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HTPC Forums > HTPC Forums Reviews > Hauppauge WinPVR 250 Review

Posted by: HTPCF Admin Mar 5 2004, 08:08 AM

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The Hauppauge WinPVR 250 promises to make your HTPC into a full-fledged PVR,
but can it deliver?
Record your favorite TV shows in DVD quality, and store them on your hard
drive or burn them to DVD. The WinPVR 250 from Hauppauge turns your HTPC into a
fully-functional Personal Video Recorder, better known as a PVR. The allure of
the HTPC is its multifunctional nature, and the fact that in many cases it
outperforms the standalone components it is replacing. Adding full PVR
functionality to an HTPC is almost standard practice, as most people who build
HTPCs do so with PVR capabilities high on the must-have features list. So let's
dive into the world of the WinPVR 250 and see what we discover.
 
The Total Package

<img border="0" src="images/htpcf-winpvr250-intro.jpg" width="640" height="480" alt="WinPVR 250: Fluff not included.">
As you can see, Hauppauge gives you everything you need, and nothing you
don't. In addition to the card, you get an IR receiver and remote. 

<img border="0" src="images/htpcf-winpvr250-5.jpg" width="500" height="431" alt="WinPVR 250">
The actual WinPVR card is small and easy to fit into a tightly-packed HTPC case. It is
full-height, and will not fit into the smaller form-factor MiniITX cases.
 
Smooth Insertion

<img border="0" src="images/htpcf-winpvr250-2.jpg" width="300" height="300" alt="Nice fit!">
We did not encounter any problems installing the WinPVR 250 into our box. The
tuner shielding does not take up as much space as it may seem, and the short
length of the card should make it fit easily into the many HTPC desktop-style
cases available. Our test machine happens to be a Chieftec 609 Series PC Tower,
which is huge. That big
heatsink is the Zalman ZM80 fanless GPU cooler. It blocks a PCI slot, but keeps
our Radeon 9800 cool without a fan.

<img border="0" src="images/htpcf-winpvr250-4.jpg" width="150" height="310" alt="Choose your input.">
Connecting the cables as just as painless. The WinPVR has 4 connectors:
F-Connector, S-Video, Composite Video, Audio Line In and an IR connector that
works with the supplied IR receiver.
We split our cable modem line and
connected one end to the WinPVR as you can see below. Unfortunately, this
particular WinPVR model does not act as a satellite TV tuner, so you cannot use
the PVR functions if you have Dish or DirecTV. Another thing that may be a
problem for some people is the lack of an RF pass thru connector. You will have
to use a splitter if you need to connect your Cable TV or Antenna line to
another device.

<img border="0" src="images/htpcf-winpvr250-6.jpg" width="250" height="339" alt="Another AViC Connection.">
Everything is connected. We use AViC Cables for any and all Home Theater or
HTPC connectivity - they're simply awesome. Now all that's left to do is to install the software.
 
Life with my WinPVR 250
After starting up the computer, Windows detected the WinPVR and asked for
drivers. Using the supplied CD-ROM, we installed the drivers without a hitch.
Once that was out of the way, we went ahead and installed the software required
to use the WinPVR 250 - WinTV 2000 and  WinTV Scheduler. At this point, we
have a minor gripe. The installation program is a little clunky, and installed
the applications about 3 times before we stepped in and cancelled it. Not a big
deal by any means, but something that could use a touch up.
 
WinTV 2000 in Action
WinTV 2000 is the main application which lets you use all of the WinPVR 250's
features. When we first started it up, it scanned our cable line for available
channels and added them to its database. You can easily remove unavailable or
scrambled channels by unchecking a box beside the channel. You can also rename
the channel labels to something more meaningful than just a number.
Once all the channels were set, we were able to watch TV on our desktop.
Sweet! TV on the desktop...that never gets old! The WinPVR requires a video card that supports video overlay. If you are using a
recent model by ATI or NVIDIA, you should be fine. The overall video quality of the WinPVR 250 with our Radeon 9800 was excellent,
due in part to the excellent overlay capabilities of ATI video cards. 
 
