Hauppauge PVR cards vs. Hauppauge PVR MCE cards (2 Viewers)

[MisterTee]

I currently have a Wintv PVR-150 card and aside from black bars on both sides of the video the card it working perfectly. I am thinking about getting a second card and I am curious what differences I might notice between the regular PVR cards and the MCE variety. Obviously i'm not using MCE as the OS so I want to make sure there are no limitations when using the MCE cards with XP Pro.

Also If anyone happens to know why I get the black bars at the side of the screen give me a shout. The left side always seems bigger but it does change size slightly based on the channel. Using the "zoom" aspect ratio seems to fix the issue but my recording always have the black lines after I burn them to dvd.

 

[NLS]

the correct forum for your questions is:

http://www.shspvr.com/smf/

 

[MisterTee]

The question is specific to Media Portal. I have already presented this questions to Hauppauge and they told me that the MCE version will only work with the MCE OS and the regular version will not work in MCE. Since I believe that this information is incorrect I thought I would ask other media portal users what their experiences were.

The second part of the question is also directly related to Media Portal. The black bars do not appear in the WinTV. The only appear in Media Portal.

 

[NLS]

looks like some settings are wrong

 

[wortelsoft]

I have a pvr 150 mce wich works perfect in MP.

Differences between the two:

pvr150mce is a oem piece comes in a plastic bag without remote control and it has a build in radio

pvr150 comes in a retail box. comes with a remote control but lacks support for radio.

There are people on the board who have them both.

 

[Spragleknas]

Running PVR350, seems ok.

wortelsoft: your not completly correct; the 150MCE kit has a remote, but no radio. Seems you can't get both when buying a 150.... Stupid! Please follow link for details.
http://www.hauppauge.com/pages/compare/compare_pvr.html

 

[wortelsoft]

Haven't seen that kit in the Netherlands. All pvr150MCE come with radio and without remote.

 

[gxtracker]

...the 150MCE kit has a remote, but no radio.

The 150MCE has a radio, because Microsoft requires cards to be MCE certified to have a radio tuner built into them. My 150MCE has an FM tuner in it.

You can use the 150MCE on an OS other than Windows MCE. The only reason the it's called the 150MCE is because it is MCE certified hardware for use in MCE boxes. Hauppauge still has seperate drivers for it on their website for installation on other OS's - XP/2000

As for the black bars running up and down the sides of the screen, I think that's because the dimensions for the mytv plugin were based off the PAL standard. Someone with a PAL tuner card will fill the box up completely, yet those of us with an NTSC card will need to use the "Stretch" aspect ratio to have the whole box filled. Thankfully it doesnt distort the viewing angle, but unfortunatly it wont save your settings and always use stretch the next time you restart MP. It's a minor bug I can live with for the time being.

 

[Spragleknas]

Well, according to Hauppauge the MCE kit does not include a FM-radio (ref.link)

 

[wortelsoft]

just checked the site and we are both right

They sell:

pvr150MCE lp OEM low profile with radio no remote

Pvr150MCE OEM with radio no remote

PVR150 retail including remote

PVR150MCE kit Retail no radio comes with remote

Just to make things complicated...