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

Scott Karlin scott at CS.Princeton.EDU
Sun Apr 16 13:28:11 UTC 2006


On Sun, Apr 16, 2006 at 02:29:35AM -0400, f-myth-users at media.mit.edu wrote:
> 
> 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.

My take on this is that the 250/350 boards *may* have better video
quality over the 150/500.  Also, assuming I don't bother with the
TV-out on the 350, the video capture functionality is the same
across the line.  The product differences (relavant to Linux) seem
along the lines of (1) baseband audio connector type, (2) IR jack
present or not, (3) remote included or not, (4) single/dual tuner,
and (5) cost.

Thanks to all who have responded on this thread, it's been very
informative.

Scott

http://www.appliedmiscellany.com


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