Reading mixed reviews on the PVR-250

[fiveirondraw]

I had read on this forum that the Hauppauge PVR-250 is the way to go for calbe tv capture. However, I have read some reviews elsewhere on the web that complain of software conflicts.

I noticed on the newegg.com site (http://www.newegg.com/app/manufact.a...alog=47&DEPA=0) that there are cheaper capture cards with similar ratings.

Can I get away with a less expensive card and still get the same quality? Stereo audio recording is a must, not fm, but stereo from cable broadcast.

[mcowger]

No, you can't - the PVR250 has pretty much the best quality on the market.

The newegg review are in worthless in general, and not a good cross section of the user population. Even newegg says NOT to make purchase decision based on those reviews.

[dartmouth01]

I run the pvr-250 on my main machine, which also serves for gaming, dvd backups, divx encoding, video editing, CAD work, etc, and I have to say that the pvr-250 seems to work with just about everything I do to it. The sucker will record with BTV even if I'm running several high intensive apps at the same time. Tho I do find I have occasional recording and stuttering problems, I'm impressed the PVR-250 has held up this well so far. I think on the basis of many of the people on this board who recommend the card, splurge a little and get it.

[Grasshopper]

I bought the packaged deal that includes the 250BTV. I believe this is a stripped down version of the PVR-250 although I am not sure of what's not included.

This package has been great for me, no issues whatsoever even when using beta code.

[btvfreak]

My PVR-250 works great. In fact I just picked up another one from Circuit City. They have it for $90 after rebates.

[DonK]

Originally Posted by Grasshopper

I bought the packaged deal that includes the 250BTV. I believe this is a stripped down version of the PVR-250 although I am not sure of what's not included.

This package has been great for me, no issues whatsoever even when using beta code.

Actually the 250BTV is an entirely different bird than the PVR250. The 250BTV uses a Hauppauge 88x (Roslyn) chipset, and the cards have been manufactured specifically for us to distribute and support.

I actually have both a PVR250 and a 250BTV in my BTV box, and they coexist together nicely. I really can't tell any difference in quality at all between the cards, which actually is a testament of how well the 250BTV actually works, considering most people consider the PVR250 card to be the standard by which to judge other cards' qualities. I get a good picture with either card. Setup at first between the two can sometimes prove troublesome on some platforms/chipsets/operating system setups, but all in all, I'd say they were pretty much comparable in quality.

And to be quite honest, the 250BTV isn't "stripped down" at all. It's actually just as feature rich as the PVR250 is, and even has a radio tuner on it also. I'd love to see a roslyn card radio tuner program myself! That would be neat to have.

[kramsauer]

Snapstream should do a BeyondRadio that mimics the features of ReplayRadio and also can record off FM! Please?