Customer Reviews

Hauppauge-WinTV-PVR-USB 2.0 MCE Bundle TV Tuner/Personal Video Recorder

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I was in the market for a good TV Tuner for my new Windows Media Center PC and I shopped around a lot before I made this purchase. I looked at Pinnacle and others but Hauppauge tuners had the best reviews so I went with what folks were saying and bought this USB2 version. Glad I did because it was easy to setup, within about 10 minutes I had it up and going and working perfectly from the start. I don't have HD cable service I just have the regular and it looks just like it does on my normal TV. I really like the guide setup to where you can look at whats on in one section then you just choose which show from that guide you want to watch and it goes straight there. You can also listen to the radio plus record TV shows. From what I can tell so far you can record a show to the computer but not straight to a DVD which is kind of a bummer but I have only messed around with it a little. It could have that feature but I just haven't learned how to do it yet. There is also a feature called movies. You click on the word movies and it brings up every movie that is showing at that time. Then you can chose out of that list to watch one of those movies. I also have the PC hooked up to my XBOX 360 and it allows you to watch live TV or record TV from your XBOX 360 if you have Windows Media Center. Very glad I listened to the majority and bought Hauppauge. 5 stars.

I bought the Hauppauge-WinTV-PVR-USB to use on the wife's laptop. Her laptop had the windows XP multa-media software and I thought that would be a good accessory. The software loaded OK but it took awhile to get the remote control to work. Windows problem not Hauppauge. The computer is used when we travel in our RV. On a recent trip I programmed the local cable channels and it took the guesswork out of finding the programs I wanted to watch. It made the computer into a additional TV and VCR as well. I have bought several Hauppauge products and this is the hi quality I expected from them. The only negative is that it doesn't include digital channels. I had to buy a HVR 950 for the HDTV channels. I see they now have a HVR 1600 which may be better for analog and digital.

Excellent recording quality, recordings are as clear as the original video source. Works well with both XP and Vista. Software provided for non MCE pc's works well and is easy to use. You can also connect a component video and audio source and record dvd movies to your pc with excellent clarity. You'll be able to set the quality of the video recording depending on how long you need to record. I've tried several settings and don't see much of a difference from the highest setting to the average vhs quality setting other than the lower setting uses less Megabytes or gigabytes. I would highly reccomend this PVR.

I would have given this PVR 5 stars if it weren't for the lack of instructions provided with the unit. The only instructions provided is for installing the software for pc's without Media Center.There are no instructions showing the functions of the remote, but it's easy to learn after you play around with it for a few minutes.

Also i've had problems when i set a schedule for programs to record and set my pc to standy, the program scheduler wakes up the computer as it should, but when this happens the computer loses it's tuner signal from the PVR which requires you to power off the PVR and reconnect. I've had this problem with both XP and vista. I tend to leave my pc on most of the time anyway so this is not much of an issue to me.

I was a bit hesitant to buy this product because I didn't know if it supported my OS. I am running Vista Ultimate 64bit Edition. I am happy to say it runs amazingly well with Media Center. Full functionality with the remote too. Don't hesitate this product is awesome.

If you have windows vista media center you need this item.
Simply plug in acording to instructions and let vista do it's
own driver search and BAM!. Only use the pre-programed driver disc if you
have other than windows vista. This info is not in the instructions.
I knew to set up my unit this way from past experience with other components.
After set up follow instructions given to you from the media center.

Purchased through a different vendor. Installation of the MCE remote was simple, if you follow the direcions, as well as installing the WinTV receiver. You have to look through the CD-ROM to find the setup icon where you can install the rest of the WinTV progams, such as, video editing. TV picture, sound, and quality is great, of course depending on the type of siganl you get. Make sure you get the MCE edition of the WinTV in order to access the Media Center features though, I am not sure if the oder version of this device works with MC (Media Center). But my overall experience is a pleasant one.

I am using this tuner on a HP dv9000 laptop with 3 GB RAM and running Vista Home Premium.

Picture quality is better than I expected for a USB device. And the full-function Media Cente remote is very nice.

Installation was extremely easy. I just hooked it up and Vista did the rest. You need to go through some simple steps in Media Center to get your local guide. Even after going through all the steps some channels were mysteriously missing, but can be easily added manually.

My one complaint and the reason I didn't give it 5 stars is because of it's tendency to lock up. When this happens the tuner shows up as an unkown USB device and Media Center says there are no tuners installed. The only remedy is to cycle the power on the tuner. After that all is well, but it is an annoying step nonetheless.

When it happens it is always when the laptop is coming out of sleep mode. I'm not sure if it is a problem with the tuner or some configuration issue with my laptop.

install doc ok. rest of doc for older versions and not for versions installed. Had problems getting color picture. Worked great but everything came in black and white. Scheduler worked ok for recording and recording works fine. Integration with MS Media Center is minamal. It doesnt work with Movie Maker but TV is setup thru Media Center software. I have a cable DVR and was going to us this mostly to save recorded programs from DVR to DVD and later maybe replace the cable DVR with this program. I also was going to use this to copy some of my VCR tapes to DVD. Another problem, I did not find documentation to use camcorder/vcr or other devices for input. I did figure it out but its not documented. Am returning this product since their support cannot resolve the black and white only picture.

The minimum system requirements for this item states Windows XP, so I ordered this item. Ritz Camera shipped it. I installed it. After several problems I contacted the manufacturer. Hauppage says the remote provided with this product will only work in Media Center PC. Despite numerous attempts to get satisfaction, Ritz camera has chosen to ignore me and keep my money rather than aknowledging that the item description posted here is in error!!!!!