Which USB2 Capture Device?

[jptaz]

Well my PVR 500 TV Tuner section is dying and frankly it was only there as overflow since I did not like the quality as much as my PVR 250 cards. I like the idea of pulling the Hot Tuners out of my Server case and using USB 2.0 Solutions. In fact I may pop in a USB 2.0 Card in place of the PVR 500 card since I already have 3 HD Tuners on the main USB 2.0 Bus on the computer and want to make sure I have plenty of bandwidth when I add another HD Tuner and any other external solutions in the future.

Basically I need another Capture device for my 4th Cable box so it really doesn't matter if it actually has a tuner at all, but it should have SVideo and Audio in (RCA Audio a Plus)..for now the PVR 500 is working with one Cable Box and the other encoder is idle since I only have 4 cable boxes and

I am looking at the following:

Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-USB2
Plextor ConvertX M-402U

How do these devices compare in quality to the PVR 250? How do they compare to the newer Capture Devices on the market from NVidia and ATI?

Also has anyone heard if SageTV will support the Adaptec® Dual TV Tuner for Windows XP MCE 2005?
This device looks really cool because it supports 2 encoders in one box and has 2 Sets of SVideo and and RCA Audio and at $200 it is not too bad compared to 2 of the above.

http://www.adaptec.com/worldwide/pro...eo+for+your+PC

Thanks,
John

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by jptaz

I am looking at the following:

Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-USB2
Plextor ConvertX M-402U

How do these devices compare in quality to the PVR 250? How do they compare to the newer Capture Devices on the market from NVidia and ATI?

I don't know about the newer devices, but of the two that you mentioned, I prefer the PVR-USB2. I think it is essentially a 250 in a USB2 box the size/shape of an MVP. My HTPC uses 2 PVR-USB2 + 1 PVR-250.

- Andy

[jptaz]

Thank You Andy!

They have these on ebay so I am hoping I can get at least one of them and if I am lucky two.

John

[cybrmage]

Be carefull with getting a device on ebay... Hauppauge makes the WinTV-USB2 (Software Encoder) and the WinTV-PVR-USB2 (Hardware Encoder)... Make sure you get the WinTV-PVR-USB2... Many Ebay ad mislabel them.

There is Also the Diamond XtremeTV PVR 600... Same basic hardware as the WinTV-PVR-USB2... but in a smaller rectangular metal case.

Having used both the Hauppauge and the Diamond units, I found that the recording quality of the Diamond unit appeared to be better. YMMV... but as the Diamond units are less popular than the Hauppauge units, you can sometimes find some very good deals on them.

[Lucas]

I have both the PVR250 and the PVR-USB2. I'd say that their performance is the same, with the PVR-USB2 being more reliable since it is the one whose drivers always load after an unscheduled system reboot (crash, power outage etc).

[jptaz]

Lucas,

What do you mean by the drivers always load after an unscheduled system reboot?

Thanks,
John

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by Lucas

I have both the PVR250 and the PVR-USB2. I'd say that their performance is the same, with the PVR-USB2 being more reliable since it is the one whose drivers always load after an unscheduled system reboot (crash, power outage etc).

Well if the drivers for the PVR250 are causing the crash then that would explain why they aren't loading properly on a reboot. You should look for newer drivers or make sure they aren't sharing an IRQ with another device.

Gerry

[Alfiegerner]

Originally Posted by jptaz

I am looking at the following:

Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-USB2
Plextor ConvertX M-402U

I have the Plextor ConvertX M-402U and am not very impressed with the quality. There is a bug which makes the s-video input unusable for PAL encoding so I am relying on the composite inpute. Image quality is not as good as the hauppauge cards.

[jptaz]

Well I just received my Hauppauge USB2 PVR and it works great...what a bargain for $58 delivered...this weekend I will have to pull my PVR 500 out..it is going to a friends who only has 4 tuners...well actually he may keep just 4 tuners, but replace the 2 PVR 250s so that he doesn't have to split the Cable so many times..

[k9k9]

well actually he may keep just 4 tuners, but replace the 2 PVR 250s so that he doesn't have to split the Cable so many times..

sigh...

it must be nice to have so many cards and not have to have an equal amount of cable boxes