Hauppauge 1128 WinTV-HVR-1850 Internal Hybrid TV Tuner/Video Recorder

Working great on Win 7 64 bit. Didn't use drivers that came on disk. Went to Hauppauge website and downloaded the most recent "Windows Driver Only" (Win 7 64 bit drivers) along with the "Windows Media Center remote control receiver/blaster configuration utility". You have to install and run the remote configuration utility to 'turn on' the remote control. I'm not using WinTV 7, doing everything in Media Center. I have basic cable that has some clear QAM HD channels. There's also instructions on the Hauppauge website for mapping any clear QAM HD channels that Windows Media Center doesn't put in your guide. You can also search online for instructions. I now have a wonderful tuner and PVR! At first, I didn't have any guide information for the clear QAM channels that I manually mapped, but then I learned how to copy guide info from the equivalent analog channel to the clear QAM HD channel, so I can set PVR recordings just by highlighting and selecting. BEAUTIFUL! I highly recommend this product. The only thing I might do differently is get the dual digital tuner model (2250), but it was unavailable at the time. Not sure why but it's sold out at several sites. So far I haven't needed a dual digital tuner, but I could foresee the need. I can't record one clear QAM channel while watching another clear QAM channel.Also, I had to put in a splitter to split my cable source into the analog input and the digital input. The card has separate input for each. I also think the 2250 doesn't require this. I think the 2250 card itself will split the signal, but I didn't research it extensively since it wasn't available. Bottom line: I love the tuner!

Installation was easy, an update was available from the web so I installed that too right away. I'm using this as a DVR for DISH network so it's a two step process program Dish to go to channel, set up schedule on WINTV. Picture quality is good, I record at Good setting and a two hour recording is about 4.6 GB a one hour show is about 2.2 GB.I'm am using this on a dual boot PC with Windows 7 and Windows XP, works the same on either OS. I prefer Windows 7.The only con I have is a personal use item, I like to copy the recordings to a USB drive then play it via my Blue Ray player that has a USB in port. the 4.6 GB file is too big for the USB FAT32 format so I have to run it through a DIVX converter. The quality looks the same to me but the file size drops from 4.6 GB to 1.8 GB. This process takes a while to run but then it is small enough to also copy to SD on my Android and watch the movie on a plan trip. I'll have to try a lower quality setting and see if the size will drop below 4 GB so conversion is not required. I'm sure th lower quality will look good on a 10" tablet but may not be what I want for watching on a TV.So all in all I am liking this WINTV I have not tried it with Media Center but the way I'm using it works good for my needs and I do not have to pay the monthly DVR fee or upgrade the dual DISH receiver I already have. One last note if you want Android or Sony Blue Ray player to play the file select the advanced option to always convert the .TS recordings to .MPG. My devices do not play the .TS files.

Purchased this card for a new Vista 64 Ultimate workstation. Windows did not see the card to install it. I borrowed an XP machine and it installs in that one fine, but since it isn't mine, I can't use it in the XP.Update: sent the card to the hardware vendor, who had the same experience. He was finally able to move cards around in the machine and make it work, sending me the configuration, which works here as well. The trick may be that this card needs to be the first PCI-e card in the stack. Hardware vendor technician believed it was related to the card's ability to maintain identity across various bus-to-bus bridges.If I could edit the rating I'd raise it at least to 3 stars; but installing it in the right slot without any guidance is a matter of luck.

Good Product

I bought this Tuner/DVR because it had good ratings, would allow me to convert my many videos from tape (VCR and Digital) to editable computer files and would allow me to record TV shows and copy them to disk if I wanted. Let me say initially that it installed very easily and was recognized by my Win 8 OS.So far, I've used it very successfully to capture old videos from tapes. The captured video does seem to be a bit darker than the original, but I think I can restore some or all of that with my video editing software.The TV capabilities are hit and miss. I have Time Warner Cable (TWC) services and so I ran a cable to the card and that was that. I went to the Hauppauge web site and downloaded the most current version of Win TV and drivers. After installing them, I began the setup program. I was able to tell the software that I was using TWC and it downloaded a TV Guide. But when it scanned for TV stations, it could only find 7 stations. And they were stations that I did not recognize and when I tried them, I got nothing. I read at a forum where some one else had this problem and they suggested going to the edit function for the guide listings. Sure enough more stations showed up there. But then it was a case of trying each one and trying to identify the station by its content. Not exactly automatic. And while I get probably 40 stations now, they do not include AMC, FX, any of the ESPNs, TBS, TNT, etc. etc. My experience using Windows Media Center was similar. And in neither case was I able to set a recording for a show using a TV Guide like I do with the TWC cable box DVR. Like I said, it leaves a lot to be desired. It is possible that if you do a lot of research and spend a lot of time trying to make the system more user friendly, you will succeed. But I don't have the patience for that - I need a more plug and play approach.So that is why I feel that I wasted money buying a two tuner card. I don't believe I get anything more than I would with a much simpler and cheaper card. Perhaps if Hauppauge provided more guidance, this would have been a more useful product and worth the money.