Customer Reviews

Hauppauge WinTV-USB (Model 602)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The resolution is about equal to VCD quality, maybe slightly better, but it does what I wanted it to do. My monitor is flat panel 15" and I used it on 2 computers, a 500MHz w/ 128MB RAM and a 1.5GHZ w/ 512MB RAM. It worked fine on both although the 500MHz machine kinda slowed down quite a bit when 2 other applications were open (actually screwed up the video twice making everything huge and had to reboot to fix it).

It takes the power from the USB port, so that's nice, but the USB cable is permanently connected to the device which kinda makes it a pain (I like to just keep the USB cable connected to the PC to make it more convenient and connect whatever device I want later). Also, my USB port is on the back of my 500MHz machine, so that's even more inconvenient for me.

Anyway, overall, everything isn't too bad if you don't mind the lower quality of the video. If you want better quality, I read the internal TV tuners are much better. I wanted convenience though.

Oh yeah, there is a slight but noticable out of sync-ness between the audio and video, but it isn't too bad. You cannot get closed captioning and there is no FM tuner or remote control for this one (but those features would have made this model more expensive).

If there were an option, I would give it a 3.5. It deserves better than a 3 - but because of the VCD quality and price (this is kinda expensive for VCD quality) I can't give it a full 4.

I was a little doubtful about the efficiency of an external capture card with usb 1.1 kind of interface. Than I read somewhere that the bandwidth offered by even an old usb interface is more than sufficient for SD video. Well , I went and bought this product. Installation was really a snap ( I actually downloaded softwares from its web site instead of from the included CD just to be safe and most updated). After installation , the video/audio came just fine. ( I used my dish set top box RF out for video ).
The quality is not as good as on a TV ( afterall the original signals are interlaced which are postprocessed for the computer to be progressive scan and its not a $100+ piece of hardware !!) but good enough as a secondary TV when the mainTV is captured by the rest of the family.

I wanted a USB tuner that I could connect to both my desktop and laptop. It installed without difficulty and worked fine. I downloaded the updates from the Hauppauge website, but didn't notice any difference. The picture quality is satisfactory from cable. I generally watch a small window while I work on the computers. I didn't connect the audio to my sound card (as recommended) because I wanted the convenience of swapping only the USB cable when I switch computers. It works fine for me. The sound quality is not bad. A very slight sync delay with the picture is noticeable but not annoying. I will probably add a Hauppauge PCI card tuner/PVR to my desktop in the future for better picture quality and TiVo like features. Perhaps the problems some reviewers are having are PC performance related. My laptop is a Dell 2.4gH P4 with integrated graphics. My desktop is a Dell 3.2gH P4 with a graphics card.

I bought a WinTV-USB tuner for my laptop because I was tired of not being able to watch my shows when all of the house TV's were being used by my wife and kids.
This unit works great, just as advertised. This unit plugs into your computer's USB port. I had to download the drivers from the Hauppage web site in order to get it to work with Windows XP (the drivers on the CD did not work). But after that, I was off and running.
The only problem I notice is that sometimes there is a slight lag between the video and the audio (about 1/10 second). This may be due to the speed of my laptop (I have a 1.6 Ghz Centron) or my video hardware. But I'm happy with it. I plan to get another Hauppage capture card (PVR 250) for my desktop pc so I can capture and compress video real-time.
The WinTV-USB can also do this, however it does not do compression so its impractical to use as a poor man's TiVO.

If you're looking for a TV tuner which will give you a crystal-clear HD-quality picture and HD-quality recordings, look elsewhere.

But if you want a TV tuner that will simply let you watch TV on your computer without having to open up your computer, then the WinTV-USB TV tuner will suit your needs.

This product works perfectly with Windows 98/Me/2000/XP.

This product does work on GNU/Linux-based OSes, provided you can properly compile and install the usbvision driver (link to usbvision website provided below). Trouble is, the GNU/Linux-based TV viewing programs do not allow true full-screen viewing with the WinTV-USB; if you do try to watch TV full-screen with this on Linux, all you will see is a centered image in its default viewing area (if your screen is 1024x768, the TV program still thinks it's being viewed at 320x248). Not many GNU/Linux-based TV viewing programs work with this product, however. This product is confirmed by me to work with Zapping and xawtv. This product will not work with the GNU/Linux TV program called TV Time; in fact, using this product with TV Time will actually cause your GNU/Linux-based OS to completely freeze up, requiring a cold reboot. If you want a TV tuner that works perfectly with Linux, then get a TV tuner card with a PCI connector (from Hauppauge or AverMedia).

[...]

My laptop served as a DVR while I was working abroad by using this device. Cheap and easy to use, but won't handle HD recordings.

It's nice to have because I can schedule a recording from any other computer over the internet, but the picture quality is pretty bad and is not what I expected from Hauppauge.

I bought this so I could take my EyeClops magnifier on the road. While the EyeClops is fun, there's only so much to magnify within 10 feet of a TV. With this WinTV unit, the EyeClops, and my USB-enabled laptop, I can take the whole mess on the road and magnify anything that will hold still for 1/30 of a second. With the EyeClops running on batteries, and this unit running off USB power, I can take it to the park and magnify rocks, grass, insect eggs, moss, molds-- you name it! Best of all, I can make permanent digital photos of all the above. Loads of fun for the curious child and/or his dad.

Great little capture device - had it up and running in a matter of minutes. Only thing missing is a couple of holes in it to mount it to the back of a desk or something. Otherwise, two thumbs up!

Poor picture quality using a new 20 inch dell monitor.
All other functions of this item were ok