Hauppauge 2250 Opinions wanted

[mian]

I've read some disturbing things over in the support forums about this dual hybrid tuner. Still, I'd like to have some HD support, and I'd like to have the option of recording multiple shows at a time. For now, I still have analog cable, and apparently, all the major broadcasts on QAM (I did some googling for people in my area with the same service), so my plextor convertx still does me some good. But it won't always, and I'm looking for a purchase that will hold me over for a good long time.

Those of you that have an HVR-2250 or know about them, what do you think? Is it a bad card? Are the problems, like its ability to find and display QAM just related to general switchover growing pains? Is it software or hardware? Drivers? Or Transmissions? Will it all iron out and the 2250 will be a great card? Is Hauppauge good about supporting products with updates? I gather from other topics that people aren't sure about the 2250, but what do you think?

I also read some people blaming the internal splitter for possible blank/bluescreen recordings. I invested in an excellent line booster some time ago, and always had excellent luck with it when I was splitting analog cable between my PC and TV. Would that make the internal splitter less likely to kill recordings? Would that type of booster cause any sort of problem with digital signals? Might the problem be unrelated to the internal splitter?

As far as GBPVR goes, I've never had a second tuner before. If I were to get this, and then schedule a recording, would it give me the option of what tuner (one of the 2250s or my current convertx) I wanted to use each time? Or would it pick on its own?

Does Schedules Direct provide QAM data? I was just poking around in my listings and didn't see how I'd get separate epg info for them. Do people who use it just do manual recordings?

Sorry for all the questions. Just trying to get a handle on what I should get and what I'll get out of it. Thanks for reading and I appreciate any advice, information or pointers.

Happy New Year.

[cdldt]

The sensitivity is improved with the latest driver.
http://www.quantexzone.com/faq/wintv_faq...tivity.htm

Hauppauge are good at releasing updates. The HVR-2200 and 2250 are their flagship products and they're fixing problems as and when they're discovered (tuning issues, Vista 64-bit issues, Fiji issues etc).

[whurlston]

Some people have had trouble getting gbpvr to find Qam channels with it. I have one on order so I can work on it or supply sub the means to do it.

[Gameross]

I just built a new PVR system around 3 of these, my old Hauppauge 500 and using the non-beta drivers I would get random blue screens for NTSC recordings.

Ive since replaced the drivers with the latest beta drivers and havent had the blue screen issue.

There does seem to be a minor issue when driver flushes its buffers or something when a recording ends where it has some garbage at the last couple frames. Only reason I noticed was FFMPEG pukes a error out at the end of transcoding.

This doesnt happen on shows recorded on the 500.

I have only worked on getting my NTSC recordings going as I wanted to at least get what I had before the upgrade, but all the issues Ive read about seem to be NTSC recordings related, so Im expecting HD recordings to be good once I get GBPVR set up to do them.

ftp://ftp.hauppauge.com/Support/HVR2250/

The above should link you directly to the 2250s beta driver directory.

PS Anyone around Minneapolis, MN looking for a 2250 kit for $120 I paid for it. Couldnt get the 4th one to work for some reason in the 2nd PCIe 8x slot in my motherboard which is normally for a 2nd Crossfire video card, but should be usable with a 1x card, but isnt. Will most likely take a BIOS change and Im not holding my breath on that being done anytime soon.

Call me at 612-287-5345 -Ross

[pcostanza]

I've some mixed feelings about my 2250. It's been mostly good in Vista Media Center with almost any of the drivers and so-so in GBPVR. The latest drivers helped fix some of the dual & back to back recording issues I had in GBPVR but still no luck with QAM in GBPVR.
I had trouble installing the card in my system because the hardware ID was not the same in the registry as the driver .inf file. Changing the .inf file was all I needed to fix that.
I don't use it much in XP so I can't say anything about it that OS but have been dabbling with it in Windows 7 and for some reason, that OS, upon reboot, looses the card or I have to rerun setup for it to work (in Media Center).
Having had a PVR500 for a long while and never having problems, I can say that it's not as good but hopefully driver development will improve it. The analog files are not as large and the quality, while still good, is a notch below the 500 IMO.

[zaphod7501]

SHS has posted new prerelease drivers that address a QAM problem.
http://www.shspvr.com/smf/index.php?topic=11879.0

[pcostanza]

I just installed those this morning after my earlier post. Analog is working fine but still no QAM in either GBPVR or WinTV.
Channel changing seems very smooth for me. I assume back to back recording works as well as the previous ones. At least they're working on this card and pushing out drivers regularly.

[Gameross]

SHS has posted new prerelease drivers that address a QAM problem.
http://www.shspvr.com/smf/index.php?topic=11879.0

And I posted a direct link to the Hauppauge Beta drivers directory earlier! So there! :p

In case ya missed it a few messages up: ftp://ftp.hauppauge.com/Support/HVR2250/

[mian]

Thanks everyone for responding I appreciate the input.

I wish the 1250s were priced more competitively. They have no hardware encoder, but two of them are no less expensive than one 2250.

[whurlston]

I got my 2250 today and it was a damaged card inside pristine Hauppauge packaging. I'll have to RMA it. The plate was bent and the audio input broken. I may hook it up to test before I do to see if I want to bother with a replacement. I don't really need the audio input but for the price, I don't want any damage on it.