wintv pvr 250 or winfast 2000XP??

[stoneroses]

Hi.
I'm currently using the wintv fm go card.Hate the sound,detest the picture quality.

Therefore,I'm considering upgrading to the 2 cards in my subject title.

the pvr 250 has got quite a lot of negative reviews,but its the only card available in my area with realtime mpeg2 encoding.

the leadteak winfast has a good average rating by users,but because of the price,appears to me like a relatively low end card.All I read about them is 'good',which is not very helpful when I want to know specifics like picture quality,sound,quality compared to the piincale or wintv.

No one has compared these 2 cards in terms of picture quailty,so I would like to seek the opinions here.

This card i'm buying will be running on a p4 2.4B ghz pc.

which card should I buy?help!!

[Muffzilla]

I would not get the Hauppauge card at all. I had it. You are stuck recorded with their program (which leaves vey much to be desired), channel changing takes forever, the only compatible third party program is called SageTV (I didn't try it) but the point is it locks you into recording in only one format, and you have an extremely limited choice of capture programs (eith the one it comes with or SageTV). Get the Leadtek one - but be careful, I had that one too. It didn't not work well at all. I got a BSOD trying to even install the drivers. Their tech support couldn't figure it out. When I did get it working, whenever I captured anything from any input I would get terrible scan lines, lines that were not visible just watching tv.

[SHS]

Go to www.shspvr.com and ask your questions there.
Muffzilla the point of the WinTV-PVR 250/350 was made so people can record rigth to MPEG 1/2 at high rez 720x480(576) and burn DVD/CVD/SVCD/VCD with out having to convert the AVI over to MPEG and make it more like TiVo box.
Most people can't record AVI higher then 352x240 both PAL and NTSC user without all kind frame's drops and forget REALtime Software encoding.
We know that Hauppauge GUI sinks so what eles is new about that but hey it work me and min other I don't know when the last time you have been on SHSPVR forum but there other PVR apps yes like SageTV that are coming like CT PVR, Doumo (MCE clone), Personal Video Station (SnapStream), etc, etc.
As for channel changing takes forever that not ture at most 2 to 3sec this nom with ture Hardware MPEG encoder becuase it only out MPEG stream in REALtime.
There lot other 3rdparty tools just for the WinTV-PVR 250/350 and there Linux support to.
By the way you not made one post on shspvr far I know of or you where using a diff nickname there.

[Muffzilla]

I have never had a problem with dropped frames at 720x480. As I understand it all that is required is a fast enough HD. And this is not shpvr.com. When I had my Hauppauge card, I did go there and read the forums for help, but did not post anything. I fail to see the relavance of your complaining about my post because I have not posted there. This is after all a separate forum. And anyone will tell you that you can almost always get better quality from avi. It's also easier to edit. I was just offering an opinion. So please take that into consideration before you go bashing my post. I have had both the Leadtek and the Hauppauge cards in question. I would reccomend the Hauppauge card over the Leadtek anyday.

[lpn1160]

i have a win2k pci pvr, mpeg2 cap in real time is decent and capping to a 3rd party program in avi is a snap.
too many variables involved to really say how YOUR machine will handle things

[Barnabas]

Get the Hauppauge WinTV PVR-250. With some tweaks, it's hard to beat.

[SHS]

'I fail to see the relavance of your complaining about my post" I hope that not what you where thinking and no I wasn't complaining.
Well you didn't even at lease try talk to us I can tell you why the PVR 250/350 didn't work for you that if you want know?.
And not everbody need to go to raid setup like you have there much eazy way and faster way of doing it sure you may agree with me but 4yrs ago I would have agree with you on raid the best way but not any more now that hardware mpeg capture have come down in cost a lot.
Muffzilla let me ask this how long take you build one DVD disk start to finsh?, It take me about 3 hours that with 2 hour recoding at 6MB VBR setting and burn can you do that?.
One other thing to take in count what if you are recording something an then you want play your game like UT2003 ho havan help you ocen you start your game but with hardware capturing you don't need worry about it fire up UT2003.

[Muffzilla]

Where did I ever say that everyone needs RAID. I didn't even mention I am using that setup. Good for you if you can play a game while you're recording. My experience with the Hauppauge card was that it used all available system RAM, making the hardware mpeg2 seem...well dumb. What good is hardware assisted when the idea is to be able to do other stuff when you can't because no ram is free?! I am only giving my opinion. You need to just back off. You have given your opinion. And BTW, since you obviously had to took at my hardware specs to learn I have a RAI setup, then you would also know I don't have a DVD burner. Since I have the space, I store the files on my hard drive. Although I am planning on purchasing a DVD burner soon.

The PVR 250 didn't work for me because I didn't realize I was stuck in only mpeg format when I ordered the card. I also didn't like the program and lack of third party software. It may well work find for some people but the features I want in a card are flexibility of format choices (newer codecs come out every day), and ability to capture in avi (which is better quality since mpeg is by nature lossy compression and avi is not compressed unless you use Divx or some other avi codec).

The PVR 250 did work on my system, whereas the Leadtek card gave me problems. With the Leadtek card, I was able to view TV, but capturing would result in scan lines and a bunch of interference. Ironically, the card worked fine in a friend's machine who has the exact same components (motherboard, cpu, ram, graphics card, sound card, ect)

And yes, you are complaining. You haven't given much insight into this person's question. I am done debating with you.

[SHS]

Ho I'm sorry miss read the word stuck as suck plase stand I wasn't trying jump on nor criticize your commant I just miss read you first .
I never said you said that I said that because that only way to rec AVI at higher rez that if get real lucky in RAW mode RGB, etc, etc uncompressed.
But just becuase it didn't give you an optoin the recording AVI that dosen't mean that it suck now dose it? What was if go out and buy a Dazzle DVC2 or Canopus Amber/MVR1000 etc, etc dose that also mean it bad card just becuase it dosen't have an option to rec AVI.
"lack of third party software' this is not ture now.
"I want in a card are flexibility of format choices (newer codecs come out every day)" just one problem with what if MoM&DaD acroos town don't have a computer and you want show them your clip but all they have is a Home DVD Player which we all know some can play VCD/SVCD and Home made DVD thoses so call format like DivX have no stardard and most be a few more yrs when it dose be a stardard codec which by then there are some Hardware base DivX and ISO MPEG-4 capture card coming out as well as Hardware base decoder ho let not forget HDTV/DTV.
It eazy to convert MPEG to any to other format like DivX just matter of getting the rigth tools for the job but it help people keep mind when recording and want to convert to a diff format to use CBR MPEG recording not VBR.
Yes I know you don't have a DVD burner but you can wirte to harddisk

Hmm "Hauppauge card was that it used all available system RAM, making the hardware mpeg2 seem...well dumb" last time I check it was any where 15 to 20MB with WinTV2000 runing and that recording at max 12MB VBR.