Hauppauge pvr250mce $95 shipped

[Goosemaster]

Originally posted by: psxjunky
RossMAN: Take a look at this thread from AVSForum ...



PVR Software for HTPC : SageTV, SnapStream, MythTV, WinXP MCE, myHTPC, Freevo etc.



I have tried both BeyondTV and SageTV and found SageTV to be much better suited to my needs. Multiple tuner support was definitely a huge advantage, but I also found SageTV to be lot more stable. Sage hasn't crashed for me a single time yet ... even using the beta version, whereas BeyondTV locked up more than once a day during my trial period with them.



I have been using SageTV for over 6 months now and I couldn't be happier. I have a TiVo, a ReplayTV and a WinXP MCE machine ... but all I use now is my SageTV machine with 4 tuners



My only gripe about SageTV was the ugly user interface back in the v1.4 days. But SageTV v2.0 has done an awesome job of fixing it ... the interface looks beautiful now.



I'd wholeheartedly recommend SageTV.

BTW, it is common knowledge that that thread is quite old. Every program, inlcuding SageTV has improved now. BeyondTV has improved a LOT.

 

[Pinan]

Could someone perhaps write in detail the correct way to install the/which software/drivers for this ("Roslyn") card please? There are several of them and as we receive no disk with this......

For instance. From the Hauppauge site:

"Note: "updates" listed on this page are updates to the standard drivers which
are installed from your WinTV-PVR Installation CD-ROM. They are not complete driver sets."

if we would rather use SageTV (or whatever), what don't we install, etc.

Thanks to whomever.

 

[RadioUdotCom]

I just got my card today, only took 2 days via Fedex.

I just noticed that they sent me the 28552 and not the 32552.
I do not have Linux running but I was thinking about having it on the machine this card was going in. I was not aware this was a problem until I read this posting.

I just sent them an email, we'll see how they respond.

I got it from Cnetpc btw

 

[Probedude]

I'm pissed!
I emailed them a week after I placed my second order asking "Where is it?"

They replied they were out of stock, but could ship me a different card that didn't work under linux now. I said I would wait because "I wanted the SAME card I had before". I didn't want any issues running 2 different cards in the same system (running Sage 1.4). They assured me the one I would receive mid April would be the same.

Today I get my PVR250MCE and it is NOT the same!

Dave

 

[Probedude]

I found my emails from their customer service rep that explicitly states I would be getting the "same exact card" as before.

Let's see if they make good on this.

 

[Praetor]

Wasn't it gmessner that said he had a patch for linux that would allow these MCE cards to be used by MythTV? Is this patch for the new Roslyn chipset?

 

[gmessner]

Originally posted by: Praetor
Wasn't it gmessner that said he had a patch for linux that would allow these MCE cards to be used by MythTV? Is this patch for the new Roslyn chipset?

No, the patch is for the Amity (32552) card. The Roslyn card does not currently work with Linux.

BTW, the Roslyn (28552) card is NOT a WinTV-PVR-250MCE card.

 

[ww4397]

Originally posted by: gmessner



BTW, the Roslyn (28552) card is NOT a WinTV-PVR-250MCE card.

This is all very new to me. I need some help from people knowledgeable on the topic. If it is NOT a WinTV-PVR-250MCE card, then what is it?

 

[corinthos]

How can you tell if you got the 28552 or 32552? Do you have to remove the heatsink and look at the chip?

 

[Praetor]

Originally posted by: gmessner

Originally posted by: Praetor

Wasn't it gmessner that said he had a patch for linux that would allow these MCE cards to be used by MythTV? Is this patch for the new Roslyn chipset?

No, the patch is for the Amity (32552) card. The Roslyn card does not currently work with Linux.



BTW, the Roslyn (28552) card is NOT a WinTV-PVR-250MCE card.

Fine, then let me amend my original question:

Wasn't it gmessner that said he had a patch for linux that would allow these PVR cards to be used by MythTV? Is this patch for the new Roslyn chipset?

 

[gmessner]

Originally posted by: corinthos
How can you tell if you got the 28552 or 32552? Do you have to remove the heatsink and look at the chip?

The 32552 or 28552 is printed in big numbers on the tuner of the card.

 

[gmessner]

Originally posted by: ww4397

Originally posted by: gmessner

BTW, the Roslyn (28552) card is NOT a WinTV-PVR-250MCE card.

This is all very new to me. I need some help from people knowledgeable on the topic. If it is NOT a WinTV-PVR-250MCE card, then what is it?

The Difference Between the 28552 (Roslyn) and 32552 (Amity) Cards

Contrary to what others might be saying, the 28552 card is *NOT* a WinTV-PVR-250 MCE card, it uses a completely different set of drivers than the WinTV-PVR-250/350 cards. The 32552 (Amity) card is the WinTV-PVR-250MCE card.

