Any performance differences between..

[Martice]

The PVR 250 card and the USB version? Anyone using the USB PVR?

[sixdoubleo]

Originally posted by Martice
The PVR 250 card and the USB version? Anyone using the USB PVR?

I've never used the USB-PVR, but I don't consider the USB to be suitable for something as critical as a capture card. To me, USB is for memory cards and cute plugin crap...not something you want to rely on.

And correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the data transfer rate of the PCI bus is 132MBytes/sec, whereas USB is 480MBits/sec shared amongst all PCI devices. So the PCI bus is more than twice as fast as the USB....granted you wont see that kind of transfer in real life capturing, but video capture is already frought with enough issues....without adding the complication of USB.

Just my opinion.

[Opus4]

Originally posted by Martice
The PVR 250 card and the USB version? Anyone using the USB PVR?

I hope you mean the USB2 version, since that is the one Frey's system requirements page says is supported.

The Hauppauge PVR-250 and PVR-USB2 both work quite well, and both have the same recording rate capabilities -- see Hauppauge's PVR product comparison.

Again, note that I am talking about the USB2 verison, not the original USB1 version.

I have both the 250 and USB2 verisons installed on the same machine... the only way I can tell which one recorded a show is to check the show data. They record shows at the same time w/o any problem and I don't notice a big difference in the amount of cpu usage between the two devices. The USB2 device was much simpler to install, since you don't have to open the case. I didn't even have to reboot the machine... try that when installing the 250... or, rather, DON'T!!

Note that the PVR-USB2 has an FM radio tuner, but you cannot listen to the radio and record TV at the same time.

As for sixdoubleo's comment that the USB2 rate of 480MBits/sec just isn't good enough for this application/device... Bah. That's not a real limitation when the PVR-USB2 max data rate is 12MBits/sec. Of course, if you only have USB1 ports on your computer, you will be a bit more limited.

So... they both work fine. It just depends on which one you want to use and/or whether you have an extra PCI slot to spare.

- Andy

[Martice]

Thanks Opus and Six. I have USB 2.0 ports so if I do go the way of the USB PVR setup, I should be OK.

Thanks

[Tarant]

Martice,

I can also confirm the PVR-USB2 works superbly. I run a dual tuner SageTV box using 1 PVR-250 and a PVR-USB2 (Plugged into a USB2 port. It used to be connected to a USB1 port when I first got the PVR-USB2 and worked equally well then.)

As Opus4 mentioned, the PVR-USB2 performs just as well as the PVR-250, and I am extremely pleased with the unit, from its looks to its performance!

Regards.

[sixdoubleo]

I think I mentioned in my post that although PCI bus itself is faster, you would never actually attin those speeds in capturing.

Well, I was speaking mostly to the extra hassle of the USB...in terms of having an external device, a cable that can come unplugged, etc, etc...and just simply contention with other devices on the USB bus itself.

In the case of a whole-house Sage server or an HTPC where you want it to be as "component-like" as possible, you'd want to eliminate as many external and auxiliary devices as you can.