Which is best, Pinnacle 110i or PCTV Pro PCI

[brvignesh]

I want to buy new tv card, mainly i use for recording i need best video & audio quality.
I have a choice Pinnacle 110i or PCTV Pro PCI, which is better in this

[tipstir]

Hauppauge WinTV-PVR 150 or HVR series..

[Richard_G]

Anything not made by Pinnacle unless you enjoy watching video with out of sync audio.

[vhelp]

I don't know, Richard_G. I am using an older version Pinnacle Studio AV/DV pci
i/o card in my newly build XP Home computer (built in early part of this year) and so far,
I love it.. that is, there is no line noise or other nonense that once plauged me for many
long years. Course, part of the reason could be on account of a 'filtered' ac line power
strip I am using and have vcr/tv/computer souly connected to it. But, so far, I have
not had any other *tipicle* problems.. ie, dropped frames or other. It has been a clean
and flawless card since I added the 'filtered' ac power strip. And I should keep my fingers
crossed

--> I use my Pinnacle Studio AV/DV pci i/o capture card for: VHS; and Analog Cabletv.

Its funny and ironic, cause I used to sware by another Pinnacle card, the DC10plus. I
still have it, but don't use it -- was limited 640 x 480 (NTSC) resolution. But that card
never gave me any line noise issues what-so-ever. Anyway. Pinnacle i/o cards are not
so bad. I think that it's all a matter of one's familiarity with their mother board and cpu
and windows and graphics/capture card driver setup. Get them all working in proper
concert, and the issues seem to go away. Or something like that

-vhelp 4457

[edDV]

Define your budget. Asking for "best " will get a nice $2000 solution suggestion.

We think you are asking for the best while spending very little money? How much is "little"?

Next questions:

What are you trying to capture and what do you intend to do with it?

[Richard_G]

Its funny and ironic, cause I used to sware by another Pinnacle card, the DC10plus.

I started with a DC10Plus (when it was still called Miro but made by Pinnacle) in 1999 and used to do nothing but swear AT it. After changing both my video card, my soundcard and spending days manually assigning IRQs, I finally got it to work every time I wanted to use it and not just on the odd occasion it felt like working. I then discovered that I could capture nothing longer than about 5 minutes of footage before the audio and video went out of sync. Phoning Pinnacle customer service got the reply of, "Oh yes, we are aware of that problem, it should be cured with the next driver release which is due in a couple of months". As it was supposed to be used for a specific job that involved a total of 2 hours footage, it took some time to do having to capture in 5 minute sections and then join them together so the audio stayed in sync. Three or four driver releases later, it still wasn't completely cured and the Pinnacle Studio software was probably the most unstable application I have ever used.

In the end, I bought an ATI All in Wonder and have never looked back.

[brvignesh]

Hauppauge WinTV-PVR 150 or HVR series..

Is the above mention cards is better than pinnacle pctv pro?

[dphirschler]

I love my Pinnacle PCTV Pro. I also have a Hauppauge WinTV which spec-wise is the same card, but I like the Pinnacle card better because it has separate plugs for composite and s-video, whereas the Hauppauge makes me unplug and use an adapter. But if you are building a PVR/DVR, then I'd recommend the PVR 250 (or maybe the 150) since it has a built-in hardware mpeg encoder.


Darryl

[brvignesh]

How is the quality of audio in PCTV Pro?

[lordsmurf]

Hauppage PVR 250 is better.

[brvignesh]

I saw the Hauppage web and i noticed PVR 350 which includes video decoder
So howz PVR 350?

[jagabo]

The PVR-350 is basically the same as the PVR-250 except it has video outputs and an FM radio tuner. The outputs are only good for playing MPEG.

[brvignesh]

So what is the price of PVR 250

[dphirschler]

How is the quality of audio in PCTV Pro?

I never had a problem with audio. Although I did occasionally use the built-in tuner for capturing, I usually captured from external sources through the s-video input. And I ran audio for that through my sound card.


Darryl

[brvignesh]

How is the quality of audio in PCTV Pro?

I never had a problem with audio. Although I did occasionally use the built-in tuner for capturing, I usually captured from external sources through the s-video input. And I ran audio for that through my sound card.


Darryl

Does Pinnacle uses soundcard or it has built in?

[jagabo]

So what is the price of PVR 250

The question is "can you find one?". They are out of production. If you can find one the price will probably be in the $75 to $150 range.

http://www.google.com/products?q=hauppauge+pvr-250&btnG=Search+Products

[brvignesh]

Is there separate card for MCE?

[jagabo]

Is there separate card for MCE?

Hauppauge PVR series? Yes. Avoid them unless you're using MCE.

[brvignesh]

Is there separate card for MCE?

Hauppauge PVR series? Yes. Avoid them unless you're using MCE.

No i wont use Media Centre

[jagabo]

I have seen many people having problems with the Hauppauge MCE cards on non-MCE computers.

[brvignesh]

Then WinTV PVR 250 Non MCE model is better?

[jagabo]

How many times do I have to say it? If you don't have MCE don't get a PVR-250 MCE. Get the regular PVR-250.

The PVR-250 is not necessarily the "best" video capture device for you though. What's best for you depends on exactly what you want to do. What you're capturing from, whether or not you will need heavy filtering, what you plan to do with the video once you're done processing it, etc.

The benefits of the PVR-250 are nearly bulletproof capture (you can use the computer while capturing), good audio/video sync, MPEG files can be authored direclty to DVD, ignores macrovision copy protection, standard definition only.

Some bad things about it are hardware MPEG compression only (if your video needs heavy filtering the MPEG artifacts may mess you up), no time base correction, no high definition capture.

[edDV]

Best to design your workflow and then buy cards and software that match your workflow.

Example 1: Camcoder to DVD would use IEEE-1394 port for capture and software like Premiere Pro or Vegas working in DV or HDV format.

Example 2: TV capture to DVD might use the PVR-250 and Womble software doing everything in MPeg2.

[brvignesh]

How is Pinnacle PCTV Pro PCI?