Sapphire Theatrix 550 Pro or PVR-150 ?

[Dava]

Hi,

I am finding it really difficult to choose which card to get. I want to record composite from a Sky box and will output via an Nvidea 6200. Does anyone have experience of which will give most reliability and best quality for composite?

[csy]

IMO, both have fairly close picture quality, but the 550 has slightly higher picture quality. But from the remote control point of view, GBPVR has better support for the Hauppauge remote, and only basic support for the Cyberlink remote supplied with the 550.

[replaytv]

I go with retail PVR-150 the one with IR blaster so it can control your Sky box. PVR150 can capture with lower bitrate if you want. ATI 550 is locked into one bitrate and can't adjust due to driver. ATI 550 picture has pixelated occasionally when view via MVP.

Dan L.

[sub]

PVR150 can capture with lower bitrate if you want. ATI 550 is locked into one bitrate and can't adjust due to driver.

Actually thats not quite true. You can change the video bitrate on the ATI 500, but the audio bitrate is stuck on the default. This isnt a huge concern for most, since the video bitrate is controllable and accounts for the bulk of the filesize.

[Dava]

Thanks All,

I went for the 550 as I have a Redrat for IR control and I will use my Pronto rather than any supplied remote.

The picture quality is great so far but I have a bit more configuring of GBPVR to do to remove some niggles before I can really say it is perfect, but I am happy so far.

[csy]

If you have a strong RF input signal, then you can improve the sharpness by disabling the noise reduction filtering within the ATI TV Control Panel (utility available with the drivers on the ATI website).

[pinman]

I use the sapphire 550 card and an evga 6200 le card. I'm happy with it. I'm using S-video, because my relatively cheap TV doesn't have component inputs. I'm happy with it. Everything is watchable, text is what you should expect, a little hard to read if its small. I imagine it would be better if I had a higher resolution plasma or lcd TV. The 550 cards run hot. Hopefully that won't be a problem for you. I also use the 550 remote, which works well enough, but not all of the buttons/features work right out of the box.

Please report back, let us know how you like it. I'm thinking about adding another 550 or 650 card so I have dual tuners.

Good luck

[Dava]

If you have a strong RF input signal, then you can improve the sharpness by disabling the noise reduction filtering within the ATI TV Control Panel (utility available with the drivers on the ATI website).

I am using composite as I did not want to go through RF mod/demod if avoidable. Does this still apply as the signal is perfect but slightly soft.

I had some problems in that it was detecting NTSC rather than PAL but Sub gave me a fix for that in another thread. I have now sorted my sleep issue to some extent also so I can start really using GBPVR now. It is all great so far.

Next step is to get transcoding working so that I can also create low bitrate WMVs for the kids stuff, and that they can watch it on my iPAQ while travelling.

I have had a few Hauppauge cards in the past and had major problems with their software/drivers. I was really keen to get away from them and I am now very happy with the ATI.

[nitrogen_widget]

I bought the Sapphire 550.
It came with the remote & cost less than the 150.
I use a serial cable to change my Sat. receiver so that wasn't a problem.
I used to think the 550 looked slightly better than my pvr 150 but now i'm not so sure.

Since i've started burning recordings from both cards to DVD for later viewing I cannot really see a difference.

So, when it comes time to purchase another card I will just go for the cheapest one.

[Dava]

So, when it comes time to purchase another card I will just go for the cheapest one.

That's just what I did. Good old eBuyer.