Hauppauge WinTV PVR 250

[red lion]

I have just ordered this capture card (Hauppauge WinTV PVR 250) and would like to know the best software to use with it..
It comes with ULead DVD Movie Factory but is there any better
What do people with this card prefer..
thanks
red lion

[FulciLives]

Here is a website with a lot of good information about using the Hauppauge WinTV PVR-250

http://www.shspvr.com/

Good Luck !!!

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

P.S.
Popular program to use with this card include:

1.) MPEG-VCR for frame accurate editing (only)
2.) TMPGEnc DVD Author which can edit but is not 100% frame accurate. This program is also a very good basic DVD authoring program. It can even convert MP2 audio to AC-3 audio with the optional AC-3 plug-in.

[red lion]

Thanks i will give them a go
I actually bid for the card on ebay but it went for something stupid like £71+£5 post. I bought it new for £80 inc post
The reason i posted was because there was no point in me learning ULead DVD Movie Factory if everyone else uses something else..

[reboot]

I use Vegas 4 mostly. A bit pricey, but you'll never need anything else for video/audio (with soundforge).

[hudsonf]

Why not try it? You may find you like it. I use DMF 2 and 3 sometimes. I prefer TMPGEnc DVD Author but DMF has a few features TDA doesn't have. You may also want to give BeyondTV a try.

[red lion]

What put me off trying the bundled software is most peoples complaints about this card revolve around the software being not so hot....
most recommend getting\using something else..

[FulciLives]

Well the nice thing about using TMPGEnc DVD Author is that you can do editing and DVD authoring all in one program.

Granted the editing is not 100% frame accurate. You can only edit on an "I" frame in the MPEG stream and "I" frames only happen once every 15 frames, give or take. So that is accurate within about 1/2 of a second.

If you need to edit on any frame you want then use MPEG-VCR but that is really just for editing. You will still need a DVD Authoring program such as TMPGEnc DVD Author or Ulead MovieFactory 3.

If you get the AC-3 plug-in for TMPGEnc DVD Author then your captured MPEG file (which has MP2 audio) will be converted to AC-3 format and this is the preferred method (using AC-3 instead of MP2).

As for Ulead MovieFactory 3 ... there is more than one version of Ulead Movie Factory 3 and only the version called, "Disc Creator Edition" will convert your MP2 to AC-3 and my guess is if the card comes with MF3 then it is probably the standard version, which will not convert your MP2 audio to AC-3.

Please note that I haven't played around with Ulead MovieFactory since version 2 so my understanding of MF 3 and how it handles AC-3 is based on what I have read. In short I know MF 3 Disc Creator Edition has a built-in AC-3 encoder SO it should re-encode your MP2 audio to AC-3 but the Ulead website doesn't make it very clear. For all I know this may only work if you capture with MF3 etc.

If your version of MF3 supports AC-3 re-encoding OR if you can upgrade )for a small fee) to the version that does then it might be worth trying.

However you will find TMPGEnc DVD Author is very easy to use and works very well ... 2 reasons why so many of us use it.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[hudsonf]

The PVR 250 is a great mpeg capture card. I didn't care for the tv software that came with the PVR 250. If you want to try better software here is my recommendations.

1. BeyondTV or SageTV
2. VideoReDo or MPEG-VCR
3.TMPGEnc DVD Author

BeyondTV and SageTV will allow you to use more than one mpeg capture device if you decide to add another one later.

[red lion]

Thanks for the helpful info one last question is where do i get the AC-3 plug-in for TMPGEnc and is it freeware or what..

[reboot]

It's not free, but is included in a few of their packages.
www.tmpgenc.com