The basic difference between the 28552 and 32552 is that they use a different chip for the TV broadcast decoder, the 28552 uses a Conexant CX23880 (which does both audio and video) and the 32552 uses a Phillips SAA7115 for video and another chip for audio. The 32552 uses the same chips as all the WinTV-PVR-250/350 cards.

Neither card is "newer" than the other, both were released into production at about the same time. I suspect you'd have a difficult time telling the difference by looking at the encoded video.

Neither card is considered better. But, generally there is better software support for the 32552 card.

There is a good article on this very subject at:
http://www.htpcnews.com/main.php?id=pvr_card_id_guide

This information is right from Hauppauge.

 

[gmessner]

Originally posted by: Praetor

Wasn't it gmessner that said he had a patch for linux that would allow these PVR cards to be used by MythTV? Is this patch for the new Roslyn chipset?

The patch is for the WinTV-PVR-250MCE also called the 32552 Amity card. I should be receiving a couple of 28552 (Roslyn) cards so that I can try and get the ivtv driver (thus MythTV) working with them. I'll post here when I have any info to share.

 

[Pinan]

Originally posted by: gmessner
it uses a completely different set of drivers than the WinTV-PVR-250/350 cards. .

Which ones please? I asked above to no avail.

Thanks

 

[psxjunky]

I beg to differ on a couple of points ...

1. The 28552 (Roslyn) cards are available as OEM only at the moment, but in the future this is going to be Hauppauge's mainstream design. At least that's what I was told by Hauppauge's tech support on two different occasions. Future WinTV PVR 250MCE cards are all going to be based on the CX-23416/23880 design (except for the WinTV 350, which will continue to be based on CX-23415 due to the on chip MPEG2 decoder, which only the 350 uses at the moment). So saying 28552 is NOT a WinTV PVR 250MCE is not telling the 100% true story. Sure, if you go out and buy a retail 250MCE **TODAY** you will not get a 28552 in the box (it will be a 32552). But according to Hauppauge this is going to change pretty soon (just like older WinTV PVR 250 cards were based on the 23415 and newer ones shipping now are using the 23416)

2. The "Blackbird" design is indeed newer. This is the latest reference design from Conexant. 28552 is based on this new design, so indeed the 28552 is using a much newer design than the 32552.

3. Of course 28552 needs a different set of drivers ... the underlying hardware is significantly different. This should not be held against it (it is as if saying the nForce2 based motherboards don't work with VIA drivers).


It may sound like I am going into confrontation with many people here ... but this is really not my intention. I personally prefer the 28552 cards and wish I get one of those. It seemed to me like the 28552 cards were being unduly bashed without giving out all the facts, which I felt was misleading people. So I wanted to take a stand and share the facts (as much as I know) so that folks here can make an informed decision.

 

[ww4397]

Originally posted by: psxjunky

...I wanted to take a stand and share the facts (as much as I know) so that folks here can make an informed decision.

Thank you psxjunky. I appreciate your input.

 

[Pinan]

Originally posted by: psxjunky
3. Of course 28552 needs a different set of drivers ...

That being said once again.......can't anyone point to the absolute correct ones to use?? Not apps, simply which drivers!

There's too much conflicting information being tossed around, with no solid answers, from many people.

 

[gmessner]

q]Originally posted by: Pinan

Originally posted by: gmessner
it uses a completely different set of drivers than the WinTV-PVR-250/350 cards. .

Which ones please? I asked above to no avail.

Thanks[/quote]
You can get the drivers for the WinTV-PVR Roslyn (28552) card at:
http://www.shspvr.com/mce.html

 

[psxjunky]

Originally posted by: Pinan

Originally posted by: psxjunky
3. Of course 28552 needs a different set of drivers ...

That being said once again.......can't anyone point to the absolute correct ones to use?? Not apps, simply which drivers!

There's too much conflicting information being tossed around, with no solid answers, from many people.

This information is already posted above in this same thread ... but here you go (direct links below)

Driver for 28552 from shspvr

Installation instructions (again from shspvr)

(fixed links)

 

[gmessner]

Originally posted by: psxjunky
I beg to differ on a couple of points ...

1. The 28552 (Roslyn) cards are available as OEM only at the moment, but in the future this is going to be Hauppauge's mainstream design. At least that's what I was told by Hauppauge's tech support on two different occasions. Future WinTV PVR 250MCE cards are all going to be based on the CX-23416/23880 design (except for the WinTV 350, which will continue to be based on CX-23415 due to the on chip MPEG2 decoder, which only the 350 uses at the moment). So saying 28552 is NOT a WinTV PVR 250MCE is not telling the 100% true story. Sure, if you go out and buy a retail 250MCE **TODAY** you will not get a 28552 in the box (it will be a 32552). But according to Hauppauge this is going to change pretty soon (just like older WinTV PVR 250 cards were based on the 23415 and newer ones shipping now are using the 23416)

2. The "Blackbird" design is indeed newer. This is the latest reference design from Conexant. 28552 is based on this new design, so indeed the 28552 is using a much newer design than the 32552.

