Hauppauge 1192 WinTV HVR-1950 External USB HDTV Tuner/Video Recorder

by Hauppauge

• USB HDTV Tuner/Video Recorder lets you turn your PC into a virtual television and personal video recorder
• Compatible with 32 bit and/or 64 bit Windows 7
• Supports NTSC analog cable, over the air TV, ATSC Digital over the air HDTV, and Clear QAM digital cable TV; watch TV in window or full screen
• On-board MPEG-2 encoder allows PC to run at full speed while recording analog cable TV directly to hard drive
• Included remote control controls satellite and TV set top boxes

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 10 x 7.2 x 3 inches ; 2 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B00198MYB0
• California residents: Click here for Proposition 65 warning.
• Item model number: 1192
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (85 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
  • #27 in Electronics > Computers & Add-Ons > Computer Components > Internal TV Tuner & Capture Cards
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes
• Date first available at Amazon.com: August 22, 2003

Product Description

Amazon.com

With the Hauppauge 1192 WinTV HVR-1950 External USB HDTV Tuner/Video Recorder, you can turn your PC into a virtual television and personal video recorder (or PVR). By simply plugging this video recorder into one of your computer's USB ports, you can watch, pause and record live HDTV or cable TV directly on your computer.

Watch, pause and record live HDTV or cable TV directly on your computer. View larger

Plug into your computer's USB port, and turn your PC into a virtual television and PVR. View larger

The WinTV application offers an elegant interface to watch TV in a window or full screen

Watch Analog, Cable and Digital TV on your PC

The WinTV HVR-1950 Tuner/Video Recorder lets you watch NTSC analog cable, over-the-air TV, ATSC digital over-the-air HDTV, and Clear QAM Digital Cable TV directly on your computer, either in a window or on full screen. Why miss your favorite sitcom or the deciding playoff game just because you have work to do?

NTSC is the analog cable TV standard, and ATSC is the over-the-air digital HDTV standard for North America and typically requires an antenna for reception. Clear QAM digital cable allows you to watch unencrypted HDTV stations from your cable TV provider without a set-top box.

The tuner also features a built-in, 125-channel, cable-ready TV tuner, allowing you to watch analog TV and Clear QAM Digital TV by connecting to your cable box. For analog cable TV reception, you need an analog cable TV connection. If you have a digital cable set-top box or a satellite box, the WinTV-HVR-1950 can connect via either Composite or S-Video inputs. For ATSC over-the-air digital TV reception, a high-gain antenna is recommended (sold separately). (To check the ATSC TV broadcasts in your area, go to TitanTV.com and enter your postal code. Note: depending on the strength of your antenna, you might not be able to receive all broadcasts listed at TitanTV.)

Schedule and Record your Favorite Shows

With the on-board MPEG-2 encoder, the WinTV-HVR-1950 lets you record analog cable TV while allowing your PC to operate at full speed during recording, so you won't sacrifice any performance.

Digital TV programs are recorded in their original video quality, so 1080i programs are recorded at 1080i, and so on. With the included WinTV-Scheduler software installed, you can also turn your PC into a virtual PVR and schedule and record your TV shows automatically.

Analog TV recordings typically consume 1.5 GB of disk space per hour using Hauppauge's SoftPVR for Windows and Media Center. High-definition TV recordings typically consume 5 GB of disk space per hour.

Other features include a Dolby-TV stereo decoder for Dolby-quality audio, and a remote control that lets you control satellite and TV set top boxes for the ultimate in convenience. The WinTV-HVR-1950 is compatible with Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, and Windows Media Center.

What's in the Box?

WinTV-HVR-1950 USB 2.0 External Box, USB cable, Hauppauge Remote Control (with batteries), IR blaster cable, WinTV installation and utilities software CD-ROM, and quick installation guide.

Product Description

The WinTV-HVR-1950 from Hauppauge is a USB TV tuner for ATSC, NTSC and clear QAM digital TV. Watch HD TV programs from ATSC or clear QAM digital cable. Watch, pause, and record television on a desktop or laptop computer. Built in Hardware MPEG-2. Includes remote control, IR blaster and FM Stereo Radio. Compatible with Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows XP Pro, and XP MCE with Service Pack 2.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

63 of 64 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Great with Media Center... December 20, 2008

