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Brad wrote:
<blockquote cite="mid:679973.18136.qm@web80215.mail.mud.yahoo.com"
type="cite"><font size="-1"><font face="Arial">I am a pretty new
MythTV user, and need some recommendations for a good TV tuner card. <br>
<br>
I started out with a very cheap card from Kworld, that I can make work
in Myth (with a lot of hoop jumping), but the quality sucks. So I am
considering getting a Haupaugge PVR-150, since I have heard it is a
pretty good card and has great compatibility and is reasonably priced.
Here are my questions:<br>
<br>
1) Is this a good card to start with? Does anyone have any positive (or
negative) comments about this card that I should keep in mind before my
purchase?<br>
2) If I <span style="font-weight: bold;">do</span> buy the PVR-150,
should I get the OEM version (no remote), the "standard" version, or
the MCE version?<br>
3) Are there any other specific models (by Haupaugge or any other
brand) that you would recommend?<br>
<br>
</font></font></blockquote>
I like my PVR-250 over the my 150 but quality varies from card to card
it seems. They are both very well supported cards so I think they're a
good start if digital deception isn't available in your country (hello,
America) I've got a page that discusses some of my findings on image
quality here:<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://capnbry.net/~bmayland/fi/pvr150/">http://capnbry.net/~bmayland/fi/pvr150/</a><br>
<br>
I don't think the quality is as good as svideo coming from my cable box
directly into the TV with either card. The picture is too soft and has
a lot of blocking artifacts unless you use a high bitrate. They also
always have some strange crosshatch pattern at all bitrates (see image
at above link). That said, they're pretty much my only option and for
the record I watch all my SD TV via Myth because the convenience
outweighs the quality issues even though I can never put it out of my
mind.<br>
<br>
The difference between the PVR-150 versions:<br>
Standard - Box version comes with a remote and headphone mini-jack for
audio in. No FM tuner.<br>
MCE - Doesn't have a jack for remote (because MCE PCs come with their
own remote) and has 2x RCA jacks for audio input (left, right). FM
tuner (dunno how well it works under Linux)<br>
OEM - I don't think I've ever seen a standard 150 in an OEM version,
but I do know that MCE versions are usually labeled OEM because they do
not exist in a retail version and have no remote. <br>
<br>
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