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Hauppage WinTV 250 PVR with Hardware MPEG2 encoder and remote for $99.99 (or even less with coupons) Starts 11/10

N

Need4Deal

Member
At OfficeMax.com Valid 11/10 - 11/16

Hauppage WinTV 250 PVR with Hardware MPEG2 encoder and remote control
-- includes Ulead DVD MovieFactory software

Price: $149.99
MIR : -$50
Net: $99.99

Since this item does not seem to be available online, we can only use printed coupons (of OfficeMax or any other competitor's coupons). If you have a printed coupon, then the deal becomes even hotter.

Product Details at hauppage.com

Some of the Highlights of the Product:

Watch TV in a window on your PC screen (any size), or watch TV full screen!

Record your home videos and TV shows to disk using MPEG compression. The built-in hardware MPEG encoder allows you to continue to use your computer while recording. Surf the net or answer e-mail while digitally recording to your PC's hard disk!

Schedule your TV recordings with WinTV-Scheduler. The Electronic Program Guides TitanTV.com in the U.S., TVTV.de in Europe and iEPG in Japan, are Internet based program guides which work with WinTV-PVR to help schedule your TV recordings

Pause and instantly replay your TV shows, with 2X and 8x digital fast forward and rewind

Capture high quality still video images from live or recorded TV

Edit your TV shows or home videos with the Hauppauge MPEG Editor

With the included DVD MovieFactory, you can author your home videos onto CD or DVD*
 
Just an FYI as I am looking for a PVR solution myself - this item has gotten mixed reviews. I'll try to find the links, but the problem was with Win2K - XP worked fine I think.

The main reason I stopped from getting this was I wanted to use the PVR for output on my TV (and I use Win2K on my future HTPC). Rather than get this AND a video card I am opting for the All-In-Wonder 7500.

Don't get me wrong, I love Hauppauge products and have one of their TV tuners on my other PC. This is an awesome deal if you can find an instore coupon and a good deal if not. Just offering some research.

 
This is a good solution for people looking for PVR capabilities and dscaler capabilities. Anyone know how well these things work with an HTPC hooked into an HDTV? My main concern is aspect ratio.
 
Interesting.

Anyone have any info on how good the MPEG2 encoder is? I'm currently using software to encode videos, and it's slllloooowwww.
 
Anyone have any info on how good the MPEG2 encoder is? I'm currently using software to encode videos, and it's slllloooowwww.
Click to expand...

I don't know if you saw that ... but this is what the info says:

"WinTV-PVR-250 uses a new integrated MPEG1/MPEG2 encoder, the IVAC015,which compresses your videos 100:1 whithout slowing down your PC's processor and while providing great on-screen video quality. WinTV-PVR-250 can record full screen TV using 2 GB of hard disk space per hour.

MPEG1 recording at 1150K bits/sec (Video CD data rate)
MPEG2 record datarates:
2MBit/sec, 4MBit/sec, 6Mbit/sec, 8Mbit/sec, 12Mbit/sec.
Selections for DVD Standard play (8MBitsec), DVD Long Play (4MBit/sec) and DVD Extra Long Play (2MBit/sec) "

That sounds like real time conversion to me !
 
I wonder how this compares to Creative Labs Digital VCR which could be had for $50 at Compusa AR every now and then
 
I've got a ATI Wonder VE or some such piece of junk that I have been trying to use to take captures of my VHS and HI-8 videos. IS this gonna be easier to copy from to burn to SVCDor a DVD burner when I get it? I want something that doesn't have to convert 15 times before it's ready to goto SVCD or DVD..... When I capture now, the quality looks alright on the screen, but the SVCD's are horrible, probably (I'm sure of it) I'm doing something wrong, but I guess if I can still stay dumb and use this Hauppage card easily, I'm for that...... Thanks, -TAL
 
IMHO Hauppauge cards suck ass... I had (my crappy P4S8X apparently fried) a WinTV-D and the card always crashed XP. They haven't updated their drivers for over a year (as I recall) for that particular card, and they never responded to my emails regarding tech support
 
I have to say I have used Hauppauge boards for the past 6 years or so with no problems including in W2K and XP.
 
