Hauppauge pvr250mce $95 shipped

[Probedude]

Has composite video in, S-video in, rt and lt audio in, TV RF in, FM RF in.


Anyone know what the 'lowliest' computer I can use for Sage or BTV?
I'm looking at the 60W an Athlon 2600+ uses and I really don't want to pay $10 more a month just in electricity to power my PC to record shows.

(I've got a PII-400 lying around)

 

[SilverThief]

Well.....I'm selling mine if anyone is interested. Works awesome, but after the initial excitement wore off....just not sure I'll really use it.


Here is the link to my FS Post :

LINK

 

[gmessner]

Originally posted by: Probedude
Has composite video in, S-video in, rt and lt audio in, TV RF in, FM RF in.


Anyone know what the 'lowliest' computer I can use for Sage or BTV?
I'm looking at the 60W an Athlon 2600+ uses and I really don't want to pay $10 more a month just in electricity to power my PC to record shows.

(I've got a PII-400 lying around)

With the hardware encoding that the WinTV-PVR-250 provides you are probably OK on a PII-400. You probably want to use a 7200 RPM drive for best results.

BTW, my company (http://www.pcalchemy.com) has the WinTV-PVR-250 MCE (OEM) in stock, at $99 it's not as cheap as z-buy.com (who is out of stock), but it's a decent price.

 

[BrunoPuntzJones]

I bought one from PC Alchemy and had a tracking number about an hour later, speedy

 

[SilverThief]

Got mine from PC Alchemy as well, very fast shipping.

 

[puma1824]

CARD IS GONE...I'll contact each of you

Thanks,
Puma

 

[Dantzig]

YGPM

I'll take that bundle! After selling that extra card, a friend asked me to build him an HTPC when he saw mine

 

[Tsunami982]

puma, if you havent sold it yet im game.

 

[Probedude]

Hey! I PM'd you before you even posted this message about the card!! No response.

Dave

Originally posted by: puma1824
I just purchased SilverThief's card and it should be in any day now.

UNFORTUNATELY I don't think I can afford to keep it...SO if anyone's interested in this card/remote bundle it will be up for sale once it comes to my door (If SilverThief won't take it back )

 

[Probedude]

With the hardware encoding that the WinTV-PVR-250 provides you are probably OK on a PII-400. You probably want to use a 7200 RPM drive for best results.

Well in the past day and a half, I've tried Snapstream's BeyondTV and SageTV in a Duron 950Mhz system with 512MB Ram, 120GB 7200RPM hd, USB-UIRT, PVR250.

- BTV was un-useable. The response to inputs was too slow and the 'live tv' had abouta 1 second delay in the audio relative to the video. It was frustrating to try and switch between screens once I did 'live tv' - nothing wanted to work. I did however like the user interface a bit better than Sage, seemed to have USB-UIRT more integrated, easier to setup.

- Sage 1.4 is much better responding - live TV doesn't show any delays between the audio and the video. USB-UIRT for a DISH receiver doesn't work very well - you need to get the .IR file from the forum to make it work right (auto learn didn't work reliably for me).
User interface isn't as good at BTV, though I hear 2.0 is night and day better - you just cannot get a trial version of 2.0 and I'm too chicken to plunk the $60 down when it has not yet been released.

Strangeness with Sage1.4
- I don't know why, but every show is being recorded right now. I recorded one show after starting to watch it live, and all subsequent shows are being recorded too.
- While recording a show AND watching it at the same time, every few minutes the TV would freeze, then 'pop' back to where it should be. Reviewing the recorded show showed the same thing in the same spots.
- I do not know how to 'record all shows' without also getting the repeats. Sage 1.4 doesn't seem to be able to be setup to record 'new reruns', and 'new shows'. You choose 'rerun' and you get them all including repeats. Choose 'new' and you won't get any of the reruns at all. Really hard to collect Seinfeld episodes from multiple stations.

Both Sage and BTV have a huge delay between what is shown the screen and what is really being put out by your satellite box. For example, if you change channels, you don't see the change for 5 - 10 seconds! Really frustrating when I was trying to figure out if my USB-UIRT was working.

