PVR250 for $75 good deal?

Rupp

Senior Member
Guys,
My boss just came by and asked if I wanted to buy his 1 year old PVR250 for $75. He's upgrading to a newer card. So, is this a good deal? Has much changed with this card in the last year to year and a half? Would this be a good card for a MCE based system? Sorry for all the questions. TIA
 
The PVR250 is the best card for the job, and is the most compatible (I have 2 of these). Treetop posted a link a few weeks ago with a similar price for that same card, but that pricing is rare, they usually (still) go for around $100 easily, so assuming you get all the accessories (remote and such), it's not a bad deal I guess. Is this the MCE series, or just the regular PVR250? The regular one comes with a remote, the MCE series doesn't, but has a built in FM tuner which can be used through MCE, pricing is usually the same.
 
There are so many different variations already out there and they just added 2 more to their line-up: PVR-150(MCE) and the PVR-500. The PVR-500 has dual-tuners on one card! Retail (if they are out yet) is supposed to be around $199.

Here's a great write up showing the subtle differences, with pictures taboot...
http://htpcnews.com/main.php?id=pvr_card_id_guide

Personally, $75 for a used card seems kinda steep, being that you can purchase a brand spanking new PVR-250 (MCE) card for $99... but, then again, they are slightly different.

Here's a good retailer for these cards...
http://www.pcalchemy.com/index.php/cPath/21

Hey, Just saw that they are selling the PVR-150MCE card for $65 smackers!

If you're really in the mood to read all about these cards, theres no better place than SHS forums. Enough info there to keep ya busy all day at work :D
 
$75 for a PVR-250 is not a good price at all. You can get a brand new PVR-150 for less then that. The product numbering is confusing, but the PVR-150 is newer better then the 250. It also includes an FM tuner. The only way this might be a good deal is if you really really want the remote that comes with the 250.
 
Here's a link to Hauppauge's site with a comparison of card features:
comparison of Hauppauge video capture cards

Note: the links behind some of the pictures are wrong.

It looks like the only real difference between the 150 and 250 cards is in the row "Video CD encoder (hardware)." The 250s have it and the 150s don't. Does this mean that the 250 does hardware encoding of MPEG1? I don't see this as a major loss since I switched to using MPEG2 for everything once I got a 250.

This table does not discuss the chipsets that have varied on different versions of the 250s. People are concerned about these for performance and heeating issues.

From what I've seen so far, I don't think I'd have a problem with recommending a new 150 card if they are cheaper. A big assumption with this recommendation, however, is that they do work with all software (including BeyondTV, SageTV, etc.). The table does not specifically say this. I'd be surprised if they are not supported and I'd expect support to come soon if that is the case.
 
Agreed...$50 is about right.

A quick glance at ebay shows that this offer would not be unfair or unreasonable.
 
Back
Top