1183 WinTV HVR-1600 Internal PCI Dual TV Tuner/Video Recorder Media Center Kit

I'm using this card to record the S-Video output from my DirecTV satellite receiver, so I'm not using the tuner. It works great for my situation, and I found it easy to set up, although I'm an experienced computer user. The WinXP Media Center Edition software works well with this card, and the IR blaster works with my DirecTV receiver. That part of the setup was easy, the software automates it. It took a little time to get used the the Media Center remote, but now I've got the hang of it and can quickly select the programs I want recorded and then play, stop and resume playing the recorded programs. I don't watch live TV much any more, I record most everything so I can skip the @#$%! commercials. I'm quite happy with this card, and the Media Center software. The schedule software is faster and provides a lot more info about programming than the DirecTV receiver does. It's great to be able to quickly find interesting programming and set it to record, then watch it when I have time. One other thing, I also needed an inexpensive wireless keyboard/mouse with a 15' range for this computer. I'm quite happy with this one. IOGear Multimedia Keyboard with Laser Trackball and Scroll Wheel, 2.4GHz Wireless GKM561R (Black)

I am very pleased with the HVR-1600 Media Center Kit. I initially had trouble with the analog picture quality (Very grainy w/ bad color) and almost returned the card but decided to do a little checking around on google. I eventually found the answer to my problem. I had used the included Composite to S-Video adapter to feed the composite signal from my satellite box into the S-video port on the card and when setting up the card in media center I chose S-Video as the source (because I was feeding the composite signal into the S-Video port via the adapter). It turns out this was a mistake and the cause of my woes. I went back into media center and set up composite as the source and now the analog picture is excellent. I wonder how many others complaining of poor analog picture quality with this card have made the same mistake.

At the outset, I want to say that I am generally non-judgmental and easy-going. A month ago, I upgraded my Windows Media center PC to Windows Vista Premium 64 bit operating system. The existing TV tuner that came with the original hardware did not work. So I decided to upgrade to a new TV tuner. I saw that Hauppauge, the maker of my old TV tuner had a new product that I could install and be able to view HD TV on my TV. I bought WinTV-HVR-1600 MCE Kit Bundle. I removed the old tuner and replaced it with the new tuner. I followed all the instructions including the latest device drivers and the PC properties/device driver said that the device was working properly. So, I decided to go to Media Center and followed the channel tuning steps. This is where the trouble began. The HD Digital TV scan identified the local channels that transmit digital signal and then started the signal intensity scan. At the first pass it showed signals that had 4 green bars. Then it went through them again and changed the strength of the same stations to 2 red bars, etc. and the scanning kept going on and on and on forever and every time it kept changing the number of green bars. Then, when I stopped it manually and went to view a channel, I got the message "TV signal not available, etc." I called Hauppauge and their Tech Support person did not know what was going on. He asked me to download a driver file which I had already done in the first place. Then, he said that he would forward my problem to their engineer. The engineer e-mailed me asking me to send him screen shots without being specific about which ones and why. I e-mailed him back asking to be more specific. That was 3 weeks ago. I have not heard back from Hauppauge tech support. Bottom line: I wasted about $80 on the tuner, $40 on a powered antenna and I cannot yet get any signal and the Hauppauge technical support seems to be one of the worst operations I have encountered in a long, long time. Hauppauge should be investigated for false claims and bad customer service.

While their tech support answered my question within a day, this card did not work out for me. Installed easily enough, but could not get to work with any of my video editing software programs. It would seem that it either only works with their software, or it has not been tested on any 3rd party software. I have two programs for capture/editing and it would not work with either telling me the video capture driver was not functional. I think these companies should either work on making devices to work with some of the video capture programs out there or at least test it with some of them to let the customer know what they are buying instead of putting the burden of testing on the customer. This ended up being a waste of time for me. However, if you want a capture/tuner card and are OK with only using their software, I'm sure it would work out fine for you. There is almost no support at all on their web site, only the updated drivers. The only recourse you have is emailing them if you have a problem. If you install this card and have a problem getting it to work, you're pretty much on your own. I wouldn't recommend it only because I have not seen it work. It is being returned.

The installation instructions were abbreviated...a little too abbreviated. The drivers didn't install properly and I was afraid I had made a mistakein buying this card. I downloaded the newest software from the website, and in the process figured out what the problem was with the original install. Once I had that done I started to receive some channels, but not all. It was through a trial error process I was able to figure out that in order to receive all TV channels and FM radio I needed an antenna connected to all three inputs. It's not an easy trick because of the limited space between the connectors. It also makes the back of the PC a little messy. The instructions for the operation software were also quite brief and very vague, and that took some time to work through as well But I eventually figured everything out and I'm glad I did. Using a P4 2.99 ghz and XP Pro SP 3 and an HP 2207h HD monitor the picture is as clear as it is on my large HDTV. I am very impressed. I've used the record function and it works very well, as does the screen shot feature. Now that it's up and working I think my wife could sit down and watch TV on it with little or no instruction from me, so that learning curve is very short. Don't expect to stick this card in and be up and running in 5 minutes. And don't buy this card if you are a computer or a/v neophyte - you'll be disappointed. But if you know your way around software installs and enjoy fiddling around with something like this and the satisfaction of getting it working it is does a VERY good job.

Pros:Very easy installation of hardware, I did have to go to site to get updated software that Windows 7 needed. Even with the software some of the QAM channels donot show up in win 7 Media Center, (you must manuely add QAM channels in WMC 7) but they do show up using the software that came with the card. No problems what so ever with ATSC, and analog cable signals. Great card. Cons: No free TV guide unless you use Windows Media Center, and schedule recoding is lacking. Recomendation: Would recomend

Got this to upgrade my video on my Microsoft Media Center PC. The card installed without any issues, followed the advise of others and downloaded the latest drivers from on line. The only issue I found after installing and updating the drivers which loaded without any issues, was when viewing live video I noticed the video would stutter after a few min of viewing. To make a long story short, after your drivers have been loaded and you go into MCE to update your system for the new turner card, MCE has to download/sync the guide with the card. I found out the hard way that my internet connection was down and the system kept displaying that the MCE could not download the new guide, I paid little attention to this because I thought the guide was up to date any ways so I did not think it was a big deal. Wrong, I found after I got the internet connection backup and running and completed the new tuner card installation in MCE with a download of the guide, that all my problems cleared up. No more video and audio stuttering. I was very happy. My video quality is as good as my old Hauppauge TV card.

I bought this tuner to put in my Windows 7 computer. I have basic analog cable and this tuner is perfect for it. The install was easy, windows media center found the tuner right away. The tuner discovered all my cable channels. Now my computer is my DVR. It is amazing how flawless this works. It is a must have.