Hauppauge PVR-250 $99.99+tax AR @ Circuit City

[Hosermage]

Nice price for this hardware mpeg encoder for those of you want to build a HTPC. Personally, I like to have separate capture card instead of ATI's AIW video cards for future upgrade flexibility. Also, by using a hardware mpeg encoder you can keep the CPU usage low.

By the way, it's $50 rebates: one $20MIR to Hauppauge w/ orginal UPC and one $30MIR to CircuitCity w/ copy of UPC. The cash register will print out the rebate forms and extra copy receipts for you. I think it may also be available online.

Edit: here's the link: Hauppauge 980 (PVR-250)

 

[psloan]

nice is this better then the leadtek tv2000 xp.?

 

[agent2099]

Good deal. $145 at newegg and you don't get the CC MIR. The customer reviews at CC.com are good, they mention that at the DVD-quality it looks really good - any idea how much HDD space a 30minute show at the highest quality will take?

 

[wfay]

looking to get one of these cheap, this looks great, currently have Pinnacle PCTV which works but wow the cpu utilization is high and the quality is ok not great and disk usage while capturing is significant. this looks like a much better option on all fronts provided quality is good. anyone have this card and care to comment??

 

[weepul]

Hauppauge makes good video capture cards.

product comparison
data sheet

//krunk (^_^x)

 

[pxc]

I have one of these from when CompUSA had it on sale for $99 after rebate (end of May). The highest quality setting uses about 40MB/minute for recorded programs. That's overkill for cable. The lower DVD-quality settings look fine and use far less disk space. It also has VCD and custom quality settings, SVCD + more.

Maybe the card works smoothly under WinXP MCE (media center edition), but under regular WinXP, I'm pretty disappointed with the controls. You *must* use the mouse for many functions instead of just the remote (which in full screen mode is annoying since it has to switch to windowed mode to do even basic mode changes). And that's the other problem. The remote looks like a $3 toy with very basic functionality: volume and channel, 0-9, pause, replay, skip, TV, Full Screen, mute, radio and source. No variable speed fast forward/rewind, no menu button, no switching modes, no direct record and no guide. The recording quality is very good, though. I have one in my HTPC and it has good enough quality to always leave on and watch TV through it.

But compared to the Creative VideoBlaster DigitalVCR, the PVR 250's lack of polish is glaringly obvious. Even the PVR 250's scheduler is a separate program which needs to start up in the tray to work properly (when it doesn't lock up, that is). The Creative DigitalVCR is also a hardware-based MPEG-I/II encoder, but the quality isn't as good. But the usability, especially being able to do *everything* from the remote in regular Windows, more than makes up for the slightly worse quality. I have the DigitalVCR in my PC.

 

[GtPrOjEcTX]

nice review pxc!

 

[Shinj1EVA]

Well, if you don't like the software it comes with, I HIGHLY recommend the SnapstreamPVS software. www.snapstream.com. The screenshots of it look nice, but when I first saw it in action, i was awestruck. I bought it when they only had version 2 released, version 3 is a MAJOR upgrade over the previos iteration. The price did go up a bit tho, only about $30 or so for the previous version. They're charging $70 for it now. So if you REALLY can't live with the software that hauppage provides, there's always some alternative out there.

 

[htne]

There is a forum for this capture card at this link

 

[Thyme]

"Video for linux resouces" is a great site for links to software and drivers for linux. I'm thinking of buying one to put in an old computer to make a networked tivo, basically. Myth looks like my favorite PVR software.

 

[SalukiDawg]

I saw this card at Office Max a few weeks ago, and almost bought it. I dont recall the exact price, but is was a good amount less than $99.99 AR. Something like $79.99 or $69.99. I am sure it is worth every bit of $99.99, but you might find it cheaper if you wait. It depends on how bad you need it and how much the $$$ mean to you.

 

[agent2099]

It seems officemax only carries the WinTV Go card. $50 - $10MIR

 

[Delbert]

I saw it on the clearance rack at my OM B&M also. Seems like they were asking $149 still.

 

[Hi8]

From what I read, this card can only capture in to MPEG 2 but if you have existing avi file it cannot convert in to MPEG 2.

So you if you plan to edit, add effects menus for S-VCD or DVD, how would you do it?

 

[weepul]

Originally posted by: Hi8
From what I read, this card can only capture in to MPEG 2 but if you have existing avi file it cannot convert in to MPEG 2.

So you if you plan to edit, add effects menus for S-VCD or DVD, how would you do it?

i would recommend a program called virtualdub for editing: http://www.virtualdub.org/

//krunk (^_^x)

 

[metroplex]

Will the PVR-350 work with Media Center Edition?

I mean, will the OS recognize the PVR card and just go along with it?

 

[degeester]

PVR-350 should work with Windows Media Edition. Link to WinTV PVR Board

 

[joemamma]

if it's true this card can only capture to mpeg2 i would stay far away from it....you will have way too many issues trying to work with your file

 

[metroplex]

What do you mean work w/ the file? you mean editing? I just want to record TV and after I'm done watching, delete it.

 

[BalAtWork]

IF YOU OWN THIS CARD, CHECK THIS OUT

Sage TV (TIVO software)

I have utlized this software and it is fabulous. Better than TIVO. PLus it can operate over a netwrok, meaning you can TIVO across your LAN. Your only limit is HD storage space. It will operate a cable box, satallite, anything you want. CHeck it out.

 

[joemamma]

Originally posted by: metroplex
What do you mean work w/ the file? you mean editing? I just want to record TV and after I'm done watching, delete it.

yeah to edit

but in your case it's not an issue

 

[GhettoBlaster]

I have really been considering this card. Is this the card I want if I want to capture TV programs and burn them to DVD-R?

 

[papaschtroumpf]

Originally posted by: metroplex
What do you mean work w/ the file? you mean editing? I just want to record TV and after I'm done watching, delete it.

This card is good for PVR (=Personal Video Recorder) functionnality (i.e "TIVO"), since it's got an onboard MPEG 2 encoder you don't need a powerful processor for your TIVO box.
If you want to do any kind of editing then you're better off using a card that can capture in a variety of formats. I like the Leadtek WinTV 2000 XP Deluxe, and it does support TIVO like software and time-shifting, so as long as you've got a modern processor you can do just about everything with the Leadtek as opposed to just PVR, for about half the price.

 

[Gigaset]

Hasn't anyone here checked out www.mythtv.org. This card is like the latest thing to have to get your own Tivo going, using Linux. I currently just bought one primarily for this project.

 

[hoju22]

is there any software for these pvr cards that has commerical skip?