HDTV Reviews Blog

Posts Tagged ‘Moniter’

Hauppauge 1200 WinTV HVR 850 HDTV Tuner Stick

Watch and record hi-definition ATSC digital TV or cable TV on your PC or laptopWinTV-HVR-850 hybrid TV stick featuresDigital ATSC over-the-air TV tuner built-inAnalog TV features

User Ratings and Reviews

4 Stars Tough to Install, Low Quality Picture, GREAT PRICE!!!
I bought this TV tuner card because I’m a poor college student and don’t have money for a TV. From that prospective, it was inexpensive, and it does what it’s suppose to. I plugged it into the wall and it makes TV appear on my computer screen. Great success!

It was a pain in the butt to install. The WinTV CD it came with was useless. It made funny noises when I put it into my CD-ROM, installed the driver, but froze the system when trying to install WinTV. I ended up going to Hauppauge’s website and downloading the driver there. They have a driver SPECIFICALLY for using this piece of hardware with Windows Media Center, which is great. Once I got that installed, it’s been working fine.

The quality of the video is very low. I am NOT ENTIRELY SURE if this is because of the hardware itself or how I have it configured on my machine. I played around with the settings in Media Center, which didn’t improve the picture quality.

If you’re looking for a USB tuner that’ll make you the savviest, swankiest technology owner on the block – you’re probably going to have to spend a few extra dollars. BUT! If you’re a poor college kid who just wants to watch Spongebob Squarepants at 3 a.m. after a long night at the bars – THIS IS FOR YOU!!!

2 Stars qam ok, analog really grainy
I bought this product with the intention of saving money. I thought-better to spend on this than a 2nd TV in the study. The computer is a fast Dell w/ 8 gigs of mem, VISTA and a Comcast TV/Web connection with Basic service. The moniter is a 24″ LCD. Comcast recently sent a letter telling subscribers that even if you have a new TV, you will have to get a digital converter for channels higher than 25. This is rediculous. A new TV and they want you to get a converter. If only Comcast knew: the garbage on TV is so bad that I am inches away from dropping TV altogether. It’s said that the newspapers are in trouble. I think TV will go first!

Anyway, WinTV is a mixed bag. When I had WinTV search for my area channels, it shows 2 QAM channels, all of the basic channels, and about 18 QAM channels where there is no picture (perhaps because of my service ???).

My channels are mostly analog (20 mi outside of Boston). The analog pictures are awful! They are very very grainy, and not worth recording.The color is pixelated. I recorded VHS in the past, but the picture quality on analog reception here is so poor as to be out of the question. HOWEVER, my QAM channels are as good as the analog channels are bad. But there are only 2 QAM channels and one broadcasts only part of the day. This burns me – good quality QAM channels are possible, but Comcast says the viewer in Jan 2010 will need a converter even if they have a new TV with a QAM tuner for channels above 25. Most of what I watch is PBS, but the PBS channels including the one channel that says it it broadcast in digital format are more grainy that the rest.

Also, switching channels is slow, QAM even slower. Even if the software were better, it would not make up for poor picture quality. The moniter is running at it’s highest resolution at 60mhz. Even if I change to a different resolution at 75mhz, the analog picture quality is still grainy. Perhaps you’re wondering if the poor analog resolution is related to the moniter itself. It is not. Standard DVD movies (not blue-ray) are very clear on the moniter I am using.

If all of your channels are QAM-digital, you may want to consider this product. My 2 QAM signals are very good! If you rely on analog like myself, you might want skip.

Another point: If you like to work on a project and listen to something in the background, you might want to take a pass. Trying to take in 2 things on your moniter is just plain distracting. Listening to a TV or radio somewhere else in the room is far preferable than trying to focus on two things at once.

Good Luck!

4 Stars Tuner Works Well but needs a newer computer
The TV tuner worked well and the software that came with it was moderatly easy to use. May take a bit of trial and error to understand for some as documentation is light. Problem I had is that the older computer with a single core processor and small video cache could not handle the video decoding. Had to upgrade and wemt with a Gateway that had a built in tuner so for mow this is in reserve.

4 Stars So Far So Good, Once Its Working
I bought this mostly to tape shows that are on at inconvenient times, not for anything too sophisticated. The hardest part was getting the software to work. I recommend not even using the CD and just going onto the manufacturer’s web site for the latest versions of the driver and software- it seems to be much easier than using the CD, which didn’t work for me (I have 64-bit Vista, and I guess that complicates things.)

The actual item is easy to use and gets good reception (I get OK reception over the air anyway, so maybe that’s why.) Taping is easy and seems to work even when my laptop is closed and sleeping/standing by. The stick gets a little warm but since I am not watching 4 hours of TV at a time I can’t tell if that becomes a problem.

Certainly works like I expected for now. Maybe I’ll change my mind if I start using it more intensively and run into problems…

4 Stars works for me….
I bought this product from Radio Shack for about the same price as offered here on Amazon (I know, suprising). I use it to watch college football (Alabama; Roll Tide) on my netbook while at work on Saturdays. Works perfectly pulling in high def over-the-air signals here in No. Alabama. I do use a powered anntenea instead of the one included, but that is only because I am about 25 miles from broadcast locations.

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