Hauppauge pvr250mce $95 shipped

[psxjunky]

Originally posted by: RossMAN

Originally posted by: psxjunky
I don't have hosting capabilities, but if anyone wants to host the file, let me know and I will send it to you.

YGPM

YGM

 

[zinkpig]

after reading thru this thread all i can say is PSXJUNKY for ELITE !!!!

 

[RossMAN]

Originally posted by: zinkpig
after reading thru this thread all i can say is PSXJUNKY for ELITE !!!!

Agreed.

He is definitely Elite Member material.

 

[psxjunky]

Hey THANKS GUYS !!! Just trying to give it back to the community

 

[pcalchemy]

Originally posted by: RossMAN
How much is ground shipping for pcalchemy.com?

It would be nice if AT'ers were offered free shipping *nudge nudge*

Shipping rates are basically the rates the UPS gives us, so the cost would depend on where you are located (we're in CA). A 1lb packege will be about $6.50 for CA and about $7.75 to the east coast.

Wish we could offer free shipping, but we try to be as aggresive as possible on our prices, so it's difficult to offer free shipping.

The other thing is that the cheapest price is not always the best deal, as may have been realized by some of the folks that bought a 32552 card and ended up with a 28552.

pcalchemy.com not only sells HTPC related hardware and software, we employ HTPC experts and enthusiasts. This enables us to provide customer support that your typical on-line retailer cannot.

 

[pcalchemy]

Originally posted by: psxjunky
pcalchemy: Appreciate the feedback, and it is great to know that StreamZap now offers better integration with SageTV. I just honestly don't think that StreamZap has enough number of buttons to be able to effectively use all the custom commands that SageTV offers.

I strongly believe the extra money for remote support is much better spent on getting an IRMan or USB-UIRT, which will work with virtually ANY remote ... not just the StreamZap PC remote.

I have used StreamZap in the past to control Sage and am now using an IRMan/MX500 combination ... and I honestly don't think StreamZap can even come close to doing the things that I can do with this combination now.

StreamZap is a nice little PC only remote and works pretty well for what it does. I just think that the extra money for remote support is much better spent in getting an IRMan or USB-UIRT ... especially if anyone needs an IR BLASTER also to control Cable/Satellite boxes ... since USB-UIRT will double up as an IR Blaster plus IR Receiver.

I agree that an IRMan or USB-UIRT paired with the remote of your choice is definitely a better solution than the Streamzap, but you'll probably end up spending 2-3 times as much for it. You get the Streamzap remote included with the SageTV / PVR250MCE Bundle for only $25.00 more.

BTW. the Streamzap support for SageTV is now pretty equal to the Hauppauge silver remote, plus you get support for other applications.

 

[pcalchemy]

Originally posted by: ViRGE
This isn't the first time I've heard of BTV not working properly. Luckily, SageTV works just fine.

Yea yea, quiet you. Sage's bundle was $30 more expensive, not to mention I like BTV a bit more, so it seemed like a good deal at the time. I'll get this working or get my money back, otherwise I'll hand in my Geek Card.[/quote]
PCAlchemy.com's SageTV 1.4 / PVR250MCE (32552 card) bundle is the same price at $139.95. You can find the bundle at:

SageTV / WinTV-PVR Bundles

 

[psxjunky]

Originally posted by: pcalchemy

Originally posted by: psxjunky
pcalchemy: Appreciate the feedback, and it is great to know that StreamZap now offers better integration with SageTV. I just honestly don't think that StreamZap has enough number of buttons to be able to effectively use all the custom commands that SageTV offers.

I strongly believe the extra money for remote support is much better spent on getting an IRMan or USB-UIRT, which will work with virtually ANY remote ... not just the StreamZap PC remote.

I have used StreamZap in the past to control Sage and am now using an IRMan/MX500 combination ... and I honestly don't think StreamZap can even come close to doing the things that I can do with this combination now.

StreamZap is a nice little PC only remote and works pretty well for what it does. I just think that the extra money for remote support is much better spent in getting an IRMan or USB-UIRT ... especially if anyone needs an IR BLASTER also to control Cable/Satellite boxes ... since USB-UIRT will double up as an IR Blaster plus IR Receiver.

I agree that an IRMan or USB-UIRT paired with the remote of your choice is definitely a better solution than the Streamzap, but you'll probably end up spending 2-3 times as much for it. You get the Streamzap remote included with the SageTV / PVR250MCE Bundle for only $25.00 more.

BTW. the Streamzap support for SageTV is now pretty equal to the Hauppauge silver remote, plus you get support for other applications.

I agree ! If it was a contest between StreamZap and Hauppauge Silver remote, StreamZap will win hands down any day of the week ! The Hauppauge remote is just too weak for day to day use. StreamZap has great range and the feel and shape of the remote is MUCH superior to the puny Hauppauge remote.