By B. Walters

This is my second tuner and far exceeds the 'average' tuner I purchased at a local electronics store. Hauppauge provided excellent customer service helping me decide which tuner was best for my computer and my needs. I have a new HP system running Vista 64-bit and wanted a tuner to run with the Media Center already installed. It did not come with a TV tuner. The HVR-1950 model 1192 comes with an external MPEG-2 encoder which doesn't draw resources from the computer. Great for watching TV while working in other programs simultaniously. It also comes with it's own viewing program (WinTV V6) which I find relatively user friendly but I prefer to use Media Center for TV viewiewing, recording, and scheduling. The USB connection makes installation easy. Setup in Media Center was simple and picture quality and sound is as good as fatory installed Hauppauge tuners.
The package also comes with an FM radio antenna, remote control, and IR Blaster to control channel changing on cable or satellite boxes.
My only complaint was over the initial setup. Although the instructions are fairly complete for XP and Vista OS they do not address Vista-64 issues thoroughly. For Vista-64 users only, if you receive a message about "No device attached or no driver installed" even after going through the driver installation, you need to download the driver specfically for Vista 64 bit OS for the HVR-1950. [...] I had to hunt this down on Hauppauge website but once that driver is downloaded, setup completed perfectly and installation was complete. It was a little work but well worth the results. I love the tuner and my Media Center!

35 of 37 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Great product, bad users! March 18, 2009

By Jerry Martin

I've read a lot of the reviews on this product with the majority of them bad mouthing it. I really like this product and I'll tell you why, but before I do, I'll give you some information on myself: 20 y/o male, currently residing in Greenbelt, MD right on the border of D.C., somewhat tech savvy running Vista Ultimate-32bit and use plain old rabbit ears from an old (and I mean an OLD tv).

Installion was a breeze, as easy as 1-2-3. You connect everything to HVR-1950, plug in your USB cable and vista does the majority of the work for you. The tuner comes with a driver/program cd that Vista will ask you to pop in after not being able to find the drivers online. At this point you can pop in the disk or go to the support site and download the latest version of the driver (which you should have done before hand anyway). Once its installed you can setup Media center or Wintv. I like media better so I can't say anything for Wintv because I haven't used it. Media center TV setup is so Barney style my 7 year old brother could do it on his computer if I'd let him. You follow the steps, read the screens, and push the pretty buttons. Once you've configured the device for MCE, and found all the channels your antenna, cable, or top set, and downloaded the t.v. guide your ready to watch some tv. Now here's where I'm seeing a few people get mush for brains, some stations are still broadcasting in ANALOG (usually the lower channels like 2,4,6,etc. at least in my area)!!! So your not going to get digital clarity from those channels!!! Its going to be fuzzy, have ghosting, etc. The higher channels are DIGITAL!!! So just go through the edit channel menu and delete all those nasty ugly analog channels cause you don't need them....

I was so impressed with the clarity and quality of the digital channels that I actually watched American Idol and Dancing with the stars because it looked that good. The sound was crisp and clear. The only thing I don't like about this thing is I can't record one show and watch another or record two shows and doing something (Like most DVRs let you do) that kind of upset me so I took a star off for that. Also when you record something it makes you watch that channel. If I wanted to watch it I wouldn't be recording it! lol. Even with those minor flaws the thing is amazing and I'm glad I spent the money. Read more ›

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Software very buggy November 18, 2009

By sabrejim

Amazon Verified Purchase

I would like to base my review based on a fully functioning product but this is not one. The hardware seems excellent. The software is horrible. I have owned the HVR-1950 for six months now and I still can't get there software to work properly. The WinTV v6 software it came with seemed like a hodgepodge of unfinished buggy programs. It crashed or froze routinely. Then a few attempts at upgrades. Even the installer is buggy causing multiple partial installs and uninstalls. Then they came out with WinTV v7. The software was a leap forward but still buggy, and you lost the feature to schedule using web based TitanTV. Then came WinTV v7 1.2b. Don't ask about the numbering. The installer asks for the install disk, but I downloaded the software so I don't have one. I put the original install disk in and point to it. Error. I tried pointing to where the files are on my hard drive. Error. ( Side point, the dialog box say click the OK button when done but there is no button named OK ) I tried contacting support, email only please. It says they will get back in about 2 days. Its been 10 days with no response. Maybe others are using other software to make this box work but the Hauppauge software is worthless. Maybe in a couple years they will have the bugs worked out. I have seen similar complaints on other web sites. Bottom line, the software is virtually worthless. A bad purchase on my part.

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars AMAZING!!!! July 4, 2008

By Thomas Burm Jr.

Amazon Verified Purchase

This product exceeded my expectations with quality and functions. Not only is it a clear picture the remote supplied works flawlessly with Media Center (Vista). Your able to record tv, play movies, it even pulls up all the information up for a movie that you recorded on tv. If your going to purchase any tv tuner this is the one. With built in radio that you can record off of too. But you need to use Vista in order to use all the functions.

Good luck