Which one i should buy HAUPPAUGE HVR-900 or HVR3000

Forums › Freeview (DVB-T/DVB-S) › Which one i should buy HAUPPAUGE HVR-900 or HVR3000

jarodcn

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# 20648 1-Apr-2008 21:35

Same price ,which one should i buy.

sbiddle

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# 120341 1-Apr-2008 21:37

Do you want DVB-S as well as DVB-T? If so the HVR3000 is your only option and best option if you ever plan on getting a satellite dish.

Satch

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# 120420 2-Apr-2008 08:38

The HVR-3000 is a hybrid tuner right? So you can only use one of its tuner types at one time?

sbiddle

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# 120423 2-Apr-2008 08:46

Satch: The HVR-3000 is a hybrid tuner right? So you can only use one of its tuner types at one time?

Yes. You can't use DVB-T and DVB-S at the same time.

Fossie

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# 120429 2-Apr-2008 09:18

Get the 3000 if you're using it with a desktop/htpc. 900 if you are using a laptop (or a mac..).

amanzi

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# 122037 8-Apr-2008 10:45

Can anyone confirm that they have the HVR900 working with Vista SP1 x64?

allstarnz

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# 122047 8-Apr-2008 11:08

amanzi: Can anyone confirm that they have the HVR900 working with Vista SP1 x64?

I think that's what a friend uses, seems to work fine for him.

phatbloke

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# 122079 8-Apr-2008 12:38

I can't comment on the HVR-900 but I wouldnt reccommend the HVR-3000 if your wanting to use it for analogue as the quality isn't the best and it doesnt have a MPEG-2 decoder chip onboard which limits the applications / speed of the card.

That aside I use it for DVB-T and it runs no problems in that field.

DS248

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# 122095 8-Apr-2008 13:20

amanzi: Can anyone confirm that they have the HVR900 working with Vista SP1 x64?

I also can't comment on the HVR-900, but I have the HVR-4000 card combined with Vista x64 SP1 (8600gts video card).

DVB-T works fine for viewing TV, though so far I have only tied using the supplied PowerCinema software.

There appears to be a problem with recorded DVB-T - no sound on playback. Seems to be an audio driver issue. AFAIK that problem is not restricted to x64. Seem to be many with the same problem, so hopefully there will be a patch(?) with the required codec (as in the new PowerDVD8).

Recorded analogue TV replays with sound OK, but as phatbloke mentioned re the HVR-3000 card, analogue TV quality is not the greatest on these cards (not really of interest to me though)

sbiddle

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# 122120 8-Apr-2008 14:12

DS248:
amanzi: Can anyone confirm that they have the HVR900 working with Vista SP1 x64?

I also can't comment on the HVR-900, but I have the HVR-4000 card combined with Vista x64 SP1 (8600gts video card).

DVB-T works fine for viewing TV, though so far I have only tied using the supplied PowerCinema software.

There appears to be a problem with recorded DVB-T - no sound on playback. Seems to be an audio driver issue. AFAIK that problem is not restricted to x64. Seem to be many with the same problem, so hopefully there will be a patch(?) with the required codec (as in the new PowerDVD8).

PowerCinema has no support the for the AAC-LATM audio used in New Zealand.

amanzi

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# 122123 8-Apr-2008 14:25

I also can't comment on the HVR-900, but I have the HVR-4000 card combined with Vista x64 SP1 (8600gts video card).

Thanks for the info about the HVR-4000 compatibility. The Haupauge site only lists Windows XP SP2 as being the OS system requirement.

buzzy

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# 122131 8-Apr-2008 14:52

phatbloke: I can't comment on the HVR-900 but I wouldnt reccommend the HVR-3000 if your wanting to use it for analogue as the quality isn't the best and it doesnt have a MPEG-2 decoder chip onboard which limits the applications / speed of the card.

Phatbloke - when you say "no hardware MPEG decoder" do you mean decoder or encoder? For example the PVR-150 has an encoder but no decoder; the PVR-350 has both encoder and decoder but it has a dedicated TV-out for the decoding.

I've just today ordered a 3000 to replace my 350, so I'm curious whether it has a hardware encoder or not. The Hauppauge site says not, but other sites have indicated it does. I suspect it doesn't. No big deal either way as the 3000 will be for DVB-S; I've got a PVR-150 for analog.

Cheers
Buzzy

xcubed

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# 122143 8-Apr-2008 15:52

The HVR-3000 does not have a hardware encoder. This means that while it is fine for DVB transmissions (which are already in MPEG format), the analogue tuner requires a software encoder to record the video stream.

The analogue tuner works fine if you're just watching it in WinTV (as it is in raw form), but as soon as you go to record it (or if you're using GB-PVR or MediaPortal which only deal in MPEG streams) you'll need to make sure the machine has enough grunt to cope with the MPEG encoding on top of everything else.

I mainly use the DVB-S tuner on my card, and only need the analogue tuner for Prime, so it's not a big issue for me.

DS248

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# 122144 8-Apr-2008 15:57

amanzi:
I also can't comment on the HVR-900, but I have the HVR-4000 card combined with Vista x64 SP1 (8600gts video card).

Thanks for the info about the HVR-4000 compatibility. The Haupauge site only lists Windows XP SP2 as being the OS system requirement.

Note that you (may?) need to update the TV card driver for Vista x64 support - avialable from http://www.hauppauge.co.uk/pages/support/support_driversonly.html

I bought my current PC in Dec 07 & it was not till the x64 drivers became available in Jan or Feb 08 that I could use the TV card. Not certain if the cards being sold now come with x64 drivers.

garryk

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# 122188 8-Apr-2008 19:51

Also, beware if you want to use HVR3000 with MythTV. I did get it to work, but it sure wasn't easy, so I've abandoned Linux for now (at least until (if?) the support for the HVR3000 gets much better).

Also, the 3000 works well on DVB-S or -T with GB-PVR, but GB-PVR doesn't recommend using it as both an analogue and DVB device, even tho the card has capabilities for both (see http://gbpvr.com/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Hardware/DualCaptureCards#toc2 under section "D. Dual DVB Only Cards")

buzzy

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# 122212 8-Apr-2008 21:48

garryk: Also, the 3000 works well on DVB-S or -T with GB-PVR, but GB-PVR doesn't recommend using it as both an analogue and DVB device, even tho the card has capabilities for both (see http://gbpvr.com/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Hardware/DualCaptureCards#toc2 under section "D. Dual DVB Only Cards")

Interesting - thanks for posting this. I guess my new 3000 is going to be restricted to DVB-S then, which is fine -that's what it was bought for. DVB-S now, but with the possibility to use DVB-T down the track.