Hauppauge 1178 WinTV-HVR-1600 Internal Hybrid TV Tuner/Video Recorder by HAUPPAUGE
|
List Price: Our Price: $69.99 You Save: $30.00 (30%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: CE See more digital camera details and other models |
|---|
Digital camera reviews of Hauppauge 1178 WinTV-HVR-1600 Internal Hybrid TV Tuner/Video Recorder
Digital camera Review: No compatibility issues, but bad picture
Summary: 3 Stars
I've been using this card for about 6 months, but I admit that I don't use either the remote control or the WinTV application. The reason I don't use the remote is because I use the HP remote that came with my system. I have no problems controlling this card with that remote. The reason I don't use WinTV is because I find it more convenient to stick with Windows Media Center instead of using a third-party app that doesn't have a way to access my other Media Center apps (like My Music, My DVDs, Online Spotlight, etc).
This card is the second card in my system. My HP (WinXP MCE 2005 edition, 32-bit version) came with a Hauppauge PVR II (OEM part for the HP that I think is equivalent to the PVR 150). I wanted the extra card to allow watching and recording on two separate channels. This card works just fine for that purpose. In fact, sometimes I am recording simultaneously on both cards when I am not watching anything on the PC. I had no problems with the install at all. I literally turned off the PC, installed the card, booted back up, and everything was rosy. No conflicts at all. I have not tested this on a 64-bit system or on Windows Vista so I can't say it works for those systems.
The reason I give this card only a 3 is the following: I had used the one Hauppauge card the PC came with for over 6 months and was able to receive all of my local basic analog Comcast channels. I have a very simple hook-up with no cable box and I only get about 30 channels. I am actually able to get a channel that is on the fringe of my availablity with the PVR II that my bedroom TV can't get (I can see the channel in B&W, but the sound is staticky). When I installed this second card and tried to view that same channel (the Hallmark Channel), the 1800 gets the same picture as my bedroom TV and the same staticky sound. This told me that the tuner was simply not as good.
In fact, when I added a DVD-RW/VCR to my bedroom set-up, that device ALSO was able to pull in channel 27. I believe the DVD-RW/VCR and the PVR II both have the better analog cable tuners in them. Now the only way I can watch channel 27 in my living room is to start recording something on another channel and then tune to channel 27. This is because the 1800 took over as the default tuner. In other words, I am automatically watching the 1800 by default, but forcing the 1800 to record makes the PVR II be used as the TV tuner I am watching. If, however, I preset a recording, this recording defaults to using the PVR II (as if the 1800 is left in reserve for me to watch while the other tuner is recording).
The 1800 also has a worse picture on the channels it DOES receive. The picture tends to be not as crisp or clear as when I am viewing with the other tuner. I tried upgrading the drivers directly from the Hauppauge site, but this did not change the picture quality. I believe it's just not a great analog tuner. Since I do not have digital cable yet, I can't say whether that tuner would work better. I suspect more effort was put into the digital side than the analog side for this card.
Digital camera Review: Not as described by Manuf
Summary: 1 Stars
As previous WinTV owner I called Hauppauge for advice! I needed a card tune in DIGITAL Cable/Fios signals. They sold me one of these. IT WILL NOT recv ANY digital other than OVER THE AIR. I contacted my provider and Hauppauge directly. Got the run around.
Good for recording video from your other devices via S-Video Or if you get signal from ANTENNA. I has 2 tuners But only gets CLEAR QAM whic the Cable company's say HUH?
FOR Sale CHEAP!
Digital camera Review: Perfect Vista Tuner
Summary: 5 Stars
Getting the Tuner to work was as easy as pointing driver installation to the drivers folder on the included winTV disc. After Installing three different remote apps on the disc, along with a vista mce patch, the remote now works perfect with Vista's MCE. The picture looks great, and the remote is pretty good.
I now need a bunch of HD Space though due to my recordings with MCE. Which is only 90 hours with my 400 Gigs... I love the quality of this sound card, it is great. But of course there is no documentation... the only down side. On vista, click cancel on the prompts. open the cd manually and run setup. It should run the Vista Installer automatically. If something goes wrong, just do what i did and click every remote app till your remote works! heh. Also, The silver IR Receiver works with the remote . The other one is for changing channels on your cable box when using the s-video in.(again, no documentation)
I would definitely buy again (I might buy one more for dual HD tuners in MCE if they support it).
Digital camera Review: Perfection!
Summary: 5 Stars
This card has two tuners - NTSC and ATSC - and BOTH work at the same time in Vista MCE. I have two of these babies in our MCE box and can record four shows (two HD and two SD) at the same time now. Overkill? Yes, but for once, someone made a card that actually can do it and work like it is supposed too!
It's a shame they don't come with an antennae like the HDTV Wonder used too - picture quality is same as any other HD tuner, and I'm happy with the signal of the SD as well.
Stunning results for such a cheaply priced card. I should warn that I use the standard Microsoft remote with Vista's MCE - so I haven't played with the extra features that this card offers (remote and such) - and I have NOT used the software that comes with, as Vista's MCE does more than I need.
Beautiful.
Digital camera Review: Played live TV (kind of), but didn't record
Summary: 2 Stars
I was able to get the live TV functionality to work using the included software, however anytime I tried to do anything with recording, the application completely froze up. It is advertised to work with Windows Vista, but I am not convinced that is the case. Even installing updated drivers from their Website didn't do the trick. The card didn't seem to work at all with Media Center either; I was able to get live TV for a while through Media Center, but after that I got nothing.
Aside from these problems, the card itself seemed pretty limited, with not much in the way of input connectors. The picture with live TV was also quite fuzzy when put in full screen mode. I wouldn't recommend this card.