VIDEO QUALITY/STRESS TESTING:
I found the recording quality to be excellent, and didn’t have any issues with the quality of the files generated. It records in MPEG2 format so recorded files are easily transferred to DVD video without re-encoding (provided you have a DVD burner). The PVR350 can encode your source material in various bit rates so you can decide whether you want to go for maximum quality (and therefore maximum hard disk space used) or select a lesser quality to maximize the amount of programming you can fit on your disk.

Screen Captures: Click to see a 800x600 high quality JPG

The real strength and selling feature for this card is its hardware assisted MPEG encoding. This means that the Hauppauge’s MPEG encoder chip and NOT your CPU will be doing all the heavy lifting. I was impressed with how low the CPU demands were during recording on my very modest AMD Athlon XP+1700 with a paltry 256MB of RAM. Recording using the PVR350 barely put a dent in CPU usage (using windows performance monitor); it stayed under or right around 10% utilization. Very cool! The minimum specs on the box list a Pentium II 500MHz or faster as the lowest acceptable clock speed for use with the card. This is good news for those of you who want to pair this card with a comparatively lower power mini-itx system.

I performed some anecdotal/qualitative stress testing to get a better sense of just how solid (or not) the hardware assisted encoding performed on the PVR350. I recorded a program, while playing a previously recorded MPEG on my PC monitor (software decoding) in the background, while playing Counter-Strike 1.6 in the foreground. My system (especially disk access) was taking a beating. The CPU utilization peaked several times during the test and the hard drive was really churning. My in-game frame rates and ping suffered greatly (as well as my score =P) in Counter-Strike but it certainly had the desired effect of bringing my PC fairly close to “crush depth”. The encoded program did not suffer any dropped frames, hiccups, or other artifacts. The PVR350 passes with flying colors.

ACCESSORIES:
Prior to actually having the card in front of me, an included remote control was a big selling feature for me. Any PVR card that I would even consider purchasing HAD to have remote included. With that said, the included remote is functional but nothing to write home about. If you are using the card just in your PC for capture purposes you probably don’t need the remote (get the remote-less and cheaper PVR250 MCE). If you are going to use it in a full fledge HTPC in your entertainment center you are most likely going to be looking into a more full featured JP1 uber-remote solution to control everything in your setup.

I appreciated the inclusion of the remote in the overall package but for all intents and purposes consider it an entry level remote to tide you over till you go for a full bore JP1 remote.

I LOVE IT, BUT…

There is one item of contention

The PVR350’s TV out and built in MPEG decoder is what sets it apart from the less expensive PVR250 line of cards (the encoding section of the 250/350 are near identical). I’m a little conflicted about the value the TV out & MPEG decoder adds to the overall package. The built in MPEG decoder only works for signal put through the PVR350’s TV out. Local playback (e.g. a PC monitor) isn’t hardware assisted and is done via software. “Live TV” or playback of prerecorded MPEG clips through the PVR350’s TV out is hardware assisted. DVD’s displayed through the PVR350’s TV out are NOT hardware assisted because they are encrypted and rely on software decoding. DivX playback through the tv out is also a no go.

Here’s the rub: You can’t see your Windows desktop OR the menu’s/On Screen Display of your PVR software through the PVR350’s TV out. Bummer. It kind of defeats the purpose of having the TV out integrated on the card itself. I’d almost suggest getting the PVR250/PVR350 and pairing it with another TV out card except the S-Video out on the PVR350 is so clear/good that I’m torn.

I asked a Hauppauge representative about it and they said:

Jeff Kardatske demonstrated the SageTV UI on a TV set using the WinTV-PVR-350 at the CES show in January. So I know that they have this running as part of SageTV. I thought that Snapstream showed me this when I visited them last month.

Making the UI appear on the TV set is not difficult. There is a video overlay which you can write to which makes stuff appear over the TV. It does not do blending, but as for an overlay it works just fine.

Hauppauge will add the UI to the WinTV-PVR-350 in the future. But I'm not sure exactly when. It depends upon when our engineers can get to it.

There is hope on the horizon though. Several 3rd party developers have built either specialized drivers or software hooks to force OSD/menu display through the PVR350’s TV out. The software capable of doing this is still in the development/Beta stage and I wouldn’t classify it has 100% stable although I've heard good things about SageTV's 2.0 Beta. It's good to see progress made though on both windows/linux platform free and commercial solutions: SageTV 2 ( SageTv 2 reviewed using the PVR350 ) , MythTV with special IVTV drivers, and GB-PVR.

CONCLUSION:
Great card. I unabashedly recommend the PVR350 (or it’s smaller brother the PVR250) for it’s quality and power of its MPEG encoding hardware. The only issue holding it back from earning the coveted perfect 10 score is the TV out overlay/OSD issue and less than sexy bundled PVR software.