Gotta choose, which one?

[reboot]

Hauppauge WinTV PVR-250
Leadtek Winfast PVR2000
The Leadtek is half the price.
Tired of using my CPU to do all the work, so I want a hardware mpeg-2 encoder card, with TV tuner.
Sorta narrowed it down to these two.
Any other recommendations (remembering I'm in Canada)?
Is it worth the extra $80 for the Hauppage?

[SatStorm]

Yes and No.
What about the new PVR 150?

[lordsmurf]

What about the new PVR 150?

Audio errors @ the hardware level. Cannot be fixed. Avoid.
Lots of pissed off 150 users out there.

[The_Doman]

Lots of pissed off 150 users out there.

Yeah, I am one of those!!. I have here 2 PVR-150 cards waiting for a fix.
At the moment they are useless for me.

Go read abit about it here:
https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=248637

[mats.hogberg]

worth the extra $80 for the Hauppage?

I've only used the PVR250, so I can't compare - just tell you that the bucks (well, kronor...) I spent on my PVR250 in retrospect was some of the best spent money over all, last year. I can't find anything to complain about, in fact. The problems with 150 aren't present in the 250 (and 350) card.

/Mats

[SatStorm]

I read that there is a conflict with the AC97 codec chip and the PVR150.
The audio is too loud. Hauppauge can't fix this. It's a hardware problem.
The latest 150PVRs, the ones shipped from Germany, don't have this issue. Of course we have all this stock worldwide waiting to be sold from the old ones...

[lordsmurf]

I just yesterday taught somebody how to use their 250 card. It was some truly pretty encodes.

[The_Doman]

I read that there is a conflict with the AC97 codec chip and the PVR150.

The internal audio has nothing todo with it. The PVR's are totally seperate boards. It does not use the PC audio cards at all for recording.

The latest 150PVRs, the ones shipped from Germany, don't have this issue.

Where did you get that information? I would like some confirmation about that so I can return my cards then.

[SatStorm]

I just spoke with the official local Hauppauge distributor in Hellas. He just told me those things I mention here.
He said that he imports tomorrow new 150 PVRs with that audio problem fixed. He mention something about a new revision.

He also insisted a lot on that AC97 built-in thing. "Use it on older motherboards that don't have AC97 and you won't notice this problem" are his words (free translated to english). I don't know why this could be a conflict. I just post the words of the official distributor! (and he can't simply lie to me, I'm a technical magazine director! You don't play with the press...)

[reboot]

I also heard about the 150 problems, hence my reluctance, and the 250 isn't that much more.
Just wanted to know if the Leadtek is worth considering. If it's a software issue, I can deal with that, having a TON of different software I can use.

I also just discovered that due to an advertising **** up, the Leadtek I mention above does NOT have a hardware mpeg-2 encoder. They've confused the Leadtek Winfast TV2000XP (tv tuner, no mpeg-2 encoder, capture card) with the PVR2000 XP (hardware mpeg-2, for windows MCE only) and the PVR2000 PCI, which is what I want, and is only $10 cheaper than the Hauppage.

Thanks for the input so far, and I'm leaning towards the PVR-250.
More opinions are welcome

[mats.hogberg]

I also heard about the 150 problems, hence my reluctance, and the 250 isn't that much more.

That's true, and had the 150 been available when I was shopping for a capture card, I'd sure have settled for a 150, but I'm glad I didn't! Those extra bucks for the 250 was (again) well spent money.

/Mats

[Ironballs]

I bought the 250 a few years ago and only EVER got it installed and working once and that was after a ton of pissing about (And I ain't a noob)

When it worked, fantastic, but since changing PCs I have never got it going again, it's lying with all the iother junk accumulated over the years

So, I would plumb for the leadteck, although have no experience with it.

There are a lot of pissed off 250 owners and Haupphauge are dire in their support.

Good luck!

[lordsmurf]

You can probably sell that 250 pretty easily.

[reboot]

Sell me the 250 How much ya want for it?

[hudsonf]

I use the PVR 250 and the PVR USB2 and both cards work great.