Hardware is great, software is an abomination
Written: Sep 19 '03
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Hardware works well, popular card means more support by outside vendors
Cons: The software is atrocious. If you need to timeshift, you'll need third party software.
The Bottom Line: Probably the best PC PVR choice today. Recommended, but understand that if you want to timeshift, the bundled software doesn't cut it. Decent software alternatives are available at additional cost.
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| rasi2290's Full Review: Hauppauge WinTV PVR-250 (980) TV/Video Input |
This is the second PVR application I've used with my computer. The first was the Creative Labs Digital VCR, which is about 2 years older.
Since it's easier(but less fun), I'll address the hardware first.
One of the reasons I selected this product is that the Hauppauge PVR-250 is the only third-party video card authorized for use with the possible stand-alone Windows Media Center edition MS is supposed to release. Currently, XP-WMC is only available as part of WMC computers, so this might never be an issue. But if WMC does ever become available without the computer wrapped around it, I'll be glad I purchased the most likely PVR card to work with it. Bear in mind that it's not just any Hauppauge card that's approved; it must be the 250 or 350(MPEG decoding and saves to AVI format).
The other reason I selected this product is that after gobs of research, I learned that while nobody's got this PVR thing down perfectly yet, Hauppauge comes closest (hardware-wise) with this card. The basic problem is this: you need to choose either hardware MPEG encoding, or software encoding. Of course, hardware encoding is faster and puts less strain on the CPU. But it also makes it difficult for the card to work with outside software, which usually puts you at the mercy of the hardware vendor for providing the software to drive the card. Still, most people prefer taking this risk for the increased speed and quality that should accompany hardware MPEG encoding.
And I can verify that to be the case. The PVR-250 uses hardware encoding, and it is smooth and flawless. Which is to say, recording TV uses almost no CPU power on my Athlon XP2000. MPEG decoding, which is what happens when you're watching live or recorded TV, is still done by the CPU and will take up to 70% of my processor. But it's done well with the drivers(make SURE you download the latest from Hauppauge's site!) and the picture is smooth and clear.
The bundled remote and IR sensor work just fine. The newer releases of the PVR-250 have a silver remote, so if yours is black, you might consider returning it for a newer one. The silver remote is more compatible with third-party software, and just darn looks cooler.
Another reason I like this card is that because of reasons 1 and 2 above, this card has slowly pulled ahead over a year's time or so. It seems to currently be one of the most popular on the market, and that's extremely useful because that means more third party PVR software solutions will work with this card. And THAT'S useful because the PVR software Hauppuage has enclosed is absolutely useless. You'll want to use one of the two excellent choices available right now to actually use this card as intended. I'll get to them in a moment, but first let me rant about the bundled software. It makes me feel better. :)
It's called Win-TV 2000. Right away, you can sense trouble, because it stopped being cool to name things after the millenium some time before the millenium. Around 1997 or so, and from the looks of it, that's when this software was created.
I expect a PVR solution to let me accomplish certain tasks. If they fail at any of these basic tasks, that's a dealkiller. These tasks are:
1) I want to watch TV on my computer screen with reasonably good quality.
2) I want to be able to easily record what I'm watching at any time.
3) This is the important one. I want to be able to timeshift, like on a Tivo. That means pause, rewind and fast-forward live TV. If I can't do this, I might as well go back to watching regular TV with a VCR. The timeshifting is the key thing.
4) Also very important; I want the videos I record to be accessible by other programs. They should be saved in standard MPEG2 format so I can play around with them or burn them to DVD.
The PVR-250 hardware allows all four to happen. And in fairness, the software does ok with 1,2, and probably 4( I never used it long enough to find out). But it mangles timeshifting all to hell. You can't timeshift with the bundled software. It's very important to understand that, because if you want to timeshift, you'll be using outside software to do it. Hauppauge will claim that this software does let you timeshift, but that's really only true in the sense that pigs can fly if you launch them from a catapault.
Here's how it "works". You use the software to watch TV, change channels, whatever. If you want to pause, RW or FW what you're watching, you must enter a special mode called "pause mode". It takes several seconds to enter this mode, while the pause buffer stores up. You may now freely pause, RW, and FW. But you can't change the channel!. If you want to change the channel, you must leave "pause mode". When you do, you lose your buffer and the ability to timeshift. To get it back, you must re-enter "pause mode", and you must keep doing this every time you change the channel. Each time, it takes several seconds to kick in. If you see something cool you want to replay, but you weren't in "pause mode", you're out of luck.
So that's the end of WinTV 2000 right there, if you ask me.
Instead, I strongly recommend one of these alternatives: Frey Technologies' SageTV, or SnapStream's Personal Video Station 3.2. Sage is free, but Snapstream is much nicer with a full-fledged EPG and the ability to remotely set up recordings from anywhere you can access the web. Snapstream PVS also seems to have improved my picture quality. It's not free; it's about $60(they have a 21-day full trial), and you should factor that into your decision about buying this card, because it's the combo of the PVR-250 and Snapstream PVS that really knocks it out of the park. And BTW, earlier versions of Snapstream did not support the PVR-250, but because of it's increased popularity, they found a way to make it work.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
rasi2290
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Member: Josh
Location: Brooklyn, NY
Reviews written: 24
Trusted by: 14 members
About Me:
I know and love gadgets, computers, and home theater. And cats. But not bionic cats.
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