What is the diff between Wintv's 250 and 350???????????

[dimtim]

I was looking to buy the new WinTV PVR 350 capture card, but then I looked under features and I realized the only difference between the 350 and 250 was that the 350 said it could listen to FM radio. Is that the only difference??? Is there any difference in capturing television shows, encoding, or authoring??? What is the difference between the two?? Thanks so much from all you DVD dojos out there!!!

[FulciLives]

The WinTV PVR 350 has a dedicated MPEG-1/MPEG-2 output which is NOT on the 250 model.

This output uses hardware similiar to that of a DVD player giving you the best possible TV out from a computer ... better than any TV out from a Video Card ... but the trick is it only works with MPEG-1/MPEG-2 files. You can't, for instance, output your desktop to your TV with that output ... or output a DivX or Xvid MPEG-4 file.

Also from what I have read it can only output from a file ... it can't play back VOB files from a ripped DVD. Also I don't think it supports AC-3 or DTS out. Again I'm not 100% positive on all that.

I have the Hollywood Plus card by Sigma Designs which can output MPEG-1/MPEG-2 the same way except it supports full DVD playback with AC-3 and DTS to boot. I use this to "test" my MPEG encodings on a 13" TV I keep near the computer. Saves me time from burning to a DVD-RW or DVD+RW

The replacement to the Hollywood Plus is the Xcard which can also output some forms of DivX (though it is very picky as to how it was encoded).

So in short ... for full control get the WinTV PVR 250 and the Sigma Designs Xcard. Or get the 350 for the "best" of both worlds though you loose some functionality. But for playing back captures ala time shifting the WinTV PVR 350 should be just fine. In fact the 350 model is perfect as you can record something ... output it to your TV without burning a disc ... then delete the file when done. The "perfect" time shifting device.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[dimtim]

I see well thank you very much I see how TV-out could be pretty important. If anybody has anything else or any other recommendations that would be great.