Customer Reviews

Hauppauge -WinTV-PVR-250 TV Tuner/Personal Video Recorder

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This is probably the best quality tv card you can buy for the money. Picture is clear and crisp with no dropped frames, and is much better than previous ATI and Hauppauge tuner cards that I have used.

The included Hauppauge software is crap, and their software has always been crap since when I first used it 7 years ago (Its the SAME application!). Its buggy and slow and has a very non-intuitive interface. Be sure to grab Snapstream BeyondTV, SageTV, MythTV or basically ANYTHING else and you will be pleasantly surprised by the difference.

Performance-wise this card is much better than the cheaper TV cards that do not include a MPEG encoder. Using an ATI TV Wonder I would routinely get 30-50% CPU usage when recording programs at fair quality on my 1.3Ghz CPU. The PVR 250 uses less than 5% CPU while recording at much higher quality.

Don't be fooled into buying the more expensive PVR-350. The only difference is the included MPEG decoder/tv-out on the 350. Its sounds like a good idea but unfortunately the decoder really only works with Hauppauge's software (and maybe SageTV) leaving you locked into using their crappy software. Besides the decoding process only uses 30-40% CPU for me and since the encoding uses basically no CPU it does not cause dropped frames while doing PVR decoding/encoding timeshifting activites.

The included remote (gray version) is "adequate" and contains most of the needed buttons. A plus is that is also works with the other PVR applications I have tried: BeyondTV and SageTV include native support for it. Unfortunately the range is really short and I can't get it to work more than about 7 ft away from the receiver, but it is better than nothing.

Bottom line: If you're building a serious Home Theater PC you should consider this card. Even though it costs more than double the cheapest tv card you could find, the quality and performance more than make up for the cost.
On the other hand if you're just planning on watching TV on your computer or digitizing some old VHS tapes you have lying around, this card is probably overkill as you won't benefit as much from the hardware MPEG encoder and there are cards out there that have better software packages and remotes for less money.

I bought this card mainly to transfer the contents of some old VHS video tapes to DVD. It did not take much work getting the card installed and running but the software has some glitches. It is intuitive and easy to use but sometimes for some unknown reason it will freeze up. This is easily recified by doing the old Ctrl-Alt-Delete routine to end the program but it is annoying. The program will freeze up and need to be restarted at least twice an hour. You cannot use any other software to interface with this card. I tried 3 different video editing programs with no success before I went to the manufacturer's website. They have a section on there where they tell you that the card will only work with the software that came with it. Even the slimmed down Ulead Movie Factory Toolkit that came in the software package cannot interface with the card directly. That was a little disappointing. The WinTV software does work and I am satisfied with the quality of video that I am able to capture and save with it and the card. Hence my rating of 4 stars.

There is one other strange issue that I have had. I'm not sure if it is the card or a coincidence but you might want to watch out for this. My husband has several video games installed on the machine. Shortly after we installed this capture card, a few of those games stopped working properly. The games would run and we could hear sound but the graphics would not display. No amount of tinkering, reinstalling etc could fix the problem.

Ok, I bought this used off of ebay, so I didn't pay the retail price, so anything negative I say about the card might be more of an issue if I'd paid retail for it.

The drivers for the PVR-250 have issues. If you have any kind of software DVD decoder on your system, such as PowerDVD or WinDVD, the PVR software doesn't play nice with them (the CPU usage jumps to 100% and the computer stops responding) -- you have to uninstall everything, then install updated drivers that work better with the DVD player. I ended up having a lot of software conflicts and decided just to wipe my hard drive and reinstall XP. That being said, everything works fine now :) but if you're not very techno-savvy and don't have a lot of patience, you might take this back to the store.

Now that those caveats are out of the way -- I love this card. The recordings it makes are high quality, you can select the quality/compression level you want to use, you can even do lower-bitrate (ca 1.4Mb/s) MPEG-1 captures with DVD-compliant audio (48KHz) and put 6 hours on a rewritable DVD. The higher-quality full-res MPEG-2 captures are also very good, which come in handy for recording stuff I want to keep. I primarily bought this card for time-shifting stuff, though.

