Hauppauge! HD PVR 2 Gaming Edition Plus Review

I’m really impressed with what has been done here, a lot of care and attention has been put into the little details and it makes for an overall enjoyable experience with a product that feels premium from start to finish. What in many ways is a complex and tricky process couldn’t be much easier with the HD PVR 2 and while at first it may seem a little complicated to the uninitiated, once it’s setup and installed it can be as simple as one button to record and one button to stop recording.

There are some issues with the fact that there are a lot of cables involved and this can prove a headache if you love to keep a clean area that is fairly wire free, but that isn’t exactly hard to work around if you don’t plan on moving the unit much. If you plan on taking it to gaming events or traveling then it doesn’t really matter too much and you’ll be installing and setting up the device in next to no time once you’ve done it once or twice already. Also a plus point for those wanting to be fairly mobile with this system is that is is small and relatively lightweight when boxed, meaning it’s not too difficult to store and travel with, something that can be very important for those involved in professional eSports or competitive gaming.

Visually the hardware looks great, the changing LED indicator strip that circles the device looks really cook and the brushed aluminum effect plastic panel on the top adds a nice high quality vibe to the whole thing. The software looks good too and navigation, adjusting settings and practical features such as recording and streaming are easy enough to require no tutorial.

The streaming features are fantastic and this is going to go down well with people who play games that do well on services like Twitch.TV and now you can broadcast live matches of Call of Duty, show off on Battlefield 3 or even just do walkthrough / play along videos via your website, youtube and more.

Pros

• Easy to use one touch record
• Intuitive Software
• Unique hardware design
• Live streaming support
• Works with more than one type of console

Cons

• A little expensive

eTeknix says: “Capturing your video game footage is becoming more and more popular and Hauppauge! have made it easier and more versatile than ever before. The PVR 2 Plus is easily one of the best streaming devices on the market and more than worthy of our Editors Choice Award.”