Made a small mistake.
Hauppauge Capture Card can carry 480p to 1080p.
Hauppauge Capture Card will not do 1080i.
It won't do 1080i, because it uses component cables.
Component cables is ONLY capable of carrying resolutions such as 480i, 480p, 576i, 576p, 720p, and 1080p. Trying to get 1080i from component cables is yet to be seen.
Component cables may NOT provide a high enough pixel clock rate to support 1080i. Check the specs to see if component can carry over 165MHz - probably not!
For the record, Hauppauge makes an external capture card. It is not a real
HD PVR.
A real HD PVR will capture the video from the gaming console or TV and record it into a digital format to an internal disk drive, internal hard drive, USB flash drive, or SD memory card. The Hauppauge cannot do any of that without using the resources of your laptop or computer.
Hauppauge is basically a recording medium like
Dazzle or
EasyCap which allows you to externally connect the unit to your computer by way of a USB port. All that HD PVR stuff is just flashy advertisement.
The important thing here is the resolution, it gives you more resolution than the Dazzle or Easycap. But everything involving the basic functionality is simply the same.
Blackmagic Intensity Pro is the only capturing device that will give you 1080i - it is the only device on the market to date that uses HDMI.
HDMI cables on the other hand can spit out 1080p or 1080i. But it depends on the HDMI.
HDMI 1.0 is 165MHz which will carry 1080p in its sleep. Giving you at least 60Hz WUXGA 1920 x 1200
HDMI 1.3 changes the game and gives you a fabulous 340MHz. Giving you at least WQXGA 2560 x 16000
If you ever see a component cable do that then let me know. I have yet to see the documentation on it.
Also Blackmagic Intensity Pro keeps it real and calls their product what it is, a capturing device - NOT a HD PVR. Because they know it will connect to computer by USB 3.0 and use the computers / PC or MAC internal resources like hard drive, memory, flash memory, blah blah.... No marketing traps there.
I own the Dazzle and Easycap - they were my first capture card recorders, well after my DVD recorder and VCR.
I also have the Hauppauge and Blackmagic Intensity
Recently acquired the Newelectronx HD PVR for when I want to make quick vids and commentaries on the fly. Very easy to carry around without much over head.
I use the Blackmagic Intensity mostly when at home, if you go this route - make sure your rig is powerful - this baby loves resources.