|
I use the Hauppauge-WinTV-PVR-350 PCI card on an Ubuntu Linux system running MythTV. So it uses very little resources from the host system. Linux understood it right away.
Up to this point I had been trying to use the Hauppauge-WinTV-HVR-950 USB device, but it was not working.A friend told me about the PVR-350 and said it worked beautifully. Once that was done it worked perfectly.I would recommend this product to anyone who needs a clear-cut easy PVR solution. It records all my basic cable TV shows so I can view them at my convenience.
It just took me a few minutes to realize that the audio-out from the PVR-350 needed to feed into the line-in on my sound card. He was right. It worked nearly right out of the box.
The card even has its own processor used in creating the MPEG-2 video files. That is a good thing for those folks who intend to install on older hardware.
For Ubuntu 8.04 the hardware drivers (ivtv) are already included in the kernel so it was basically plug and play. Overall the picture and sound are good, I can't really vouch for the included software. I put this card in a Mythbuntu box. Also the remote is supported with LIRC. I installed it on my Win2K partition to test the card but I haven't really used it. It took a little bit to get everything in Mythtv configured for the first time but when I redid the installation for a bigger HD it only took about 1-2.5 hrs. I had to select the remote type during installation of Mythbuntu and it took care the configuration. Overall, I'm fairly pleased with this card.
Card installation was easy, Software install went smooth and better yet the first time I ran the program it started without any problems I have purchased Hauppauge before and will again.
Make sure that the drivers exist for the card you want before purchasing. This card has no Vista 64bit drivers.Strangely the 150 is a better card than the 350, who knew.Beyond that - it works and I get a decent picture on my PC. Look for an HD TV turner if you're shopping for a tuner.
If you're interested in using your computer as a personal video recorder (PVR), then this is the way to go. Go wikipedia "Comparison of PVR software packages" and you'll find a whole list of options. This is really the best TV tuner card out there. Use one of the TV out connection options that are **included with this card** and save yourself the eyestrain. All it takes is this card, a big hard drive, and an old computer that would otherwise go to the dump).Anyway, I highly recommend this card. This card is particularly awesome because it encodes the sound and video on the card, instead of forcing the rest of your hardware to do all that work.However, if you are building a PVR, there are also some things you should understand. Instead, I recommend either using one of the many free or low-cost PVR software packages available.
Start with "MythTV" and go from there. The card is easy to install, the picture quality is great, it has easy TV out connections, and I've never had one burn out on me. (3) If you think this card sounds cool, you may be interested in just building a dedicated box (PC) to serve as your "DIY PVR." In this case, check out one or more of the many Linux distributions made to make this easy. (1) If you're paying good money to buy this card, then you probably don't want to watch TV on your computer monitor. (2) I would not rely on the included software to actually do the TV watching; from what I've read, it's pretty lousy. (This is what I do - I'm building my third dedicated MythBox and absolutely love this set up. Check it out.
|