WinPVR Recording Quality
Below are some screenshots taken
with WinPVR 2000. Click each image for a full-size picture saved in a lossless
PNG format to get a better idea of the image quality. Be warned, each picture is
over 600KB in size, as they are uncompressed.
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<td width="33%">
<a href="images/snap01-lg.png" target="_new">
<img border="0" src="images/snap01.jpg" width="240" height="180" alt="I believe whatever she tells me."></a></td>
<td width="33%">
<a href="images/snap02-lg.png" target="_new">
<img border="0" src="images/snap02.jpg" width="240" height="180" alt="Dude, where's my UFO?"></a></td>
<td width="34%">
<a href="images/snap03-lg.png" target="_new">
<img border="0" src="images/snap03.jpg" width="240" height="180" alt="May I speak to Richard Hair?"></a></td>
</tr>
</table>
The WinPVR 250 has a very high quality MPEG video encoder that maintains high detail
levels in various types of lighting situations. We took these snapshots using
the highest quality recording preset. The first picture shows lots of onscreen
colors, as well as a good reason to watch CNN. The smooth gradients with hardly
any visible artifacts truly impressed us. The next shot of Mulder in a dark
alley reveals an adept management of colors for dark scenes. The video noise
speckles were part of the original source; remember, most cable and satellite TV
broadcasts have some level of compression applied, so they are not 100% ideal
source material for gauging the true quality of the WinPVR. The final shot shows
Scully in a backlit scene. Some encoders may over or under compensate brightness
and contrast for scenes like this, making it too dark or too bright with
washed-out colors. The WinPVR 250 did a great job of balancing the levels and
colors for a clean and true picture. 
Audio playback was clean and crisp through our Creative Labs Audigy 2. The
WinPVR 250 supports mono, stereo and SAP broadcast sound decoding. Not too much
to say on this topic, which is not bad. Recorded audio quality matches the
recorded video quality depending on the settings you choose, and we are fully
satisfied with the audio recording quality.
Playback is great, and the recording quality is just as good. The WinPVR uses
colorspace processing of YUV 4:2:0, which is high quality and only
slightly lower than the DVD MPEG-2 native YUV 4:2:2 colorspace. The WinPVR does
MPEG 1 and 2 encoding in hardware. You can use a preset quality level, or define
your own custom level by adjusting a variety of attributes such as bitrate,
resolution and compression level. Video bitrates up to 12 Mbps are supported, and at the
highest MPEG-2 settings, we noticed no appreciable degradation in video quality.

 

WinTV IR Remote Control

<img border="0" src="images/htpcf-winpvr250-3.jpg" width="450" height="366" alt="Need more buttonz!">
The included remote is certainly a nice touch, but it does not seem
particularly intuitive. The remote allows you to control most functions of the
WinTV 2000 application such as changing channels, volume and recording or
timeshifting, but it is certainly not something we'd want to use in our Home
Theater. Since the IR receiver for this remote is integrated into the WinPVR
250, you cannot use it to control any other applications unless those
applications support the WinPVR 250 remote. The remote itself does not support
multiple devices, so you're still going to want to pick up a decent separate
remote for your HTPC. We can't fault Hauppauge for the
inclusion of this remote, however it will leave something to be desired for most
of us who plan to use the HTPC as more than just a PVR.
 

WinTV Scheduler


<img border="0" src="images/htpcf-winpvr250-7.jpg" width="350" height="405" alt="User friendly PVR interface.">

The WinTV Scheduler is best described as "weak". One of the main draws of a
PVR is the easy to use onscreen menu, and we feel that a robust PVR application
should have been a high priority for inclusion with a product named WinPVR.
As you can see above, with the WinPVR 250, you get a glorified task scheduler.
If you want the nice graphical program guide interface, you need to make an
account on the TitanTV website. Once you create an account on TitanTV, you may
schedule shows by browsing their website, which is currently free of charge.
Judging by this software, we
really get the sense that the PVR element is missing from the Win250. Either
that, or Hauppauge is counting on most users using third party PVR
applications and not bothering with the included software.

