WinTV PVR-150 MCE

[MikeyBK]

I just got the Happauge WinTV PVR 150 Media Center Edition and am going to use it to convert our VHS collection to DVD and also to watch and record TV to my PC.
Any suggestions and/or tips from those that have installed and used this PVR? I have heard that it might be better to download drivers from the Happauge website rather than to use the CD that came with it, any truth to that? Also, what companion software would you recommend to capture and convert my VHS tapes to DVD?

Cheers

[anonymez]

Hi mikey,

it might be better to download drivers from the Happauge website rather than to use the CD that came with it, any truth to that?

that's true for every device

[MikeyBK]

Thanks Anonymez, You got a point there, I suppose your right about that>

[MikeyBK]

Well I got the WinTV PVR card in my PC and am a little disappointed with the video quality.
The TV on Media Center looks pretty 'blocky' and the volume has to be turned all the way up to hear much. I don't think that Media Center can capture VHS, well at least I haven't figured it out if it even can (I don't think so though).

I was able to get better TV video and audio using Sonic MyDVD Plus. I haven't tried to record and put to disc any TV programs yet but it does look and sound much better using Sonic. I was able to test capture part of a VHS using Sonic but the quality is very grainy, It just might be the tapes already deteriorating to that point though.

I also was under the impression that the Hauppage WinTVs could by-pass all the Macrovision encryption but it couldn't capture one of the Disney tapes I was trying to test capture.

Anyways, Any suggestions from anyone , tricks or better capturing soft-wares etc...., would be most welcome. Cheers

[moonrocks]

I use the PVR-150 on a regular Windows XP machine and the quality is excellent. I'm not familiar with Windows Media Center Edition so I don't know how good its software is for capturing video. Try tweaking your capture settings. Use a variable bitrate and set the average to around 5000 or so.

GB-PVR is free pvr software that I've read good reviews on, and it's compatible with the PVR-150 MCE.

http://www.gbpvr.com/

As far as Macrovision, the PVR-150, using Hauppauge software on a regular Windows machine is completely free of Macrovision. I don't know for sure, but since you're using Windows Media Center to capture, I would suspect it's the Windows MCE drivers that are activating the Macrovision.

[toomanycats]

I didn't like the PVR video quality either. I tried to tweak it but ended up returning it. I purchased a PCI K-World card that was about $60 U.S. and it had much better quality. I found the software with the win card I had kept locking up and the DVR funtion was difficult to use. Make sure you are using the RCA or S-video input as the RF connection blows. If you are just going to convert VHS tapes I think you would do better with a straight capture card, less software and hardware problems.

[MikeyBK]

Thanks for your input Moonrocks & Toomanycats,

I was able to get Media Center tweaked and it is now pretty decent, both video and audio-wise. I completed the first VHS convertion over-night with Sonic's MyDVD+ and it has been converted to DVD format, so will burn to disc and see what the final quality looks like.
I will give a look into the GB-PVR program.

Thanks

[MikeyBK]

Well the VHS that was captured to hardrdive and then converted to DVD ended up being too deteriorated by the time it got to the disc, totally disappointed by the output.
The original VHS capture files that are still on my harddrive is acceptable in quality if not converted to DVD format and I wanted to ask if anyone knew of a program that could split this mpeg file into two so that I could put them onto two DVD5 discs or will I need to keep it at it's original size and burn it to a DL disc?

Anyone providing any help/suggestion would be most appreciated.

[ed klein]

TMPGEnc Plus (mpeg2) can join and split mpeg files, if the bitrates and all the other variables are the same.

TMPGEnc Basic (mpeg1) can join and split mpeg files, if the bitrates and all the other variables are the same.


If they are real small video clips you could also put them on a 700 mb CD-R disk, like CD (mpeg1) or SVCD (mpeg2)

[MikeyBK]

TMPGEnc Plus (mpeg2) can join and split mpeg files, if the bitrates and all the other variables are the same.

TMPGEnc Basic (mpeg1) can join and split mpeg files, if the bitrates and all the other variables are the same.

Thanks, I tried TMPGEnc DVD author I think, but will try Plus.

[anonymez]

if anyone knew of a program that could split this mpeg file into two so that I could put them onto two DVD5 discs

cuttermaran, mpeg2schnitt, projectX or videoredo

[MikeyBK]

cuttermaran, mpeg2schnitt, projectX or videoredo

Cool!
Now I got several programs to try out and see which produces the results I am hoping for.

[anonymez]

the first 3 are freeware, of which i prefer cuttermaran; videoredo is not freeware (has a trial version) but is a huge timesaver if you do this thing often

btw for cuttermaran you need to demux first, use tmpgenc's mpeg tools for that

[Chewy]

Making the filesize that large isn't going to improve quality is it?
Capturing from vhs(analog) involves some quality loss already?

[MikeyBK]

Making the filesize that large isn't going to improve quality is it?
Capturing from vhs(analogue) involves some quality loss already?

Yeah you're right, the VHS is nothing near the quality of DVDs but the capture turned out decent (for VHS), but when converted to DVD format (w/ DivxToDVD or TMPGEnc, or others) it lost a bit more quality and then even using DVD Rebuilder could not keep it from losing even more when encoding down to DVD5.
So if I can keep it in the original capture quality by splitting it into two DVD5s, that would be cool. I don't feel it would be worth putting it onto a DVD9, I'd rather buy a DVD version of the VHS. Unfortunately some of the VHS is not available in DVDs.

Thanks guys >