250 vs 250BTV

[rehbergr]

I have been having difficulty getting decent quality recordings from by 250BTV. If its not fluctuations in brightness, digital glitch during action, two dark or washed out then it is something else.

I have seen many posts concerning tweaks for the 250 that do not apply to the 250BTV. My question is, is it worth wild to replace my 250BTV with a 250 retail or some other card?

Any suggestions would be helpful.

[Zogg]

I have one of each, and no question the retail PVR250 just works and the 250BTV requires some futzing to make it work. With the latest driver, a few tweaks (Contrast 20, all others 50), and BTV 3.5 the picture is pretty decent.

Give it all a shot when 3.5 releases and see if you can make it work before you give up, however you could always pick up the retail card and use the 250BTV for secondary captures.

Z

[fester]

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProduc...100-007&depa=0

I bought this m150 card instead of the pvr250 retail and am really happy with the performance and stability. I paid 70 about a month ago and was stoked to get it at that price. I'll be getting another this week for 3.5 release since now they're only 57 bucks

[zysurge]

Originally Posted by fester

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProduc...100-007&depa=0

I bought this m150 card instead of the pvr250 retail and am really happy with the performance and stability.

According to the NewEgg site, this is for XP MCE only. Are you running MCE or does this work in regular XP, too? I have a 250BTV and am looking for a second card. I want something different to compare video quality.

[mtmsol]

Judging by the pics, it looks like the m150 and 250pvr are almost identical (same chipset, similar layout):
Here's a close-up of the m150: http://www.newegg.com/app/Showimage....100-007-01.JPG
Here's a closeup of the 250pvr: http://www.snapstream.com/images/sto...0BTV_naked.jpg

[fester]

it works in XP *and* XP MCE. I was skeptical as well but bought it anyway and was pleasantly surprised. I only use the card to record - never really used it to watch live TV.

I had some problems at first since I installed / uninstalled BTV3.5 and then 3.4.4 about 3-4 times... but it was easily fixed when I settled on one version. In 3.4.4 there was a resolution setting in "recording qualities" I finally tweaked and found 100% stability. I think it was P frame error if I remember. I just went through the logs and found the error and fixed accordingly. not too much trouble for me but it could deter some users. IMO the design and quality of the m150 card is great. M150 uses Conexent Roslyn design and they slap a Phillips tuner on there. works as advertised. I'm pretty sure the 250BTV is the same EXACT conexant roslyn design and prolly provides same quality as m150 - but the 250BTV drivers of course are different.

you could read the BTV logs and if theres errors just post em on this board and some folks can tell you exactly how to fix... Either way, try different resolution and settings for your default recording quality until you get something you like - test - retry - test... etc before you think about buying anything else. ..or wait for the 3.5 release on Friday. I'll bet your issue is fixed.