Hauppauge WinTV-PVR250 or 350?

[FIHW]

After looking for a cap card, I found two that have pretty good specs. These would be:
Hauppauge WinTV-PVR250 (http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=35889)
Hauppauge WinTV-PVR350 (http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=45466)

After comparing the two cap cards I found very little seperating the two, yet there is about thirty pounds difference in price.
Can someone tell me the difference between the two, and if it would actually change my viewing/capping quality?

Thanks

[FlimsyFeet]

The 350 has a hardware MPEG decoder, so playback doesn't hog CPU as much (and may be better quality?)

[FIHW]

Would that be playback of pre-recorded files? or playing live tv channels?

[FIHW]

Anyone?

[rfmmars]

The other most important differents is that there is true video out, this is not a graphics card, it's much like the Miro DC30 boards.

richard
photorecall.net

[ShakyJake]

The difference between the 250 and 350, I believe, is that the 350 has the FM radio thing. If all you're wanting to do is capture TV, then the 250 is good enough.

I have the 250 and the performance is good, but it seems like all I can capture in is MPEG format. Which is annoying because I want to edit out commericals, etc. No way to record in AVI it appears.

[rfmmars]

Shakyjake.............if you e-mail me at rfmmars@cox.net I will attach whats called "VDF to WDM Wrapper" If your card supports WDM, then you maybe able to capture in any .AVI format.

I use it with all my ATI AIW cards.

richard
photorecall.net

[2ZOD.COM]

Originally posted by FIHW
Would that be playback of pre-recorded files? or playing live tv channels?

That would be for prerecorded files.

If you're looking for a direct comparison on any products, you should always look at the manufacturers website:
http://www.hauppauge.com/Pages/Compare_PCI.html

From that chart you can see the 350 has S-Video and Composite outputs, as well as a hardware MPEG-2 decoder. These are VERY useful features. I didn't know a card like this existed, and now I'm thinking about buying it. Something like that is great if you want to watch the stuff you record on your TV. I assume you could also watch all video files on your computer on your TV.

[FIHW]

Thanks guys, I don't really need an output so i'll probably buy the PVR 250.