Hauppauge pvr250mce $95 shipped

[Dantzig]

Originally posted by: dailyfreestuff
how did you get mce? buy a system with it? or off of BT or something?

You can only buy it preinstalled on a system.

 

[huesmann]

Originally posted by: Dantzig

Originally posted by: dailyfreestuff
how did you get mce? buy a system with it? or off of BT or something?

You can only buy it preinstalled on a system.

 

[wuduhel]

Originally posted by: huesmann

Originally posted by: Dantzig

Originally posted by: dailyfreestuff
how did you get mce? buy a system with it? or off of BT or something?

You can only buy it preinstalled on a system.

available for experimentation if you have MSDN subscription

 

[blazerazor]

So is this better than a 9600xt Asus for video playback?...??

 

[SingralliSeen]

Pardon the newbie question. But many here seem to hark about this being the cheapest MPEG2 hardware card. My friend got an AverMedia DVD EZMaker (PCI) for $19 AR and it can do a decent 720x480 without dropping frames. I had some driver issues with it (Windows 2000 )but on Windows XP, it works like a song. Of course, no TV and no remote but then I don't get a kick out of watching TV on my 17" screen.

 

[gmessner]

Originally posted by: SingralliSeen
Pardon the newbie question. But many here seem to hark about this being the cheapest MPEG2 hardware card. My friend got an AverMedia DVD EZMaker (PCI) for $19 AR and it can do a decent 720x480 without dropping frames. I had some driver issues with it (Windows 2000 )but on Windows XP, it works like a song. Of course, no TV and no remote but then I don't get a kick out of watching TV on my 17" screen.

These cards do hardware MPEG2 encoding, something no cheap card can offer. The advantage of doing MPEG2 encoding in hardware is it relieves the CPU from having to do it, and depending on what CPU you are using can consume 100% of the CPU making the computer worthless to do anything else. With these cards the CPU usage is usually around 5% regardless of what CPU you are using.

Additionally, the quality of video on these cards is remarkably better than most every other TV tuner card out there.

I know it's not as cheap as what z-buy.com WAS selling them for (they are out of stock), but you can still get them at http://www.pcalchemy.com for $99.

 

[SingralliSeen]

Quote
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
These cards do hardware MPEG2 encoding, something no cheap card can offer. The advantage of doing MPEG2 encoding in hardware is it relieves the CPU from having to do it, and depending on what CPU you are using can consume 100% of the CPU making the computer worthless to do anything else. With these cards the CPU usage is usually around 5% regardless of what CPU you are using.

Additionally, the quality of video on these cards is remarkably better than most every other TV tuner card out there.

I know it's not as cheap as what z-buy.com WAS selling them for (they are out of stock), but you can still get them at http://www.pcalchemy.com for $99.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Agreed. But what I notice from these forums is most of us out here these days have a super 2+ GHz /3+ GHz processor to do the job. If we can't get the processor to do something in this case, for what higher purpose are we saving it for? No wonder they have hiked the price in the past few days.

 

[gmessner]

Because even with the fast CPUs it is a problem. If you want to record one channel and watch something previously recorded, you're not going to do it unless your TV tuner provides MPEG2 encoding, I can guaranty that. Also, no matter how fast the CPU, you'll invariably get some video stutter with software based MPEG2 encoding. Plus, the encoded video is just plain better.

Many of us like myself, have multiple TV tuners in my HTPC box, I can actually record 3 channels and watch one live at the same time, or record 3 channels and watch a previous recording at the same time, all with great quality. Now, it may seem that I watch a lot of TV, I really watch less than my pre-HTPC days, I can now watch a 1 hour show in 35 minutes, and there is no fighting between my kids on what we are going to watch, since they all get to watch exactly what they want.

Greg
http://www.pcalchemy.com

 

[Capster]

So is the fm radio in stereo or does anyone use it or even care?

 

[BrunoPuntzJones]

Originally posted by: SingralliSeen
Quote
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
These cards do hardware MPEG2 encoding, something no cheap card can offer. The advantage of doing MPEG2 encoding in hardware is it relieves the CPU from having to do it, and depending on what CPU you are using can consume 100% of the CPU making the computer worthless to do anything else. With these cards the CPU usage is usually around 5% regardless of what CPU you are using.

Additionally, the quality of video on these cards is remarkably better than most every other TV tuner card out there.

I know it's not as cheap as what z-buy.com WAS selling them for (they are out of stock), but you can still get them at http://www.pcalchemy.com for $99.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Agreed. But what I notice from these forums is most of us out here these days have a super 2+ GHz /3+ GHz processor to do the job. If we can't get the processor to do something in this case, for what higher purpose are we saving it for? No wonder they have hiked the price in the past few days.

I'd rather not have to devote my PC for an hour and not be able to do things like game or encode the last show recorded while the newer one is still recording.

 

[TerryMathews]

Originally posted by: gmessner
Because even with the fast CPUs it is a problem. If you want to record one channel and watch something previously recorded, you're not going to do it unless your TV tuner provides MPEG2 encoding, I can guaranty that. Also, no matter how fast the CPU, you'll invariably get some video stutter with software based MPEG2 encoding. Plus, the encoded video is just plain better.

