GUIDE TO TV TUNER CARDS

Hauppauge 1196 WinTV HVR-1250 PCI Express Hybrid High Definition TV Tuner Card

Manufacturer : HAUPPAUGE
In Stock : 33

List Price:	$69.99
Price:	$46.35
You Save:	$23.64 (34%)

Features

Watch, pause, and record digital and analog TV on your PC
Compatible with ATSC and QAM digital TV, and NTSC analog cable TV signals
Dbx-TV stereo decoding for spectacular sound
MPEG-2 software encoder for analog TV
Includes remote control and Personal Video Recorder software for scheduled recording of programs

Product Description

The WinTV-HVR-1250 from Hauppauge is a dual tuner analog and high definition digital ATSC PCI Express card internal TV tuner for PCs. The WinTV-HVR-1250 has separate tuners for analog NTSC and ATSC digital TV. Ships with full height bracket installed, and includes low profile bracket as well. Includes remote control. Certified for Windows Vista.Features Includes: Watch, pause and record TV on your PC, in window or full screen, uses Hauppauge¿s SoftPVR to record analog TV programs to your computer¿s disk drive, receive ATSC digital TV or Clear QAM digital cable TV, up to 1080i format, receive NTSC analog cable TV with the built-in 125 channel cable-ready TV tuner, Dolby-TV stereo decoder, Schedule TV recordings with WinTV-Scheduler software, Compatible with Windows XP and all versions of Windows Vista.

Amazon.com Product Description

The Hauppauge 1196 WinTV-HVR-1250 lets you watch, pause and record both digital and analog television on your PC, in a window or full screen. With PVR software you can also record television onto your computer for viewing later without slowing down your computer. Thanks to MPEG-2 encoding, video quality is superb.

The Hauppauge 1196 WinTV-HVR-1250 offers:

Watch, pause, and record digital and analog TV on your PC.
Compatible with ATSC and QAM digital TV, and NTSC analog cable TV signals.
Convenient remote control.
MPEG-2 software encoder for analog TV.

WinTV software makes it easy to record your favorite shows. View larger.

Watch and record high-definition digital television on your computer. View larger. View ports.

Watch High-definition Digital TV on Your Computer
The WinTV-HVR-1250 lets you watch ATSC digital TV as well as QAM digital TV and analog cable TV directly on your computer. ATSC digital TV, which typically requires an antenna for reception, is the over-the-air HDTV standard for North America. ATSC broadcasts range in resolution from standard definition up to the high definition 1080i format. (To check the ATSC digital transmissions in your area, input your zip code at titantv.com.)

The WinTV-HVR-1250 also lets you watch and record QAM channels, which are unencrypted digital channels broadcast by your local cable operator. If you don't have access to digital television channels yet, you can also watch regular analog cable television. And with the included remote control, you can control your cable TV or satellite set top box.

In addition to high-definition video, the card also features a dbx-TV stereo decoder for great TV sound. The card has S-Video and stereo audio inputs that allow for connecting VCRs or cable/satellite set top boxes.

Your Own Personal Digital Video Recorder!
With the included software, you can easily record TV shows to your hard disk using MPEG-2. Several recording options are available depending on your playback needs; higher quality video requires more disk space. Generally, 5 gigabytes of disk space is used per hour of ATSC digital TV recordings, and 1.5 gigabytes of disk space is used per hour of Analog recording using Hauppauge's SoftPVR for Windows XP and Media Center.

With the WinTV-Scheduler software, you can easily schedule the recordings of your favorite television shows daily, weekly, or just once. You can then play back the recordings at your leisure, burn them onto CD or DVD for playback on another computer or your television, or with video editing software (not included), you can even edit the shows. This is great for saving favorite movie clips, clips of your home team's dramatic last-second win, or your favorite player's grand slam.

The Hauppauge 1196 WinTV-HVR-1250 plugs into a PCI express X1 or X16 slot, and is compatible with Windows Vista, XP with Service Pack 2, and Windows XP Media Center Edition. With XP-MCE and Vista, you can add the WinTV-HVR-1250 as either the primary or secondary TV tuner. The Microsoft Media Center application supports up to two TV tuners so if you have a second tuner in addition to the WinTV-HVR-1250, you can watch one channel while recording another.

What's in the Box
WinTV-HVR-1250 PCI Express bus TV tuner, remote control with batteries, remote control receiver cable, WinTV software CD-ROM, quick installation guide, and half-height bracket for use in low-profile chassis.

