i have a few answers...
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What is the dif between the pvr-250 and 350?
the 350 is a pain in the#@$@ that will (as of yet) never work totaly correct. actualy there is two main differences besides the pain factor. The 350 has TV out, so you dont have to use the TV out on the nvidia. The 350 also has Hardware decoding, to take some pressure off the cpu. Just a hint your not ready to mess with this card, just read this forum, the 350 has some quirky ways that are not fixible as of yet.. The 250 is awsome, and it "just works" with knoppmyth.
Are there any cheaper cards out there that will give just as good quality?
yes there is an off brand that uses the same chipset as the 250, but i dont remember its name. read the forums alittle some people are using them. I would just get the haupauge. (thats what i did)
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Should I just get an hdtv tuner and will it allow me to switch between over the air hd broadcasts and an input?
Never played with one.. untel you have read ALOT i wouldnt blaze new trials, use what works, and when you get a few victories under your belt, join the pioneers on the HDTV front.
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Will they work with a regular monitor if I get an hd tuner?
yes they will with the proper modlines.
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I have a 1.3ghz duron with 368 MB ram. Will this be enough?
with that computer you NEED hardware assitance. Get pvr250's or above (if you dare)
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could I use 2 tuners in this pc or would I need to invest in more ram?
your ram should be ok. however 512 never killed anyone.
Recoding wont test your computer, but watching tv while recording could.but i think it will work fine.
to summerize.. buy the pvr250, and just one at first, mess with dual tuners after you get one working properly.
I've got a 350 and I'm really happy with it. I'd probably be even happier if I were using a newer driver and I was able to use the encoder and the decoder at the same time. But since I've only got a 550MHz processor, I'll use whatever hardware acceleration I can get.