33 of 35 people found the following review helpful:
Great piece of hardware, horrible software
4/28/05 - I have to update this review (from 10/1/04). I have since upgraded to Windows Media Center Edition 2005. This card is great with MCE. There are cheaper Hauppauge cards that also work fine with MCE, so it might be worth taking a look at them before spending the $ on this card. I also wanted to change this review to 5 stars, but Amazon doesn't seem to allow...
This review is from: Hauppauge-WinTV-PVR-350 TV Tuner/Personal Video Recorder (Electronics)
4/28/05 - I have to update this review (from 10/1/04). I have since upgraded to Windows Media Center Edition 2005. This card is great with MCE. There are cheaper Hauppauge cards that also work fine with MCE, so it might be worth taking a look at them before spending the $ on this card. I also wanted to change this review to 5 stars, but Amazon doesn't seem to allow changes to the star rating.
After years of owning various ATI All-In-Wonder video cards, I decided it would be cheaper to go ahead and buy a TV only card, and not have to spend a fortune everytime it was time to upgrade my video card. Quick and to the point, here are my findings :
Negatives :
1. The 'web based' program guide is a very clumsy interface. I would much rather have a application based program guide.
2. No matter what I try, channel 2 always has ghosting. I know it's the card because I had the same cable plugged into my ATI AIW with no problems, and also plugged it into a TV with no picture problems. Maybe moving the card further away from the video card will help?
3. While I'm sure there is a way, I have yet to find how to change the recording quality. After fumbling through the software I finally gave up.
Positives :
1. The FM Radio program is pretty slick, and the reception is ok. No complaints.
2. Unlike the ATI AIW cards (and probably the TV Wonder's) you can set the program to automatically mute while recordinging and close the application when it's done recording. You still have to go back into the scheduler and modify EACH individual scheduled task. It would be nice to either highlight all and change them all at once, OR set a default for all new recordings.
3. Hardware based TV OUT is nice.
4. PLENTY of 3'rd party software supports this card. This is a big plus since in my opinion the software that comes with the card is lacking.
I would have gave this card 5 stars if the bundled software was better. Plan on purchasing SageTV or similar if you plan on buying this card.
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23 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
Good, but not for everyone, August 30, 2003
By A Customer
This review is from: Hauppauge-WinTV-PVR-350 TV Tuner/Personal Video Recorder (Electronics)
The card does work as expected but I cannot recommend it for current Hauppauge customers. Read the FAQ on the Hauppauge web page before purchase. I had to disable my current Hauppauge TV card before installing this PCR card. This is the primary problem with card for me.
A secondary issue is that my TV and computer are very close together and on at the same time. This was fine with the original TV card but with the PVR-350 card there is a delay causing an echo effect with the sound, so either my TV or the PVR-350 must be muted.
The only real Bug I have found is if you are using the PVR-350 in Pause or REC mode when a scheduled program starts. The scheduled program kicks you of your current mode and starts recording. However, this card does not currently allow you to change channels while in Pause or REC mode, so your scheduled record will record what you were watching but not what was scheduled! The channel indicator does show what was scheduled but it does not match the screen unless by luck you were watching the same channel as was scheduled.
The final irritation for me is use of remote while in Pause mode. If you hit the skip 10 seconds button too fast the signal appears to be misread and it kicks you out of Pause with loss of data! This has never occured when I use the computer controls. BTW: No information such as channel number or menu is shown on your primary TV. This limits the use of the remote.
I would highly recommend this card if your first TV card and primary use will be at the computer.
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This review is from: Hauppauge-WinTV-PVR-350 TV Tuner/Personal Video Recorder (Electronics)
I have been evaluating MPEG-2 Encoder cards for work and purchased this one for myself because I couldn't believe how inexpensive it is (from Amazon no less!).
It works like a charm, and includes more consumer-friendly functionality than products costing 3 times as much.
In my opinion, anyone who owns a PC and watches television should buy one.
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This review is from: Hauppauge-WinTV-PVR-350 TV Tuner/Personal Video Recorder (Electronics)
This is a great product, but you may need to know how to change Windows registry values to make it work the way you want.
In my case installation went without a single problem, though I should mention that Happague really needs slightly more detailed installation manual. For example it is not easy to identify all connectors and adaptors supplied with the product. I spent some time trying to discover composite video input and then searching for Composite to S-Video adapter.
After installation I discovered that card apply too much amplification to the audio channel, so recordings have lot of distortion. It was easy enough to google out site with all tips and tricks for the card (http://www.cask-of-amontillado.com/pvr_reg.html) - but you should be confident enough to modify registry on your machine.