I was just thinking that most people probably use either a cable box or a satellite receiver to get their TV signal ... so they will need some kind of an IR Blaster to control these external boxes anyway. For them it makes sense to get the USB-UIRT which will both act as a IR blaster and a IR Receiver. Also, most people probably already have a remote control unit that they love; with the USB-UIRT they can continue to use that.

So even though the USB-UIRT costs $25 more than the StreamZap, overall it is money very well spent.

BTW, even though Actisys IR-200L is supported by SageTV as another IR blaster, I highly recommend getting the USB-UIRT instead. The USB-UIRT costs a little bit more but have several advantages over the Actisys box. First, it can be used as a blaster as well as receiver, whereas the Actisys is only a blaster. Second, the USB-UIRT is USB (duh!) whereas the Actisys is serial. Third, the USB-UIRT is a newer design and in general works much better with most cable/satellite boxes whereas the Actisys has issues with many boxes (e.g. DirecTiVo receivers)

.

 

[pcalchemy]

Originally posted by: psxjunky

I agree ! If it was a contest between StreamZap and Hauppauge Silver remote, StreamZap will win hands down any day of the weak ! The Hauppauge remote is just too weak for day to day use. StreamZap has great range and the feel and shape of the remote is MUCH superior to the puny Hauppauge remote.

I was just thinking that most people probably use either a cable box or a satellite receiver to get their TV signal ... so they will need some kind of an IR Blaster anyway. For them it makes sense to get the USB-UIRT which will both act as a IR blaster and a IR Receiver. Also, most people probably already have a remote control unit that they love; with the USB-UIRT they can continue to use that.

So even though the USB-UIRT costs $25 more than the StreamZap, overall it is money very well spent.

From our experience about 40% can go without a cable box, and believe me it's much more fun surfing without having to use a blaster to a cable box with the 3-5 second delay it introduces.

You still need a remote when you use a USB-UIRT, so the cost difference ends up being a bit more than $25.

The Streamzap is good for those on a budget, everyone else should look into the USB-UIRT paired with their favorite remote.

 

[psxjunky]

pcalchemy: I believe you have some really awesome deals on SageTV and SageTV+Hauppauge Card bundles. However, I know that as the vendor you are not allowed to directly post a separate thread in the Hot Deals forum. So I have posted the following thread on your behalf --

Hot ! SageTV $49.95, SageTV + PVR250MCE Bundle $139.95 at PCAlchemy.com

Hope other hot dealers take advantage of these great savings and you get some good business in the process

Be prepared to get swamped by the AT effect

.

P.S. I agree with RossMAN that a free (or discounted) shipping for AT hot dealers will be awesome

 

[Pinan]

Originally posted by: psxjunky
stingygrrl is right. In order to get the Hauppauge Silver remote working out of the box with Sage, you don't need to do ANY customization at all ! Simply check the box in the Sage installer dialog that says "configure support for Hauppauge remote" and you are done !

Hmmmmmm. Well, as I wrote above, that is what I did, to no avail. It simply stated in the next step or two of setup "no remote". I tried it two times. Oh well, no biggie.

Btw. Did you see my ? above about whether or not WinTV2000 uses the hardware encoder? I assume that it does.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Frustrating sync issue:

After successfully capturing a movie from VHS to MPEG2 using the card, I find that editing this MPEG file with ANY of my software produces out of sync audio to video. Arghhhhhhhhh! The MPEG is fine (seems) before editing. Yes, DMA is set and all of that. Only happens with files from this card.

I have been doing this for about 3 years now with great success using my AVERTV card and my Canopus card. What gives with the PVR 250? I Googled this and found MANY like posts. The only reason that I went this route btw was to avoid having to encode to MPEG 2 from AVI.

Life is too short for this. Heh

 

[ViRGE]

Well, Snapstream helped me fix my problem, although I'm not particularly happy about it. 640x480 seems to be absent from the Blackbird design altogether, so I have to use 720x480. That is fine when properly cropped and stretched, but out of the box, it wasn't cropping correctly, so they also told me how to tweek the crop settings to fix that. It looks fine now(minus the green line issue), but it shouldn't have been this hard in the first place.

Oh, and Pinan, yes, WinTV2000 uses the hardware encoder. Also, as for your sync issues, the PVR-250 encodes in a couple of different stream types; under BTV's settings, they're classified as "MPEG2 Stream Type", and can be found as "DVD Stream" or "Program Stream." DVD is the default, and in this mode, you get sync issues trying to edit it; you have to change it to Program to get a file that won't desync on edit. I don't know where these settings are on other programs, but they should be there somewhere.

 

[RossMAN]

ViRGE - Do you have a link to an older version of Beyond TV?

 

[uwannawhat]

Here's the link to BTV Ver. 1217.

BTV Ver. 1217

 

[Pinan]

Hey thanks Virge. I'll give that a try and report back.

Just love forums where you get help!.