Anyone know what the difference is between the WinTV PVR, WinTV 250 PVR? The WinTV PVR is twice the price of the WinTV 250 PVR.
 
yep, om sent out some coupons again... this $30 off $150 might be just the thing... problem is i don't watch much tv...
 
Haupagge and ATI TV tuners are the best you can get

Just be aware that most software will not be able to utilize the card's built in encoding capabilities. So if you want to use a different program to record and encode TV shows, you'll have to do it the hard [CPU intensive] way.
 
I need a good quality PVR solution... what would be easiest to setup? I really don't want to spend too much. I already have some parts, so perhaps what I need are the card (display card with capture capabilities or a video capture card) and the software. Anyone know where I can find good info on setting up one? TIA
 
This is one of the cards that is supported by the new Windows XP Media Center Edition. The software is only sold with new PC's at the moment, but the package is only 9MB and is floating around on the internet along with software to load it onto existing XP Pro. I bring this up because Microsoft has their own drivers for the card built into the package. The drivers are also available on the internet separately. Microsoft is retarded in a lot of ways, but I think their paticipation in new drivers for existing TV cards will be a good thing. The TV Card retailers seem to just take reference drivers from the chip makers and then walk away from the products. The Win-TV 350 will also be supported when it comes out and that card has MPEG2 hardware for video in and out.
 
IMHO Hauppauge cards suck ass... I had (my crappy P4S8X apparently fried) a WinTV-D and the card always crashed XP. They haven't updated their drivers for over a year (as I recall) for that particular card, and they never responded to my emails regarding tech support
Click to expand...


Lay off the pipe, I have 2 Hauppage cards that run perfectly in both Win 2k and XP. Great cards...better than pinnacle
 
I wonder how this compares to Creative Labs Digital VCR which could be had for $50 at Compusa AR every now and then
Click to expand...

I have both the Creative Labs Digital VCR and the Hauppauge WinTV PVR-250. I think they're both great cards with strengths and weaknesses.

In my opinion, the Creative Labs Digital VCR is better suited if you only care about Tivo like functionality. I like the included software. It's simple and easy to operate. I have it in one of my systems that is on 24/7 and I have programmed it to record shows like Alias, Firefly, Birds of Prey every week. So far it has done so with no problems. It hasn't bombed out or missed any shows.

The major problem with the Creative Digital VCR is that the resultant MPEG-2 files are non-standard and you cannot edit them or burn them to a SVCD/DVD. However, these files are viewable on software DVD players like PowerDVD. So, you can share your videos with other people if they have a computer and either PowerDVD or WinDVD. However, you won't easily be able to create standard VCD/SVCD/DVD to play on settop DVD players. Some people claim to be able to do it but I have been unsuccessful. Another problem is that there is no electronic programming guide. To program shows, you have to manually tell it to program a certain channel at a certain time (and you can tell it to do it every week or every day or just once).

The Hauppauge WinTV PVR-250 is the choice if you want to make VCD/SVCD/DVDs. It produces standard MPEG-1/2 files that are burnable to a VCD/SVCD/DVD. And the MPEG-1 quality is surprisingly good. The resultant VCD can look like a VHS tape when played back on a TV. I was so shocked at how good the MPEG-1 recording quality was. And the MPEG-2 recording is even better. I haven't tried the scheduler but I've read reports that it has bugs. Some people report that it cannot change channels reliably. So, if you program it to record a show on Channel 7 at 1:00 pm and then another show on Channel 9 at 6:00pm, it might make two recordings but both on Channel 7 (it didn't correctly change the channel for the 2nd recording).

I've successfully created VCDs with the Hauppauge by burning them with NTI CD Burner. I used the included editor to trim out the commercials. There was no audio/video sync problems. However when I burned the same file with Ulead DVD Movie Factory, I got a slight audio/video sync problem that grew progressively worse the longer you play the VCD. At the end, there was like a 1/2 second delay. I'm still investigating this -- meanwhile I'm just burning VCDs with NTI CD Burner.

