Quality of PVR-150 vs 250 vs 500

[Sam]

I'm new to this arena, and trying to decide what capture card(s) to get. From perusing various information, it seems the 250 is (was?) very popular. Is that just because it has been around longer? Do two 250's give better image quality than a single 500? Does the 150 produce as good an image as the 250?

Is PCI preferable to USB 2.0 to avoid contention with other USB devices?

[dbfresh23]

I can't speak on the 250 but the 500 is basically 1 card with 2 150s on it so the quality is/should be the same. The 250 was the older tuner model but there are differences between it and the 150. I have a 500 and have no problems with it. People are also saying that the new Nvidia DualTV tuner is nice so you may want to look at that. I'm using a PVR-500 and an ATI Theater Pro 550 and would say that the picture from the ATI is ever so slightly better - hardly noticable though. IMO PCI is ALWAYS preferable to USB.

[ybrew]

I've read a few posts from folks complaining of pic quality with the 500s. I have a hauppauge 500 in my system now and plan to add another one this week. I am more than satisfied with the quality. Even so, I'd be inclined to sacrifice a little quality for the convenience of a dual tuner card. Eventually I plan to add a couple of HDTV tuner cards into my system so I need to make the best use of my PCI slots.

But if the quality wasn't good, I wouldn't be buying a second one this week.