WinTV HVR-1600 PCI Tuner Review

Reviewed Winter, 2007

The WinTV HVR-1600 is a combo analog and digital tuner from Hauppauge. Like the AverTV Combo (M780) this is truely two seperate tuners (1 analog, 1 digital) that can record concurrently.

PROS:

• Runs under SageTV, BeyondTV, Microsoft Media Center (Vista & 2005),and WatchHDTV as well as it’s own software.
• Works well with other digital and analog tuners
• Included remote works with the Microsoft Media Center application (IR Blasters will not however)
• Hardware encoder (less CPU overhead)
• Works as an analog and digital tuner in MCE 2005 and Vista Media Center
• Digital cable/QAM support
• Works clearQAM in Windows 7 Media Center with latest drivers
• Included application works with TitanTV Electronic Programming Guide(EPG)
• Pulls in over the air digital signals with the best

• Drivers support only one HVR-1600 per PC when using Hauppauge application (multiple's supported in MCE, SageTV and BeyondTV)
• Application software somewhat confusing to install and setup

  
  
  COST: Around $100
  
  
  COMMENTS:
  
  This tuner features a hardware encoder for quality analog TV with minimum processor usage. The HVR-1600 has an excellent digital/HDTV tuner that is great at pulling in weak and multi-path over-the-air signals.
  There is also a PCI-e version of this card, the HVR-1800.
  
  

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  Get the WinTV HVR-1600 PCI Tuner
  
  for $84.99 with free shipping!
  or
  Get the WinTV HVR-1850 PCIe Tuner
  
  for $94.99 with free shipping!
  
  and you'll help support this site.
  THANK YOU!!
  

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  System requirements:
  • Processor requirements: 2.2 GHz P4 or equivalent (minimum) required for displaying ATSC high definition TV.
  • Microsoft® Windows® XP Home, Pro or Media Center Edition 2005. Also Windows Vista Premium certified.
  • Graphics with 64 MB memory (or greater)
  • Available PCI slot
  • Sound card.
  
  

  Included in the box:
  
  

  
  
  
  • WinTV-HVR-1600 PCI bus card with 125 channel cable-ready TV tuner, ATSC receiver, hardware MPEG-2 encoder, dbx-TV stereo decoder, S-Video/composite and audio inputs.
  • IR remote control receiver.
  • IR Blaster (infra-red remote control transmitter), to control satellite and cable TV set top boxes.
  • WinTV-HVR-1600 CD-ROM includes:
    • WinTV2000 application for TV in a window plus TV recording, pause and playback.
    • WinTV-Scheduler for scheduling your TV recording, and with link to TitanTV.com*.
    • WinTV MPEG editor for high quality cutting and pasting of your standard definition video movies.
    • Ulead® DVD MovieFactory™, to create your own videos on DVD or CD*
  Software download site: http://www.hauppauge.com/pages/support/support_hvr1600.html