The main reason I have the TotalMedia Extreme 2 package is because I own the Hauppauge HD-PVR and this unit comes with the TotalMedia Extreme (version 1) package. The included TotalMedia Extreme is quite old, so I was poking around ArcSoft's website and discovered they were offering a discount price for owners of the OEM TotalMedia Extreme to upgrade to TotalMedia Extreme 2, so I took them up on the offer.
Before I go any further, it is important to note that Hauppauge considers the included OEM version 1 of TotalMedia Extreme to be the only supported capture software. If you contact them and tell them you are using TotalMedia Extreme 2, they will tell you that version is not supported and will decline to offer help.
Having said that and despite what Hauppauge says, TotalMedia Extreme 2 (and when I refer to TotalMedia Extreme, I'm primarily referring to the Capture Module it contains) seems to work just fine with the HD-PVR. I had some problems that I was initially attributing to the TME2 Capture Module, but in the end, I think most problems really stem from the HD-PVR not being exactly robust in the face of less than perfect video on it's inputs.
Tip: always check the length of the resulting file after a recording against what the record length was set to when you began the capture. If it is more than about 5 seconds off, you probably had a glitch in the video and the encoder restarted. The TME Capture Module will not warn you that there has been a break in the video (though I wish it would.)
Also note, the preview in the Capture Module and the playback in TotalMedia Theatre 3 (the playback software included in TME 2) are often somewhat jerky with footage from the HD-PVR. This can lead you to believe you are not getting a good capture. This can lead you off on a wild goose chase and waste a great deal of time. Check the footage in some other application and you will probably see that it is fine.
The other component of TME 2 that I use a lot is the TotalMedia Studio 3. I primarily use this to do some basic trimming/editing of HD-PVR footage and then produce a blu-ray folder. TotalMedia Studio 3 has been good and basically gets the job done. The editing functionality is on the sluggish side, so I try to avoid anything beyond trimming off beginning and ending excess.
The other major app from this package I use is the TotalMedia Extreme Theatre 3. It has it's strengths and weaknesses. I find that all of the blu-ray capable playback applications behave differently and if you do a lot of work in this area, it pays to have as many different playback options as possible. For example, ironically, I can't use TotalMedia Theatre 3 to check the footage I've just captured with the TME 2 Capture Module. It locks up if I don't reset the audio preferences each time I use it. (My audio output is the HDMI audio on my video card.) Instead, I use PowerDVD 9. It plays the files fine and correctly bitstreams the audio out the HDMI on the video card. But once I make the captured footage into a blu-ray file structure/folder, it is switched: PowerDVD 9 won't even recognize the blu-ray file structure, but I can play it back correctly with TotalMedia Theatre 3.
In summary, I'd say that version 2 of TotalMedia Extreme is a worthwhile update from version 1, even though Hauppauge does not officially support it for use with the HD-PVR.
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