I wish Happauge provided some simple user friendly utility for tuning the board.
Bundled sofware is OK. It does what it suppose to do, but if your want more functionality try Sage TV for TV and ULead Video Studio for home video.
In general, board works great and I have no issues so far.
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This review is from: Hauppauge-WinTV-PVR-350 TV Tuner/Personal Video Recorder (Electronics)
For TV, this card works fairly well, but the software does crash.
I also use this card to convert old VHS tapes to DVD. It makes great quality transfers, but the audio and video become unsynchronized as the mpegs become longer. After about 45 minutes, the are noticeably off. Also, the supplied adapter to input from an RCA source has a female end for the 1/8" stereo plug. The input on the card is also 1/8" female, so you will need to purchase and additional 1/8" male to male stereo cable to use the supplied adapter.
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This review is from: Hauppauge-WinTV-PVR-350 TV Tuner/Personal Video Recorder (Electronics)
First of all, this review DOES NOT consider the software this card came with. I've never used the included software, or even put the card in a Windows machine for that matter.
This card works excellently under MythTV. It captures video from my cable feed at standard DVD resolution, using between 1.5 and 2.0 GB/hr for storage. At this bitrate the quality of the video is quite good. Higher bitrates, of course, can yield better results. During capture there is virtually no load on the processor and the PVR-350 just does its thing.
As for playback, the integrated MPEG-2 decoder plays back recordings made with this card very well. Under normal conditions the MPEG-2 decoder can do only just that, decode MPEG files. However, with some reconfiguration of the X Server in Linux, it is possible to view your entire desktop, and hence the MythTV interface, through it. This is the setup I use on a daily basis, using the remote that came with this card to control practically everything inside MythTV.
This card supports hardware decoding of MPEG-2 streams. However, I have found that when playing DVDs in MythTV, MythTV is not able to output the surround sound (Dolby or DTS) on the DVD through your motherboard or sound card while the PVR-350 is decoding. The result being that DVDs (those without PCM sound tracks) play back with no sound if you have hardware decoding turned on in MythTV. The solution was to simply turn hardware decoding off. The MPEG-2 streams are decoded by the processor (about 30% load on a 1.4GHz Athlon) and then MythTV can direct the sound to your sound card's analog or digital output. Disabling hardware decoding is probably a good idea in any case, as MythTV's software decoders are more forgiving than any hardware decoder could be. (Can play back all those crazy but not quite standardized files you find all over the net)
Keep in mind this is still with all the video being directed to the PVR-350's TV-Out port. Even when using software decoding.
Overall, excellent product. Put this card together with MythTV (I highly recommend Mythdora. It will make things ALOT easier), any 1Ghz+ computer with drive space to suit your needs and you've got the best standard definition PVR money can buy.
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This review is from: Hauppauge-WinTV-PVR-350 TV Tuner/Personal Video Recorder (Electronics)
I bought it for a MythTv setup; it's working great and the remote works well. No problems with setting up (the card at least). I may well buy another one soon.
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This review is from: Hauppauge-WinTV-PVR-350 TV Tuner/Personal Video Recorder (Electronics)
I've been using my PVR 350 for over six months now and have backed up over 70 VCR tapes with few problems. I admit that there is a learning curve at first, but the few problems I had did work out. The problem that I did have was related to the conversion from RCA to S-Video. I tried a few different adapters, and finally resolved my problem with the conversion by purchasing a VCR with S Video out. It was an investment, but it works perfect now. I capture at DVD extended play and can capture about 3 hours of VCR tape at less than 4.4 GB. I love DVD Movie Maker. Very easy to use with some nice templates. You can't use it to capture, only to make your DVD. You must use the provided WinTV2000 to capture. I hope this helps you in your decision. Oh yes, I'm buying another for my son to put in his computer for college next year.
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This review is from: Hauppauge-WinTV-PVR-350 TV Tuner/Personal Video Recorder (Electronics)
I use this card to record DIY channels and hockey games. The picture quality is pretty good. I used to have it on windows XP pro but now it's running on Media Center Edition. I still use the WinTV2000 sw... don't ask why :)
If you plan to use WinTV2000 on MCE, make sure you disable Media Center Receiver Service. Otherwise, you'll get an error, "Failed to create TV Window. hTV=0x3fa1f8 Err=8". Your hex address might be different than mine.
I hook up a VCR to convert VHS into digital as well.
The only negative thing about this card is the picture gets super white when content is bright in a large area. Watching ice hockey would be an example since the ice is really white, the details such as the puck and players would get "brighten" up as well and blend into the ice. So to fix that, you have to lower the brightness and contrast but that would effect other viewings like movies and shows.
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