Lastly, if you plan on watching live tv at the same time as you are recording, don't go with a slow setup! I think this is why I get occasionally 'freezes' of the video.
Dave

 

[puma1824]

Originally posted by: Tsunami982
puma, if you havent sold it yet im game.

Sorry 3 other people had PMed me before you...AznBruin03, Dantzig, and Probedude...in that order. I will be getting in touch with all three shortly...

 

[gonzo2k]

I bought one of these for $69...have 2 backordered @ $81.
I'm using SageTV with an RCA DirecTV DRD480RE receiver and controlling the STB via serial cable to the "low data" RJ22 port.

Works great.

A little off topic self promotion (I'm aware this isn't the FS forum):

I'm selling the serial cables for $9.00... ($12.90 total/shipped USPS Priority w/ DC).
I have 25. They are 7.5 feet in length
Cable "should" work with all STBs with the RJ22 "low data" port.
Send it back to me (First Class OK), if it doesn't work with your box, & I'll refund your $9.00.
PM if interested in buying via PayPal.

 

[kof]

For those of you interested in the card -
z-com lists them for $95, cnet for $89.

 

[Tsunami982]

i ordered one a week ago and it was at 81. then it went to 89 and now 95. man, at this rate these cards will be backordered the day they come in. i wonder how hauppauge feels about them selling a 149 dollar card for 69-95?

 

[htpcguru]

Originally posted by: Tsunami982
i ordered one a week ago and it was at 81. then it went to 89 and now 95. man, at this rate these cards will be backordered the day they come in. i wonder how hauppauge feels about them selling a 149 dollar card for 69-95?

They are not very happy about it.

One thing you need to keep in mind when buying one of these cards is that since they are OEM cards who supports them? When Hauppauge finds out you purchased an OEM card they will not provide support, do you think z-buy.com or cnetpc.com is going to have the ability to provide real technical support?

And what about the warranty? The retail Hauppauge cards come with a 2 year limited warranty, what type of warranty is z-buy.com or cnetpc.com providing for the cards since Hauppauge is not providing warranty service (remember it's an OEM card)?

 

[Tsunami982]

maybe dailyfreestuff should change the title to reflect the current price?

 

[dailyfreestuff]

done

 

[maddogchen]

Originally posted by: htpcguru

Originally posted by: Tsunami982
i ordered one a week ago and it was at 81. then it went to 89 and now 95. man, at this rate these cards will be backordered the day they come in. i wonder how hauppauge feels about them selling a 149 dollar card for 69-95?

They are not very happy about it.

One thing you need to keep in mind when buying one of these cards is that since they are OEM cards who supports them? When Hauppauge finds out you purchased an OEM card they will not provide support, do you think z-buy.com or cnetpc.com is going to have the ability to provide real technical support?

And what about the warranty? The retail Hauppauge cards come with a 2 year limited warranty, what type of warranty is z-buy.com or cnetpc.com providing for the cards since Hauppauge is not providing warranty service (remember it's an OEM card)?

Really? there's no warranty? I swear cnetpc said on the product page that it came with a 1 year warranty. I assumed they meant it would be honored by Hauppauge.

 

[TerryMathews]

Originally posted by: maddogchen

Originally posted by: htpcguru

Originally posted by: Tsunami982
i ordered one a week ago and it was at 81. then it went to 89 and now 95. man, at this rate these cards will be backordered the day they come in. i wonder how hauppauge feels about them selling a 149 dollar card for 69-95?

They are not very happy about it.

One thing you need to keep in mind when buying one of these cards is that since they are OEM cards who supports them? When Hauppauge finds out you purchased an OEM card they will not provide support, do you think z-buy.com or cnetpc.com is going to have the ability to provide real technical support?

And what about the warranty? The retail Hauppauge cards come with a 2 year limited warranty, what type of warranty is z-buy.com or cnetpc.com providing for the cards since Hauppauge is not providing warranty service (remember it's an OEM card)?

Really? there's no warranty? I swear cnetpc said on the product page that it came with a 1 year warranty. I assumed they meant it would be honored by Hauppauge.

If it's not honored by Happauge, you can always make CNetPC honor it. Just make sure you print out a copy of the page it's listed on, for your records.

