The WinTV PVR 250/350 will function under Windows98SE (Second Edition), WindowsME, Windows2000, and Windows XP.

It will not function under Windows95, NT 4.0, Windows XP64 or Embedded and is not currently supported under Windows Server2003, or Linux.

Try moving the WinTV card to a different PCI slot in the system. If there are any resource issues with the WinTV card and any other device in the system, this would reassign the resources for the WinTV.

Open the Control Panel - System - Advanced. In the Performance section click on the Settings button, then the Advanced tab. In the Memory Usage section located here, choose Programs instead of System Cache.

Make sure that the latest drivers for your VGA card are installed as well.

The main causes for black screen are "Decoder Issues", no sound card installed in the system, and video cards that do not support "Overlay".

The following information is ONLY a workaround for video cards that do not support Overlay.

• Black screens when channels have been scanned
• Lockups after channel scan or adding a channel
• Errors when changing MPEG quality level
• Can only display video in MPEG1 setting

You can set the WinTV to run in Primary display mode to get the video in the WinTV2000. You must have the latest version of the Hauppauge Software decoders and version 1.6 or higher of the WinTV-PVR-250/350 drivers.

Open the Primary applet located in the Start - Programs - Hauppauge WinTV program group. Select Force Primary and close the Primary program out. Open WinTV and try adding a channel and see if the video and audio play. Also verify that you can change the MPEG quality settings in the Pref - Movies - MPEG settings.

Remember, this is just a workaround; the PVR 250/350 is designed and meant to work in Overlay. You may need to upgrade the video card drivers or change your video.

Also make sure that the Hauppauge Software decoders have been installed. These will be listed as Intervideo Filter SDK for Hauppauge in the Add Remove Programs section of Control Panel. If they are not listed here, please reinstall from the SMD folder of the WinTV Installation CD.

The drivers for your Sound card should also be updated and installed properly.

Also, you can try recording a short MPEG1 VCD file and play it back to see if the decoder is working properly. If you can record and playback a VCD file, then the problem would indicate a Conflict with pre-installed decoders.

The WinTV PVR 250 has MPEG encoding hardware only. It will use software decoding for the playback and pause functions.

The WinTV PVR 350 has Hardware decoding only on the video output. Local playback (on the PC monitor) is still software decoding.

As a workaround, setting Affinity for the WinTV2k application to use only one CPU will sometimes work. To do this, while the WinTV application is open, Press CTRL+ALT+Delete on your keyboard to open the Windows Task Manager. In here click on the Processes tab and look for the WinTV2K.EXE listing under Image Name. Right click on it and choose Set Affinity. In here it will list the active CPUs. Uncheck the highest number CPU. If they are numbered CPU 0 and CPU 1, uncheck CPU 1. This will make CPU 0 the only one the WinTV will work on.

Microsoft is aware of these types of issues with capture devices. If you would like to read the Microsoft Knowledge base article concerning the hyper-threading fix you can click the following link. There should be a fix for this in Service Pack2:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;817589&Product=winxp

Disabling Hyper Threading in the Bios should also allow the PVR250/350 to function properly. This should only be tried as a last resort.

Initial installation was smooth, and finished without any problems. WinTV and all of its functions work fine until the system is rebooted. When windows comes up again, it recognizes the card as a new device and must be reinstalled in order to work again.

Under XP, a possible workaround would be to delete all the Prefetch files located in the "C:\Windows\Prefetch" This could also be caused by resource conflicts. Try moving the WinTV card to a different PCI slot. Windows will detect the card when you reboot and should reassign the resources for it.

Both models will have the same capture and TV functionality. The PVR 350 adds FM radio, as well as a video output(S-video/Composite video), so you can output captured MPEG videos to an external monitor of VCR.

Video out is only S-Video or Composite, there is no RF output.

When Video Out is enabled, turning off the local playback will lower CPU usage considerably. To access that option, click and hold right mouse button then go down to video out and uncheck Local Playback. You can also turn off Video Out in the same menu selection.

This error will occur if Overlay is not working properly on your system. Your VGA card MUST support Overlay in order for the WinTV-PVR-250/350 to work. Make sure your graphics card supports Overlay. Also make sure that there are no other programs running that require overla, ie; Windows Media Player. These programs will take over the Overlay surface and prevent the WinTV PVR 250/350 from working.

This error may also come up if the Software Decoders have not been installed. Reinstall the software codecs.

Also, be sure that the VGA cards hardware acceleration settings are on Full. (control panel/display/settings/advanced).

This error will only come up if the VFW drivers have been installed on the system. For example, if you had a different model WinTV installed that requires VFW drivers and installed the PVR 250/350 software over it, you may get this error. You may also get this error if you have downloaded and installed the PVR PCI updated drivers mistakenly.

The WinTV PVR 250/350 DOES NOT USE VFW drivers. To correct this error, run the PVR48xxx.exe file from the PVR folder on the WinTV-PVR-250/350 installation CD.

Also, if this error is seen during the driver installation procedure, try reseating or moving the WinTV board into another PCI slot(s), making sure that it is firmly in place.

ULead DVD MovieFactory application update

The latest updates to MovieFactory can be found at: www.ulead.com/tech/dmf/dmf_ftp.htm
A fix for a hang when burning VCD's is now available.

Yes, you can edit the MPEG files with Ulead's Movie Factory (included). Please refer to Ulead's User Manual for instructions. This is located in the Ulead DVD Movie Factory program group. Click on Start - Programs - Ulead DVD Movie Factory

An MPEG editor called Nano Editor is available directly from Hauppauge. This will allow you to cut out commercials. This is a "cut only" editor, and may be downloaded here.