PVR350 Review Comments

[rampy]

Feel free to leave questions or comments about the BYOPVR review of the WinTV PVR350 here.

Thanks,

Rampy

[GlassVial]

Nice review.  What's up with the "automagically" is that supposed to be there?  Been waiting to find a good review on this card, now we all finally have one.  I'm definitely getting one, I want the hardware decoding even if it doesn't do DVD hardware decoding (I probably won't be using that much anyway).  Just got finished building the "PC" part of my PC PVR today, it's up and running well.  It's doing a memtest at the moment because I don't trust any memory you can buy right now, too many horror stories.  I'm going to presume the hardware decoder also works on the composite out? (This wasn't mentioned).  Also there was no mention of a VHS capture, I'm sure there's some of us (like myself) that are also planning on dumping the ol' family movies on DVD, I've read conflicting reports of the quality level on hauppauge cards, I'd like to get a straight answer (and yes I know this is a bit outside the realm of a PVR only).  Overall though, great review.  Thank you.

[Homebrew]

I'll field these.  The decoder works on both the s-video and compostite outs on the PVR-350.  Don't know if they both work at the same time, but i doubt you would need them too.  You could dump your vhs tapes to the hauppage through the composite inputs on the card.  the harness for outputs can be swapped and used to allow s-video or composite inputs as well.  As far as quality goes, the hauppage cards are the cream of the crop.  That being said, the quality it puts out is only as good as the quality it recieves.  With that in mind, the quality of the video from the vhs tapes is going to say the same, what you see is what you get.  Hope this helps.

-Kevin

[rampy]

Nice review.  What's up with the "automagically" is that supposed to be there?  

Thank you and welcome to byopvr... "Automagically" is supposed to be there.  It's a word I like to use/bring into common parlance =)  I think old sysadmins came up with it.  

Been waiting to find a good review on this card, now we all finally have one.  I'm definitely getting one, I want the hardware decoding even if it doesn't do DVD hardware decoding (I probably won't be using that much anyway).  *--snip--* I'm going to presume the hardware decoder also works on the composite out? (This wasn't mentioned).  Also there was no mention of a VHS capture, I'm sure there's some of us (like myself) that are also planning on dumping the ol' family movies on DVD, I've read conflicting reports of the quality level on hauppauge cards, I'd like to get a straight answer (and yes I know this is a bit outside the realm of a PVR only).  Overall though, great review.  Thank you.
 

It does do VHS capture (either RCA connector composite or svideo).  I did not test that functionality, but I intend to.   There will be several addendum follow up "reports" using the PVR350 with different hardware/software/situations (especially since it's the only card currently in the lab!  :P )  Planning on getting a DVD writer soon and burning my wedding video to DVD (I neglected to mention in the review that the pvr350 comes with the well regarded ulead DVD authoring software ... but I did not use it, yet)

As homebrew mentions: The quality of the source material, and the method of connecting it to the card (svideo vs composite), will dictate the initial PQ (picture quality), i.e. it's not going to sweeten or clarify VHS tapes...

For a consumer level card under 200 dollars I doubt you'll find better quality encoding.

Will a super videophile who is looking at prosumer or pro gear find a better encoder/signal chain at a higher price... yes they probably will.

for general "normal" person use, at *this* price range the quality is more than good enough for me.  does that help explain some of the inconsistent answers you get re: pvr350 PQ quality? *shrug*  

As we build momentum, we'll be evaluating other cards/solutions.

Are you going to be hooking a TV up to your PC PVR?  If you are ONLY going to be encoding home videos and burning them to DVD, you may just want the PVR250 MCE (if you aren't going to use the TVout on the 350).

rampy

PS thanks homebrew...

[Edited on 3/29/04 by rampy]

[Anonymous]

FYI,  I have sucessfully used the PVR-350 with a 300MHz Pentium II (440LX) to record shows without any stuttering at the 'DVD Quality' setting.  However I had to disable local preview and kill all the processes in my system tray.  Any disk access by any other program caused stutter.

Just a data point for the 'how cheap a mobo can I use' crowd.

