Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-150 PCI TV Tuner with Remote Control (1045)

I wanted to put a TV in my child's play room, which also had a computer. This device enables me to use the computer as a TV. It works great, my 4 year old has no problem using it.

I installed the device in my only PCI slot, hooked my cable coax into it, started my PC, and the drivers automatically loaded. I have XP SP2. The whole process took about 10 minutes. The software then starts and after about 5 minutes, goes through the cable channels to store the channels. Then, you are ready to go.

The unit is equipped with a remote. The remote points to an "eye". The eye is attached to a medium-sized small cord that is attached to the PCI card (under the coax cable). You are able to position the eye where you want it, although the cord the eye is on is not long. If you have a desktop sitting on the floor, it will barely reach the top of a computer desk. I taped the cord just under my keyboard shelf, so the remote needs to be pointed low.

The functionality of the software is great. You can change the channel with the computer or remote. There is a button to enable "full screen" on the computer, but not on the remote. The picture is excellent. The ability to pause live TV, or record ad-hoc or timed works extremely well.

This is a great product.

I've had the PVR150 for several months. Prospective buyers should be aware of the following:

-The card has audio problems. Audio levels, especially from the card's Line Input are too high, which results in clipped audio. And -get this -there is NO WAY TO ADJUST AUDIO INPUT LEVELS ON THIS CARD. Hauppauge has acknowledged the problem but so far (it's been 9 months) have been unable to fix it. In fact their "workaround" has been to install an audio limiter in their driver which automatically clips all audio at +6dB. A few months ago they were offering customers who complained about the issue free exchanges for PVR250's, which does not have the same problem as the 150. Not sure if Hauppauge is still offering this exchange.

-The card's video also has substantial problems. Particularly with some graphics adapters (most notably ATI), at normal contrast levels whites are extremely overexposed. If one compensates by decreasing the contrast so that whites are properly exposed, darker colors are completely washed out and most detail is lost. And Hauppauge's tech support so far has been worthless trying to address (or even acknowledge) the problem.

-Other problems exist, such as "judder" (constant skipping) when recording from VHS source and fast forwarding to a different part of the tape, or when the included capture software (WinTV2000) is paused or muted for too long. Hauppauge's "fix" is telling customers to revert from DirectX 9.0c to 9.0b, but as many of you know, this may require a complete reinstall of your operating system.

I believe this is a case where Conexant, the manufacturer of the PVR150's hardware MPEG encoder, brought a product to market well before it was ready. They attempted to combine the functions of separate video and audio controllers (which were in fact separate chips on the PVR250) into a single chip, with lower power draw and much lower manufacturing cost. In my opinion they fell short. I strongly advise against the PVR150.

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I am not the first person to have this problem. What I received was in fact a WinTv-HVR-1600. Which is not at all the same as a WinTV-PVR-150 because it does not have Linux drivers. Then I had to go to the trouble of calling Haupauge to get them to switch it out. Had to pay shipping to send them the 150. More than a week went by before I was able to build my MythTV Box.

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I bought this product and it works great. I had previously bought the ATI TV wonder pro remote control edition, and had to return it because they software wouldn't work right with my computer. I exchanged it for this one and am very glad I did. the WIN-TV PVR does everything I need it to do, and seems to have a little better quality than the ATI one, even though it still isnt nearly as good as TV quality. The software works great; however there are a few problems I have found:

1: I haven't figured out how to open the videos and make them work with programs other than the program they give you. I've tried changing the record format, but it doesn't change it. Therefore, I can't record a show while I'm watching one I've already recorded.

2:The TV guide is online and is a pain to try and get it to work with the program scheduler because it requires that you download a file and doesnt work all the time.

3: Sometimes when I am watching a recorded show, I will pause and then hit the Play button, but then it will reset the video back to the beginning, and I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong. It doesnt do it all the time though, and if it does it it's not the end of the world because I can just drag the slider back to where I was.

Other than these minor problems, the recorder works great, and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a PVR.

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I tried to set up a PVR using my computer on the cheap on my less than state of the art computer (Pentium 4 2.2ghz). I experimented with a cheap tv card and half a dozen freeware software applications. I wish I could have the time back trying to set up all those lame products. The first thing that's essential that the cheaper tv cards don't have is an onboard chip to encode the video. Software encoding-how the cheap cards worktotally bogged down the computer. Tying together all the bits and pieces--cable box, remote, drivers, software can be a major headache. The Hauppauge card bundles a decent remote and ir emitter. This is a big plus. In light of that the $91 and free shipping made it a deal. This is only half the solution though as the software provided is not worthy of this fine hardware. I tried all the software out there for Windows-except for the expensive Windows media center-the only thing that works is Beyond TV. No other software is even close. The Beyond TV software is designed to work mainly with the Hauppage products. The IR emitter did not work satisfactorily for my Motorola cable box, but luckily I was able to control that with a serial cable connection. The TV picture is better than what I got directly from my cable box, though there is sometimes a slight, almost imperceptible, jerkiness. A Hauppage card, Beyond TV and your computer will bring you an excellent PVR experience. With a big Harddrive and a video card with tv-out, you're there.