Hauppauge WinTV-HVR 1600 $70 after $20 rabate

[MysticWar]

I have Zenith ZHDTV1 indoor antenna. I actually have it outside on the roof and it picks up all of the channels in Los Angeles that I watch such as CBS, ABC, FOX, NBC, CW, KCAL, UPN, and PBS. I also get about 10 other not so well known digital channels.

MCE has a real time signal indicator that is quite accurate. Other than the sheer size of the recorded file(20gig for the entire Lakers game), I have no problem whatsoever using this card under Vista.

 

[openwheelformula1]

how if your silver sensor not damaged being outside?

 

[gibster]

This week $59.99 AR!

Still at CC, 3/11 to 3/17

 

[jimbofoxman]

Ok, noob time here. I am moving into a new house. Can get cable or satellite. Going to get cable for sure for Internet purposes. Using the link provided by dew042 this is what I get below.

BTW, I will be using a new 60" HDTV LDP Sony Rear Proj TV

http://planesnsuch.com/hdtv_ant.jpg

What does it all mean, or atleast what do you all recommend?

 

[Fallen Kell]

Originally posted by: deadken

Originally posted by: fatBrain
link

It is a new product from Hauppauge. Don't know how good it is. Bought one for myself.

Dude! Hurry up and post back with how GREAT it is! I am very interested in getting one of these. I think that there is supposed to be a 1800 series coming out also, I wonder what the differences are, between the 1600 + 1800, and how well they work. Does either do QAM?

Don't know if this was answered or not. (I didn't see it answered). The 1800 is the same card simply using PCI-e instead of a PCI slot.

 

[HardWired]

I have a 8800GTS 640MB hooked up to a Dell 2405 along with this new 1600. It has full MCE compatability (both XP and Vista) and provides the best picture I've ever seen from a sub $100 tuner card. Having OTA HDTV is just icing on the cake. MCE pulls the HD channels in as well, and also shows you the strength of each HD channel you're able to receive.

Another huge difference which has me so tickeled is that I'm using the nVidia PureVideo Decoder which made a night and day difference in my picture and DVD quality after installing it. You would think that it would come with the nVidia drivers but it does not. It's an extra $20-$50 for it on nVidia's site, but it's well worth the price. Many/most of my SD cable channels now look smooth as silk and the HD channels are simply stunning.

This card rocks!

 

[austin316]

is a Athlon 64 3000+ with 1gig of ram enough for HD?

 

[Tegeril]

Got two of these setup in my Home Premium Media Center box. Had bought an amplified splitter for my DB2 antenna but going through multiple brick buildings that are exactly in the line of my reception to most channels is a problem and was losing 2 of my 10 OTA channels. So now I have the antenna direct to one ATSC in (getting all 10 channels smoothly) and my SD feed split (which is already split a whole hell of a lot because I'm in a dorm) making for pretty lossy analog signals, but not much I can do.

These tuners are fantastic. They change channels quickly and deliver good encoding on the SD feeds. If I weren't living in a dorm for another year (we get 5 QAM HD channels - so I do better with OTA), I would have looked into an HDHomeRun, but I'll probably go to one of those later when they get it properly showing in MCE as a single "card" with two tuners on it so you can run two of them at the same time because I'll want some QAM'd up TNT and Discovery

 

[dew042]

Originally posted by: austin316
is a Athlon 64 3000+ with 1gig of ram enough for HD?

I am doing it with two HD tuners right now, so yes.

dew.

 

[hondaf17]

can you hook this up to a comcast digital HD cable box and use it that way to record shows? I don't really care about OTA HD since I'll get all those channels through my cable box anyway.

 

[filibusterman]

I emailed the manufacturer about the full screen option not working with tv programs like prison beak that are in hd widescreen but do show up as 4:3 when im using my projector. they said there was currently no fix for this. Do others use a different program to actually decode the received ota signal where I would not have to deal with this win2000 program that seems not to work?

 

[fatBrain]

Now it may support QAM according to vendor's website:

http://www.hauppauge.com/pages/products/data_hvr1600.html

 

[Jassi]

Originally posted by: fatBrain
Now it may support QAM according to vendor's website:

http://www.hauppauge.com/pages/products/data_hvr1600.html

I don't know if the rebate went away but the deal is back to $70AR as well.

 

[ttown]

Question for you HTPC'ers

I'm looking to upgrade an Athlon 2100+ system, which I originally intended for an HTPC box.
I have an ATI hdtv wonder (agp) -- and am in the market for additional hdtv tuner(s).
In my research, I'm getting the definite feeling that my current system won't be up for the job to record/play one HD source and also record another HD source at the same time.