The timer recording software is SUPERB. If you set the WinTV app to mute the volume while it's recording, it records your programs very unobtrusively. I haven't tried the TitanTV scheduling yet, but it's supposed to be integrated -- point, click, record.

My only real complaint about the recordings this card and the software make is that the MPEG files have to be remultiplexed for VCD/SVCD before they're burnable. It adds an extra minute or two to the burning process. In the grand scheme of things, this ain't a big deal, but it is worth mentioning.

--UPDATE: SIX WEEKS AFTER ORIGINAL REVIEW -- after owning this card for about six weeks, I have to recommend getting a third-party software solution instead of using Hauppauge's software. I had a lot of crashes using WinTV's software -- including programs I really wanted recorded. I now use Frey Technology's Sage Recorder, it's a no-frills, inexpensive Java-based PVR software package. Highly recommended, works great with the PVR-250.

I have been running the PVR-250 under Red Hat Linux for a while now, and using the Open Source MythTV application I have been able to record television shows, scheduling and watching them while at home, or on the road via MythTV's web interfaces.

The quality is quite amazing for the price, there are occasional minor artifacts in the resulting movies, but they are minor and hardly noticable when recording at the highest quality.

I have not used this card in Windows, but I would assume the quality is just as good under that operating system. I recommend this card to anyone who is interested in building their own PVR (Personal Video Recorder) system under Linux.

I tried several competitive products for video capture - Dazzle, Adaptec, Pinnacle, and Belkin Videobus II (USB). Even though the Belkin Videobus was the easiest to set up, the WinTV PVR 250 was a very close second and has the best video quality I've seen! I'm using the device mostly for analog camcorder capture and VCD/DVD burning. The software is a little challenging to use, but the results are hard to match!!! A very reliable product. I'm looking forward to actually using the TV portion of the package soon, but I'm having too much fun converting my old analog camcorder tapes to digital!

I have had my 250 PVR for about 6 months. In that time I have produced 100s of flawless SVCDs of exceptional quality. Like any computer activity, you need the proper equiptment and you need to study the techiques.

With the latest updated drivers and modern computers, you can re-record your VHS tapes to a more stable media. Record your TV shows to see at your place and time. Or just watch TV on your computer. The 250 PVR does it all and well.

I suggest you have at least a P4 1.8 meg or higher computer with at least 256 meg memory and 40 gig hard drive.

This is a gorgeous card that works as advertised. It has a lot of pros and some little things to improve with just a little effort from Hauppauge. For Argentinian buyers, like me: it supports PAL-N !!! PVR-350 also does, but take care because there are other models like PVR-150, 250MCE, 350MCE and 500 that don't fully support PAL-N. Check with Hauppauge representative before buying: they gave me great support.

1) Installation: it took just 10 minutes. After that I had everything running. Unfortunately for that moment I hadn't the fix to support PAL-N, otherwise it would have been 100% perfect.

2) NTSC / PAL-M / PAL-N and other tuner formats: just in case check with Hauppauge about the right support for every format. It seems that "NTSC" cards advertised in Hauppauge's site support NTSC / PAL-M / PAL-N, at least PVR-250 (980) and PVR-350 (990). Other models may not support those norms. However Hauppauge's site offer "PAL cards": it seems that most of them are designed for Europe, supporting PAL-C/D/E/F/G/I etc, but not PAL-N.
After asking Hauppauge about PAL-N support, because the user's manual posted in Amazon refers that you can select the different tuner formats in the respective checkbox, they sent me the solution: a small file with some special values for a record in the registry. It was very very simple and I think I could have been included in the box... anyway, it worked perfect !!! After applying that I could support PAL-N directly from the TV-cable signal. I haven't tested the PAL-N support from S-Video or RCA jacks but I think it should work perfectly.

