Delete Me

[Chaotic42]

I just got the PVR 250 yesterday, and I have to say I'm disappointed with the software. For one thing, getting the thing set up was a pain. Then I set it to record four shows while I was at work. Simple enough, you'd think.

It ended up recording 1 second of the first show, grabbing #2 and #3, and recording like 3 seconds of the fourth.

So when I got home I set it to record again. I wanted to watch what happened. What happened was that the software fired up and did nothing. I had to have it open for it to record.

So, everything looks nice, but I've had bad experiences with WinTV2000.

I should note that I'm not giving up on it, and hopefully there is some fix to these problems out there. I already had to mess with the registry once to get the darn card to even turn on.

 

[EULA]

Anyone with the PVR 350?

I'm leaning towards it...

 

[rbV5]

I should note that I'm not giving up on it, and hopefully there is some fix to these problems out there

The "fix" is decent software. You'll need to invest some more money and pick up a decent software like SageTV. Check out Anandtech's multimedia articles, they've covered a few of the more popular softwares over the past several months.

 

[L00PY]

Questions about the ATI HDTV Wonder?
FAQ.

 

[rise]

"found it on google" bump

 

[Peter]

The cheaper Leadtek card uses the old BT878 chip and has no stereo sound.

My favorite is the LifeView FlyTV Platinum - $38 for a full featured card w/ stereo audio, worldwide all-standards tuner, remote control, and the Philips high quality chipset. Unfortunately LifeView don't get much review exposure - their main business is OEM, much of their stuff goes into the market rebadged as someone else's.

 

[L00PY]

Originally posted by: xerosleep
No HDTV ones??

There's also a sub-$90 AverMedia HDTV tuner that's recently hit the market.

 

[Muse]

A few months ago the MyHD 120 (and the new MyHD 130) card added PVR-like capabilities into the software. It's not quite TIVO, but if you timeshift, it's close. I've never used a TIVO, so I'm not conversant. If you are watching live TV you can't pause or rewind. If I want that I put it in timeshift mode, which you do by hitting the pause button once. At that point, the software starts capturing the stream to disk. At any point, you can hit a button and start watching from the moment you hit the pause button. You have access to the timeline, so you can move ahead between the start point and the present. Whereever you are (while you are timeshifting) you can pause with the pause button, go back a set amount (configurable) by hitting the << button, or go forward a different configurable amount by hitting the >> button. You can always see where you are in the timeline. The quality is exactly like live, which is damn good with this card.

Aside from timeshifting, you can make straight up recordings, however you can't start watching one of those until it's done, unlike the timeshifting feature. Timeshifting works only with digital channels, not analog. However, you can make analog recordings, if you so desire.

 

[skisteven1]

I'm looking for a tuner card that supports some decent free PVR software (is that pretty much all of them?), and does NOT have onboard encoding. While i'd like to move to that eventually -- cheap is the name of the game right now. Is there any difference between the cards in this category? or are they all basically the same?

for instance -- http://www.surpluscomputers.com/store/main.aspx?p=ItemDetail&item=CRD10158 that card.... is that ok? or is there a better bang/buck ratio?

 

[Gamingphreek]

I only skimmed through the thread real quick so im not sure if this has been mentioned yet.

The PVR-250 is not something you want on the high end. The PVR-150 replaced (kinda strange huh), the 250. The 150 is much cheaper but offers the same great features.

Other than that; yet another great guide by Schadenfroh!!

-Kevin

Edit: It has been mentioned already

 

[Schadenfroh]

This thread is not archived yet? Dang its outdated.

 

[kjacobs]

I bought the PVR 150 and like it a lot. Got the remote but probably don;t need it! It comes with WinTV which works for me, and Movie Factory 3 SE to edit and burn the DVD. Took a bit of tweaking as all seem to do.

It ALSO lets you connect to TitanTV.com to schedule your shows. Just click on an event on the website and it sets up the correct day time, length and channel. Could not be easier.

Ken

 

[Bateluer]

Good thread.

My HDTV Wonder has been giving me intermittent problems, and driver support from ATI has been shakey at best. If I had to go back and buy a different tuner, I would have got for the PVR-250 card. Still might replace the ATI for the PVR-250.

 

[rbV5]

Originally posted by: Bateluer
Good thread.

My HDTV Wonder has been giving me intermittent problems, and driver support from ATI has been shakey at best. If I had to go back and buy a different tuner, I would have got for the PVR-250 card. Still might replace the ATI for the PVR-250.

How can you compare a DTV/analog software encoder tuner to a hardware encoder analog tuner? apples and oranges.

HDTV wonder works best in MCE 2005, as does the hauppage card (compared to WinTV) Software really is an important key for any tuner setup, and ATI's MMC is very good for in-house, freely bundled software, but like any of the tuner cards, its not the "best" software for the hardware.

 

[Schadenfroh]

Originally posted by: rbV5

Originally posted by: Bateluer
Good thread.

My HDTV Wonder has been giving me intermittent problems, and driver support from ATI has been shakey at best. If I had to go back and buy a different tuner, I would have got for the PVR-250 card. Still might replace the ATI for the PVR-250.

How can you compare a DTV/analog software encoder tuner to a hardware encoder analog tuner? apples and oranges.

HDTV wonder works best in MCE 2005, as does the hauppage card (compared to WinTV) Software really is an important key for any tuner setup, and ATI's MMC is very good for in-house, freely bundled software, but like any of the tuner cards, its not the "best" software for the hardware.

I wanted this thread to die, it has not been updated since 09/01/2004. It should have been in the archives a LONG time ago. I no longer maintain it or any other things related to video.