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Reviews for Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-1600 Hybrid Video RecorderPCI - ATSC - MPN: 1178 
By member:
dwighttsharpe
- Apr 2, 2007
Great hardware when coupled with 3rd party software.Strengths: Flawless OTA HDTV. Weakness: Remote takes some getting used to. I am only reviewing the digital tuner here as I don't have a cable outlet in the bedroom where this is being used. 100% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful? Top
By member:
dmhomer
- Mar 11, 2007
HVR-1600: Good hardware, crappy softwareStrengths: The card itself is very good, easy to set up, and they actually have 64-bit vista drivers. It integrates instantly with vista media center. Weakness: The software leaves much to be desired, but MCE picks up most of that slack. Only real problem for me is that while the remote works fine in MCE, for some reason the MCE setup will not recognize it. I'm very happy with this purchase. Pretty cheap price, and very good quality. Recording looks great, and it's nice to be able to get both the regular cable channels and the HD channels on the air without having to mess with cables or anything. Their WinTV software is really bad so expect to find some third-party software that suits your needs. 100% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful? Top
By member:
artrock
- Mar 25, 2007
WinTV-HVR 1600 TV TunerStrengths: Easy to install, offers analog and HD tuners in one card. Weakness: Packaged software is not very user friendly. This card is replacing my ATI AIW 8500DV and so far I like it much better. The picture quality is superior to the ATI card. I'm using Beyond TV instead of the packaged software. Great deal for $60 after rebate. 100% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful? Top
By member:
revivalizt
- Mar 11, 2007
Very NiCe CardStrengths: HDTV supports 1080i and its also vista certified. Weakness: no sigh on QAM yet it uses PCI slot in your comp, which is better than some USB. 100% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful? Top
By member:
kostya2
- Mar 11, 2007
good card if you can get it workingStrengths: analog and HD (OTA) tuners in one card, included remote, affordable Weakness: sub par tech support, potential compatibility issues I tried 2 cards and both exhibited same symptoms with my dual-core Opteron system: after installing the card and the drivers one of the cores shows 100% utilization and the system becomes unresponsive to the point where I can't kill a browser or cleanly shutdown windows. I was able to install the card into an older PC and it doesn't lock up but it appears to be too slow for this card (at least with the included software) so make sure your system has enough resources. I contacted Hauppage tech support but got a response from them only 3 days later asking me about the driver versions and such. I replied with a question and got my next response in a week. So if you have a problem getting this card to work don't rely on tech support - you might be better off just returning it. 100% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful? Top
By member:
patrick1853
- Feb 9, 2007
HVR-1600Strengths: Cable and OTA HD tuners, Inexpensive, easy to install. Tuner works well. Weakness: Included software leaves much to be desired. Included IR blaster won't work with Windows Media Center. I purchased this card just to play around with running tv to my computer. Installation and setup were fairly straight forward and the included WinTv software can get you watching television on your computer in short order. The card includes a remote as well as a IR blaster to send signals to your cable box. Unfortunately this IR blaster is incompatible with Windows Media Center so if you plan to use it you need an additional blaster(the remote control does funtion with media center though). You can however use it with other software(Beyond TV, GB-PVR, etc.) 100% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful? Top
By member:
openwheelracing
- Mar 4, 2007
Hauppauge HVR-1600 PCI Hybrid TunerStrengths: Channel changes faster than Dvico Fusion and ATI650. East of installation. Weakness: Very tall and big. If your HTPC case is on the slim side, this "might" give you trouble. This card is now serving as my primary tuner in Vista Ultimate. It changes channel much faster than any other card I've tried. The picture quality is excellent (OTA). I also used this card to capture and digitize older videos on tape. It works very well. 94% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful? Top
By member:
SDTechDeals
- Apr 26, 2007
