PVR-150 & PVR150MCE Price Difference??

[twodaend]

Why is the 150MCE priced lower than the 150? Is the 150MCE not as good as the 150. I'm soon considering building my first media center pc and want a good card to start with. I'll be using XP Pro with BTV 3.5. I want to be able to add more tuners down the road and was considering the 500, but I heard it had problems recording and watching at the same time since it only has one input.

Thanks for the help

 

[Gamingphreek]

I believe the main difference is the MCE is enhanced for Media Center 2005 and also allows multi card arrays, (ie record on one station, while watching a different station).

-Kevin

 

[twodaend]

since it is enhanced for MCE2005 does that mean it will or will not work with XP Pro or will I not be getting everything this card can do by not using MCE2005.

 

[colol]

It hasn't been that long since this was originally posted, so here's a little more info. The PVR-150 is a retail card, available in stores, while the PVR-150 MCE was, until recently, an OEM card not widely available (now even Hauppauge is selling it directly).

Additionally, there are a few feature differences:
PVR-150
Includes remote
Does not include FM tuner
Includes software decoder
RCA input for video only
Includes full software package

PVR-150 MCE
Does not include remote (XP MCE has its own)
Includes FM tuner
Does not include software decoder
RCA inputs for video and audio
Does not include the full software package

Both cards will work in Windows XP or Windows XP MCE, so it's just a matter of which features you can and can't live without. You can also use either card with non-MCE PVR programs, like BeyondTV or Sage TV.

 

[imported_itr]

i have the 150mce with media center 2005 installed. i did not get the 150 retail, because i had no use for the remote and software anyways. i am not very familiar with BTV, however, if it is similiar to windows mce, you will not need to buy the 150 retail version.