Hauppauge 1192 WinTV HVR-1950 External USB HDTV Tuner/Video Recorder by HAUPPAUGE
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Digital camera reviews of Hauppauge 1192 WinTV HVR-1950 External USB HDTV Tuner/Video Recorder
Digital camera Review: Media Center Finally Works? 14 Months Later!
Summary: 5 Stars
I purchased a Dell XPS "Red" One desk top system in March 2008. Right from the beginning, the Media Center TV would not work properly. I either got a snowy or grainy picture or was unable pickup the TV tuner card. I worked with Dell who told me after numerous efforts that I was not getting enough power to tuner card. So I purchased an amplifier and got slight improvements. After numerous efforts with Dell, I was told to contact Microsoft as it could be a Media center problem caused by SP1 update to Vista Ultimate. They sent me a new copy of Vista Ultimate and I cleaned installed. You can guess, the Media center could not find the card. In November 2008, after numerous efforts by Dell to correct, they sent a technician with a new TV tuner card. Guess what....still did not find the the TV tuner when booted up. I just gave up. Three weeks ago I did a clean install again with the hope of correcting the problem. The Media Center found the TV tuner card but I still got a red grainy picture. Contacted my Cable company and they came out to check the cable. They replaced the cable from the wall to the splitter and then the two cables from the splitter leading to the modem and the PC. Guess what...still a bad picture. He then brought in a TV and connected the from the cable from the PC to TV and got a perfect picture. I was frustrated. He then recommended I get a USB TV Tuner and check it to see of there was a problem with the tuner and mother board. I was going to get back with Dell but chose to search out on amazon.com and came up with this unit....the Hauppauge 1192 WinTV HVR-1950 External USB HDTV Tuner/Video Recorder. Why, if my Media center was bad or I had a bad PC lemon and Media Center did not worked, at least I could use WinTV to watch TV etc. I connected it as instructed, a very simple procedure. Loaded the drivers etc and booted up. To my amazement, it was recognized and loaded. Before I was going to load WinTv, I decided to check out the Media Center. Again to my amazement, the media Center recognized and picked up the USB Tuner....I completed all procedures and click on live TV. I was astonished as I got a crystal clear picture and my channels appeared in digital like clarity. I almost went through the ceiling with glee and joy. Everything is working perfectly for the first time in over 14 months. Yes I will contact Dell and inform them of what has happened. But I will not get rid of my Hauppauge no matter what. Do I need to go into the technical aspects of this unit, I do not think I have too. It works great. Do I need to load WinTV, I do not think I need to at this time. I will be connecting a wireless router and extender and adapter and connect to my large screen, and Blue Ray system to my PC and now use Media Center in my Living room as I always wanted. This USB Tuner sure beats PCI tuner cards (my tuner card is in my monitor). I highly recommend this unit over any other. I hope that by telling you my troubles that I had which were reconciled by the Hauppauge 1950 is a help to you. If it worked for me, it just might work for you and get you up and running like it did me. I am highly satisfied and over-joyed with the results. I think this just might be the best way to go....USB TV Tuner.Digital camera Review: Nice because they didn't jump too far ahead.
Summary: 4 Stars
I bought this after a lightning storm destroyed many electronics in my computer room (what fun!).
This little Joker replaces the Win TV PVR2 (which I loved for it's simplicity and low system requirements).
I actually like this one better!
One of the great things about this TV tuner is that the video hardware decoders are much better than the previous version....it's less grainy. It's also much smaller, and the hardware pilot light is much more responsive than my now fried one.
The other cool thing is that with this version, if you'd like to switch to your composite auxillary device, you can now do so my creating a specific channel for it, instead of hitting that little small green toggle switch between the volume buttons that was on the older edition.
All you do is go into Suite Manager, select an input method, and assign a non used channel to it.
I don't want to go HD yet, but the Software disc accompanying this is Win TV 7 (and damn, what a hog it is).
The good thing is that the company offers a web downloadable version of Win TV 6 (which was the last version for SD TV).
The reason why features got only 4 stars is because you have to have the OEM disc in the drive while you're executing the downloaded version that was saved to your hard drive. This is a perfect example, in my opinion, of security measures starting to get rediculous and cause too much inconvenience for a customer.
I understand when Professional grade software does thing like this (but I don't like it), but for a $130 item seems to go a bit far. I don't know if they're afraid someone's going to try to jimmy rig some home made hardware together and then use the old version for software or what....?
The BEST part is that the products specs are wrong! It does not require a Pentium 4 1.0 Ghz for an SD setup...I'm using a Pentium 3 800 Mhz, Win XP SP2 X86 (and if the specs for the PVR 2 were any indicator, you could probably get away with even a Pentium 2 at 500 mhz or so), and I can even record just fine....yes, the time to start recording is longer than with a quad core....but I'm not ready to lose a quad core to lightning!......yet...
There is also an IR blaster with this one (which I haven't used yet), and the good ol' FM radio tuner. It tunes well, although it would be nice if it could tune faster.
Overall, if they were going to dump this tommorrow and offer only HD USB tuners, I wouldn't hesitate to grab several more of these just to have a few extra.
Hope this helps someone out...
Digital camera Review: Nice h/w, lousy s/w - as usual
Summary: 1 Stars
I've had several Hauppage devices over the years and have always found the software to be absolutely lousy. It has never been based on any kind of Windows programming standard, so everything from setup to the user interface is strange and even dated - right to the point of what looks like a 16-bit setup routine in the latest version.
The hardware appears to be top rate. But the software always lets me down.
If there is one saving grace here it's that you can use WIndows Media Center to watch and record movies, instead of the that of Hauppage.
Digital camera Review: Nothing works with DirectTV
Summary: 1 Stars
This product was a headache. After installing and uninstalling and reinstalling with multiple configuration there is no work around for Direct TV and with the digital antenna, it worked for awhile and then died.
Digital camera Review: Pleased
Summary: 1 Stars
Everything seems to work fine on the tuner itself although one problem that I have encountered is the unit has lost its drivers twice in the last month. Unsure if this is a problem with the Hauppauge tuner software or Windows 7. Other than having to reinstall the software a couple of times, there have been no other issues.
*****AMENDMENT******
This product is a spectacular piece of garbage, it will not hold onto the drivers causing me to constantly unplug the box from the power source and reboot it. I have finally run 13 45 cal slugs through this maddening and frustrating hunk of garbage and will turn my attention towards the Avermedia tv tuner.