Hauppauge 1120CN WinTV-HVR-950 Hybrid Video Recorder
by HAUPPAUGE
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Our Price: $299.99 Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: CE See more product details |
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Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Hauppauge 1120CN WinTV-HVR-950 Hybrid Video Recorder
Customer Review: Very nice for Analog and Digital TV, buggy software.
Summary: 4 Stars
It is very nice to get the HD TV on the computer. It opened up a whole new world for me. Needs a dual core or a very fast single core processor.
The software WinTV is a bit buggy when recording and playback. The recording cannot be played back on Real Media or Windows Media Player reliably. Sometime the recording works sometimes not. But all recording can be played with WinTV, but WinTV insists that you have the Tuner connected. So it is inconvenient when you want to playback on another computer. Then, WinTV controls for playback are not foolproof. Trying to fast forward too much causes the program to freeze and has to be killed with task manager.
If they can get their software right it can be really nice. Already I enjoy the easy recording of programs and having control of the movies my family watches. I hope they will read this and fix their software.
AS Koh
Customer Review: Does what it says
Summary: 3 Stars
I've had this tuner for a month now and have time to play with it. I also have a 1600 to compare it. Overall, I am impressed by the size and portability of this tuner. When it has a signal, HD looks great. SD looks like SD. I first used the enclosed antenna which only picked up one local signal. I then used my DB4 with preamp to pull in 6 more. Even with the DB4 my CBS reception, which is 99% on the 1600, it only managed to pull 70% with the 950. This weekend, I took my laptop to Los Angeles and was able to pull in many more channels. But with the enclosed antenna it was jerky reception; I'm sure with an external antenna it would have been fine. This probably isn't the best unit for my area, but in an urban setting it would work just fine. My only complaints are:
- No stereo output when using cable
- Tuner strength is about much weaker than my 1600
- no QAM
Customer Review: Works really nice with Windows Media Center
Summary: 5 Stars
My PC has Vista Home Premium, and I needed a tuner to utilize the Media Center application. I read the reviews on this card and decided to buy one. Fortunately for me it did the job really well and my expectations were fulfilled. Media Center is configured without problems and HDTV reception is acceptable (even with the provided little antenna), however I'd recommend getting a better antenna for a smoother experience.
Cons:
- The provided TV application does not work well (some of the channels are squeezed to %50 height) -- you may need it if you don't have MC.
- Hardware acceleration is not enabled by default, yet you don't have to care much if you have a fast enough CPU.
I'd recommend this device if you need to complete your media pc for a good value with low price, without opening your box. For other uses you may need to work out some configuration.
Customer Review: Good buy for the price
Summary: 4 Stars
I purchased this TV tuner as a stand-in until I buy a new TV. It works just fine. It was pretty easy to install. I was watching TV on my laptop within 15 minutes of opening the package. I have a Dell laptop running Windows XP Pro, 1 GB RAM, USB-2 Port. I did not notice any slowdown in my laptop performance when I watched TV and opened other applications at the same time.
The picture quality is... well... as good as what you would expect for the price you're paying. It is a bit grainy for my analog TV signal, but perfectly viewable. The sound was OK too. For me, that was good enough.
I recorded some TV programs and played them back in Windows Media Player. Worked just fine. I have not used the ATSC tuner, so I cannot comment on that. But it seems people are pretty happy with the digital broadcasts.
All in all, this product delivers the goods.
Customer Review: Great inexpensive product
Summary: 5 Stars
I have had a number of PC TV tuners through the years and this one is the best, so far. Because it is a USB tuner, it allows "picture in a picture" on your PC monitor. Other external TV tuners use the same monitor input as the PC, so it becomes "either or." I bought this particular one because it was VISTA compliant and the one I had been using wasn't. The DVR software that is bundled with the tuner works really well. It is particularly helpful to use it with the recommended Titan TV Website. It allows you a TV viewing "guide" and you can select programs to record right off the Website and it sets the DVR to record. The setup was intuitive and went without a hitch. The picture quality is good for analog and the sound is fine. I wish the DVR recorded directly to MPEG 4 so I could put recorded programs directly on my iPod, but I am able to convert them.