How does the Hauppauge QuadHD tuner compare to the HVR-2250?

[Anthony]

I've been using a pair of HVR-2250 tuner cards about 7 years now. One of the tuners died a couple years ago, so I'm down to just the one tuner now.

I've been happy with the HVR-2250, but I get a lot of drop outs and data corruption with weak stations on the HVR-2250. Our TV's have no problems with the same stations on the same antenna.

Has anyone here upgraded from a HVR-2250 to the newer Hauppauge QuadHD tuner? Does the QuadHD tuner perform any better with weak stations than the old HVR-2250 does?

Thanks!

[Anthony]

OK, no replies to my question so I'll answer it myself...

I picked up a new Hauppauge QuadHD tuner to replace my old HVR2250. I checked the signal strength on all channels with the 2250, then I repeated the same test with the QuadHD once I had it installed and setup. Obviously, my results are based on my own local over-the-air TV stations, but this is what I got:

Channel - HVR-2250 / Quad HD

2 - 24 / 23
6 - 26 / 26
8 - 29 / 28
10 - 30 / 30
12 - 30/ 30
32 - 16 / 20
49 - 14 / 17

The signal fluctuated somewhat as I was monitoring it, so I just eyeballed an average rating. One or two point rating differences could be due to my own inaccuracies, or just normal signal fluctuation.

In any case, there really wasn't much difference for most channels. 32 and 49 were my weakest channels before, and they do show a marginal improvement with the QuadHD tuner. It's not much of a change, but it might mean the difference between a usable recording or not. Thankfully, I rarely find anything worth recording on those two channels.

So, there wasn't any significant improvement in signal strength, but I'm back to four tuners now so that's good. Hope this is useful to someone else.

One downside to the QuadHD tuner is no composite input. I've only used that once in the last eight years to transfer video from a VHS tape. Can anyone recommend an external USB device for capturing composite video like that?

[Handy.Man]

You could reuse the HVR-2250 for analog ?

[Anthony]

You could reuse the HVR-2250 for analog ?

I don't have any more PCIe card slots available, not to mention the 2250 needs an extra slot opening for a breakout cable for the composite inputs.

I've only used the composite input once in 7 or 8 years, so it's not a big priority. I figured something external I could hook up for the rare times I need it would be more convenient.

[Handy.Man]

I have the DIAMOND ATI Theater HD 750 USB TV Tuner that has an ATSC tuner and an Analog tuner. Never used analog much in the last 2 years

[Anthony]

I have the DIAMOND ATI Theater HD 750 USB TV Tuner that has an ATSC tuner and an Analog tuner. Never used analog much in the last 2 years

I was thinking something like the Hauppauge USB-Live2. It's small enough I could stow it in a drawer until it's needed. No rush though. I seriously doubt I'll be converting old VHS tapes anymore unless a family member asks me to do it.

[martint123]

I got an old Hauppauge WinTV PVR2 USB for the rare analogue import. Seems to behave much like a USB version of the PVR150.