HDTV Tuner PCI-Card works great with Windows XP...Strengths: Easy to install; good instructions Weakness: Klutzy remote; crappy software I am setting up a new media room in my house, so decided to play around with using a digital HDTV tuner. I already have DirecTV, but this was mainly just to play around and see if I could go without the HD portion of the satellite service. I already had the excellent Silver Sensor amplified HDTV antenna, that I just plugged into the digital coax input terminal. After installing the latest drivers, windows xp media center recognized it, and I was able to record digital programs! I never bothered installing the included software, due to the other reviewers comments about it being crap. I have no intentions of using the remote, so it didn't concern me that it was ugly and klutzy! I next plan to see if I can get Beyond TV 4.5 working on this thing. Tune in for my updates... 90% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful? Top
By member:
Grok451
- Mar 7, 2007
Great valueStrengths: Value: HDTV and Analog tuner plus remote controller for $76 after rebate Weakness: Wire that connects remote control receiver to back of PCI card is way too short, limiting how far away you can place the receiver from the computer. Popped the PCI card in, connected my analog cable to the analog connector and my over the air antenna to the HDTV connector, rebooted and installed the drivers. Configured Snapstream BeyondTV instead of the included WinTV2000 software. Scanned the channels and started watching HDTV and analog cable. Some HDTV channels have low signal strength - more a factor of my antenna placement, although the HDTV tuner does seem a little weaker than my other USB HDTV tuner (DVICO FusionHDTV) connected to the same antenna. Can record while watching a different channel. 
75% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful? Top
By member:
REB07
- Feb 11, 2007
Analog Cable AND Digital OTA SimultaneouslyStrengths: 1. Easy installation. 2. Includes remote control. 3. Input analog cable AND digital OTA. 4. Works well with Beyond TV. 5. Hardware MPEG decoder for analog signals. Weakness: 1. The included software for viewing TV (WinTV) was not intuitive and did not work well. 2. A limitation for some people will be that this card is not designed to receive digital cable signals. Using Beyond TV 4.6 (beta), I am able to record one digital OTA station and one analog cable station AT THE SAME TIME. I can also watch one digital OTA station and record an analog cable station simultaneously -- or vice-versa. If you get frustrated with the included WinTV, try GBPVR (not terribly intuitive but free and it works well) or, even better, download a trial version of BeyondTV to see what this card can really do! 75% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful? Top
By member:
mkhan362
- Feb 9, 2007
wintv-hvrStrengths: Picks up digital channels w/ a uhf antenna very nicely. Good picture quality compared to other cards. Good deal at $60. Retails for $100. Weakness: bundled software is not intuitive. Had to use commercial software. Analog tuner is not that great. There has been reported success with GBPVR with this card so I gave that a try. To my surprise, the ATSC OTA channels play much smoother in GBPVR than in BeyondTV on my system. Too bad that GBPVR doesn't have the same quality of user interface as BeyondTV -- which, of course, is an unfair comparison because GBPVR is free and BeyondTV retails at $69.99. Using this card on vista in WinTv there is a bit of jerkiness on some of the OTA HD at 1080i. 67% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful? Top
By member:
tuchemist
- Apr 9, 2007
Great TV TunerStrengths: Dual tunner for both analog and ATSC signal; remote control; easy to install; good picture quality. Weakness: Record scheduling with the included winTV software is inconvenient; it might slow down your system. WinTV-HVR 1600 is a great TV tuner. I could get both analog and on-air HDTV signal with great quality. Though some people complain about the included software (WinTV), I found it really easy to use, especially for viewing channels, but not for recordings. I found GB-PVR as an alternative which is not only working great, but also free of charge. So I can now use GB-PVR for recording my favorite shows in the background while using winTV to watch another channel. 50% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful? Top
By member:
customervalued
- Feb 21, 2007
WinTV-HVR 1600 TV TunerStrengths: Great Hardware with built in tuners Weakness: Worse software ever. Extremely buggy. Suggest the user purchase 3rd party software to run this or gbpvr which is free. Took longer then necessary to install software and once done it was a nightmare. The hd channels came in randomly with several showing a checkerboard affect. I thought I had a defective board until I read a forum with others having the same issue. Switching to beyondtv, sagetv or gbpvr solved the problem. 50% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful? Top