 

WinPVR 250 and BeyondTV
One application that makes the WinPVR 250 shine is BeyondTV by SnapStream
Media. We downloaded and installed a trial version of BeyondTV for testing with
our WinPVR. BeyondTV is basically a PVR front end that is packed full of nice
features, chiefly a fully integrated program guide, DivX recording, native
support for the WinPVR 250 hardware (including the IR remote). Using BeyondTV
with the WinPVR 250 worked flawlessly.
We entered our zip code, loaded the program guide listings and voila! Better-than-TiVO functionality in a matter of minutes.
BeyondTV is very integrated, and that is something we believe is important for
HTPC software. We would like to suggest
that Hauppauge license BeyondTV for distribution with their WinPVR products, or
at least include some kind of discount coupon or rebate offer, because if this program were
included with the WinPVR 250, it would truly be a killer PVR package.
Another option available for PVR functionality is MythTV, a free PVR program
for Linux. The WinPVR 250 is supported by MythTV, however we did not test this
combination. If we get enough interest, we may do a follow-up report for Linux
and MythTV with the WinPVR 250.
 
WinPVR 250 as a Capture Card
Adding an extra level of flexibility to the WinPVR 250 is its A/V capture
capabilities. Connect a device to the s-video or composite video inputs, along
with a 3.5mm audio jack which supports stereo sound. Now you can transfer video
from various sources to your computer and save them with DVD quality video in
real time, and that's always cool.
 
Real World Performance
<div align="center">
<center>
<table border="0" style="border-collapse: collapse" width="500" id="AutoNumber1" bgcolor="#000066" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="2">
<tr>
<td width="100%" colspan="2" bgcolor="#000000">
HTPC Forums Test System Configuration</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="right" bgcolor="#000064">CPU:</td>
<td bgcolor="#000033">Intel Pentium 2.4C GHz / 800 MHz FSB</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="right" bgcolor="#000064">Memory:</td>
<td bgcolor="#000033">4 x 256 GeiL Golden Dragon PC3500 (Dual Channel)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="right" bgcolor="#000064">Motherboard:</td>
<td bgcolor="#000033">Asus P4P800 Deluxe</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="right" bgcolor="#000064">Video Card:</td>
<td bgcolor="#000033">Powercolor ATI Radeon 9800 Non-pro 128MB</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="right" bgcolor="#000064">Soundcard:</td>
<td bgcolor="#000033">Creative Audigy 2</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="right" bgcolor="#000064">Hard Drive:</td>
<td bgcolor="#000033">Hitachi DeskStar 7K250 - 160 GB</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="right" bgcolor="#000064">DVD Drive:</td>
<td bgcolor="#000033">Pioneer DVR-106</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="right" bgcolor="#000064">Power Supply:</td>
<td bgcolor="#000033">Enermax EG651P-VE 550W ATX</td>
</tr>
</table>
</center>
</div>
More good news for those of us using lower powered processors in our HTPCs to
cut down on cost, sound and heat. The WinPVR 250 does all video encoding in
hardware, and puts very little strain on the system. Video playback requires the
use of your video card's processing and overlay capabilities, which may be
implemented differently on various systems. Recording live TV broadcasts
required an average of 3% CPU utilization, which we attribute to the hard drive
more so than the WinPVR 250. This means that lower powered systems need not worry
about skipping frames or botched audio, so long as the hard drive can keep up.
With a peak datarate of 12Mbps, roughly 1.5 MB/s, even a 4200 RPM laptop hard
drive should not have a problem recording at the highest quality settings.
 
