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right i am confused as which is which.
i was looking at PVR 150 PIC and 250 series.
but poeple been boasting about ATI's 550
so what is going on. I thought all TV Cards can do captures, what are the differences in them?
basically i need to watch TV in good quality and high res, and also able to capture video from a video source, like external dvd players or camcorder etc. and encode back into a reasonable sized divx files.
any recommendations?
The new ATI chip is capable of high definition capture which, unless you're in the USA is pretty useless. The hauppauge 250 is a stunning card. It only requires a low-power CPU to run it because it's hardware based and gives the best value for money out of that type. The 150's pretty good but not as fast switching channels etc.
excellent thats for that info. so the USB variant on the PVR is that worth while?
The ATI 550 is *NOT* an HDTV capture card, and is not capable of it, regardless of the previous post. It is a standard tv tuner like the Hauppauge cards are. Currently, it has a ton of potential, but the drivers need improvement to bring some needed enhancements to the card. The Hauppauge 150 is pretty good for the price. Either card will do fine, but nothing on the market is giving a picture as good as just running the cable into your tv. That's the holy grail us media center people are awaiting... and probably will continue to await for for another year or two. I've had my media center since just after christmas, and have gotten pretty used to the slightly less quality of picture, but it will take a bit of adjustment.