Windows XP and MCE 2005 Performance

The following is the test bed used in testing the WinTV PVR-250:

• The PVR-250 drivers
• A "middleware" package
• Hauppauge MPEG software decoder
• WinTV2000 application, optional
• WinTV Scheduler, optional
• Remote control software, required for the IR remote operation and programming
• nanoPEG MPEG file cutter/editor, optional

Installation was straightforward, but needed a reboot.  The WinTV PVR-250 worked well in both Windows XP SP2 and in MCE 2005.  However, the MCE 2005 interface is definitely more polished than the bundled Hauppauge apps:

The WinTV Scheduler is rather oversimplified, but many more advanced third-party PVR apps such as TitanTV are designed to easily interface with the PVR-250:

We tried WinTV Scheduler for a few programs, and it performed as expected.  However, it is more of a VCR-like application, not a PVR.  Hence, we'd rather use a more PVR-like front end such as Windows MCE or SageTV. 

Recordings set for maximum quality produced massive MPEG-2 files.  With the Hauppauge decoder installed, almost any MPEG editing software, including the Hauppauge-sanctioned nanoPEG, will be able to play and edit these files:

We recorded a 0:30 program, and used nanoPEG to cut out commercials.  It was straight up intuitive to use, and a piece of cake all in all.  Just be sure your PC is powerful and fast enough to process those gigantic MPEG-2 files.

The most important aspect of any TV tuner card is undoubtedly its recording performance, and image quality. First, performance.  Because of its hardware encoder, the PVR-250 performed all the heavy lifting, freeing the PC's CPUs to perform other tasks, and easily write the file to disk without any dropped frames.  Even with full CPU loads on both processors through running dual  Prime95 instances, recording programs did not result in any noticeable dropped frames when played back.

As for image quality, the PVR-250 has noticeably much less pixelation, better color and overall quality than basic software-encoded TV tuner cards based on the good 'ol Bt878 chipset.  The tuner portion was able to extract a clean signal from our relatively noisy Time Warner Cable service.  The analog frequencies of our CATV service suffer from a bit of noise and grain when watching on standard TVs.  The following screencaps we captured from Windows XP MCE 2005.

Here is channel 2, the lower end of the VHF_L spectrum.  This is where we usually see the most noise among the VHF channels.  Here, the PVR-250 did a great job with the signal it was fed:

Here is channel 9 which resides in the middle of  VHF_H.  Again, very impressive image quality:

Next is channel 14, very clear picture here:

And here is channel 99, where we barely get a signal on our analog TVs.  WinTV PVR-250 has no problem with it:

We also tested the PVR-250 in SageTV 5.0, and it worked splendidly.  SageTV even had the Hauppauge remote as a fully configured option - the remote worked the very first time.  PVR transport buttons worked intuitively, and the remote had good range, 15 feet in our test, and the receiver had wide off-axis response.  We estimate the angle to be about 135 degrees, but with range dropping off at the edges.