By member:
a.guenin_1091717075
- May 28, 2007
Hauppauge WinTV-HVR 1600Strengths: hardware quality Weakness: software Installation was easy. Watching and recording HDTV is easy enough, but the software is horrible. It doesn't live up to its claims of allowing you to adjust the recording format or edit the video. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful? Top
By member:
fguo79
- Apr 26, 2007
excellent hardware, crappy software, affordableStrengths: Really good hardware, two tuners included, remote, reasonable price Weakness: included WinTV software is garbage At this price ($80 before rebate), this is a solid product. There are two tuners in this card, one is for analog and the other is for OTA HDTV. The included WinTV software is bad, if you don't want to use it like me, there is a free substitute called "GBPVR". It works like charm in my case, even though I just use it for OTA HDTV. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful? Top
By member:
kitchau
- Apr 19, 2007
Hauppauge WinTV-HVR 1600 TV TunerStrengths: Dual tuner (one analog and one OTA digital). Includes remote. Cheaper than ATI. Weakness: Horrible software included. Use Sage TV or GBPVR. Dual tuner (one analog and one OTA digital). Can record both streams at once with the right software. Analog tuner is hardware based. Includes a remote. Remote is tied to the card and not a separate USB solution though. Cheaper than comparable competition ATI 650 or Avermedia Combo tuner. Horrible software included. Use third party Sage TV or GBPVR instead. No QAM support. Overall good buy. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful? Top
By member:
milind11
- Apr 6, 2007
WinTV-HVR 1600 TV TunerStrengths: 2 seperate TV tuners (Digital/Analog) built in a single card. Weakness: Digital TV Tuner is resourse hogger. Analog Cable TV tuner is very fast and included soft ware and remote worked great with the remote that came with the product. I am running this system on XP Pro machine. Very happy with the analog TV tuner. However I must admit my aging computer is to blame fro the sluggishness of the digital TV tuner that I am experiencing. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful? Top
By member:
Louse76
- Mar 24, 2007
Astounding deal for a true dual tuner!Strengths: Two discrete tuners - on SD one HD. Price. Weakness: Remote is worthless. No included antenna. Possible build quality issues. I got this for $60AR and for that price, it is A STEAL! This card will provide both a standard tuner for cable or cable box and an ATSC tuner to pick up HD signals over the air for free. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful? Top
By member:
mwy23
- Mar 20, 2007
Hauppauge WinTV-HVR 1600 ReviewStrengths: Delivers as promised, easy to install, easy to configure. I was up and running and watching analog TV in under 10 minutes. Weakness: packaged software is not good. download gbpvr if you want something free, or buy some pvr software. this product delivers as promised. i haven't been able to pull in HD signals OTA so i can't comment on HD quality. the analog works and is of slightly worse quality on an LCD monitor vs. CRT as expected. the remote is easy to configure, but the IR portion is a little weak. the remote needs to be aimed directly at the IR reception. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful? Top
By member:
stevens322
- Mar 18, 2007
WinTV-HVR 1600 TV TunerStrengths: Setup was very simple and straightforward. Weakness: None Setting this up was very easy. Using it with GBPVR. Had a little trouble getting the remote to work right, however found great information on the GBPVR forum pages. I would recommend this to anyone setting up an HTPC. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful? Top
By member:
bping
- Mar 18, 2007
Best compromise (for now)Strengths: Two tuners in one PCI card, remote control + IR Blaster to control satellite and cable boxes. Works with popular software (wink, GB-PVR is your friend). Weakness: Does not have digital video input, receives only over the air HDTV channels, there is better software available. I loved the idea of having my own Personal Video Recorder. The dual tuner on a single card is what made my buying decision. The possibility of recording one channel while watching another is desirable in my HTPC setup. All this without having to "waste" another PCI slot for a second TV tuner card. Prices on TV tuner cards keep coming down and getting two tuners for the price of one, from a well known company, was all good. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful? Top
