Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-500MCE 2-Tuner PCI-Based Digital Video Recorder (NTSC)

by Hauppauge

Product Details

• Item Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B0006G33UW
• Item model number: 1081
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
  • #70 in Electronics > Computers & Add-Ons > Computer Components > Video Capture Cards
• Date first available at Amazon.com: October 2, 2001

Product Description

Watch one and record another TV channel on your PC with the dual tuner WinTV-PVR 500 MCE. Yes the WinTV-PVR 500 MCE has 2 tuners on board to optimize MCE 2005.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Pretty good, August 2, 2005

By 

Ibrahim M. Hegab "Mansy" (VA, USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-500MCE 2-Tuner PCI-Based Digital Video Recorder (NTSC) (Personal Computers)

It's great qualtity for the price. I had an EVGA dual tuner TV card prior to buying this one. The 500 MCE gives you a better picture and more connectivity. The colors are vibrant and the decoding is excellent. The only short coming is that MPEG decoder software is not included in the package and you'll have to purchase your own.

Word of wisdom: If your picture is choppy check if your hard drive speed is up to par. I wasted almost a week; formating my hard drive 3 times, replaced my tuner card twice and swapped my CPU. I was about to buy a new mother board before I realised my hard drive was the problem. I Bought a new SATA drive and it was smoooooooth sailing.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mythtv and Hauppage, November 9, 2006

By 

Daniel Kinon "-Dan" (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-500MCE 2-Tuner PCI-Based Digital Video Recorder (NTSC) (Personal Computers)

I bought this product for my linux based mythtv system. The great thing about this product (and the thing that really sets it apart from other models of WINTV-PVR) is the 2-tuner design. You plug in one cable connection into the card, within the card it splits the signal to 2 different tuners. This allows you to record two shows at the same time. This product works flawlessly. This card does support a radio tuner, however I really have found no use for it so I can't comment on that.

In short, even though this product might be more expensive then most, the cost is made up by great quality, functionality, and reliability. A must-have for anyone building a home-brewed PVR (Personal Video Recorder).

For anyone who is wondering, the awesome linux compatibility of all Hauppage products is why I will never buy anything other than hauppage.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Quality could be better, January 11, 2006

By 

C. Okoye "MasterCKO" (San Mateo, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-500MCE 2-Tuner PCI-Based Digital Video Recorder (NTSC) (Personal Computers)

I'll preface that I came to this from a WinTV-PVR 250. The quality on that card is much better than on this one. I was a bit disappointed (even though I read the reviews that said as much). Basically, I had to, though, because I watch and record so many shows (and will soon be using it in a multi-person home), so a dual tuner has become necessary.

Not saying the quality is unwatchable or anything like that. It's just not as good as the 150/250. Oh well. It's very much worth the money for what it does (dual tuners), but for me, it's just going to function as a stop gap until another company (or Hauppauge) comes out with a better dual tuner -- keeping in mind that I don't want to use Windows MCE since Beyond TV is more extensible IMHO (can you say Hydra TV server with a bunch of Beyond TV Links? see http://www.snapstream.com/Community/Articles/hydra/default.asp for what I mean).