Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-250
DesignTechnica has a review of the Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-250. It's designed for people who want to integrate a Windows-based PVR into their Media Center PCs. One key benefit is the onboard MPEG encoder, which takes that workload off your main CPU. You would still need Snapstream or another front-end to use with the Happauge card. They conclude that:
Hauppauge’s WinTV-PVR-250 TV tuner and capture card is the product of choice for HTPC enthusiasts and Windows Media Center system builders, and for good reason. There certainly are lower-priced solutions available, but the PVR-250 has quite an advantage over them with its hardware based MPEG encoder, saving valuable processor performance for other tasks.Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-250 Review - Designtechnica ReviewsOnboard analog connectors allow you to not only watch, record and pause TV, but they allow you to record from other sources such as VCRs and analog video cameras.
FWIW, I'm a big fan of the pvr250 in the homebrew PC PVR setting. The hardware MPEG2 encoding is really slick and encoding DVD ready MPEG's of TV shows barely made my CPU performance percentage tick up on my modest AMD XP+1700 (1.3ghz?)
*Shrug* Also of note, but I don't find many reviews for, is ATI's e-home wonder which I think is mostly an OEM product. but is another sub-100 buck hardware based mpeg encoding tv tuner card.
rampy
Posted by: rampy | July 25, 2004 at 07:34 PM
Will the hauppage pvr-250 work with any pvr software or just the win-tv software?
Posted by: funk e | July 27, 2004 at 12:08 PM
Sorry I meant to say the hauppage pvr-250 *REMOTE*.
Posted by: funk e | July 27, 2004 at 12:09 PM
It's just a simple IR based remote, so you can use it with other software. For example: SageTV supports use of the hauppauge remote out of the box. I'm pretty sure GBPVR does as well ( but I may be confused on that )
The default remote is useful/functional, but pedestrian... you may (depending on your situation/plans) want to buy an OEM or MCE version of the pvr250 that comes without a remote, and get a fancier remote separately. *shrug* but it really depends on your expectations.
Rampy
Posted by: rampy | July 27, 2004 at 12:32 PM
It's a great idea for a PCI card but I can't get the hardware to install, even after following all the support advice on Hauppage's site. After installing the base driver all I get is "error Code 10", even after removing the video graphics accelerator for my ATI Rage graphics card. Same occurs in a different PCI slot and both with and without Windows SP2 update.
Very, very frustrating. Mind you, I received the component by mail and Hauppauge don't package their hardware in polystyrene to protect it in transit. There must be quite a few returns from high street retailers as well.
Posted by: tarsier | September 16, 2004 at 01:05 AM
Absolutely the best "bang-for-the-buck" capture card around. Can't beat it's hardware encoder, and for everyone fighting with a BT8x8 card/device, trash it and get a PVR-250.
p.s. GB-PVR works perfectly with this card, both the 45 button and 82 button (MCE) remotes.
Posted by: reboot | March 29, 2005 at 06:34 PM
I think these are sold under a new name now. something like pvr500. I have a 250 and its great.
Posted by: bryan | March 30, 2005 at 08:23 AM
Will this unit, the HP-250 allow you to OUTPUT a recorded signal to a large screen tv? I would certainly like to record video to the hard drive but i don't really want to watch it on a pc, even on my 21.3 inche display, not when i have a 53" tv. So Can I output the recorded hard drive video to another monitor or TV set?
thanks.
Posted by: Sloppy | April 20, 2005 at 11:33 AM
You need the 350 edition for TV-out, which also features an on-board hardware MPEG decoder for the TV-out connection only (i.e. the decoder won't help you for playing movies on your monitor or carry the load of media player instead of your CPU).
Posted by: Old Oligarch | August 03, 2005 at 01:10 AM
I need something that does the following as a present for a friend:
"Playback of media files from my PC, such as DVD files, mpeg or avi through to my TV (over a haupage device). My TV has a Scart and Pal socket."
Please can anyone advise of any device that does this?
Thanks
Bill
Posted by: bill | October 27, 2005 at 08:25 AM
ImTOO MPEG Encoder is an excellent MPEG Encoder!
http://www.purchaseshareware.com/multimedia-design-video/imtoo-mpeg-encoder9641-5.htm
Posted by: MPEG Encoder | August 07, 2006 at 12:37 AM
i have a pvr250 how do i conect my sony dv camcorder to get the best recording to dvd whats the best software.im sure im not getting the best out of my card
Posted by: brett | June 20, 2007 at 12:54 PM