Hauppauge 1120CN WinTV-HVR-950 Hybrid Video Recorder by HAUPPAUGE
|
List Price: Buy Used: from $299.99 (click here) Category: CE See more digital camera details and other models |
|---|
(Click here)
Digital camera reviews of Hauppauge 1120CN WinTV-HVR-950 Hybrid Video Recorder
Digital camera Review: A skeptic, I was...
Summary: 5 Stars
I've been looking for a USB HDTV Tuner mainly to watch TV from my laptop and I came across this one. I was choosing between this Hauppauge WINTV HVR-950 or the Pinnacle PCTV HD Pro Stick. The PCTV seems to have more accessories as it includes an A/V adapter cable and a Mini remote control. It also seems as good as the WINTV HVR-950 in terms of performance, basing that opinion solely on Amazon and CompUSA reviews. However, the price difference swayed me to take the plunge and try the WINTV HVR-950. The A/V adapter cable and a Mini remote control would have been nice BUT I did not think it was worth the extra cost.
I wasn't expecting much from this USB Tuner but it blew me away! It is awesome! I connected this tuner to a 1.6MHZ Intel Centrino M with 1GB of RAM. I was expecting the picture to be choppy but it pulled in 31 digital over-the-air channels in my area and stations broadcasting in HDTV came in very clear. The tuner is software-based and there is a noticeable lag when switching channels. Since my expectations were not very high, this wasn't an issue for me. It would be sweet watching HDTV from the airport while waiting for my next flight. Overall, I'm extremely impressed with this product and I recommend it.
Digital camera Review: Alot in a little package
Summary: 5 Stars
Its pretty amazing what this little thing does. I was a little skeptical that you could get something so small (and external) to tune in HDTV, but it works. It picks up over the air HD and analog TV. I got one because I wanted to record OTA TV without the hassle of hunting for empty DVDs. Also, my DVD recorder doesn't record digital broadcasts, so I miss the HD broadcasts, and it will be obsolete in Feb 2009 anyway.
In a nutshell, this thing has a little antenna that gets suprizingly good HD reception, and with it I can watch and record TV on my PC. What more can you ask? The software that comes with it is nothing spectacular, but it is certainly acceptable. The only thing I would caution about is that your PC should exceed the minimum requirements by a considerable margin. HDTV is processor intensive. My 2.4 GHz P4 can barely handle it, and in fact drops some frames making a jerky picture. If I weren't planning on upgrading the PC soon, I would have gone for the HVR-1600, which has hardware MPEG encoding (this only has software encoding, which is why it taxes the CPU). I got the portable one because I thought I might want to take it traveling as well as use it at home. It doesn't tune in cable (the HVR-1600 does), only OTA, but it has an attachment that recieve composite and S-video, so you can do analog video capture.
Update: I've upgraded my PC since I wrote this to a quad core CPU and a integrated 780g GPU. The new PC handles HD much better than my old one. I wonder if some of the poor reviews are due to insufficient PC power rather than this product. Also, I gave up on the included software. It can record, but I can't open the files with any other software. I use GBPVR now, which is free (google it), but somewhat difficult to configure.
Digital camera Review: Amazing!
Summary: 5 Stars
I attached the WinTV-HVR-950 tuner device to my Time Warner cable box and an open USB port on my PC, installed the included software, and off I went to TV on my PC! I receive extremely high quality picture and sound on all non-HDTV Time Warner cable channels (be sure to set the tuner software to Channel 3, and use the Time Warner remote to change channels).
An added plus is that the small telescoping antenna supplied with the tuner receives all local HDTV channels with perfect picture and sound. I live about 15 miles from the transmitters in Columbus, OH.
The personal video recorder ("PVR") also works flawlessly, as advertised, however, this means little to me. I've been unable to get the Software for scheduling PVR recording to operate properly on my Windows XP machine but, who cares? I bought the tuner to watch TV on my PC and it delivers beautifully in every respect. A real winner! Turns a PC into a TV (and HDTV!) for cheap, cheap, cheap!!
Digital camera Review: An overall good buy
Summary: 4 Stars
I'm using the tuner on my laptop running windows vista ultimate. After downloading the Media Center patch from Hauppauge's website [...] the tuner works great. Over the air ATSC signals come in great while standard cable comes in much like you would expect an hd tv to receive (standard cable just doesn't have great resolution). The one problem I have noticed is that if the tuner is located in a warmer area (ie. close to the fan of my laptop) the tuner will overheat causing a scrambled picture; however, since moving the tuner to the opposite side of my laptop (no heat) the tuner works fine and doesn't overheat. This product is an overall good buy.Digital camera Review: Another happy customer
Summary: 5 Stars
I've been watching pretty good TV on my laptop through cable for years. Decided to take a chance on this HVR-950. Boy I'm glad I did. Using the enclosed antenna, the pictures on the digital channels came in so clear. At first, plugging the 950 unit directly into the USB port on my laptop, I had problem installing the software, but after plugging it in using the little extension cable, everything works great.