 

[htpcguru]

Originally posted by: maddogchen

Originally posted by: htpcguru

Originally posted by: Tsunami982
i ordered one a week ago and it was at 81. then it went to 89 and now 95. man, at this rate these cards will be backordered the day they come in. i wonder how hauppauge feels about them selling a 149 dollar card for 69-95?

They are not very happy about it.

One thing you need to keep in mind when buying one of these cards is that since they are OEM cards who supports them? When Hauppauge finds out you purchased an OEM card they will not provide support, do you think z-buy.com or cnetpc.com is going to have the ability to provide real technical support?

And what about the warranty? The retail Hauppauge cards come with a 2 year limited warranty, what type of warranty is z-buy.com or cnetpc.com providing for the cards since Hauppauge is not providing warranty service (remember it's an OEM card)?

Really? there's no warranty? I swear cnetpc said on the product page that it came with a 1 year warranty. I assumed they meant it would be honored by Hauppauge.

 

[gonzo2k]

Snapstream seems to have this card bundled with BeyondTV3 for $140. If you plan on buying BeyondTV3, this makes the card an excellent value at an estimated $70-$80 bucks (I didn't check shipping charges).
Here's the link.

Personally, I chose SageTV to use with the PVR250-MCE.

 

[htpcguru]

Originally posted by: maddogchen

Originally posted by: htpcguru

And what about the warranty? The retail Hauppauge cards come with a 2 year limited warranty, what type of warranty is z-buy.com or cnetpc.com providing for the cards since Hauppauge is not providing warranty service (remember it's an OEM card)?

Really? there's no warranty? I swear cnetpc said on the product page that it came with a 1 year warranty. I assumed they meant it would be honored by Hauppauge.

I didn't say "no warranty", I asked if z-buy.com or cnetpc.com was providing warranty service. As far as Hauppauge honoring a 1 year warranty stated on a product listing for an "OEM" product, I'd suggest that you contact Hauppauge about that, which is what I did and was told that the company selling the OEM product is responsible for warranty service.

I find it interesting that the Hauppauge retail warranty is 2 years and cnetpc.com listing stated 1 year.

BTW, the cnetpc.com product listing for this appears to be gone, and the product listing at z-buy.com says nothing about the warranty, nor are they mentioning that it is an OEM product, which it definitely is.

 

[nugaluga]

the snap stream seems like a good deal
gotta hold off though...

these "deals" are making me broke!

 

[TerryMathews]

Originally posted by: htpcguru
BTW, the cnetpc.com product listing for this appears to be gone, and the product listing at z-buy.com says nothing about the warranty, nor are they mentioning that it is an OEM product, which it definitely is.

You just have to be smarter than the site...

From Z-Buy's terms of sale page
1-year limited warranty on motherboards (other than Intel),OEM CD-ROMs, OEM CD rewritables, OEM fax modems, OEM video cards, OEM sound cards, memories, keyboards, mice, power supply, cases, OEM SCSI adapters, OEM network cards, OEM hubs and other OEM products unless otherwise stated by z-buy.com.

Since Z-Buy didn't specifically state that this card includes no warranty, per their terms it carries a 1-year arranty.

 

[htpcguru]

Originally posted by: TerryMathews

Originally posted by: htpcguru
BTW, the cnetpc.com product listing for this appears to be gone, and the product listing at z-buy.com says nothing about the warranty, nor are they mentioning that it is an OEM product, which it definitely is.

You just have to be smarter than the site...

From Z-Buy's terms of sale page
1-year limited warranty on motherboards (other than Intel),OEM CD-ROMs, OEM CD rewritables, OEM fax modems, OEM video cards, OEM sound cards, memories, keyboards, mice, power supply, cases, OEM SCSI adapters, OEM network cards, OEM hubs and other OEM products unless otherwise stated by z-buy.com.

Since Z-Buy didn't specifically state that this card includes no warranty, per their terms it carries a 1-year arranty.

You are missing the point, z-buy.com isn't even stating that it is an OEM card. Plus, Hauppauge's warranty on the WinTV-PVR-250 MCE is 2 years.

I saw the warranty statement on z-buy.com's site, all I'm saying is that it is something to consider when purchasing the card, not that they don't have a warranty, nor anything good or bad about their warranty service, simply a heads up for those of you considering buying this.