The Hauppage WinTV PVR 150, 250 and 350

[Bateluer]

I'm exploring other HD Tuners, but a solid nonHD tuner would suit me fine. There isn't a whole lot of good HDTV programming here anyway.

I was looking at the PVR-150, its about 100 at Newegg. But how do the 250 and 250 models compare, driver quality, picture quality, etc?

 

[JonTom]

150 vs 250 - no real difference. One uses 2 chips the other 1 chip. Really the same thing in the end. The 150 is newer, some say better PQ, and what I ended up getting. Nice card.

The 350 adds an FM tuner (no thanks...) and a hardware decoder (TV out - works well but only on Mpeg2 streams). Not worth it IMO.

The 500 is essentially 2 x 150/250, ie: a dual tuner version.

All encode at the same quality (some say 150 slightly better). Unless you get the 350, your video card TV Out/codecs will affect the PQ much more than the capture card.

 

[Schadenfroh]

i like my 250, got it for like $50 at a local store on clearance.

 

[Bateluer]

Originally posted by: JonTom
150 vs 250 - no real difference. One uses 2 chips the other 1 chip. Really the same thing in the end. The 150 is newer, some say better PQ, and what I ended up getting. Nice card.

The 350 adds an FM tuner (no thanks...) and a hardware decoder (TV out - works well but only on Mpeg2 streams). Not worth it IMO.

The 500 is essentially 2 x 150/250, ie: a dual tuner version.

All encode at the same quality (some say 150 slightly better). Unless you get the 350, your video card TV Out/codecs will affect the PQ much more than the capture card.

The 150 can't receive/record HDTV/DTV, correct?

 

[JonTom]

correct

edit: if by DTV you mean digital cable/sat: it can record it but it must be decoded by the STB first. The non-MCE versions of the 150 come with an IR Blaster that you can use to change the channel on the STB via software/remote keypress/scheduled PVR apps.

 

[stuman74]

I have Windows XP MCE 2005 on my new Dell, but the AIW card they sent me is incompatable with the MCE features.

I am looking into the Hauppage WinTV PVR 150. I know there is also a WinTV PVR 150 MCE version out there, but to stay flexible, will the non-mce verison work ok with my MCE 2005 system? From what I have read, they are the same (except for the remote).

 

[Bateluer]

How much is the price difference between the nonMCE and the MCE?

 

[stuman74]

I think the 150 MCE version is ablut $30 less.

I bought the "normal" 150 today. It seems pretty slick, except that I have major interlacing when playing TV video. Is there a way to get rid of this? I can' find settings for this card anywhere.

 

[rh71]

I'm having trouble understanding what the technical difference is for the 150 MCE version. On this page you'll see the first entry is the MCE version but the supported OS includes XP Pro (not MCE). Would it really be fine for my XP Pro setup ? The title clearly says MCE.

Secondly, I need this card to act as my new VCR... instead of VHS tapes, I watch from my HDD. So basically all I need is this card and some software for scheduling right ?

Last, I need to encode some VHS tapes... I suppose the coax or RCA inputs on there will suffice ? All I'd need is encoding software like Virtualdub or Windows Media Encoder, correct ?

 

[Elcs]

I bought my 250 before the 150 came out.

Excellent card and if the 150 is an improvement over it, its pretty nice.

 

[carmat4]

Using a 250 with SageTV, and Directv. its worked great for me. A little bit of tweaking at the beggining, messesing around with decoders etc. Quality is great, even on my 27" sdtv

 

[JokerRulez]

I'm using the 350 with my new HTPC. I love it, however, I think I bought the wrong card.

My original purpose of buying the 350 was the hardware encoding & decoding. Video playback would not put stress on the AMD 1400+ I was planning to use. That is important since that CPU is pretty old and none too powerful. As things went though I bought a Sempron 2400+ with 512 DDR3200 RAM for my HTPC and junked the 1400+. Suddenly I'm not nearly as concerned with the hardware decoding the 350 provides.

If you really want to play with TV then get the 150. You'll love the dual tuners.

If you have a pretty weak processor your planning to use in conjunction with your tuner card and you'd like to have FM radio then the 350 is a good card.

I have no experience with the other cards you listed.

Good luck!

Joker

 

[rh71]

Originally posted by: rh71
I'm having trouble understanding what the technical difference is for the 150 MCE version. On this page you'll see the first entry is the MCE version but the supported OS includes XP Pro (not MCE). Would it really be fine for my XP Pro setup ? The title clearly says MCE.

Secondly, I need this card to act as my new VCR... instead of VHS tapes, I watch from my HDD. So basically all I need is this card and some software for scheduling right ?

Last, I need to encode some VHS tapes... I suppose the coax or RCA inputs on there will suffice ? All I'd need is encoding software like Virtualdub or Windows Media Encoder, correct ?

^

 

[JonTom]

Originally posted by: stuman74
I bought the "normal" 150 today. It seems pretty slick, except that I have major interlacing when playing TV video. Is there a way to get rid of this? I can' find settings for this card anywhere.

You need to use a better decoder and use bob and weave interlacing (YMMV). I like the nvidia dvd decoder. A trial is available at nvidia.com, but their store is down so you can't buy it. DO NOT LET THE TRIAL EXPIRE. Uninstall it on day 29, or risk possible problems when you update it to a licenced version.

Originally posted by: rh71
I'm having trouble understanding what the technical difference is for the 150 MCE version. On this page you'll see the first entry is the MCE version but the supported OS includes XP Pro (not MCE). Would it really be fine for my XP Pro setup ? The title clearly says MCE.

Yes, works fine.

Secondly, I need this card to act as my new VCR... instead of VHS tapes, I watch from my HDD. So basically all I need is this card and some software for scheduling right ?

That and a bigger HD than you think you need 160GB fills up fast...

Last, I need to encode some VHS tapes... I suppose the coax or RCA inputs on there will suffice ? All I'd need is encoding software like Virtualdub or Windows Media Encoder, correct ?

The PVR has hardware encoding. Use the software that comes with it and the encoder onboard for MPG2 compression.

Originally posted by: JokerRulez
I'm using the 350 with my new HTPC. I love it, however, I think I bought the wrong card.

My original purpose of buying the 350 was the hardware encoding & decoding. Video playback would not put stress on the AMD 1400+ I was planning to use. That is important since that CPU is pretty old and none too powerful. As things went though I bought a Sempron 2400+ with 512 DDR3200 RAM for my HTPC and junked the 1400+. Suddenly I'm not nearly as concerned with the hardware decoding the 350 provides.

True if using overlay, not true if you want to use VMR9 (much prettier and more CPU/GPU dependant).

If you really want to play with TV then get the 150. You'll love the dual tuners.

150 has one tuner - the 500 has dual tuners.

 

[kman79]

Excuse my ignorance guys, but can these cards you guys speak of record HDTV?

I'm new to all this, but I do want to do this.

 

[Bateluer]

Originally posted by: kman79
Excuse my ignorance guys, but can these cards you guys speak of record HDTV?

I'm new to all this, but I do want to do this.

Yes, at least, OTA HDTV anyway.

 

[imported_Husky55]

For info, the newer Hauppauge cards use a new chip not supported by Dscaler.