WinTV HVR-950 USB Tuner Review



Hauppauge makes it entry in the American digital/HDTV market with the HVR-950 “stick” USB 2.0 HDTV tuner. The tuner is a hybrid (can tune both analog & digital stations)

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
  • Solid construction
  • Includes telescope antenna - good for stations 10-15 miles away (go here for info on how to determine your distance from the local broadcast towers)
  • Included application works with TitanTV Electronic Programming Guide(EPG)
  • Pulls in digital signals with the best

CONS:
  • Analog tuner does not have hardware encoder so picture is not the best
  • Drivers support only one HVR-950 per PC when using Hauppauge application (multiple's supported in MCE, SageTV and BeyondTV)
  • Application software somewhat confusing to install and setup
  • No digital cable/QAM support
  • Included application (WinTV 2000) does not support close captioning

COST: Around $100


COMMENTS:

This is a solid tuner that pulls in all the stations you would expect, doesn’t get hot and comes from a company with a solid record of support for their TV products.


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Digital ATSC HDTV features
  • ATSC over-the-air digital TV receiver built-in.
  • Supports all ATSC formats, up to the high definition 1080i
  • Record ATSC digital TV to your PC's hard disk using high quality MPEG-2.

Analog TV features
  • Analog cable TV receiver built-in. Will also work with TV antenna. Cannot connect cable and antenna at the same time.
  • Record analog TV shows to your PC's hard disk using our SoftPVR™ MPEG-2 encoder.

System requirements
  • Minimum processor recommended:
    • 2.2 GHz P4 or 1.8 GHz Centrino or equivalent (minimum).
    • 2.8 GHz processor for analog TV recording with MPEG-2 (minimum).
  • Microsoft® Windows® XP, XP Pro or Windows XP Media Center Edition, with Service Pack 2.
  • Graphics with 64MB of memory (minimum).
  • USB 2.0 port (will not work with USB 1.1).
  • CD-ROM drive (for Software installation)



Included in the package
  • WinTV-HVR-950 USB 2.0 TV stick with cable TV or ATSC antenna connection.
  • USB extension cable.
  • Portable antenna
  • Software on CD-ROM (incl. manual).
  • Quick Installation Guide.
Software download site: http://www.hauppauge.com/pages/support/support_hvr950.html


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