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WinTV hvr 1250

7K views 27 replies 6 participants last post by  danbcman 
#1 ·
Just did a few upgrades on my computers and hit a snag. I installed XP 64bit and now, any of my PCI capture cards work. I even tried an old WinTV-Go and it won't Go.

I searched everywhere for a Win XP 64bit driver for that card as well as my other card.

My question is this: If I get the Hauppauge WinTV PVR 1250, will it work? I have found a few links claiming it does work with XP64 but am curious if anyone here have that card running on their XP64 setup?

I installed XP64 because I have 4 gig ram installed.

If there is another card that does run on this OS and in the 50-80$ range, I'll be more than happy to get it. The main purpose to the card is to convert my VHS to DVD and watch my FTA system as well. Nothing big.
 
#3 ·
Assuming you meant HVR-1250, I can guarantee yes.
I've been running it on xp64 since I bought it.

Note: For ATSC. I believe NTSC works, but I haven't tried it in anything other than wintv.
I believe the 1250 wouldnt work for functions such as video capture in virtualdub, whereas my hvr-950 [old] would, because it has a different tuner in it.

If you tell me what program you intend to use to capture vhs i can test for you.

All of my hauppauge products are fully supported in xp64, and have been since I bought them. Hauppauge has been very good about it, considering how few people use xp64.
I think the ones you have suffer because they're so old, it wasn't worth going back to write drivers for them.
 
#10 ·
All of my hauppauge products are fully supported in xp64, and have been since I bought them. Hauppauge has been very good about it, considering how few people use xp64.
I think the ones you have suffer because they're so old, it wasn't worth going back to write drivers for them.
I know for sure that the PVR-150 isn't supported under any 64 bit OS and it also wouldn't work in my WHS box when I had 4GB installed, even though the OS couldn't see the entire 4 GB. I had to back off my box to 2GB in order to use the card.
 
#4 ·
The program I'd use was what came with my other PCI capture card. It's called something like Honestr???. I'd be using the s-video in of the card. I have 2 hauppauge cards and love them very much. Just a ummer one of them is stuck in 32bit world.

And yes, I meant HVR 1250. My bad.
 
#5 ·
Not sure which program that is, but I checked with some generic capture sources to confirm what I thought was the case.
The HVR-1250 does not work with vitualdub or vlc for generic video capture (my 950 does, different tuner inside)

However, worst case scenario, you can use wintv to tune analog + record just fine.

Not sure what the difference in protocols/capture initialization is.. to be honest, haven't really bothered to get it to work because my 950 works just fine for the rare time i need to tune analog (e.g. capture vcr input)
 
#6 ·
Doesn't it have a composite video input? In that case, the program that comes with Hauupauge product should work no?
 
#8 ·
Okay, now I get what you mean. Thanks for your input.

By the way, the program I was talking about is honestech tvr.
 
#12 ·
The HVR-1800/1850 (or 1600, but it's PCI, not PCIe) is the equivalent if you want hardware analog support.
It splits digital and analog inputs, too.

(so if you wished to use it for ATSC/QAM at some point, you can keep your vcr connected, as well as your digital source)

I think 1600's around $100 and 1800/1850's a couple bucks more.
(assuming computer shop prices, and not, say.. futureshop)

Depending on your computer's specs and how much you're transferring, you might not even need/want hardware analog encoding.

This would be mostly if you're archiving for computer/modern media player use, and not just standard-dvd (e.g. a divx/xvid enabled dvd player vs an original dvd mpeg-2 only player).

Encode to xvid/x264 means the hardware encoding was an extra step in reducing image quality. Source->MPEG2->MPEG4 (using a hardware encode card) vs Source->MPEG4 (or source->raw->MPEG4) (using a software encode card either on the fly or dump + 2pass encode later)
 
#13 ·
That's a very good point to skip MPEG2 totally:)

If you wish to burn a few DVDs, MPEG2s still has it's use.

I woudn't get the HVR-1600 because my of limited but poor experience with the ATSC tuner which I use mainly.
 