3) Win-TV-Schedule: this is a flexible software that allows you to schedule all the shows you want to record. This is by far more flexible that any VCR and puts your PC at almost the same level that a Tivo. This software provides you a very easy way of having scheduled all your shows (one time show, daily, weekly, sequences of shows, etc). Things to improve: if your machine reboots, for instance due to a blackout or power outage while you are not at home, and you don't have any automatic logon (for security reasons, for instance) you'll miss the scheduled programs because the software needs that a given user has been logged on. Surely there is a possible configuration on Windows to do that but I haven't spent too much time on it yet.
Another interesting feature to add: you can select the format or "quality level" of the file to be recorded from the WinTV software. WinTV-Schedule uses that format but it is not possible to select specific formats for specific shows unless you change them manually just before starting the show. Anyway this software is very easy to use and provides a lot of flexibility to record your shows.

4) remote control: after some minutes of using WinTV without it, as if your PC were a TV you'll miss something. That's the time to install the remote control. After that all the stuff works more easily. This remote control is a very good accessory that doesn't seem to be necessary until you use it. Remember that PVR-250's remote control only works to control the card, it doesn't work as a remote control of some "set-top box" in "blaster" mode like, for instance, PVR-150's one.

5) MPEG encoder: you can record shows with consuming horsepower from your CPU !! It really works and very very good. This card doesn't provide a hardware decoder, so to watch your shows once recorded you will use horsepower from your CPU. If you are looking for a card with hardware decoder too you should try PVR-350.

6) Hauppauge provided me great support by email and they were opened to some suggestions. Thanks to them I could fix the PAL-N support. After this good experience I'm considering to buy another piece of tech from Hauppauge: the MVP player. That is a good companion of my PVR-250.

Summary: everything works as advertised, but once you have it everything working you feel that this is a great product.
Take your time to study the differences between the different Hauppauge cards. If you are from Brazil, where PAL-M is the standard, I think you should follow the same suggestions for PAL-N: identify the models that really support it and verify with somebody or Hauppauge before buying it.
Remember:
- PVR-250 and PVR-350 support PAL-N. PVR-150 apparentely doesn't fully support it, but it has a blaster remote control to handle external boxes like a satellite box.
- PVR-350 also provides a hardware MPEG decoder, not just the encoder like PVR-250 and 150.
- It seems that MCE variations usually don't support PAL-N. Check it with Hauppauge.
- In Amazon, PVR-250 model 980 (my card) shows the image of 975's box and viceversa. Model 975 is the PVR-250 MCE edition.

Hope this review has been useful to you.
Mariano from Argentina.

I am using the WinTV-PVR250 in a Dell Dimension 4300, Pentium 4, 1.7 GHz, 256 Mb ram with a NVIDIA GeForce2 64Mb video card, running Windows XP Home Edition. The WinTV-PVR250 exceded my expectations. I bought the card primarily as a means to back up my home videos. I wasn't expecting to be impressed by the TV function but I WAS!!! This card does a very good of capturing video from BOTH my VCR and while using it as a PVR. Another thing I was impressed about was the snapshot function. The resolution is customizable to numerous settings between 320x240 up to 1600x1200. I found it produced the best JPG's at 640x480. After having a disasterous experience with a Pinnacle PCTV Pro card (separate review),I couldn't have been more pleased. Is the extra cost of the WinTV card really worth the difference? YOU BET IT IS!!!!

I'm on my second PVR-250. I spent a few hours trying to get the first one to work, but it never did. I sent it back, but unfortunately because of a lack of supply, it was almost two months before I got my replacement through Amazon. However, it was worth the wait. The second card installed easily and immediately started working. Turns out the first one was just defective. I should note, I'm not running MCE, and I have heard that you'll need to do driver updates to resolve compatiability problems if you are, but, on the other hand, you should be doing driver updates anyway.

As other reviewers have noted, the bundled software isn't the greatest. If you're planning on using this as a Tivo replacement, you're probably going to want to look at some aftermarket software like Beyond TV or Sage (or, if you're running Linux, the free MythTV). The bundled WinTV2000 is serviceable, but it does feel somewhat clunky, has an archaic interface, and generally seems out of place considering the higher-end nature of the hardware you're paying for. If you're planning on using this card primarily for capturing VHS to DVD, then the bundled software is more than sufficient (but you are missing out on a whole world of PVR experiences).

