Wintv PVR 250 Driver Installation Question?

[RobDMB]

Hi i just got the new hauppauge wintv pvr 250 and i installed the installation disk and stuff but now i want to update the driver to the beta one and update the decoder is well. My question is how do i go about doing this. Do you just install the new driver over top of the old one or do you first have to uninstall the old driver some how. If you do have to uninstall the old driver how would i go about doing this. Thanks for the help. -Rob

[SHS]

Yes install the new driver over top of the old one

[VideoMann]

Is the WinTV PVR 250 a Dud? (worst Hauppauge card) ?

I'm asking this because of the high number of posts with people having one problem or another.

Is the WinTV PVR #880 the best in terms of stability and quality?

[SHS]

VideoMann haven't you read steve aka skittelsen post.
Like all new toys out there going some problem to this very day I have not scean one device that didn't have some type of bug.
As for quality the new WinTV-PVR 250 card dose do a better job at it over the old WinTV-PVR.

[VideoMann]

I'm new to this forum, and I've been reading quite a bit from all the posts. It's quite possible that I missed it "steve aka skittelsen post on the PVR 250". Got a link ?

I don't care much for companies that release their products half tested and expect the consumers to be their guinea pigs while sending money to the companies. I do admit that it seems that Hauppauge produces one of the best consumer TV tuner cards, but that is not a blank check for promoting all their cards. I think from a managerial point of view Hauppauge is doing itself a diservice by having so many cards available.

There should be no more than 4-5 cards altogether. Too many cards produce confusion for the consumer, poor support from the company on any individual card, and poorer quality across the board by putting too many resources in too many individual products. The user interface of Hauppauge is very flexible, but outdated in style or maybe function.
Flexibility in an interface is a plus provided that it also has simplicity build-in.

Anyhow, I'm very interested in reading the review, and appreciate it if you give me a link.

Thanks

[Anonymous65]

For a review, http://steve.kittelsen.com/pvr250
for a long forum on the topic of the PVR 250, http://forum.vcdhelp.com/viewtopic.php?t=98514&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

[VideoMann]

Well I read the "skittelsen post" . I have to conclude from his posts that the PVR 250 is a crappy card, but since it seems he is confused about some of the installation of the card, all his post is questionable.

To begin, he runs WinMe which is well know to be one of the worst of the 4 new OSes (Win95, 98SE, 2000, XP). I do not know anybody in the High-Tech business or video afficionados that recommends WinME.

I've used Windows 95, 98, 98SE, ME, 2000, and XP. Out of all these OS the best are Windows98SE and WindowsXP. I'm currently using XP and have tons of video apps and never had any serious problems. It is highly stable and extremely compatible once you get it running. The only software I had to dump was 1-3 Shareware or Freeware progs. Practically everything I had in Win98SE runs in XP.

WindowsXP even has a right-click option to run any software under Windows98 if it is not compatible. As far as drivers are concerned the list of WindowsXP drivers is large and getting larger (unlike Win 2000), furthermore when you install WindowsXP you have an option to install OVER Windows98 rather than a full clean install of WinXP. By installing on top of Windows98 you preserve all of Windows98 components including the drivers. I have found VFW components while running WinXP, so that is not a problem.

The other link he posted at his site was just a list of "points" rather than a review. His links to captured video are broken probably because of space limitations at his site or too many downloads. I don't blame him on this.

Perhaps now that he has the card running he will provide a more descriptive hands on review.

The reason that I'm getting the feeling that the PVR 250 card is "Bad" is due to the number of posts pointing to people having problems, unfortunately Skittelsons Post does not help any in giving the card any favorable points.

I'm sure that when Skittelsen or others are able to expand on their experience with this card,we will all be better informed.


THANKS FOR THE INFO & QUICK REPLY !!!!!!

[magicmycote]

There are about twice as many 'negative' posts about other realtime mpeg1/2 hardware cards as there are about the PVR250. That being said, nearly all the problem from any card have been either fixed are have work-arounds. No one is going to babysit you by posting link after link...but there is a lot of information on these types of cards in this forum (and across the net - google.com).

I was looking at getting the old PVR Hauppage card (vs. the PV256), but I have found numerous links describing the consitently poorer quality the PVR has compared to the 250. There are fewer and fewer issues with these hardware mpeg cards as time goes by, most of them work great with the common cpu configurations (there are exceptions). DVCII, PV256,PVR250 and others all seem to be completely usable, although each has their own quirks.

