Considering Hauppauge WinTV PVR 350...

[chewie8008]

Trying to find a good video recorder for my needs. I was looking at this Hauppauge WinTV PVR 350.

http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=10340586&s_kwcid=&dcaid=17260

I would like to be able to record

Dish Network Satellite(regular free tv shows)
VHS to PC to DVD
And other hookups, like camcorders and things...

Can I get what I want out of this product? I need it to record in a format I can work fairly easily with. It says MPEG2 is the format it uses. I use VirtualDub TMGenc to edit home movies with...

Does this have the audio/video sync lock? And I know in like 2009 analog signals are going to be no longer usable without a special converter box, which is only referring to standard regular antenna signals, right? I assume this wouldn't affect recording from Dish Network.

Thanks!

[jman98]

I have this card and it is an excellent card. It only has cable TV and S-Video inputs for video, so you will need to be able to send a signal via one of those to the card from your Dish Network receiver in order to record with the card.

I did one VHS capture with the card and had no audio sync issues and the video quality was fine.

Other hookups - depends on whether or not you can use the S-Video or coax cable inputs.

Please get yourself a real video editor like VideoReDo or MPEGVCR and don't use VirtualDub or (even worse) TMPGenc to edit. Both VideoReDo and MPEGVCR let you "try before you buy".

In early 2009, there will be no more analog TV broadcasts. Dish Network should take care of the conversion for you and you should not need a special converter box when this happen. People with dish receivers and cable boxes will be OK.

If you don't need TV out, you can save a little money and get the PVR-250 which differs from the 350 only by not having a TV out connection.

[quxote]

Hello,

I was going through the same thing you are now a couple of months ago. See my post here
https://forum.videohelp.com/topic317853.html

I decided to go with the Win TV and have the exact product you are looking at. I have used it to record home movies and had not audio/video sync problems. I have not started editing yet, so I can comment on the ease of doing that. But I would assume editing mpeg is harder then avi, so there may be problems there.

The only problem I can see witht is option is that the WinTV PVR is not "meant" for capturing and editing home movies. Although you can make it work, whenever using a product that for something it was not meant to do, there are always challenges. The WinTV does do a good job at scheduling TV show recordings and it is a simply click to schedule it to record.

One thing I did notice is that this WinT is meant for WIndows MCE, I am not sure if you have that, but if you don't you will get limited use of the remote control provided. You may also have to download a different application from their site. The Drivers included are for MCE and not X pro or Home.

[dadrab]

I did one VHS capture with the card and had no audio sync issues and the video quality was fine.

I've done many. No sync problems and the picture is very nice.

[jman98]

But I would assume editing mpeg is harder then avi, so there may be problems there.

That's an old myth that won't die. That hasn't been true for years. Both VideoReDo and MPEGVCR are fine editors. Using them is no problem.

Good advice to mention the MCE related stuff. The original poster definitely does NOT want to get an MCE version of the card and drivers if they aren't running that on their PC. Those who have done so have had tons of problems.

[chewie8008]

I actually picked up a Pinnacle USB one at Circuit City for $145. Kinda just to try out, see how it fits my needs. If it doesn't work well I get 30 days

It has the audio/video sync lock. And can connect via S cable or RCAs. In the little bit of time I messed with it I couldn't get the record to work from my satellite. Didn't have much time to mess with it though.

This is what I got

http://www.pinnaclesys.com/PublicSite/us/Products/Consumer+Products/Home+Video/Studio+...+MovieBox+Plus

Tell me what you guys think. I have 1gb RAM, 256Video card and 1.8ghz CPU. I have a seperate harddrive to save video files to but it seems to be a little slow sometimes. Wondering if I would benefit from adding a another GB of RAM would help out. And how much of a difference having USB2.0 would make, I am using 1.1 right now..

Thanks for any info!

[jagabo]

Another GB of RAM will make no difference with video capture and playback -- unless you have a lot of other memory hungry programs running at the same time. It will make very little difference with editing and converting.

Your motherboard (ASUS A8NE) and capture device both have USB 2.0 ports. What makes you think you're using only USB 1.1? Are they hooked up through an old 1.1 hub?

How did you connect the capture device to your satellite box? What happened when you tried to view or record?

[chewie8008]

No, I don't have a USB hub. It always says whenever I plug anything into the back USB plugs in my PC that they are not USB 2.0 and to get maximum speed plug the periphriel into a USB 2.0. I found out that is the problem with recording the satellite. The Pinnacle box requires USB 2.0 and says that my USB is 1.1...

Am I missing something, I was thinking of buying a USB 2.0 but if I already have one??? Could I possibly have the usb hooked up wrong? I don't have any sort of hub though...

Thanks

[jagabo]

It always says whenever I plug anything into the back USB plugs in my PC that they are not USB 2.0 and to get maximum speed plug the periphriel into a USB 2.0.

According to this:

http://www.asus.com/products4.aspx?modelmenu=1&model=455&l1=3&l2=15&l3=171

the A8N-E has USB 2.0 ports. I think you'll find there's a BIOS setting to force 1.1 only support. Change it to 1.1 + 2.0 support. That should take care of the problem.

[chewie8008]

Unbelievable. I've had this PC built for about 2 years now and never knew I had 2.0. I got it working now, but it wasn't in BIOS. BIOS was already enabled. I just had to install the f'n driver.

Wow, thanks for pointing that out!

It captures great now. Seems to do very well. However, i'm having a hard time figuring out the compression settings.

If I set it to highest, which looks pretty clear but could actually be a bit clearer the files are enormous. It's like 30sec=1 gig nearly. But if I bump it down of course, the quality declines. My question is, is it all in the type of compression you use to get quality image and small file size? Full 2-3 hour movies fit on a 4.7GB DVD, and at that size I could only fit about a minute or two on a 4.7GB DVD-R. Obviously i'm not looking to fit 2-3 hours on one DVD-R, but it would be cool if I could fit an hour or half hour on a DVD at good quality.

I'm also curious as to how my VCR to DVD-R conversions are going to go. At VCR quality 720x480(or higher) it doesn't seem like i'll be able to fit very much on one DVD-R.