#14 ·
The advantage to MPEG-2, beyond DVD burning, is that it is much easier to find editors that can edit MPEG-2 files - VideoReDo is my favourite (although the do now have a H.264 version).

MPEG-2 is much easier to stream to all sorts of devices like connected DVD players, Xbox360, etc. Having the original file in MPEG-2 means that if you use something like Orb, AirVideo, etc to stream across the internet then the PC doing the streaming can be much less lightweight since it doesn't have to re-encode in realtime.
 
#15 · (Edited)
HVR-1600 does a great job of anolog recording I use it for my sony dv cam feed in for my humming bird feeder it does a great job of that. I have used the 1250 for the same job and it is laggiing where as the 1600 feed it instant noticeable when zooming and fucusing any ways the 1600 seems to that part great and far less load on the cpu

I should also add I let the cam record all day and use Videoredo to edit out the the wanted clips as it is so fast and that and you can save to a different format output it you so choose using it too.
 
#17 ·
I'm not really particular as far as what codec I would use. I really just need a card that will do what I want it to do and with good results. I do like reading what others have posted. It just make me more aware of the different possibilities there are out there.
 
#19 ·
I've been running the old version that came with it.
I think it's 5(?)

They've since removed it from their site (I even tried googling old links :p)

But this is the version that came with my tuner (or maybe one update later? it's not from the cd, but a folder on my NAS), and has worked for me on xp64.

Completely remove the drivers and software already installed and try this one.

http://www.mediafire.com/?7669chaainclh0z

If this doesn't work, I don't know what to say.. I'm running that exact version just fine :confused:
 
#21 ·
Well it works. I did a system restore before I had installed WINTV7 yesterday and started from scratch. The 4.2 drivers didn't support pci-e for some reason so I installed the newer one and then installed WINTV6. Works perfectly. I can now watch (again) my Intelsat 9 on my computer! Thanks!
 
#24 ·
hvr 1250

Hello. I just bought this WinTV-HVR 1250 with the intention to record a show from the cable box and record shows ive been taping onto vhs. Its been working good but every 45 minutes I record takes up 3gb of space. Is there a way to change this without getting worse than ok quality as it is now or should I return it and get something better? Do something different? Help would be greatly appreciated first card ive ever tried and took a while to get it working right. Thanks.
 
#25 ·
If you're using the winTV software, it is capturing the video to MPEG1 or MPEG2 files.
These are DVD-ready files for use in a dvd player.
If you want computer archival, you can use another software program that will save in MPEG4 variants (xvid/divx, x264/h264) which will drastically reduce the file size with comparable quality.

Alternatively, you can take the MPEG output from wintv and run it through a transcoder to turn it into MPEG4.
There are many out there, but handbrake is quite easy to use - just select the file, set the quality and click go.

The first option (record directly to MPEG4) gives the better quality output.
The second is easier for beginners, though it gives slightly poorer image quality.
 
#26 · (Edited)
Any programs you could recommend? One better than others? Appreciate the reply ive been browsing several pages and have yet to see any comment about file size. Ive converted a few to mpeg4v2 and get a size about 600mb but it seems the quality is slightly lower but still veiwable.

Could someone recommend a card under $150 that is reliable and records mpeg4 or xvid? Thanks.
 
#27 ·
The card is capable of capturing video, it's software which handles creating the MPEG2/4 files.

(no need to buy a new card).

I haven't kept up on the video software recently, though I would imagine the PVR software out there probably has different filetype options for SD content.
(HD/ATSC content is typically just file stream dump - exactly as it is from the source = MPEG2)

I would look at beyondtv (pay), sage (pay) and GB-PVR (open source/free) and see what they support for SD file formats.
 
#28 ·
JimK
In the Configuration tab click advanced Options and then click auto convert MPEG-2 recordings to .mpg but be sure to keep the original file just in case you don't like it once you are sure then you can change that setting. It will give you a smaller file size but do keep in mind you resolution is not going to be more than what your source is.
 
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