- Jan 12, 2000
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I've been on the fence about building my own PVR, and have been looking for a decent price on this card. I found it at Dell for $131.36 shipped. Since this is a two tuner solution AND it includes the remote and IR receiver, I think $131 is a pretty good price considering the remote runs around $35 at Newegg. I also think that this is a learning remote, so I may just have to give up my JP1 remote I have now. Also, while it says it needs XP MCE, I believe that it works with XP Home/Pro just fine from reading the reviews.
Now I just have to decide on Sage, Beyond, GBPVR, Meedio, or MythTV....
PVR500 Kit
Here's Dell's description:
Watch TV on your PC screen using Windows® XP Media Center Edition, digitally record your TV shows, or pause live TV with instant replay, and listen to FM radio with the WinTV®-PVR-500 MCE-Kit Personal Video Recorder with NTSC TV Tuner from Hauppauge®. This Kit includes a PCI board with 125-channel cable-ready TV tuner, and hardware MPEG-2 audio/video encoder. It also includes a Media Center remote control transmitter and receiver ('beanbag'). The board features composite, S-Video, and audio inputs to connect to a cable TV set top box or, satellite receiver. You can pause live TV with instant replay, fast forward and rewind. With the built-in dual hardware MPEG-2 encoders, you can record up to two TV channels at the same time to the disk using from 1-2 GB of disk space per hour of recorded video. While recording, the WinTV-PVRs' hardware MPEG encoder does all the work, so your PC continues to run at full speed. The included IR transmitter controls the channels on a cable TV set top box or satellite receivers. A dbx-TV stereo audio decoder ensures great TV sound while, the included A/V cable set helps connect to a second A/V input such as a satellite receiver or cable TV box.
Now I just have to decide on Sage, Beyond, GBPVR, Meedio, or MythTV....
PVR500 Kit
Here's Dell's description:
Watch TV on your PC screen using Windows® XP Media Center Edition, digitally record your TV shows, or pause live TV with instant replay, and listen to FM radio with the WinTV®-PVR-500 MCE-Kit Personal Video Recorder with NTSC TV Tuner from Hauppauge®. This Kit includes a PCI board with 125-channel cable-ready TV tuner, and hardware MPEG-2 audio/video encoder. It also includes a Media Center remote control transmitter and receiver ('beanbag'). The board features composite, S-Video, and audio inputs to connect to a cable TV set top box or, satellite receiver. You can pause live TV with instant replay, fast forward and rewind. With the built-in dual hardware MPEG-2 encoders, you can record up to two TV channels at the same time to the disk using from 1-2 GB of disk space per hour of recorded video. While recording, the WinTV-PVRs' hardware MPEG encoder does all the work, so your PC continues to run at full speed. The included IR transmitter controls the channels on a cable TV set top box or satellite receivers. A dbx-TV stereo audio decoder ensures great TV sound while, the included A/V cable set helps connect to a second A/V input such as a satellite receiver or cable TV box.