The hardware, however, is great. Picture quality is quite good for a computer based capture card, and there's virtually no impact on your CPU because of the onboard encoder. There is no comparison between this product and, say, ATi's TV Wonder card. My experiences with ATi's line have left me thinking that ATi should stick with making graphics cards, because their capture cards are terrible. Also, if you're on an nVidia graphics chipset, you should definitely stay away from ATi cards. Either way, it is definitely worth the extra money for a Hauppauge. This card does everything you would probably ever need a capture card to do (well, other than let you watch two things at once or record something while watching something else, for that you'll need another card, just like with any capture card).

After you record something, you should experiment with your playback options (if you're playing directly from the computer and not burning to disc). I noticed, for example, that playback in Winamp tends to be a fuzzy, and there is noticeable artifacting, whereas play back in Windows Media Player is much smoother on my system.

The remote control is servicable. It sometimes feels sluggish in its response time, but it gets the job done. The functionality of the remote will depend a lot on what you're using it in. For example, if you're using it in the bundled WinTV2000 application you will find that it's nice to be able to use the red button on the bottom row to "force focus" back to WinTV2000 if you're in another application. So, for example, if you walk away from the computer and the highlighted window is Internet Explorer, you can hit the red button and WinTV2000 will become the highlighted window (allowing you to use the remote again).

On the other hand, if you're using a program like Beyond TV, you will unlock a lot of the potential of the remote by being able to navigate and make use of other buttons. However, you'll lose (as far as I can tell) the ability to force focus via the remote (which means you have to come back and use the mouse to click on Beyond before you can use the remote).

This seems like a design flaw that they should address in the software. Who knows, maybe they'll make a patch for it.

I would like to mention that Hauppauge has *great* customer service. They respond to emails (usually within a day or two), and not with some of prepackaged garbage that you see from other places. You can tell that someone at Hauppauge is actually sitting down and reading your email and writing an intelligent response to it. Also, when I talked to them on the phone (trying to get my first card to work), they were very patient and knowledgeable. I think that kind of service is a hallmark of a great company.

So, my conclusion is; Customer Service is Great, Hardware is Great, Software is outdated but servicable, Remote Control works but could work better, Playback and Functionality are Great, and compared to the competition, this card is everything you'll ever need (well, other than another one, so you can record and watch at the same time!).

If you're going to buy a tuner/capture, this is the one to get. Yes, it's a lot more expensive than a lot of the other cards on the market, but it's worth it.

What a product - I have successfully taken hours and hours and hours of home video played it through the VCR and captured them to disk and written them to CD and DVD.

Basically WinTV allow you to watch TV on you PC, either in a window or full screen. You can digitally record you TV shows or pause live TV and create you own instant replay (at this point the TV program is written to disk). You can also burn TV programs onto CD-ROM or DVD.

With the "nanoPEG Editor", you can trim your videos, cut out segments, put them back together, without losing any video quality. The editor also let you to remultiplex for VCD and SVCD.

The "WinTV Scheduler" allow you to control TV recording on a daily, weekly or a random schedule.

The Ulead "DVD MovieFactory" for authoring and burning Video CD's, SVCD's or DVDs.

Feature include:
-------------------
-125-channel cable ready TV tuner
-Composite/s-video and audio inputs, to connect to VCR or camcorders
-High quality MPRG-2 video and audio encoder
-Bundled software including WinTV2000 for TV watching and recording, MPEG editor, TV scheduler and DVD/VCD/SVCD authoring and burning software.
-Watch TV in a resizable window or the whole screen
-Capture high quality still video images, up to 1600x1200 pixels in BMP, TIF and JPEG formats
-Remote Control

System Requirement:
--------------------------
-Pentium II processor 450MHz or faster for TV pause with full screen playback
-MS Windows 98SE/ME/2000/XP
-Free PCI slot

-Sound Card
-CD-RW or DVD writer for burning Video CD's S-VCD's or DVD's