So my desire to add another hd tuner leads me to believe I should also upgrade my mobo/cpu.

Is anyone using a Athlon 2100+'ish system with multiple tuners (and beyond tv) with no problem? It seems the tuner cards should be doing most of the work, so I'm unsure about the cpu requirements.

Alternatively, what cpu's are people using/(needing) with ~3 hd tuners w/simultaneus playback?

I'm limited to micro-atx board, 184pin ram, with an agp slot -- as I've already got lots of pc2700 ram, the ATI hdtv wonder, and a small htpc (looking) case.
Any recommendations? Or is my 2100+ fine?

(The reason I'm questioning an upgrade before buying another tuner is because some tuners are pci-e, which my current mobo doesn't support.)
Thanks for any opinions.

 

[mercanucaribe]

Originally posted by: Texun

Originally posted by: deadken

Originally posted by: Texun
Not to thread crap but I found this little blurb at CompUSA:

ATSC TV recordings are not 100% compatible with DVD, and therefore you cannot burn them directly to a DVD

CUSA

I still want one and might give it a shot. How's the quality?

From that CompUSA page,

Digital ATSC HD TV features

* ATSC over-the-air digital TV receiver built-in. Supports all ATSC formats, up to the high definition 1080i format!
* Record ATSC digital TV to your PC's hard disk using high quality MPEG-2. TV recordings will typically consume 5 Gb of disk space per hour for ATSC high definition.

Perhaps that has something to do with it? A 'regular' DVD is only 4.7GBs.

I figured as much but they mentioned compatibility so I would think it might rule out DL as well as regular DVDs. Hauppauge makes a good product, IMO. My PVR250 still works perfect after several years and at least 4 builds. I may get this for one of my other computers.

DVD is 720x480. HD is 1920x1080 or 1280x720.

 

[Karaktu]

720 x 480 = 480i (30 frames) or 480p (60 frames)
1280 x 720 = 720p
1366x768 = 1080i
1920x1080 = 1080p

720p/1080i or 1080p are all considered HD resolutions.

Read

 

[yuppiejr]

Originally posted by: fatBrain
Now it may support QAM according to vendor's website:

http://www.hauppauge.com/pages/products/data_hvr1600.html

Now if only Microsoft would support QAM in MCE 2005 or Vista... Nice catch!

 

[markrb38]

If you are using digital cable which broadcast the local ATSC channels, you can receive these QAM channels with the new WinTV v6 application. QAM is only supported on product codes 74021 and 74041 (found on the tuner label).

Does anyone know how to tell on the outside of the box which are these revisions?

Mark

 

[nordloewelabs]

Originally posted by: markrb38
If you are using digital cable which broadcast the local ATSC channels, you can receive these QAM channels with the new WinTV v6 application. QAM is only supported on product codes 74021 and 74041 (found on the tuner label).

Does anyone know how to tell on the outside of the box which are these revisions?

Mark

that seems to be the 1 million dollar question.... check this thread out.

 

[openwheelformula1]

The outside of the box has the label. The exact label. I've confirmed this w/ 2 purchases of HVR-1600.

 

[videopho]

I picked one up today at amazon for the same price, free shipping and best yet, no tax
From my own research & readings, the card does support Vista Home premium 64 bit. Hooray, 64 bit OS glory!

 

[dman]

Wow, so for once I lucked out and got one with the QAM capable tuner (74021). I'm running XP and just installed the latest drivers and it's scanning for channels now. So if it works OK I'll have to decide if I stick with analog cable and ATSC for HD or go with Analog OTA and Digital Cable or split cable and use both analog and digital. Ugh. Maybe I was better off without the choice.

I think digital cable might give me a few extra HD stations so I'm leanng that way but will see what the tuner pulls in.

Well, it finished the primary scan and pulled in analog OTA just fine and no cable on that scan. I then went into the sources tab and for the Clear QAM Source did an auto scan with NO channels found. Ugh. Exited app and went back in and trying again just to double check... I guess it's possible my cable provider doesn't send any digital via QAM (free/clear).

OK, so, while it' sdoing the QAM scan it does tune some channels based on the signal strength meter but it stops tuning at channel 120 or so. On the TitanTV guide, my local digital cable numbers stations up to the 900's. I know on ATSC it's not a 1:1 mapping of digital channels to the channel number and I assume it's the same for cable, but, I don't think the QAM Scan is looking for all the stations.