Hauppauge 1199 WinTV HVR-1600 Internal PCI Dual TV Tuner/Video Recorder with IR Receiver and Blaster Review
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In installed the card on a new, fairly standard Vista Home (32-bit) system, the card was recognized, drivers installed. I did not bother with WinTV; Windows Media Center works very well for me, and is fully compatible with this tuner.
At first I was using it to tune analog cable, and it worked fine for that purpose. I was satisfied that the picture was as good as analog could be, but of course I was pining for HD.
Our local cable provider charged far too much money to provide access to local channels in HD, which is all I really wanted, so I installed an outdoor antenna for over-the-air reception. Even an indoor antenna worked reasonably well, but with some dropouts. With the outdoor antenna, I get solid HD reception along with the extra sub-channels found on some broadcasters (especially PBS). The cost of the antenna and installation was about the same as 8 months of digital cable, so it's paid for.
Because there are two TV inputs (one for analog, one for HD) you might be tempted to use a passive splitter to use the same signal for both, and perhaps for other devices. I recommend that you avoid/minimize splitting because it greatly reduces the signal, or get an active splitter, one that requires electricity to power amplifiers that prevent loss from splitting.
I have since upgraded to Windows 7 64-bit, and this card works perfectly with that Windows Media Center on that system. I have never tried using digital cable with this card, but I understand that it is supported in Windows 7, but not Windows Vista, at least not the original release.
I got this card maybe 18-24 months ago and it continues to work flawlessly.
I gave "Features" only four stars because I wish there was an FM tuner on this card, like there are on some others.
Hauppauge 1199 WinTV HVR-1600 Internal PCI Dual TV Tuner/Video Recorder with IR Receiver and Blaster Feature
- PCI card has dual TV tuners to let you watch both digital and analog television on your computer
- Supports QAM, ATSC, and analog cable signals
- Built-in hardware MPEG-2 recorder
- Remote control included
- Includes Personal Video Recorder software for scheduled recording of programs
Hauppauge 1199 WinTV HVR-1600 Internal PCI Dual TV Tuner/Video Recorder with IR Receiver and Blaster Overview
WinTV-HVR-1600 brings over-the-air high definition ATSC digital TV, clear QAM digital cable TV and analog cable TV to your PC. Watch and record TV in a window or full screen using high quality MPEG-2.WinTV-HVR-1600 contains two tuners - an ATSC digital TV tuner for over the air digital TV reception plus a 125-channel cable ready TV tuner. For ATSC digital TV, all 18 ATSC formats including 1080i can be watched or recorded to disk as a program stream. A highly integrated MPEG-1/2 hardware encoder is on-board for recording analog cable TV to disk.
Hauppauge 1199 WinTV HVR-1600 Internal PCI Dual TV Tuner/Video Recorder with IR Receiver and Blaster Specifications
Amazon.com Product Description The Hauppauge 1199 WinTV-HVR-1600 includes dual TV tuners to let you watch both digital and analog television on your PC, in a window or full screen. With PVR software and built-in hardware for MPEG-2 encoding, you can also record television onto your computer for viewing later without slowing down your computer.
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 Dual tuners lets you watch both digital and analog signals. View larger. |
With dual format TV tuners, the WinTV-HVR-1600 lets you watch ATSC digital TV as well as QAM digital TV and analog cable TV. ATSC digital TV, which typically requires an antenna for reception, is the over-the-air HDTV standard for North America. ATSC broadcasts range in resolution from standard definition up to the high definition 1080i format. (To check the ATSC digital transmissions in your area, input your zip code at titantv.com.)
The WinTV-HVR-1600 also lets you watch and record QAM channels, which are unencrypted digital channels broadcast by your local cable operator. If you don't have access to digital television channels yet, you can also watch regular analog cable television. And with the included remote control, you can control your cable TV or satellite set top box.
In addition to high-definition video, the card also features a dbx-TV stereo decoder for great TV sound. The card has Composite/S-Video and audio inputs that allow for connecting VCRs or cable/satellite set top boxes.
Your Own Personal Digital Video Recorder!
With the included software, you can easily record TV shows to your hard disk using MPEG-2. Several recording options are available depending on your playback needs; higher quality video requires more disk space. Generally, 5 gigabytes of disk space is used per hour of ATCS digital TV recordings.. Thanks to the built-in hardware MPEG-2 encoder, your PC continues to run at full speed even while recording.
 The WinTV application offers an elegant interface to watch TV in a window or full screen. View larger. |
The Hauppauge 1199 WinTV-HVR-1600 plugs into a PCI slot and is compatible with Windows Vista, XP with Service Pack 2, and Windows XP Media Center Edition. With XP-MCE and Vista, you can add the WinTV-HVR-1600 as either the primary or secondary TV tuner. The Microsoft Media Center application supports up to two TV tuners so you can watch on channel while recording another.
What's in the Box
WinTV-HVR-1600 PCI card, IR remote control receiver, IR Blaster (remote control), CD-ROM with WinTV software.
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*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Apr 10, 2010 13:12:43