I think I would give a slight edge to image quality on the Hauppauge card. The Hauppauge seems to be able to produce better quality video at smaller file sizes but I would need to do more testing to make sure. Both cards only produce MPEG streams (the Creative only produces MPEG-2 streams while the Hauppauge produces both MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 streams). That means whenever you are watching TV, you are looking at MPEG recordings (this is how a Tivo works). You never see the raw AVI stream. Because of this, TV from traditional TV tuners (like the ATI AIW cards) can look better. If you have a noisy signal, the MPEG compression can make the noise look worse.

But I think the MPEG recordings look better on the Hauppauge/Creative cards than on tradition tuners because you don't get any dropped frames and the hardware can produce better results with less time (since it's real-time hardware encoding). I also noticed that the Hauppauge produces smaller file sizes compared to my ATI AIW Radeon when capturing video (maybe I didn't have correct settings on my ATI).

BTW, the original WinTV PVR is still selling at stores at a higher price than the newer WinTV PVR-250. From what I understand, the PVR-250 is better. Alot of people had problems with the original PVR concerning audio/video sync. From what I understand, another difference is that with the original PVR, when you are watching TV, you are watching the raw AVI image. So, it seems to work with both AVI and MPEG streams.

Basically, I use my Creative Digital VCR as a Tivo device and my Hauppauge WinTV PVR-250 to create VCD/SVCD/DVDs. Hope this helps.
 
WOW StormRider! What a comprehensive post! Look for a job as a tech writer somewhere; you have the knack. 😉

Now I need to find an online "deal" on a PVR250...

Thanks very much for all the information!



 
I have no interest in PVR (at the moment I am C-band) but would like to capture VHS and analog camcorder. Would this still be a good option/deal for that purpose?
 
Originally posted by: LDegrelle
Just an FYI as I am looking for a PVR solution myself - this item has gotten mixed reviews. I'll try to find the links, but the problem was with Win2K - XP worked fine I think.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I've not had much luck with Hauppauge's PVR-PCI card. Here is a forum dedicated to Hauppauge's stuff. Lot of unhappy users there, myself included. The forum owner or administrator; don't remember which, recently posted that he had sold his PVR card because he got tired of the headaches.

And it comes with an editor - a limited version of the Nanopeg editor. It has a lot of bugs. Something fun too: edit 30 minutes of video. Remove commercials. The timestamp on the resulting file is usually about 40 minutes. Somehow, removing video increases the total reported (not actual though) length of the file.
Someone on the board I linked to gave a technical briefing on how badly the Nanopeg editor maims MPEG file headers.

Anyone know what the difference is between the WinTV PVR, WinTV 250 PVR? The WinTV PVR is twice the price of the WinTV 250 PVR.
Click to expand...
I read that the 250 ALWAYS encodes the incoming signal to MPEG2 - when you watch TV with it, you are actually watching encoded video. Thus, when you switch channels, it can take a second while it starts to encode the next channel. It does all this in hardware - dedicated chip onboard for MPEG encoding, which is nice.
 
I bought one of the 250 PVRs from CUSA a month or two ago... wouldn't work w/ win2k, the recording program kept freezing and would sometimes crash the computer. Returned it after reading about all the problems this card had w/ win2k on various forums (CUSA wanted to charge me 15% restocking fee, but i told them that it clearly states on the box that it works w/ win2k when in fact it doesn't... they dropped the fee).

Recently upgraded to XP Pro ($49 deal) and might give this another try. If you use win2k, read all the forums to find out if they have released a fix for the win2k issues or if someone has a beta driver/app they got from hauppage.


.//chris
 
Both cards only produce MPEG streams (the Creative only produces MPEG-2 streams while the Hauppauge produces both MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 streams). That means whenever you are watching TV, you are looking at MPEG recordings (this is how a Tivo works). You never see the raw AVI stream.
Click to expand...

Sounds like for people who encode things into Divx this card is a no no...

 
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