Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-1600 Hybrid Video Recorder - 1178
Retail

It won't work with Vista if the CD in the box is used. Go to Hauppauge site and download the drivers. It won't work with TWC digital. It will work a HDTV indoor/outdoor antenna. I have the antenna temporarily mounted inside and get really good signals from stations up to 25 miles away. Also works well with Windows Media Center. My PC is running Vista Ultimate.
 
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It has a fairly easy setup, and does find the stations within my viewing area, but...... even though I am in a smaller metro area with almost a dozen fairly strong digital stations - this card would not display them. I have two digital televisions that display the digital stations using an outdoor antenna - an awesome picture on both. The utility that comes with this card finds all of them, but they will not display, or display only some snowy shadows. The instructions indicate that the signal is not strong enough. Analog stations display quite well, but are darker than normal. So, overall I am certainly not dazzled by this product.
 
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The card pulls in about 20+ standard channels from a TWCNYC line; definitely no frills. I really bought it to import old VHS tapes though, so for that it does a satisfactory job of creating MPEG2s with reasonable quality that probably suffers more from the VHS format than anything else. Using it to watch TV though, is a less than ideal due to lag and channel selection, and I would not recommend it if that is your primary goal.
 
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Generally speaking there's very little that can record digital OTA programs. I bought this to record digital programming (HD Over-The-Air) since regular VCR's can't do it and we don't have cable or satellite so their DVR's are not an option. Also, I didn't want to pay Tivo a monthly fee. I installed the hardware and software and was pleasantly surprised at how extremely good the picture quality was. I used the included WinTV software to record programs. There is an included editor that is supposed to be able to edit the MPEG-2 video files that WinTV creates. It does fine as long as the programming you are recording are not HD. If you try to load an HD program the editor (NanoPEG) locks up. I spoke with Hauppauge and they directed me to a newer version of their software. This didn't help. I wound up buying SageTV. The files it creates work just fine with the editor but then I found out the editor isn't that great for large files. I wound up using my normal video editor (Pinnacle Studio 11) and it works great with the HD content. To me SageTV is a much better software solution but the hardware sure seems to be good.
 
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Like all but the K-World, the digital tuner in this doesn't have the QAM ability needed to get digital reception over cable TV. The only digital channels are locals, using an antenna.
 
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The WinTV-HVR-1600 installed without trouble in my HP Pavilion P4-2.6 machine running WinXP Home with SP2 and 2G ram. The full suite of software installed without a hitch. Simple to use, no need to read the manual, though admittedly the software is rather plain / spartan, particularly the WinTV Scheduler which works in partnership with a browser and TitanTV.com. I would have liked the ability to sort upcoming recordings in Scheduler by start date. The only way to see upcoming recordings in order, is to view and sort them Windows Task Scheduler, under system tools. Performance wise, I only have basic cable; there is no OTA HD here in the boonies to try out the ATSC connector for HD recording. In basic cable, recorded in MPEG2 format, there is occasionally some stutter IF other programs are running, like a flash/java rich web site or the virus program decides to update. Programs in standard definition use about 2.4Gb of disk space per hour of recorded material. By itself, WinTV HVR-1600 works well in my machine. As a previous reviewer mentioned, BUY.COM has posted the wrong picture for this product. This unit has a cable and ATSC input, NO FM input. I knew that going in and the 1600 is the unit I wanted. Still, the wrong picture might confuse potential buyers. For all the talk on the Hauppauge, SageTV and BeyondTV sites of using Orb to share recorded programs, I'm using Windows Media Player on any of the Windows PCs on our home network to watch MPG recordings from a shared folder on the PC where the HVR-1600 is installed. The WinTV HVR-1600, WinTV and WinTV scheduler software with TitanTV.com is capable. There are some free video format converters, such as Quick Media Converter, that have let me convert the MPEG2 files to Quicktime, H.264, IPOD, PSP formats. My old Palm Tungsten E2 even played a 2 hour movie after converting from the native HVR-1600 MPEG2 format to QuickTime MOVie format and then to the old Kinoma Producer / Player format for older Palm OS devices. Conversion was time consuming though. All in all I'm satisfied with the HVR-1600 purchase.
 
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This is a nice tuner and an easy way to get hd tv for just the cost of the tuner and an antenna. Just be sure to check the requirements and be sure you have enough proccesor. My first install did'nt work. Check your local listings to see how many channels are in hd in your area. The antenna can be any vhf antenna. A cheap radio shack one will work fine.
 
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I bought this to use in my xp windows media center machine. I am pleased with it overall. The software that comes with it is very capable but not extremely intuitive at first. Also, the standard definition clarity is slightly less clear than from my cable box, but it is acceptable (watching on a 34 HDTV through xbox extender) Also, if you want the remote and the ir blaster to work with media center, you need to buy this card in the mce kit version, as these two pieces of the regular kit are not. I bought this version because I did not need the remote and it was $50 cheaper at this site.
 
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I wanted to replace My Hauppauge WinTv-radio (model 401)with something that had HDTV and would work under Vista. The model 401 doesn't yet have any Vista drivers (Hauppauge says they're coming...just don't hold your breath...they've been coming for a year now)and of course doesn't have HDTV. I wanted to get something that had FM built in...that was an important feature to me and the only reason that I originally replaced my ATI TV Wonder. I gave up waiting for Hauppauge and got an ATI 650 as it has the features I wanted. The ATI was a pain to set up. Apparently the hardware is fine but the drivers are terrible. There are many different sets of drivers and usually you have to try various ones 'til you find ones that works well with your motherboard. I finally discovered that Hauppauge makes several variations on the WinTV-HVR-1600...the model 1101 the one PICTURED here with FM and the model 1178 the one LISTED here which has no FM built in. The FM version is referred to as the 1600 MC or 1600 Media Center edition. I removed the ATI 650 and installed the Hauppauge card...it was like night and day. No having to play with drivers...just install the drivers and go. Also it loads and shuts down much quicker than the ATI. To me the Hauppauge user interface is much friendlier than the ATI but that could just be a personal taste issue. I'm much happier with the Hauppauge card than the ATI. But if you want FM get the 1600 type 1101 not the 1600 type 1178 listed here.
 
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I have used Hauppauge products for years, mostly the WinTV Go series of TV cards. I wanted to expand to HD content so I picked up this dual tuner to get my feet wet with HDTV. I didn't do my homework on ATSC so I only pick up one channel with the indoor antenna I bought. However, the picture quality is awesome and now I can watch or record three separate shows. Rare, but nice on Thursdays when so many things overlap in prime-time. The card installed flawlessly in Windows XP SP2. I use Beyond TV and the software and card were configured in a matter of minutes. Great product overall, I gave it a four rating because the normal bundled Hauppauge software is not exactly user friendly.
 
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I didn't realize I'd need a splitter to hook up my single feed Coax cable into both the analog & digital side. Tuner clarity isn't stellar, but adequate. I am, however, using a splitter, and a modestly powered machine...
 
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