Video Quality of PVR250 vs Adaptec Video! vs Creative Video Blaster

[andrewswright]

I'm thinking about adding a second tuner to my system (currently containing a PVR250). My local CompUSA has a number of Creative Video Blaster Digital VCRs at $99, despite apparently being discontinued and not mentioned on the CompUSA website.

Alternatively I could get one of the half-height Yuan cards from newegg (~130), another PVR250 at ~$150, or a Adaptec VideOh! PCI card at ~160.

Do any of these cards have an appreciably better picture quality? I'm fairly happy with the PVR250 card, but if there isn't any difference I might as well go with the cheapest option.

Andrew

[jglev]

I had the Creative DVCR and then replaced it with a PVR-250. There is no comparison between the video qualities. Basically, the video quality of the PVR-250 is excellent. You can barely tell you are watching an MPEG. The quality of the Creative DVCR sucks and then there is the annoying problem of the sound getting out of sync with the video more often than you would like. I haven't had any sync problems with the PVR-250. Bottom line is: I don't think you will be happy with the DVCR.

Hope this helps,

[Crazedz]

That is true and the pvr 250 also has the audio encoded in hardware wereas the DVCR audio is encoded in software which compounds the audio sync issue and it's video isn't up to the quality of the pvr250.

The Yuan mpg600 half-height card uses the same chipset as the newer pvr250 cards the Conexant cx23416 chipset so the video quality of both is the same and both behave the same. I'm useing all three cards at this point a pvr250 with the older cx15 chipset a dvcr and a yuan mpg600 or python2 as sage see's it. I'm very happy with both the pvr250 and the yuan mpg600 both provide the same video quality and work well together under sagetv. Since you already have a pvr250 you can use the pvr250 remote to control sage meaning the yuan remote which is basicly useless in sage at this point(no support yet) isn't needed. The yuan mpg600 being that it uses the newer cx16 chipset runs much cooler like the newer pvr250's vs the older pvr250's and since thats the only chipset used on the yuan cards is more easily obtained vs getting another pvr250. You can't be sure until the old stock is completely sold off (im not sure if they have sold out yet or not but the one i got not long ago had the older chipset) which one you'll get, the older cx15 with the heatsink and increased heat or the newer cx16 which needs no heatsink and runs much cooler.

Also as it's a half-height card it fits nicely into a system and would be the only current option for a slim case design which you may or may not want to consider if you want to build a future livingroom machine. I wanted mine to look more like a livingroom appliance (vcr/dvd/tivo etc....) than a pc by the tv so for me their really was no other choice than the yuan card.

So i would say get the yuan it's cheaper and isn't any different than the pvr250 where it counts so if your wanting the cheaper solution but don't want to loose the benefits of the pvr250 then the yuan card is the way to go.