Hauppauge WinTV-PVR 150 $80 AR

[monkied]

This is for the retail version.

For those keeping up:

buy.com
$87.67 - 150 retail (1045)
$62.47 - 150 mce (1042)
$71.93 - 150 mce low profile (1086)

pcalchemy.com
$74.95 - 150 mce (1042)

amazon.com (cpars found this one)
$66.99 - 150 mce (1042)

 

[Tsunami982]

hmm im thinking about building a budget HTPC for a friend, i know the 250 is better but does anyone know how it compares with this one (like features, etc)?

 

[TerryMathews]

Originally posted by: Tsunami982
hmm im thinking about building a budget HTPC for a friend, i know the 250 is better but does anyone know how it compares with this one (like features, etc)?

Actually, no... The video quality on the 150 will be slightly superior to a 250. The only real advantage to the 250 is that the drivers are mature and there is a ton of third-party software that supports it. If you're buying to use a PVR program that supports the 150 like SageTV, BeyondTV, etc. you're better off with the 150. Lower price, better quality.

 

[ZoNtO]

How do ya figure?

 

[sparhawk6]

Does the 150 come with a remote? I think that's another advantage that the 250 has.

 

[huesmann]

You're better off getting a Firefly remote or something like that, since it works with other apps besides WinTV2000 and is RF and not IR. The remote in the 250 has those problems.

 

[tedkelly]

hauppauge site

includes IR remote

 

[cpars]

No Thread crap intended>>>>

Amazon has these for $66.90 with free shipping.

I had a $25.00 GC I have been looking to spend there which brought my total to $41.99 shipped. Going to try this with MCE I just received in the october update of Action Pack.

EDIT: not sure if this is retail or white box, the site does not specify

 

[gamefreakgcb]

Whats up with these hauppauge TV things? Anything special about them?

 

[joecool]

hmm, i've been jonesin' for a 250 for years, this deal on the 150 seems pretty sweet. what's the difference between the retail and the mce? is the mce just the oem version, ie, no software bundle, no remote?

 

[ThaPerculator]

I thought the 150 was software encoding? the 250 is a GREAT hardware encoding card, I use two of them and a Hauppauge USB2 in my Snapstream-based HTPC. The picture is practically identical to that of a live feed.

Also, if you are building a htpc I would suggest using a ATI-based video card, as their tv-out signal is much cleaner and the colors are truer. I was always a Nvidia diehard, so I never bought a ATI card at all. Frustratingly, I went through a TI4200 and a FX card to find out that my new radeon 9800 looks way better and is quieter (no fan/passively cooled) for my SFF HTPC. Not to mention cheap as hell. Just my advice.

EDIT: Correction, the 150 HAS hardware encoding... my bad. In that case, I have no clue what the difference is. Hauppauge makes good $hit, though.

 

[Sheriff]

Originally posted by: gamefreakgcb
Whats up with these hauppauge TV things? Anything special about them?

Hauppauge had been a leader in TV cards since the 90"s

 

[monkied]

AFAIK, the 150 has the exact same features as the 250. Only difference is that the 150 uses less chips. Over time, they found a cheaper way of manufacturing the 250, and renamed it the 150. So the bottom line is that the 150 has a hw encoder and remote (retail version). The MCE versions also include a FM tuner. Hope that clarifies some things.

cpars,
I believe amazon.com only has the MCE version in stock. Buy.com has this for $62.47.

 

[MrPeacock]

Originally posted by: ThaPerculator
EDIT: Correction, the 150 HAS hardware encoding... my bad. In that case, I have no clue what the difference is. Hauppauge makes good $hit, though.

According to Hauppauge's product comparison page the only thing that the 250 has over the 150 is the hardware Video CD encoder. If I had known that, I would have waited for the 150 to come out, rather than buying the 350. OTOH, the 350 has better support, so maybe not. It's a toss-up, really.

 

[ThaiBruin]

I don't get it... what's the difference between MCE (and what does this stand for?) and retail?

 

[cpars]

MCE

 

[ThaiBruin]

so the MCE edition will only work on an MCE installed machine?

 

[Sleeping]

Yup, its a real pain to try to get MCE compatiable stuff to work on XP.

 

[Midnight Rambler]

According to Hauppauge's product comparison page the only thing that the 250 has over the 150 is the hardware Video CD encoder. If I had known that, I would have waited for the 150 to come out, rather than buying the 350. OTOH, the 350 has better support, so maybe not. It's a toss-up, really.

I emailed Hauppauge about the diffs between the 150 and the 250 before they ever had the comparison page on their site, and their TS people verified that there is no difference between the two other than board layout and chip count / chip brand.

As for the video out hardware encoding support, be careful there ... yes, the 250 has it, but only for Video CD. The 150 has none, and the 350 IIRC has such support for all video output, not just Video CD.

 

[sparhawk6]

Just so people know: This is the MCE version which does NOT come with a remote.
http://www.hauppauge.com/pages/compare_pvr.html

Sucks, I was too late to cancel my order. I'll have to return it.

 

[huesmann]

Originally posted by: Sleeping
Yup, its a real pain to try to get MCE compatiable stuff to work on XP.

You're full of it. The hardware works just the same in XP as it does in MCE. You just don't have the integrated MCE remote when you use it with XP.

 

[joecool]

hey, i've currently got a cheapo avertv card and running snapstream, will the encoder on this card make a huge difference in system performance when recording a show? i've got a p4 2.6c, 1gb of pc3200, abit is7 mobo, and a couple of sata drives - save the video to the drive that DOESN'T have the os on it. but i still get an occasional skip in the recorded shows - is it my system or snapstreams crappy codec?

 

[episodic]

Originally posted by: joecool
hey, i've currently got a cheapo avertv card and running snapstream, will the encoder on this card make a huge difference in system performance when recording a show? i've got a p4 2.6c, 1gb of pc3200, abit is7 mobo, and a couple of sata drives - save the video to the drive that DOESN'T have the os on it. but i still get an occasional skip in the recorded shows - is it my system or snapstreams crappy codec?

I use windvr to record directly to mpeg-2 dvd specs and I never have a skip and use about 30% of my processor with an Athlon 2400.

 

[WT]

I purchased the 150 low profile from Amazon. I realized after ordering that it does not have RCA audio out, instead using a line out jack. Hope that doesn't cause me problems later on. It also states that the card supports W2K which is my OS of choice, so thats another issue I may have to deal with.

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: joecool
hey, i've currently got a cheapo avertv card and running snapstream, will the encoder on this card make a huge difference in system performance when recording a show? i've got a p4 2.6c, 1gb of pc3200, abit is7 mobo, and a couple of sata drives - save the video to the drive that DOESN'T have the os on it. but i still get an occasional skip in the recorded shows - is it my system or snapstreams crappy codec?

With MCE2005 and a Maui-based MPEG2 encoder card, I'm using essentially no CPU time on a AMD3000 while recording. Playing back, OTOH, uses CPU time (it's still not that much...) but encoding doesn't use a thing.

I had an AMD1800 with 512M that did just as well in MCE2004 with this same card; you don't need a remotely fast CPU to encode video - it's very easy on the CPU.