Hauppauge-WinTV-PVR-350 TV Tuner/Personal Video Recorder

4/28/05 I have to update this review (from 10/1/04). I have since upgraded to Windows Media Center Edition 2005. This card is great with MCE. There are cheaper Hauppauge cards that also work fine with MCE, so it might be worth taking a look at them before spending the $ on this card. I also wanted to change this review to 5 stars, but Amazon doesn't seem to allow changes to the star rating.

After years of owning various ATI All-In-Wonder video cards, I decided it would be cheaper to go ahead and buy a TV only card, and not have to spend a fortune everytime it was time to upgrade my video card. Quick and to the point, here are my findings :

Negatives :

1. The 'web based' program guide is a very clumsy interface. I would much rather have a application based program guide.

2. No matter what I try, channel 2 always has ghosting. I know it's the card because I had the same cable plugged into my ATI AIW with no problems, and also plugged it into a TV with no picture problems. Maybe moving the card further away from the video card will help?

3. While I'm sure there is a way, I have yet to find how to change the recording quality. After fumbling through the software I finally gave up.

Positives :

1. The FM Radio program is pretty slick, and the reception is ok. No complaints.

2. Unlike the ATI AIW cards (and probably the TV Wonder's) you can set the program to automatically mute while recordinging and close the application when it's done recording. You still have to go back into the scheduler and modify EACH individual scheduled task. It would be nice to either highlight all and change them all at once, OR set a default for all new recordings.

3. Hardware based TV OUT is nice.

4. PLENTY of 3'rd party software supports this card. This is a big plus since in my opinion the software that comes with the card is lacking.

I would have gave this card 5 stars if the bundled software was better. Plan on purchasing SageTV or similar if you plan on buying this card.

I purchased this card because I was building a MythTV box. So far, I have nothing but good things to say about this card.

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I have been evaluating MPEG-2 Encoder cards for work and purchased this one for myself because I couldn't believe how inexpensive it is (from Amazon no less!).

It works like a charm, and includes more consumer-friendly functionality than products costing 3 times as much.

In my opinion, anyone who owns a PC and watches television should buy one.

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This is a great product, but you may need to know how to change Windows registry values to make it work the way you want.

In my case installation went without a single problem, though I should mention that Happague really needs slightly more detailed installation manual. For example it is not easy to identify all connectors and adaptors supplied with the product. I spent some time trying to discover composite video input and then searching for Composite to S-Video adapter.

After installation I discovered that card apply too much amplification to the audio channel, so recordings have lot of distortion. It was easy enough to google out site with all tips and tricks for the card (http://www.cask-of-amontillado.com/pvr_reg.html) but you should be confident enough to modify registry on your machine.

I wish Happauge provided some simple user friendly utility for tuning the board.

Bundled sofware is OK. It does what it suppose to do, but if your want more functionality try Sage TV for TV and ULead Video Studio for home video.

In general, board works great and I have no issues so far.

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For TV, this card works fairly well, but the software does crash.

I also use this card to convert old VHS tapes to DVD. It makes great quality transfers, but the audio and video become unsynchronized as the mpegs become longer. After about 45 minutes, the are noticeably off. Also, the supplied adapter to input from an RCA source has a female end for the 1/8" stereo plug. The input on the card is also 1/8" female, so you will need to purchase and additional 1/8" male to male stereo cable to use the supplied adapter.