[GlassVial]

Thanks homebrew and rampy.  I guess what my point was someone was complaining in a review I read that there were "scan lines" with the VHS caps he tried with this card and was under the impression it was a defective card.  Story went on to say he got the card replaced with another and it did the same thing.  My line of thinking here is that *ANY* capture card is going to have those VHS scan lines, isn't it?  I bought a S-VHS deck recently just for backing up the old home movies, it's the only sort of VCR I've ever found that has S-Video outputs.  I've also just been made aware of a program called X-oom Video Clean, which appears to be a program to clean up video material for those who are planning on archiving our old VHS tapes to DVD.  Could be a useful program (just google it you'll find it).  I am planning on using this to watch TV/pause live tv/save some shows to DVD so yes I need the 350 card.  I almost bought the 250 but then I realized it has no outputs, and then I would have needed to purchase a video card with TV-Out.  Well a 250 card + a video card with TV-Out ends up being *more* expensive than a 350 does, so therefore I'll stick with that.  I can't really speak on the Ulead DVD program, all I can gather is you either swear by it or swear at it ;)

Oh and I've got KnoppMyth running on my PVR right now, even though I don't have my cap card yet, Myth looks SWEET  :D  Totally blows Tivo$$ away.

[Homebrew]

Just be prepared that linux driver (IVTV) for the pvr350 has shaky support for the PVR350's tv-out right now.  Its making good progress, but you will most likely experience some hard freeze issues using the PVR350's tv-out when using Myth.  This has nothing to do with myth itself, but the IVTV driver.  Hopefully the freezing problems will be resolved soon.  

-Kevin

[GlassVial]

I don't even have the card (yet) been holding out for a good deal (still haven't found one) and also learning some linux again (very rusty).  So maybe by the time I get the card it'll be fixed (fingers crossed).  I guess for part 3 of BYOPVR (the software section) perhaps it should touch on what the best linux base is for a PVR.  Or perhaps there should be a thread going in the forum about that.  There's so many linux bases out there, something efficient would be great for a dedicated pvr box.

[rampy]

I don't even have the card (yet) been holding out for a good deal (still haven't found one) and also learning some linux again (very rusty).  So maybe by the time I get the card it'll be fixed (fingers crossed).  I guess for part 3 of BYOPVR (the software section) perhaps it should touch on what the best linux base is for a PVR.  Or perhaps there should be a thread going in the forum about that.  There's so many linux bases out there, something efficient would be great for a dedicated pvr box.
 

That's a good idea re: byopvr 101 part 3, but I was going to be much less specific as it's aimed at the total noob. (and i'm ill equipped to mediate a linux distro flamewar)... so it'll just discuss what options are out there,  paid vs free/OSS  and windows vs linux  that kinda thing... later on I'm hoping to do a full software shoot out with feature comparison grid thingie...

rampy

[pmurph222]

Hey guys,
I got the PVR-350 about a month or so ago, but just installed it a couple of weeks ago.  After reading your review I went and looked at my CPU usage, and it seems way too high when i am recording. Depending on the quality I am recording at, I get CPU usage readings between 30% and 70%. I am running a Celeron 2.4 GHz processor.  Is there something that I don't have enabled, or do you think that my card is defective.

[Homebrew]

Out of curiosity, is this in windows or linux?  Also, are you playing back through the PVR-350's tv-out or the tv-out of another card?  Any extra info could help.  That does sound high, but it depends on your answers.

-Kevin

[pmurph222]

I am using it on a Windows machine.  I am playing it on my monitor right now b/c i don't have it near my TV.

[Homebrew]

Ok, out of curiosity, what version of windows?  also what software are you using?  Is it the hauppage software?  How much ram do you have?  Just some info that we can reference later.  Rampy can probably can help out a little more here since i didn't really test my PVR-350 much in windows.  I think rampy stated that when he ran the default hauppage software in windows, the cpu usage was quite low.  Even though its a celeron cpu, you still have plently of cpu power.  Now that i re-read what you said, you say the cpu usage is high during recording not playback.  That seems a little odd.  Do you have any other programs running?  Whats your cpu usage under the same circumstance without the pvr-350 recording?  Something doesn't seem right, but i wouldn't get exicted about the card being deffective just yet.  I'm not saying its not possible, but lets see what we can come up with first.  Just give us as much info about your system and recording circumstances as possible.

-Kevin

[Edited on 4/4/2004 by Homebrew]

[pmurph222]

I am running Windows XP Pr with 512 MB of memory.  I am using the Haupage software.  I have closed out everything but the tv card software.  If I am viewing the TV on my monitor would the encoder/decoder hardware hardware be used?  When the software records TV, it automatically plays what is being recorded at the same time.  Without the PVR software running my CPU usage is 4% or less.

[Homebrew]

Yes when you're viewing tv on the monitor, the encoder should be working.  When recording, the encoder should be working.  Something does seem a little odd.   If you had said it was only using 30% of the cpu, that would probably be fine, but since you said it sometimes is as mluch as 70%, that seems a little high.  I went back and looked at rampy's review of the PVR-350 and the hauppauge software only used about 10% of the cpu on his XP1700+ system.  Maybe rampy can offer some more input on this.

-Kevin