[mythtv-users] Current wisdom on PVR-150/250/350/500

[f-myth-users at media.mit.edu]

    > Date: Sat, 15 Apr 2006 16:44:51 -0400
    > From: "Michael T. Dean" <mtdean at thirdcontact.com>

    > On 04/15/2006 03:51 PM, Sam Varshavchik wrote:
    > > Scott Karlin writes:
    > >> In this post: 
    > >> <http://mythtv.org/pipermail/mythtv-users/2006-April/132083.html>
    > >> Jeff Simpson states "Don't buy a PVR-350 for any purpose."
    > >> Jeff, if you are reading this, can you elaborate?
    > >
    > > That's wrong.  My PVR-350 works splendidly here, with Myth TV 0.19, 
    > > and I see no reason why the PVR-350 would stop working in the future, 
    > > since the only difference between this model, and the others, is the 
    > > TV-Out plug.

    > The PVR-350 is a PVR-250 with a hardware decoder that can /only/ be used 
    > if using the PVR-350's TV out.  (And, BTW, the PVR-150 is a newer, 
    > smaller, better, cheaper version of the PVR-250.)  So, buying a PVR-350 
    > = buying a PVR-{1,2}50 and paying extra for a hardware decoder and TV out.

See my previous mail; at least one vendor is now selling the 350 for
-less- than the 250, interestingly enough, and both have come down in price.

Also, several months ago, someone posted a URL comparing image quality
and the 150 had a much softer look to it than the 250/350---a look I
personally found objectionable.  It would be nice if someone could
repeat the experiment, since for all we know ivtv had a hand in it,
too, and ivtv's changed a whole lot since then.  (I could -probably-
dig up the URL if required.)  This quality difference (and many
reports of instability from the tuner-of-the-week approach Hauppauge
is taking wrt the 150 and 500's, and the 500's FM-radio interference
issues, and the CC issues below) is why I'm holding off on 150/500's,
though they've been fine for many users---but some users just can't
get them to work reliably.  There have been many reports of "first
tuner can't tune lowband video" which are quite probably FM issues,
and reports of "one of the two tuners is DOA", and things like that.

[The rapidity with which Hauppauge keeps introducing new tuner types
makes me quite willing to spend an extra $40-60 per card and not roll
the dice that I'll get a card that ivtv doesn't even support yet, and
I believe that many of the newer tuner types are only supported in
0.6.0, which means you need kernel 2.6.16 or newer.]

Btw, I'm seeing ranges from $60-80 for various types of PVR-150
via pricegrabber, so depending on what you want, it might not be a $60
card you're comparing against.]

Also, I believe that 150/500's have -much- more finicky RF front-ends
and will give horrible results on weak signals, compared to the 250/350 
series---or so I recall from list traffic.

Also, if you need NTSC closed-captioning support, it's patched into
ivtv for the 150/500 but (I -think-) hasn't actually been released
yet except perhaps in the SVN versions.  This will presumably be a
very short-term issue.

    > So, the question becomes, why would I pay $110 extra for a PVR-350 to 
    > get less capability than I can get from a $40 video card (like an NVIDIA 
    > GF5200).  Then, I can take the extra $70 I saved an get a second PVR-150...

Yes, yes, you have buyer's remorse over your 350 and have mentioned
this -every- time someone's mentioned that card... :)