3. Of course 28552 needs a different set of drivers ... the underlying hardware is significantly different. This should not be held against it (it is as if saying the nForce2 based motherboards don't work with VIA drivers).


It may sound like I am going into confrontation with many people here ... but this is really not my intention. I personally prefer the 28552 cards and wish I get one of those. It seemed to me like the 28552 cards were being unduly bashed without giving out all the facts, which I felt was misleading people. So I wanted to take a stand and share the facts (as much as I know) so that folks here can make an informed decision.

I beg to differ, I talked to people at Hauppauge just yesterday about this very subject and they are a lot higher up the food chain than tech support. What I was told was that the 28552 card is not a WinTV-PVR-250 card and will not be released as such, there would be too much confusion as to which driver/software to use with it, as demonstarted by many of the questions in this thread.

That is not to say that the 28552 card will not be released in a retail version, it just won't have the 250 designator in it.

I also spoke with the program manager for the Conexant CX-23416/23880 chip just last night (he happens to be my neighbor) on the subject of which broadcast TV decoder is better, the Phillips SAA7115 with a separate audio decoder or the integrated Broadcast TV A/V decoder CX23880, now keep in mind that he is probably a bit biased towards the CX23880, his comments were basically that the CX23880 had less problems with A/V sync and that it was cheaper since it was a single chip. I have heard of A/V sync problems with the SAA7115 but have never encountered them.

The Roslyn card (or a descendant) may be the future, but currently due mostly to the amount of software support I'd go with the 32552 card. This is about as close as I get to bashing the Roslyn. I actually think the Roslyn is a great card, I'm just not ready to make the switch.

 

[Pinan]

Thanks guys, I saw those. My main concern was whether or not these would work with plain old XP Pro, as I do not have MCE 2004 or otherwise. This line:

"Windows XP Media Center Edition Driver"

is the header for those drivers. See my point?

And the instructions state this:

WHAT YOU NEED
Windows XP Media Center Edition - HOWEVER you can get it.
Windows XP Media Center Edition driver for PVR-250 - Included with this guide.
InterVideo MP3+DVD XPack 1.1 for Windows XP - Inluded with this guide.



Please excuse me if my somewhat vague post appeared scatter brained. I'm not. I simply had not seen clarification on this.

Thanks again to both of you.

 

[psxjunky]

Pinan: Yes, these drivers should work for plain old XP Pro as well. WinXP MCE is basically WinXP Pro as far as the core OS goes, so anything that works in XP Pro will work in XP MCE and vice versa ... as long as it is not related to (or needs) the MCE application.

If you are using this card with XP Pro, you will have to arrange for your own application software though. With XP MCE you already got the PVR software built in, which can use the card right out of the box, but with XP Pro or XP Home, you will have to get SageTV, BeyondTV, myHTPC or _some_ PVR software like that to get any real use out of this card.

Hope this finally answers your questions.

 

[Pinan]

Thank you for your kind response psxjunky. I truly appreciate it.

I gather I do not need the InterVideo MP3+DVD XPack 1.1 for Windows XP as I have PowerDVD5. From a previous post of yours it looks like PowerDVD will do. Perhaps the Intervideo one installs automatically from the Roslyn folder though?

If I do indeed still need the InterVideo MP3+DVD XPack, where is it?


I will aquire one of the PVR softwares as well.

Thanks again.

 

[psxjunky]

If you already have PowerDVD you do not need ithe Intervideo decoder set as well ... although you can use it if you wish.

At a minimum you need to install at least one set of MPEG2 decoder software before you can playback MPEG2 files. These decoders do not come standard with Windows XP. Installing almost any software DVD player will install a set of decoders - so PowerDVD or WinDVD - either one will do.

Here is where you can get just the decoder packs from Intervideo -- Intervideo Media Packs. Again, you do not need these if you have another software DVD player. However, if you do not have one or do not want to install a full software DVD player, then one of these lightweight decoder only packs are your ideal choice.

 

[RadioUdotCom]

Are the L and R RCA jacks on the 28552 card outputs or inputs??

This card is to repalce my Leadtek capture card. On the Leadtek card, there is an audio out jack (mini-phono) that I run to the line in on my sound card. I just want to know how to do the same with this card.

There is also a white 10 pin connector on this board, anyone know what it is for??