Can the Wintv PVR 250 capture raw avi (huffy, picvideo)also?

[warbird]

Im thinking of getting one of these cards. I got tired of my AIW card because I wanted a dual monitor setup and want the option to drag the tv screen between monitors if I want. I want the best of both worlds here though (hardware mpeg2 and raw avi capibilities). Can this be done with the PVR 250?

[Barnabas]

NO, the 250 uses a hardware encoder and can only capture in MPEG-1 and MPEG-2. I have a 2nd Hauppauge card in my computer so I can capture AVI if I want to, but I never use it any more.

[warbird]

Is it comparable to avi - mpeg conversions quality wise? Also, is it possible to drag the tv screen over to a 2nd monitor (using a Radeon 9700pro dual head video card) and watch the capture on the 2nd monitor while i play a game on the 1st?

[Barnabas]

There are so many bits you can have on a DVD, the captures look great if the source is fine to start with. I don't know about draging to a 2nd screen. Only problem I have even had is some dropped frames from some poor video tape sources. SVCD's would do MUCH better with an AVI to SVCD conversion, but DVD's look great.

[FulciLives]

I don't have this capture card but read alot about it when I was thinking of buying a capture card (I eventually did but not this one) so my knowledge is not first hand but ...

I have read that although this capture device seems to work well with a "clean" signal it does not like VHS tapes that have drop-outs etc.

It will simply drop frames giving you a (blue I think) screen

Many have reported that using a TBC can help cure most instances of this unless the tape is in really bad shape

The point is this capture card seems to be more sensitive than other capture cards with unstable video.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[herrner]

Here's an description on how to do raw YUV w/ Hauppauge PVR-Cards. It's a bit of a hack, but it works:

http://www.shspvr.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2131

Herrner