After reading for several months on these cards, I have decided to get a PVR250 since the captures are at least equal to the other cards in quality, and there is a large support base for Hauppage cards. The deciding factor was price, the PVR250 can be had for about $130..which is $20 cheaper than PV256, and $100 cheaper than the Dazzle. There are never any guarantees, but if you are as proficient as you say you'll have no problem with any issues that arise with the card.

[Anonymous65]

So, what more do you want to know?
All the positive and negative points are listed. Those are the points that are important for a mpeg hardware capture card. Visual quality is often very subjective, so there are three clips posted, which should be working.

To make your search for a hardware mpeg card easy, the WinTV PVR-250 is the best you can buy for less than $500. So, unless you want to shell out more than that, the PVR-250 is currently the best option.
I have not reviewed the new Snazzy or Dazzle III, but at $300, it would have to be excellent to outperform the PVR-250 with a price tag of $150.

So, go out and buy a WinTV PVR-250, you will not find a better card for $150!

[SHS]

guinea pigs hehe that good one VideoMann we have been guinea pigs for min yrs no if or but about weather it be Hardware or Software all OS that a fact.
No two system are even a like even with the same hardware.
Sorry the best are Windows95OSR2 and Windows98SE and Windows2000 I have beta test WinOS that start with Win95 and the worst is WinME fellow by WinXP I own ever ver Windows that ever made Win1.0 thur 3.11 Win95 thur 98SE and WinME and WinNT3.1 thur 4.0 and Win2000 and WinXP I even have ever ver of MSDos 1.0 thur 6.22 even the unofficial ver 7.0 MSDos that end up in Win95 core.
I agree with skittelsen on what he said.
There no Dazzle III skittelsen, oh skittelsen that Snazzi III DVD Creator.

[VideoMann]

Magycmycote:

I appreciate your assesment on balance of the Hauppauge PVR 250. It probably is a good card for the money, but to me stability is just as important as capability and price factor. You are right about many hardware being "buggy", from different manufacturers but I have a higher standard for companies that have been engaged in making the same type of product for many years as opposed to companies that have not.

Like I said, I read many posts on this Forum and I'm not convinced that the newer cards are any better overall than the older ones. Picture quality it seems is very good across the board for Hauppauge PCI cards, stability, interface, and ease of use may be another matter. I have not posted any mayor links other than to get feedback in comparing other products, so I don't know where you get that I post link after link. The same with the babysiting statement. If someone makes a claim about a certain point of view and says "have you seen this..." ,it's common courtesy to post a link as to what you are referring to "if possible". That is not babysitting but common practice and courtesy.

I may probably buy a Hauppauge Card due to the picture quality, just that I'm concerned with the stability and compatibility issues.

In terms of satisfaction with Hauppauge, it seems something like 40% of NTSC customers are satisfied and less for PAL. I don't remember where I read it. Even in this Forum I posted a Poll and of a meager 5 votes 2 voted for the PVR 250 while 3 voted for some other product. I don't have similar figures or any figures for other TV Tuner cards, but I do know that ATI produces cards with tons of issues and problems all across their products and that is a big turn-off for ATI cards.

Given this type of response it is prudent to not be "Hauppauge Centric" and allow both constructive criticism and have an open mind to discuss alternative cards.

Unfortunately TV-tuner cards are not as sexy as standard graphic cards propelled to popularity by games. This may be one of the reasons that we do not see fast & major development in stability and quality for TV-tuner cards.

-------------
SHS

I've tested from Windows95 and up and don't know anybody that has gone back from WindowsXP to Windows98SE or even further to Windows95. I'm sure that if a person or company has an expensive hardware that runs better or uniquely under an older system they would go back. Usually that is the case in a business situation but for home users reverting back to older systems I have not heard in my circles. WindowsXP has far more compatibility than WinNT or Win2000, and far better stability than Win95 or Win98 ( Win 3.1 was a dead horse from the start based on primitive GUI ,and major limitations). In my opinion if the hardware is WindowsXP compatible then that is the system I strongly recommend now. Opinions differ, like you said you like Windows95 and 98 and 2000.I don't share that, to me Windows 95 is buggy and has many instabilities, Windows98SE is much better than 95 and very usable (just that it will be outdated), with minor instability, Windows 2000 and NT is very limited in drivers and an unfinished OS in terms that many issues were never resolved with 2000 & NT and that further development is very slow if none at all. WindowsXp is the perfect balance between Windows98SE and Windows 2000 and shares the pluses of both and little of the minuses of each.

That's my 2 1/2 cents