Hauppauge pvr vs Winfast 2000xp quality?

[EAO]

I know it's subjective.

I've been using the Winfast. Capping to Picvideo MJPEG 19 , and the quality is - to me - almost as good as the TV source. By which I mean I can't tell ththat I'm watching a transcoded DVD when I watch it on TV.

How would the quality compare to the Hauppauge? Either the 150 or 250?

My last experience with MPEG2 was using the WinFast cards capture software and it sucked = slightly fuzzy. How is the the quality of the Hauppauge? How does it compare to avi capture clarity?

Is it worth upgrading to it to avoid transcoding?

[yoda313]

Hello,

I use the hauppauge wintv pvr 250 and I love it. It's very easy to use. Just dub and plug the mpg file into your authoring program and you're ready to go.

Of course, it's MPEG only so if that's a consideration you may still want to get an avi capable card for flexibility.

Kevin

[EAO]

Thanks for the input.

No... I'd just as soon give up capping to avi and save the transcoding time... as long as the quaility was equal to what I'm currently getting using the WinFast.

[junkmalle]

I don't know anything about the Winfast 2000xp but I suspect the picture quality isn't too different from the Hauppauge PVR series.

One big difference you'll probably see is in dropped frames. It's very difficult to get the PVR series to drop frames. You can use your computer while capturing.

The other day I tried to get my PVR 250 to drop frames. I ran chkdsk, defrag, a big file copy, a Virtualdub video conversion, and a webcam based game all on the same drive while capturing. The capture was working fine until the game barfed and put up a system modal dialog box. At that point I could see that the WinTV2000 capture program was having problems -- the video and audio were stuttering and out of sync. After shutting down a few of the other programs it started working properly again. When I checked the the resulting MPEG file it had dropped frames (same picture for a while) during the problematic area but was fine later.

[BrainStorm69]

If you want to see some sample caps with the PVR250, try here...

https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=235887&highlight=pvr250

However, some in the thread report not being able to match the quality of the screen caps posted there.

[EAO]

Good thread. Thanks for the link.

The thread mentioned something about hardware vs software capture, and the ability of a software capture to improve as your equipment/programs improve... if I read it right.

A new question (from that thread). What's the highest bitrate setting I can use with the Hauppauge and still be compliant to convert to DVD?

The pictures looked good. I guess I'll just have to try it myself and decide.

[yoda313]

Good thread. Thanks for the link.

The thread mentioned something about hardware vs software capture, and the ability of a software capture to improve as your equipment/programs improve... if I read it right.

A new question (from that thread). What's the highest bitrate setting I can use with the Hauppauge and still be compliant to convert to DVD?

The pictures looked good. I guess I'll just have to try it myself and decide.

Hello,

NTSC (NTSC Film)



Video:
Up to 9.8 Mbps* (9800 kbps*) MPEG2 video
Up to 1.856 Mbps (1856 kbps) MPEG1 video
720 x 480 pixels MPEG2 (Called Full-D1)
704 x 480 pixels MPEG2
352 x 480 pixels MPEG2 (Called Half-D1, same as the CVD Standard)
352 x 240 pixels MPEG2
352 x 240 pixels MPEG1 (Same as the VCD Standard)
29,97 fps*
23,976 fps with 3:2 pulldown = 29,97 playback fps (NTSC Film, this is only supported by MPEG2 video)
16:9 Anamorphic (only supported by 720x480)

There's your answer for NTSC. Basically 9000 is probably the topper.

Though of course if you set it low enough to fit your video on a dvd than you won't have to compress it and fool around with the quality.

Kevin

[LRD]

I have both a Hauppauge 150 retail and an ATI All in Wonder 9800 Pro. They are both great products with excellent capture capabilities. If I know I will play a game or web surf while recording, I use the Hauppauge given its hardware encoder. I have played UT 2004 while recording on both, and have not had a problem with dropped frames. I have a P4, 2.8, 800fsb system with 1gig synchronous ram on an XP Home platform. Running both cards at the same time uses 15-20% resources.

The 150 is not perfect as noted on the following thread: https://www.videohelp.com/capturecards.php?CaptureCardRead=503#comments Add to this list that authoring a capture with TMPG Author set to AC-3 will cause static at the height of volume. If set to mp audio, the problem does not reoccur. I would still buy another in a heartbeat.

Re maximum bitrate, it is in the 9600 range. You can get excellent encodes with the Hauppauge in the "Long Play" setting which is about 5000 range if I recall correctly.

LRD

[yoda313]

Hello,

You can get excellent encodes with the Hauppauge in the "Long Play" setting which is about 5000 range if I recall correctly.

I believe it's closer to 4000. But yes the long play dvd mode is what I use for movies in the 2+hours range. Quite excellent caps if I do say so myself.

Kevin

[mats.hogberg]

I use Hauppage PVR250 1/2 D1 @3000 kbps for "bulk" captures (timeshifting, watch-and-erase) with a possible slight quality drop compared to broadcast.

/Mats

[EAO]

Lots of good advice/input.

Decisions, decisions...

[LRD]

EAO

To make your choices more difficult, I have a Leadtek Expert which is also a very good card. It is a pure software solution, so it uses more CPU horsepower than the full hardware Hauppauge and the partial hardware ATI. If it were I, I would buy the 150 for $88 (free shipping) at buy.com: http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=10385910&loc=101&hdwt=0&sp=1

LRD

[EAO]

LOL

Yup. I've been to that vendor. Actually Microcenter is selling it for $99.00 with a $20.00 rebate. It's a little more because of the tax but I like the flexibility of an easy return.

The decision has gotten harder to commit to. I finally converted my captures from this fresh PC build. They are by far the best the system has ever made. There is a sharpness and a clarity that I have not achieved before. Hard to believe that a new mobo/cpu (A8V Deluxe and A64 3500+)could make the same Winfast perform this much better - because it was very good before... and I didn't see this type of improvement when I moved the card from a 1800+ to a 2700+. (Besides CPU usage going down.)

I highly recommend this mobo combo.

My TMPGenc transcoding time (wrong forum) has fallen to 2 hours 30 minutes per hour at high settings 2 pass vbr. That's still a lot of time to waste so I'll try the 150 eventually. So many captures to get and so little time

[LRD]

EAO

The Expert's mpeg2 software is just fine. With your rig, you can cap straight to mpeg2 if you want to save time. The TPMGE will be a little crisper, but not necessary for TV viewed content.

LRD

[EAO]

Thing is... I tried the MPEG2 capture software for WinFast on my 2700+ PC (and on the 1800+). Last time I used it was about a year ago. I did use the latest update from the site - not the disk.

(Before I continue, please remember I did state that image quality is subjective.)

It was terrible. OK - not terrible - but there was a slight fuzziness... or softness to the image quality. For one-time watching OK. Not what I would want to archive. I suppose I could try it again - most recent updated version,etc - but that's old hat. The prospect of installing soft ware that hasn't performed well (also buggy...not all settings worked) on my last two builds is not appealing.

And programs like that always have potential to introduce crap into the system that an uninstall can't remove. I want a bit of a break before I'm willing to reformat again.

Since you write that TMPGenc is crisper I see no reason to step backwards to save transcode time at the expense of quality. I want both if possible... and for a reasonable price. That's why I'm curious about pvr 150 MPEG2 quality.