WinTV PVR 250 Experiences

[Clocker]

Hi Guys-

I'm considering purchasing the WinTV PVR250 card. Do any of you have experiences with this card?

The PVR functionality is interesting to me so I might get a nice big HDD to go with it. I also want to capture video from a wireless surveilance camera using the component video input.

Any opinions would be appreciated.

Thanks,
C

 

[Mercutio]

Personally, I think other vidcap hardware has better output. And the software that comes with the card - unless you're using Snapstream - isn't just bad, it's downright brutal. Also they're incompatible with 99% of other vidcap software, and also with a surprising array of other programs that deal with MPEG video.

Shit, *I* can't get the cards to work right half the time.

But if you can get one to work, and don't mind the software, they're alright.

 

[russofris]

Side note,

The PVR250 has fairly decent quality hardware MPEG2 compression. It is supported under linux, and works well with MythTV. For a non-hardware accellerated solution, I would recommens a BT-8x8 solution, as support for windows will be infinately better. Hauppauges WinTV PCI model 404 was based on this chipset, although they now use a different chip made by Connexant (I realize that they bought BTree, but they no longer produce the 878a).

Thank you for your time,
Frank Russo