The Bottom Line
The WinPVR 250 will make any HTPC a supercharged PVR with amazing audio and
video encoding quality that rivals high end professional equipment. For a
suggested retail price of $150, the WinPVR 250 represents an excellent value for
adding PVR features to your HTPC. The WinPVR software bundle may not replace
your TiVO or win any awards, but the multitude of third party support for the
WinPVR 250 make it an easy choice for adding full-featured PVR capabilities to
your HTPC.
It is our pleasure to award the Hauppauge WinPVR 250 a better than excellent
8 out of 10.
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HTPC Forums Hauppauge WinPVR 250 Scorecard</td>
</tr>
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<td width="50%" align="right" bgcolor="#000033">
Installation:</td>
<td width="50%" align="center" bgcolor="#202030">8</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="50%" align="right" bgcolor="#000033">
Software:</td>
<td width="50%" align="center" bgcolor="#202030">6</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="50%" align="right" bgcolor="#000033">Ease
of Use:</td>
<td width="50%" align="center" bgcolor="#202030">8</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="50%" align="right" bgcolor="#000033">
Value:</td>
<td width="50%" align="center" bgcolor="#202030">8</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="50%" align="right" bgcolor="#000033">
Package:</td>
<td width="50%" align="center" bgcolor="#202030">9</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="50%" align="right" bgcolor="#000033">
Overall Quality:</td>
<td width="50%" align="center" bgcolor="#202030">9</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="50%" align="right" bgcolor="#000000">

HTPC Forums Score:</td>
<td width="50%" align="center" bgcolor="#000000">
<img border="0" src="images/htpcf-pp8.png" alt="8 out of 10! We recommend this product!" width="160" height="80"></td>
</tr>
</table>
</center>
</div>
HTPC Forums thanks
<a href="http://www.hauppauge.com/" target="_new">Hauppauge</a> for generously providing their
WinPVR 250 for evaluation and review.
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Posted by: sengsational Mar 5 2004, 07:24 PM

I assume it's an NSTC only tuner (ie not ASTC, ie not a digital tuner). That means it's a noop for me personally, since I'm exclusively OTA and am spoiled by the PQ of digital.

Posted by: Eric Martello Mar 5 2004, 07:40 PM

Yeah, this only does analog NTSC. No digital. BTW- Analog is actually better than digital, but since all the new technologies are using digital formats so the perceived quality of analog has diminished.

I thought I would point out that you can buy the WinPVR 250 budled with BeyondTV 3 for $180 right http://store.yahoo.com/cgi-bin/clink?snapstreamtest+snpcitucakit.html+Mar5trial. If you buy BeyondTV by itself, it costs you $60-$80. The above is a limited time offer I got in an email form SnapStream.

Posted by: sengsational Mar 7 2004, 10:38 PM

QUOTE (Eric Martello @ Mar 5 2004, 06:40 PM)

BTW- Analog is actually better than digital, but since all the new technologies are using digital formats so the perceived quality of analog has diminished.

That may be the case for cable, but lemme tell ya... it's absolutely no contest between over the air digital versus over the analog. Analog is fuzzy and ghosted and sometimes flips/rolls, while a lower powered digital signal from the same tower is perfect.

--Dale--

Posted by: Eric Martello Mar 8 2004, 04:48 PM

The same is true for me. My OTA digital is always better than standard UHF/VHF analog signals.

Let me rephrase what I said. Analog has the capacity ot be better than digital, however digital makes it cheaper and easier to produce high quality results that come pretty close to true analog.

Posted by: rampy Mar 15 2004, 08:39 PM

Excellent job on the review! I'm working on a http://www.byopvr.com/Sections+index-req-viewarticle-artid-2.html and most of my experiences so far match the ones you described.

I've linked to your PVR250 review on a http://www.byopvr.com/Sections+index-req-viewarticle-artid-5.html article I slapped together as I think your explanation of the capabilities of the card will definitely help newbies understand what this card can (and can't do) for their HTPC's...

GJ!

Rampy

Posted by: SsZERO Apr 12 2004, 06:47 AM

Not a bad first review. I want to see a little more action with the various PVR software, such as BeyondTV, SageTV, MythTV, Freevo, etc. How about doing a PVR software shootout?

Posted by: Lurgen Apr 15 2004, 09:16 PM

I'm using a PVR-350 along with digital cable TV. The picture quality I get out of it is nothing short of amazing - the card loses almost nothing in the decoding process, making sure that my picture quality is almost identical regardless of whether I watch my decoded cable TV directly, or timeshifted.

Digital cable is new in Australia, but the quality is superb. DVD quality picture on all channels. High Def might be nice, but this is just as good (and covers 100% of channels, unlike HD).