Home > Consumer Reviews > Hauppauge WinTV HVR1300/Hybrid analogue and digital PCI TV tuner, with hardware video encoder

I recently had issues with the tv tuner in my HTPC(Was using a K-World DVB-T 300), so I decided to spend some money on a new tuner. I went for Hauppauge because they have a good reputation. I ordered a HVR 1100 from Amazon but it turned out to be a 1110 instead, which gave me very poor performance. Amazon sent me another but also another 1110 but boxed as a 1100. I have sent both back to Amazon and decided to try a HVR 1300. Although more expensive I thought it should be worth it.

Firstly, installation. It did take a bit of effort getting it in my case due to the case being a bit tight but thats no fault of the card. Once in it installed very quickly and easily.

Software, the included software is an improvement on previous WinTV software however it could do with some work. I'm not taking this into consideration A. i've barely used the software and B. I'm using MediaPortal as my frontend.

Performance, this card has little trouble on signal. I'm using a roof top digital aerial so gets full signal on my dedicated freeview box. On the card a few channels, mostly shopping channels, show as low signal but if i can't watch QVC i won't lose any sleep. It changes channel quickly, the quality is good.

Recording and Timeshifting, I decided to record Mock The Week just to try out the card and it worked very nicely. Recorded the program at a decent compression with superb quality that rivals DVD quality. Timeshifting works very well and doesn't slow the computer down at all

Overall this card is well worth the money. I don't see the point in the analogue tuner as analogue is being switched off but the fact this card is reliable, speedy, has all the features you want including SVHS and Composite inputs, its a great addition to any home theatre pc set up.

The software that came with it is a little clunky hence only four stars....I use it with media center and its brill. Even the remote works correctly in media center (Vista Ultimate edition)

It does most of what I need it for but when it's demanded a bit, it tends to crash.

Bought this a while back and there were problems installning the software. It simply didn't instal all the drivers so I have to uninstall/reinstall. Then I needed a proper coaxial cable for the aerial - signal strength where I live is not the best. It was such an effort to get everything set up and although TV works fine, and I did record a program - not worth the effort.
I bought a new monitor (it's also a freeview TV) and that's far better.
I no longer use the WinTV card - will uninstall & remove from my pc shortly.

This is working on a MythTV setup on Gentoo 2.6.28-r1 Linux. The hardware encoder is not unfortunately operating under Linux yet - however this is picking up DVB-T as a decoder absolutely fine under Linux. The IR facility is working with LIRC correctly.