Hauppauge PVR 250BTV?

[Bwangster12]

I have searched the forum but can't seem to piece together a definite answer. I just bought a Hauppauge PVR 250BTV off of ebay for 40 bucks with shipping. It comes with the remote also. Is this card compatible with GV-PVR? This is my first TV Tuner Card and I was looking around and GV-PVR seems to be a great program. I called Hauppauge and the sales lady just said it is their card bundled in the Beyond TV pack, and then she transferred me to a tech... and he basically didn't know what I was talking about. Then I said Beyond TV and he said, yeah that is basically just the retail version. When I look on the Hauppauge website, the MCE version looks like the card I bought and the retail version doesn't. It also says it can be used for a bunch of programs including Beyond TV and MCE. Apparently the one I have also has the FM tuner in it. I do see that the Roslyn Hauppauge card is compatible now... I am not sure that is what I have, but I do understand that Roslyn has something to do with the chip in the card.

Lastly, Is the PVR250BTV any worse of a card than the 250MCE or the retail version? I've read that its cheaper... but is this card that I bought basically the MCE with the "Beyond TV" name branded on it?

Thanks

[Pioneer4x4]

I'm sure you will get a more definitive answer, but I would bet on it working just fine.

[Chris.Day]

IIRC the PVR250BTV is what Hauppauge refer to as the PVR-160 (also called Hauppauge Roslyn). The main difference is the use of the Conexant CX2388x chipset rather than the CX2584x used on the PVR-150. The PVR-250 and PVR-250MCE use a Philips SAA7115.

PVR-150 uses Amity2 drivers (PVR-150, PVR-500)
PVR-160 uses 88x drivers (Nova-t PCI, HVR-1100, HVR-1300)

[Bwangster12]

Does that equate to a cheaper or worse card? I mean... it still has the hardware encoder, so it won't slow down my machine and it will be compatible with GB-PVR and other types of programs?

In lamen's terms... what did you say? I understand it uses a different chip, but what does that mean?

Sorry, I don't mean to be a pain. I just want to be able to 80% of the time use it for recording without having my machine drastically slow down and 20% of the time watching. I don't plan on editing or anything like that. For 40 bucks, was this a bad deal? I figured I could have gotten the WinTV Go for 29 at Compusa this week, but this card seemed to offer much more, including the hardware encoder.

[Pioneer4x4]

Again, other will probably have better info, but at $40 I don't think you want bad.
The PVR cards (except for the 350) have nothing to do with watching video, only capturing it to your computer.
The captured files should be as compatible as any other card you would use. the WinTV Go cards aren't nearly as desireable/usefull. In the mean time, load up the software and give it a go.
At $40, I would buy one also.

[Bwangster12]

I will be able to watch video tho with this card rite?

I don't understand than what the drawbacks of this card are compared to the more expensive versions?

[Maelwys]

That card will work just fine with GBPVR, I'm currently running one very similar to it myself. It's just an older version, now replaced by the PVR150.

Just to clear up one thing though: with the exception of the PVR350, which has a TV out, you can not actually watch video using any of the other Hauppage PVR cards. They simply capture video from a source and hardware encode it. In order to watch the videos on your TV, you'll also need to have a regular video card that has some sort of TV out on it, and a software decoder such as the NVidia Decoder or the Intervideo Decoder that comes with the Hauppage cards (or is free to download for them from the Hauppage site).

Failing all of that, you could pick up a Hauppage MVP to do hardware mpeg decoding.

Of course, this assumes that you want to watch your videos on a TV. If you just want to watch them on your computer screen, then your existing video card will work just fine.