppauge belonged to the first companies the on the Capture card train. Founded in 1984, the US company primarily offers digital TV and video products. In this TechWatch Test you will find out whether the Hauppauge HD PVR Rocket is really the mobile, stand-alone video editing card that it claims to be.

The Hauppauge HD PVR Rocket is suitable as a stand-alone device and offers great recordings. The latency is disappointing, a second monitor and the use of the pass-through are unavoidable.

Scope of delivery unparalleled

The Hauppauge HD PVR Rocket comes in a sleek, black plastic look. The status LEDs are hidden behind the ring in the middle. On the front is the Microphone input and the USB port for direct recording to storage media.

The special thing about the Rocket is that recording is also possible without a computer. But more on that later. The USB port for the power supply or the optional connection to a computer is located on the back. Next to it is the A/V In for connecting to older consoles. Next to it is the latency-free HDMI pass through and the HDMI input. On the top is the large record button and an audio setting panel. Here you can adjust the volume or mute the microphone.

Thanks to the large scope of delivery, you buy almost a complete package with the Rocket. Nothing is missing to start your YouTube career straight away. We were particularly impressed by the included lavalier microphone. With a cable length of 1,5 meters, it could be a bit longer, but the quality is surprising. In fact, we think most users don't have a better microphone at home. Even high-priced gaming headsets don't sound any better. So if you don't own a large-diaphragm microphone, you should keep the Rocket in mind for that alone. In addition, you get a USB cable with a length of 1,8 meters which has two connections, one for the power supply via the console and one for the data transfer to the PC. The included HDMI cable According to our meter rule, it is 1,5 meters long, Hauppauge measures 2 here. Both should be fine. We can directly confirm an advertising statement from the Americans, the Rocket is small and light. With 134 grams and dimensions of 3,2 cm in height, 12 cm in width and 8,9 cm in length, the Elgato Game Capture HD60 S is smaller and lighter. So anyone looking for the declared “pocket-sized HD video recorder” will find it at Elgato.

Stand alone for the couch gamer

Mind you, the Americans don't offer the possibility to record without a PC. But that is exactly what makes the Hauppauge HD PVR Rocket so special. Simply connect the device to the console via HDMI and USB, hang the HDMI Pass Through on your TV and connect a USB stick to the Rocket. If necessary, you can connect your lavalier microphone and press the red button. Voilà, the recording is on. This does not work in this form with any other device. However, since we are comparing the devices with each other, we will carry out this special feature separately and carry out the test on the PC.

Hauppauge Capture

Capture is the recording program for the Hauppauge HD PVR Rocket and the HD PVR 60 from the same company. The installation is so far simple, the user finds himself in a clear interface. The various settings are on the left. The recording can of course also be started via the software. Under "Advanced" you will find some more or less relevant settings. For example, a facecam including an absurdly ugly frame can also be integrated here. That didn't work in our test. The software hung up and then no longer recognized the source. As always, we recommend using OBS for streaming. 

Like Elgato, Hauppauge offers the SkipBack function. Under the recording button, you can also enter the time you want to be saved. For your understanding: if you specify 10 minutes, the past 10 minutes after you start the recording will be saved. So your recording doesn't start at 0:00 but at 10:00 and continues from there. This works well and helps you record your highlights and the like afterwards. SkipBack only works in TS and M2TS format. If you want to cut or render the recordings, you have to convert the files. The "Edit" tab of Capture will help you with this. Unfortunately, it is not clear to us what can be edited here. In our test, cuts could not even be set because the button for them disappeared. However, the .mp4 export works without any problems.

Overall, Capture offers a decent interface and some interesting features, but it's a bit undercooked and could use more updates.

Unplayable due to latency

Anyone who has left the installation behind and started one of their consoles will quickly notice that the Rocket has an unplayable latency in the preview. We would like to emphasize that Hauppauge does not communicate anything else. On the product page it says in principle that you should use the HDMI Pass Through to play without latency. Unfortunately, that doesn't make it any better as the competition here is significantly stronger. This is not a matter of a few milliseconds deviation, but a delay of around 1,32 seconds (127 frames at 96 fps).

That's way too high even for single-player games. In Uncharted, even walking becomes a challenge. That's when we got the honor. How is such a deviation possible? The bottleneck in data transmission is the USB output. It limits the speed and can also lead to delays. In fact, USB 2.0 performs at 33-40 MB/second in real-world use during USB 3.0 is around 275-300 MB/second. Unfortunately, we could not find any exact information about the version used on the homepage or on the cables. The use of the "HWiNFO" software finally gave us the following result:

The Rocket uses a USB 2.0 high-speed output. However, this only means that this connection can achieve the specified 60 MB/s under laboratory conditions. So in 2017, Hauppauge is using an outdated connection on a device that Amazon released on November 4, 2013.

Recordings that convince

There is nothing to complain about when it comes to the recording quality of the HD PVR Rocket. Like the competition, Hauppauge delivers very good quality here and allows great recordings of your gameplays. We particularly liked the efficiency of the recordings (1,35 GB per 10 minutes of recording).

In addition, we show you the quality of the supplied microphone in this clip:

Interesting for the consolero

What can you say about the Hauppauge HD PVR Rocket? The recording quality is beyond doubt. We also like the concept of the recorder, which does not require a computer. The idea could be interesting especially for pure console players who may not have the strongest computer. Unfortunately, the recorded videos also have to be cut somewhere, so you won't be able to do without a computer. The scope of delivery of the card is also more than decent and by far the best in our comparison. Considering the competing video editing cards, the card's latency borders on the outrageous. Selling USB 2.0 in 2017 for just under 150 euros and also pointing to the latency-free HDMI output. Overall, the HD PVR Rocket would definitely be a great product in 2011. These days you can find better ones for less money.