Customer Reviews

Average Rating of 3.50 out of 29 reviews

Rating :
One of the few half-height tuner cards that work in Linux - A. Douglas, Nov 06, 2009

I bought this tuner card to be used with an existing MythTV system running in Ubuntu Linux. My machine requires half-height peripheral cards which limits my options. The tuner was installed in minutes and after recompiling the V4L drivers, the card was immediately picked up by MythTV. It tunes to channels fast and seems to be very stable. The include remote control and infrared adapter are useless to me because they have no support under Linux (from what I've read - I haven't confirmed this). I haven't tried this with Windows but I suspect a similar experience.

Rating :
CPU Hog - J. Dyson, Oct 21, 2009

Installed this card in my dual processor 2.5GHz system. The tv image is ok. The scanning of my time warner cable both analog and digital channels worked ok. The only warning I can share regarding this tuner card is that it does suck up most of your processor capability. My two cpu's are constantly running at 50% or more while live tv is on. This is a lot of processing just to decode a cable tv signal? I'd recommend looking for a card that has hardware decoding capabilities.

Rating :
A Great Value, but still a basic Tuner Card - Richard A. Anderson, Oct 20, 2009

Pros:
One of the lowest cost Hybrid Tuner Cards out there that can do both Analog and Digital Tuning. It works well, can view a clear picture on the computer, smooth, NOT choppy nor freezes. Includes WinTV7 which is needed to watch digital channels (ATSC or clear QAM), Windows Media Center only supports Analog (NTCS) Channels. The card is small (1/2 Height with 1/2 Height headers that can be swapped on) and its PCIe so it will fit a PCIeX1 or PCIeX16 slot.
64Bit supported just as well as 32Bit, running this on Vista Home Premium 64Bit.

Cons:
Does NOT have a MPEG Encoder chip, so no hardware conversion of the Analog signal, your CPU will have to work harder to do a software MPEG conversion. With weaker CPU's that might be a problem, my Athlon X2 6000+ runs at 40%-50% utilization while watching analog channels. I'm pretty sure Digital Channels do NOT need a MPEG Encoder chip, the digital signal is already streamed as MPEG, and watching digital channels my CPU utilization is 15%-30%, more often at the lower end near 15%.

Like mentioned, WinTV7 can crash suddenly, but restarts and runs fine after a crash. Its NOT to often, but enough that its more than a fluke. Runs just as well 64Bit as 32Bit. Remember, you can't watch Digital Channels in Windows Media Center, only analog, you'll need WinTV7 or another 3rd Party Program to watch Digital Channels.

Other:
Windows 7 will support Digital Channels in Windows Media Center.
If your cable company offers clear QAM, Comcast in my area has a digital alternative for every analog channel as well, so I can get every channel they offer in digital, then there is NO reason to pay extra for a Tuner Card with a MPEG encoder chip onboard, its NOT needed for Digital Channels. I'm pretty sure its NOT used at all for digital channels.
Remember, this card is PCI"e" NOT PCI, it will NOT fit your PCI slots, its for PCI"e"X1 or even PCI"e"X16 slots.

Rating :
Great hardware, lousy software - Reviewer, Oct 19, 2009

Like other reviewers have written, the actual adapter works great with Windows Media Center. Contrary to some of the reviews, though, the included remote control does work with Media Center if you install the WinTV/Media Center support package from the Hauppauge Web site. (In the WinTV IR Configuration tool, you have to de-select the Hauppage remote control check box, interestingly enough.) Running Vista x64, with an Intel i7 2.6 GHz Quad-core and Nvidia GTS 240 video card (1 GB of RAM), over-the-air ATSC HD video is silky smooth at either 1080i or 720p. (The video may jitter briefly when changing channels.) I use a relatively cheap, amplified digital antenna which works well if positioned just right.

My only complaint (as with other reviewers) is with the included WinTV 7 software. It can be very unreliable (crashes), does not save settings, has choppy recording quality and is not very customizable (video capture settings). As a result, I use only Media Center with the HVR-1250 digital tuner, and Windows Media Encoder with the adapter's S-video analog input. If you use someone else's software, this product works great.

Rating :
Great TV Tuner - Lee Vandenbrink, Sep 27, 2009

This turner on my new HP computer with Vista works GREAT GREAT GREAT... A MUST BUY!!!!

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