WinTV USB-2 or WinTV PVR USB-2

[Diederik]

Got a Presario V2140US (notebook) and a Sony TRV208E (Hi8). Want to transfer babyvideo's to DVD (don't we all). Can anyone give me a (serious) reason not to buy WinTV USB-2 or WinTV PVR USB-2 (both Hauppauge stuff) ?

Any comment greatly appreciated.

Regards, Mark
The Netherlands
mark.dekkers@avantium.com

[junkmalle]

The WinTV USB2 transfers raw uncompressed video over the USB2 cable. The computer has to capture that, display it, and compress it to save to disk.

The WinTV PVR USB2 transfers far less data because it is already compressed as an MPEG stream. This requires far less resources on the computer.

Which one you want will depend on what you plan to do:

Direct MPEG 2 capture with the WinTV PVR USB2 is almost foolproof -- you can continue using your computer while capturing without worrying about dropped frames. The device can be set to capture MPEG files that are ready for DVD mastering. But editing MPEG2 files can be a little tricky. Fewer programs can handle MPEG2 properly.

I haven't actually used the WinTV USB2 but most devices that capture raw video are much more picky about what else is running while they're capturing. If you want flawless captures don't count on doing anything else with your computer while you capture. The raw video can be saved uncompressed (really huge files, on the order of 2 GB per minute), slightly compressed with a lossless compression (around 1/2 GB per minute), or more compressed with MPEG2, Divx, or whatever. Uncompressed or losslessly compressed video can give better picture quality -- in theory. And it's much easier to edit. Just about any video editing package can handle it. And if you need to do extensive processing (things other than simple cut, paste, trim operations) starting with raw video can get you much better end results than starting with MPEG.

[plcpower]

first off i would like to thank all the people that help out in here. and yes i have used the wintv pvr2 connecting to vcr and video cams and never had problems with it. if i was in the market for another one i would'nt think twice of picking it up. www.hauppauge.com/pages/products/data_pvrusb2.html

[Diederik]

Thanks people, for your replies !

How 'bout the resolution ? Can the WinTV PVR USB2 really do 760 x 450 or something in that region ? There is no specification on the HP website. They only say that the WinTV USB2 can only do 352 x 288. For me that's not good enough.

Cheers, Mark

[junkmalle]

Hauppage's web site says the PVR USB2 uses the same MPEG2 hardware encoder as the PVR-250 (which I have). The 250 supports 720x480. I suspect the USB2 version supports that with a USB2 connection, lower with a USB 1.1 connection. Odd that Hauppauge's web site doesn't explicitly state this though.

CNET says 720x576 PAL is supported:

http://reviews.cnet.com/Hauppauge_s_WinTV_PVR_usb2/4507-8903_7-30536645.html