Bulk or Retail?

BaZmO*

Sorry about this but I've asked this before in another thread and thought I got the answer to my question.

The questions was, what's the difference between these 2?

I was told that the difference is that one is OEM and the other is Retail, i.e. Retail comes boxed with manuals and leads accessories etc.

But having looked at the specs for the 2 they seem to be slightly different.

The Bulk version seems to have MPEG-1, MPEG-2 Digital Video Formats as well as a few other techy differences.

Something else I noticed is that the interfaces are also different.

Retail
2 x TV antenna - input
1 x display / video - S-video input
1 x display / video - composite video input - RCA
1 x audio - input - RCA x 2

Bulk
1 x TV antenna - input
1 x radio - FM input
1 x display / video - S-video input
1 x display / video - composite video input - RCA
1 x audio - input - RCA x 2

Is the 2 TV inputs versus the 1 TV and 1 Radio input the same thing?

Main question is the Bulk one better than the Retail or are the exactly the same item but just boxed differently?

I also still need to get one of these so that I can use the Media Keyboard that I have. So if there is no difference between the 2 cards I'm be better off getting the retail one.

Thanks.

Matthewthebig

you get a remote with the retail...

BaZmO*

Matthewthebig wrote:

you get a remote with the retail...

Yeah I know. I said that in my post. I just want to know if there's any differences between the 2 cards.

subway

Matthewthebig wrote:

you get a remote with the retail...

a very crap one.

its the same card,
so i guess just a mistake in the text.
there is only one aerial input on the 500, it splits the signal internally

BaZmO*

subway wrote:

a very crap one.

So it's not the same one as the the one I linked to?

subway wrote:

its the same card,
so i guess just a mistake in the text.
there is only one aerial input on the 500, it splits the signal internally

Yeah I thought as much. They tend to do that on the Komplett site with similar items. They leave some text in on one description and leave some text out on the other.

subway

no,
its not the same.

i have both at home and id recommend the microsoft one any day of the week.
the hauppauge one feels very cheap, isnt as well shaped, and doesnt light up.
its "mce certified" so all the buttons are there,
but seeing as the price difference means you can get a proper one for the same money,
i know what id be buying.

also,
check out overclockers.co.uk,
i got my remote there and it worked out to about 40eu delivered

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/cgi-bin/sh000001.pl?REFPAGE=http%3a%2f%2fwww%2eoverclockers%2eco%2euk%2facatalog%2fsearch%2ehtml&WD=media%20centre&PN=Operating_Systems%2ehtml%23aSW_2d009_2dMS#aSW_2d009_2dMS

BaZmO*

subway wrote:

no,
its not the same.

i have both at home and id recommend the microsoft one any day of the week.
the hauppauge one feels very cheap, isnt as well shaped, and doesnt light up.
its "mce certified" so all the buttons are there,
but seeing as the price difference means you can get a proper one for the same money,
i know what id be buying.

also,
check out overclockers.co.uk,
i got my remote there and it worked out to about 40eu delivered

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/cgi-bin/sh000001.pl?REFPAGE=http%3a%2f%2fwww%2eoverclockers%2eco%2euk%2facatalog%2fsearch%2ehtml&WD=media%20centre&PN=Operating_Systems%2ehtml%23aSW_2d009_2dMS#aSW_2d009_2dMS

Cheers for that. I'm gonna get both off Komplett. I've ordered a bit off them before and had no trouble. Plus it works out at only €12 delivery for both.

I originally ordered the MCE500 from Savastore and when I received it there was a MCE150 in the box instead. Bit strange!!!

I sent it back for a replacement but they just issued me with a refund even though they still have it for sale on their website. They probably just didn't want to pay a courier charge for the third time.

Well actually, it would have been the fouth time. I ordered 3 items from them and they sent the MCE500 first holding back on the other 2 cos they were waiting for one of the items to come back into stock. This was taking ages so I decided to cancel the order on the item that they were delaying on so that they would send out the other item, eventually they did.

Don't think I'll be hurrying back to use them again any time soon.

subway

jaysus,
that sounds dodgy :eek:

best of luck with the build

BaZmO*

I just got the 500 in the post today. Fairplay to Komplett, I only ordered it on Tuesday.

Anyway, I a little confused about the extra bit that comes with it. There's the normal card with the the tuners and then there's the other bit shown in the picture. What's it for?

Is this extra surplus to requirements? And do I need to use the wires that come with it to connect the normal card to my sound card or onto something else?

Here's a video I found online that shows the two different bits but it doesn't make it any clearer.

Cheers.

SouperComputer

the bracket is an Svideo\Composite connection for your 2nd tuner. The Analouge connection is split internally.

So if you plan using two STB's, you will be using the bracket

BaZmO*

Ah cool. So I don't need to install it then.

I'm really showing my noobie status aith all this stuff as of late.