 

[psxjunky]

Also, Pinan, about your audio/video going out of sync while editing - have you tried using Womble MPEG-VCR (the MPEG2 version) ? I have been using it as my *only* MPEG2 editor for almost two years now and yet to see a audio-video out of sync issue. Most MPEGs I work with are captured using the 250.
They also have a new product now - Womble MPEG Video Wizard which I haven't tried yet, but it looks more feature rich.

 

[psxjunky]

Originally posted by: ViRGE
Well, Snapstream helped me fix my problem, although I'm not particularly happy about it. 640x480 seems to be absent from the Blackbird design altogether, so I have to use 720x480.

This does not sound odd to me ... 720x480 is the default full D1 NTSC broadcast resolution (720x576 for PAL), so it makes sense to have this as the default for the Blackbird design. Most other capture devices also use 720x480 as the default capture resolution (when trying to do full DVD quality, otherwise lower, but I have never seen 640x480).

May be I am missing something

 

[Pinan]

Actually, I use MPEG Video Wizard now, as a matter of fact. I highly recommend it. From what I understand, it replaced MPEG to VCR, hence my buying Wizard.

Also: I use DVD Author from TMPEGenc It creates all of the DVD files for you (TS-VIDEO, VOB), as well as add chapters (very cool) and Titles, etc. Very nice program:

http://www.pegasys-inc.com/en/product/tda.html


I gather that you concur with what Virge wrote above about the Program setting. Any other advice along these lines?

Thanks for the note psxjunky.

 

[ViRGE]

Originally posted by: psxjunky

Originally posted by: ViRGE
Well, Snapstream helped me fix my problem, although I'm not particularly happy about it. 640x480 seems to be absent from the Blackbird design altogether, so I have to use 720x480.

This does not sound odd to me ... 720x480 is the default full D1 NTSC broadcast resolution (720x576 for PAL), so it makes sense to have this as the default for the Blackbird design. Most other capture devices also use 720x480 as the default capture resolution (when trying to do full DVD quality, otherwise lower, but I have never seen 640x480).

May be I am missing something

The original 250 supported 640x480, as did my old Leadtek Winfast TV XP 2000 Deluxe.

 

[psxjunky]

Originally posted by: Pinan
I gather that you concur with what Virge wrote above about the Program setting. Any other advice along these lines?

I am not using BTV, so can't comment on BTV specific settings. Under Sage I generally use the DVD Standard quality (which results in about 8Mbps capture rate) and with that I get zero issues with audio video sync.

I have heard about audio video sync issues at very low bitrates though, but anything above 4 to 6Mbps should work fine.

In Sage it is easy to see what the different "quality" settings map to in terms of bitrate (just look in the sage.properties file). If BTV writes similar info into a text file, trying peeking into that to see what quality setting map to what bitrate, then pick one which is around (or above) 6000kbps.

 

[Pinan]

Sorry. I'm using WinTV2000 at the moment, and the "Program" setting exists there as well. I'm giving it a go as I type.

Yes, I'm only capturing at high bit rates as well.

Btw. Note my added comment on DVD Author above. Nice.

Thanks again for your time.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Side note:

On my Win2K, P4 2.4 1GB RAM, I'm getting about 35% CPU usage with WinTV2000. I swear SageTV only used about 5-10%. Is this odd? Not that 35% is bad........but jeesh.

 

[psxjunky]

Here is a rough guide from Hauppauge about "quality setting" to bitrate mapping using the 250.350 cards

 

[Pinan]

That info is in the Hauppage book as well. Thanks.

Side note:

On my Win2K, P4 2.4 1GB RAM, I'm getting about 35% CPU usage with WinTV2000. I swear SageTV only used about 5-10%. Is this odd? Not that 35% is bad........but jeesh.

 

[psxjunky]

Originally posted by: Pinan
Sorry. I'm using WinTV2000 at the moment, and the "Program" setting exists there as well. I'm giving it a go as I type.

Use the chart from Hauppauge (that I just posted above). I seem to remember WinTV 2000 offers the same settings.

Yes, I'm only capturing at high bit rates as well.

Hmm ... then my only guess is that WinTV 2000 is screwing up somehow. If you have Pinnacle or another app that you can use to try and Capture, I'd recommend trying that out.

Also, you can try Sage v1.4 and use a timed recording to basically do a capture, but it is slightly roundabout.

Btw. Note my added comment on DVD Author above. Nice.

Thanks for the note about TMPEG DVD Author. For DVD authoring my personal favorite for a long time has been Ulead DVDMovieFactory (which is included with retail Hauppauge PVR cards). Very very simple to use, quick to create menus/titles and takes about 15-20 minutes from source MPEG2 to authored DVD VIDEO_TS/AUDIO_TS folders.

 

[Pinan]

Well I'll post as to the affects of the "Program" setting in a while, and will keep all interested users informed.

DVDMovie Factory: Sounds good, and about the same times as DVD Author.

Please note my CPU usage question above. Did I miss something? LOL.