Hauppauge 1183 WinTV HVR-1600 Internal PCI Dual TV Tuner/Video Recorder Media Center Kit
- PCI card with dual TV tuners to let you watch both digital and analog television on your computer
- Compatible with 32 bit and/or 64 bit Windows 7
- On-board MPEG-2 encoder allows PC to run at full speed while recording analog cable TV directly to hard drive
- Includes dbx-TV stereo decoder for great TV sound; Composite/S-Video and audio inputs for connecting to VCRs or cable/satellite set top boxes
- Includes WinTV-Scheduler to schedule television recordings and Windows Media Certified USB remote control transmitter and receiver
Product Description
The Hauppauge 1183 WinTV HVR-1600 Internal PCI Dual TV Tuner/Video Recorder Media Center Kit includes dual TV tuners to let you watch both digital and analog television on your PC, in a window or full screen. With PVR software and built-in hardware for MPEG-2 encoding, you can also record television onto your computer for viewing later without slowing down your computer.Amazon.com Product Description
The Hauppauge 1183 WinTV HVR-1600 Internal PCI Dual TV Tuner/Video Recorder Media Center Kit includes dual TV tuners to let you watch both digital and analog television on your PC, in a window or full screen. With PVR software and built-in hardware for MPEG-2 encoding, you can also record television onto your computer for viewing later without slowing down your computer.
Watch High-definition Digital TV on Your Computer The WinTV-HVR-1600 also lets you watch and record QAM channels, which are unencrypted digital channels broadcast by your local cable operator. If you don’t have access to digital television channels yet, you can also watch regular analog cable television. And with the included remote control, you can control your cable TV or satellite set top box. In addition to high-definition video, the card also features a dbx-TV stereo decoder for great TV sound. The card has Composite/S-Video and audio inputs that allow for connecting VCRs or cable/satellite set top boxes and an FM radio tuner that lets you listen to your favorite FM radio broadcasts. Your Own Personal Digital Video Recorder! With the WinTV-Scheduler software, you can easily schedule the recordings of your favorite television shows daily, weekly, or just once. You can then play back the recordings at your leisure, burn them onto CD or DVD for playback on another computer or your television, or with video editing software (not included), you can edit the shows. This is great for saving favorite movie clips, or of your favorite teams dramatic last-second win or your favorite player’s grand slam. The Hauppauge 1138 WinTV-HVR-1600 plugs into a PCI slot and is compatible with Windows Vista, XP with Service Pack 2, and Windows XP Media Center Edition. With XP-MCE and Vista, you can add the WinTV-HVR-1600 as either the primary or secondary TV tuner. The Microsoft Media Center application supports up to two TV tuners, so you can watch on channel while recording another. |
Hauppauge 1183 WinTV HVR-1600 Internal PCI Dual TV Tuner/Video Recorder Media Center Kit
September 9th, 2010 at 5:08 pm
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.
Rating: 3 / 5
September 9th, 2010 at 7:42 pm
This was my first MythTV install, Mythbuntu 8.10, in a leftover P4 system. The HVR-1600 worked like a champ out of the box. The only thing I needed was an external channel changing script to control the IR Blaster for changing channels on my cable box.
Rating: 5 / 5
September 9th, 2010 at 8:55 pm
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.
Rating: 5 / 5
September 9th, 2010 at 9:26 pm
I dont know what has happend with TV card makers but they just cant seem to get it wright.
I owned some WinTV cards back in the old Windows XP early days and they worked perfectly.
Lets start with the installation.
Installed included software on Vista. The driver did not get installed properly and I would get an error each time I installed the software.
I went to the manufacture web site and got the latest software and installed it. What a mess. two different apps fighting. Any way after a system restore (I allways create a restore point now) I install the new software. OK it worked kind of. The Docs stink and the overhead the software has for HD is crazy. With a Dual 3Ghz system with Nvidia 9300 graphics card the thing eats 50-80% of the CPU. This is a sign of very poor Vid capture system. I have tried others and the same video will eat 15% of the CPU.
Lots of lock ups and very poor docs. I took it back. Skip this one if you are smart.
Rating: 1 / 5
September 9th, 2010 at 11:22 pm
I’m usin git right now. I’ll tell you this; it took me around 15 minutes total to install and configure it with Windows Media Center 7. The picture quality is excellent, it picks up about all the channels our expensive HDTV can get (using the same type of antenna), and it just generally works great. Um, this works well with Windows 7 if you’re wondering. I downloaded the latest driver from hauppauge’s site (about 1.1 MB) and voila. Here’re my system specs:
Core i7 920 @ 2.66 GHz
WD 640 GB Caviar Black
HD Radeon 4870X2
6 GB of tripple channel DDR3
Intel DX58SO Motherboard
Rating: 5 / 5