Home > Consumer Reviews > Hauppauge 1183 WinTV HVR-1600 Internal PCI Dual TV Tuner/Video Recorder Media Center Kit

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.

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.

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.

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.

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