By member:
jtaddei911
- Mar 15, 2007
Running 2 on Vista 64-bit GREAT!!Strengths: Has HDTV tuner and analog tuner in one. Picture quality is good. Weakness: Does not have a radio tuner. Runs great with Vista. I have 2 of these and the channels all come in great. No issues yet with the tuners. Wish these cards have a radio tuner, I have to use a USB Radio tuner instead. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful? Top
By member:
bartender23ck
- Mar 12, 2007
Analog and DigitalStrengths: Digital and Analog in one card, remote, MCE 2005 ready Weakness: No QAM, bundled software is horrible Hauppauge makes great tuners and this is no exception. I am using it with Microsoft Windows Media Center 2005. I have a friend who is using in in Windows Vista Ultimate. The included remote works well in Media Center. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful? Top
By member:
sameerg10
- Mar 12, 2007
Excellent ProductStrengths: The card is easy to install and the remote is handy. The main advantage of this card is you can watch both analog cable and OTA digital HD programming. Weakness: The included software is horrible and rarely works. I recommend using a third party software like Beyond TV or free ones like GBPVR. I am currently using the trial version of Beyond TV 4.6. This really makes to utilize the full range of the card. i can watch regular TV and at the same time record some program on the ATSC tuner, or vice versa. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful? Top
By member:
Nubio
- Feb 15, 2007
Excellent addition to my HTPCStrengths: "True" dual-tuner (You can actually use both tuners simultaneously), Excellent OTA HD PQ and acceptable SD PQ via Dish receiver, Includes Remote Control and IR Blaster Weakness: The included WinTV2000 software is pretty bad. Had to ditch it and use Beyond TV. Card installed in my HTPC fine, but was getting horrible results using the included WinTV2000 software to watch OTA HD and SD. HD image was surrounded by black & white "checkerboard" pattern and AR was out of whack. So I decided to give Beyond TV a try, and success!! Received excellent HD picture quality and decent SD PQ. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful? Top
By member:
tony_uw
- Feb 15, 2007
Good product with mediocre softwareStrengths: Picture quality, dual analog/HD tuner, easy to install. Weakness: Bundled software, IR blaster setup So far I really like the card. I've stopped using WinTV2000 in favor of GBPVR. The bundled software doesn't work well at all, sizing all the HD content incorrectly. With GBPVR, it does really well at displaying OTA signals. Recording quality is great. I'm having live playback issues with stuttering but I'm sure it's the software. All in all, a good product that requires a good bit of tweaking to work correctly. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful? Top
By member:
shoerhino
- Feb 9, 2007
Good but not perfectedStrengths: Analog and Digital Tuner in one card Remote Weakness: Software not completely ready This is one of the first PVR cards that I've seen with both an analog and digital tuner. It runs great under Windows XP and is stable but the software has some issues. When displaying HD TV, you cannot use VMR to display the video stream, which means that more CPU is needed to watch HD. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful? Top 
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Great Dual Tuner for HDTV and Cable
Strengths: - Works in many other PVR Apps such as Windows Vista Media Center, Beyond TV, Sage TV, and Others - Very fast channel switching - Hardware Decoding
Weakness: - Does not have QAM support
I was surprised with the upgrade from my old Leadtek Winfast xp Deluxe to the Hauppauge WinTV HVR 1600 TV Tuner. I first used Beyond TV 4.6 (4.6 is needed to enable the dual tuner support) and it was great. Remote that comes with the card works perfectly in Beyond TV. You can record a HDTV OTA channel and watch a different regular cable due to the dual tuner support. I then tried it in Vista's Media Center, and was quite surprised with the results. Channel switching was the fastest I've seen in any tv tuner.
Note: You must use the 3.3Bc CD Drivers in vista to enable the remote to work in Media Center. The drivers on Hauppauge's site is only 3.2 and the remote does not work in Media Center.
100% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?
Apr 21, 2007
Can you explain how you made the built-in IR blaster work on Vista? I can't get it to work.