Many of us like myself, have multiple TV tuners in my HTPC box, I can actually record 3 channels and watch one live at the same time, or record 3 channels and watch a previous recording at the same time, all with great quality. Now, it may seem that I watch a lot of TV, I really watch less than my pre-HTPC days, I can now watch a 1 hour show in 35 minutes, and there is no fighting between my kids on what we are going to watch, since they all get to watch exactly what they want.

Greg
http://www.pcalchemy.com

What PVR software are you using?

 

[gmessner]

Originally posted by: TerryMathews

Originally posted by: gmessner
Because even with the fast CPUs it is a problem. If you want to record one channel and watch something previously recorded, you're not going to do it unless your TV tuner provides MPEG2 encoding, I can guaranty that. Also, no matter how fast the CPU, you'll invariably get some video stutter with software based MPEG2 encoding. Plus, the encoded video is just plain better.

Many of us like myself, have multiple TV tuners in my HTPC box, I can actually record 3 channels and watch one live at the same time, or record 3 channels and watch a previous recording at the same time, all with great quality. Now, it may seem that I watch a lot of TV, I really watch less than my pre-HTPC days, I can now watch a 1 hour show in 35 minutes, and there is no fighting between my kids on what we are going to watch, since they all get to watch exactly what they want.

Greg

What PVR software are you using?

SageTV

I believe SageTV is by far the best PVR software available, at least technically speaking, and with the coming of SageTV 2.0 (in beta) it has a really slick UI.

Greg
http://www.pcalchemy.com[/quote]

 

[bigballer]

Is it just me or is the quality of the capture through the composite video input about the same as through the s-video input? Using output from my DirectTivo in both cases.

 

[takeru]

what htpc front ends are good to use? i can't find anything that would support the tv function of the card except for ms mce. other than mce, wintv and sagetv, nothing else seems to be able to see the card. also, i can't get the card to be supported in programs like virtualdub, even in winxp pro. anyone have any ideas?

 

[c627627]

1. What's a good site/forum that talks about video capture cards?

2. What's the difference in recording quality between this card and some of those $300 'digital tuner' cards?

 

[SilverThief]

damn I am having nothing but problems with this card. I got it setup last night, complete with updated drivers and Sage TV and it worked fine then. Now this morning, I did a complete reinstall of XP (had been planning on doing it today), reinstalled the drivers, updated them and now I get nothing. In Sage TV I get this error:

There was an error with MPEG video II setup
Failed connecting video stream to the overlay mixer
ErrCode=0x80040217

Not sure what is going on, but I defintely need help.

 

[BrunoPuntzJones]

Originally posted by: SilverThief
damn I am having nothing but problems with this card. I got it setup last night, complete with updated drivers and Sage TV and it worked fine then. Now this morning, I did a complete reinstall of XP (had been planning on doing it today), reinstalled the drivers, updated them and now I get nothing. In Sage TV I get this error:

There was an error with MPEG video II setup
Failed connecting video stream to the overlay mixer
ErrCode=0x80040217

Not sure what is going on, but I defintely need help.

Reboot a few times and see if it works. You can download the WinTv2000 from Hauppauge and see if it will run then. If you get a =htv0 error, then it's some nuckfut at Hauppauge that can't fix their cards. I was having the same problem in that it worked once, then after rebooting, wouldn't work again. Did some searching and found that it's not an uncommon problem with these cards. No fix either, other than rebooting.

Also, something that worked for some people, was to delete C:\Windows\Prefetch\*.* which had some stuff that was goofing up the card.

 

[psxjunky]

SilverThief: I know why you are having this problem ... you don't have a MPEG2 decoder installed in your system. Install WinDVD or PowerDVD or Elecard or something else which will install an MPEG2 decoder in your system; then go to Sage and tell it to use that decoder.

BTW, this is not a problem with Sage ... you will see the same problem with Windows Media Player also if you try to play a MPEG2 file.

 

[htne]

Originally posted by: c627627
1. What's a good site/forum that talks about video capture cards?

2. What's the difference in recording quality between this card and some of those $300 'digital tuner' cards?

http://www.shspvr.com/forum/

 

[agent2099]

I'll get one of these when the price goes back down to $80. I just don't like the idea of paying $20 more than what most people paid.

 

[corinthos]

I'll get one of these when the price goes back down to $80. I just don't like the idea of paying $20 more than what most people paid.

werd...

 

[gmessner]

Originally posted by: agent2099
I'll get one of these when the price goes back down to $80. I just don't like the idea of paying $20 more than what most people paid.

Unlikely that you'll ever see them at $80.00 again, Hauppauge was not happy about them dumping OEM cards so cheaply. Remember that these same cards with nothing more than retail packaging and a software CD retail for $149.99.

 

[ron2368]

I was interested in getting a TV card, first I looked at the Leadtek cards. Though I have read this whole thread I am not sure what I need. I want to record shows off my cable line and burn a dvd. Also want to make some dvd's from my old vcr tapes. The vcr output is a standard rca plug for sound and audio. I have My DVD software that I got with the dvd burner. If you buy the retail version do you still need to buy Sage TV ?

When I read info on this card( pvr250) it seems that you must have a Media Center pc for it to work. I cant find much on the microsoft website about this. I am really lost on this could someone give me a few hints if this card will work for me. Thank you

 

[dailyfreestuff]

this card will work with a multitude of pvr programs, not just mce

 

[ww4397]

For you guys that got the card, does it have "composite in" or come with a composite-to-s-video adapter?