HOT! Hauppauge WinTV-HVR 1600 $59 + ship CC

[bigdessert]

This is a very nice price for those interested in thinking of going HD. This unit provides one HD ATSC tuner and one standard analog tuner. So its a very cheap dual tuner card.

Here is the link.

Linky

Please note:

Product codes 74021 and 74041 support QAM, while product codes 74031 and 74551 do not.. The product code can be found on the tuner label on WinTV-HVR-1600.

[gibsonpa]

Thanks for the heads up! I bought one of these last year for my VMC setup...for $79. Now that I have switched to Sage...I have really been wanting a second...$59 is great! I just checked it at CC online earlier today and it was $99...

[maxpower]

I just tried to purchase 2 of these for in store pickup and when I got to finalize my order it said there were none available (at any of my nearby Circuit City stores). I find that hard to believe. So, I'll try actually going to the stores tomorrow. Wish me luck.

[Spartan]

kickass -- I've been wanting another one!

[cncb]

Does this model actually support QAM? The sticker on the tuner in the picture doesn't say so unlike those pictured at Newegg, for example.

[Spartan]

Originally Posted by cncb

Does this model actually support QAM? The sticker on the tuner in the picture doesn't say so unlike those pictured at Newegg, for example.

I think you have to actually look at the sticker on the box when you buy it to be sure. I got my first one from CC about a year ago, and it does support QAM.

[Mitch G]

If mostly looking for analog tuners, is there a disadvantage to using two 1600s instead of one 500?
I'm not worried about using an extra PCi slot.
My main question is whether the on-board handling of SD cable is the same between the two boards.

Thanks,


Mitch

[Enormous]

Got one! Thanks for the tip.

[Spartan]

Originally Posted by Mitch G

If mostly looking for analog tuners, is there a disadvantage to using two 1600s instead of one 500?
I'm not worried about using an extra PCi slot.
My main question is whether the on-board handling of SD cable is the same between the two boards.

Thanks,


Mitch

I would guess that the tuners in the 500 (150) is the same as the analog in the 1600. I had a 500 but had to dump it when my motherboard (below) failed to detect it. What do you mean when you say: "on-board handling of SD cable" ?

[Mitch G]

I basically meant whether or not the 500 and 1600 have the same on-board hardware support for decoding.
Maybe I'm wrong, but I thought these cards had on-board hardware to support encoding analog TV as opposed to using the CPU to do the work.
You're saying the hardware is pretty much the same. That's good.

I actually picked up the cards earlier and installed one of them.
It *seems* to be OK.
I'm seeing a bunch of new interlacing artifacts now, though - even on digital stuff tuned by my HDHR - that I didn't see before installing the card.
Also, I've been seeing SageTV failures that I haven't seen before. So, some more homework is needed.

Mitch

[Spartan]

ah ok. Yes, they both have hardware encoding. Strange about the artifacts though -- i've never seen anything like that.

[Mitch G]

The artifacts were caused (I believe) due to the system using the Hauppage decoders instead of the Nvidia decoder. Once I set the Nvidia decoder to have the highest merit possible using DirectShow Manager, the HD stuff was back to normal. The analog cable stuff isn't looking great, but in all fairness I did throw in a split with possibly questionable cables. Once Jericho is done recording on SciFi I'll check a few more channels.

I'll tell ya, the whole video card and video codec stuff is probably the worst part of the HTPC scene. Sage should invest in writing some code that goes through whatever magic files are on a system and set things up to use the "best" decoders and settings. This would likely take care of 90% of the users out there.


Mitch

[toricred]

Instead of that, they came out with the HD Extender. No more codecs or video card drivers to worry about.

[Mitch G]

That's true. And, my final configuration will be using the media extenders only.
The computer will be tucked away in the basement. So, I guess you could say they solved the problem in hardware (instead of software).


Mitch

[cncb]

I went to the local CC today and these are indeed without QAM support as it says on the website.

[maxpower]

Originally Posted by cncb

I went to the local CC today and these are indeed without QAM support as it says on the website.

I don't see where it says that these are without QAM support. I got two from Circuit City last month and both support QAM. As far as I know the only way to know for sure is to check the product code. If it has a product code of either 74021 or 74041 then it DOES support QAM.

[Mitch G]

Mine scanned and found clear QAM channels as well.
I did download the latest drivers from the hauppage site though.
(I forgot to check if the drivers included with the package supported QAM, but definitely the latest ones from the website do.)


Mitch

[cncb]

Originally Posted by maxpower

I don't see where it says that these are without QAM support. I got two from Circuit City last month and both support QAM. As far as I know the only way to know for sure is to check the product code. If it has a product code of either 74021 or 74041 then it DOES support QAM.

The is what is says on the website:

Note: ATSC digital TV is NOT digital cable TV or digital satellite TV. The WinTV-HVR-1600 cannot receive digital cable TV or digital satellite TV.


The picture on the box doesn't list QAM on the tuner (only ATSC/NTSC) unlike the pictures at Newegg. This led me to believe that these don't support QAM but maybe that is not the case...

[Mitch G]

Oh, I completely understand your confusion. The contents of the box don't make you think you can do QAM either - it's all about OTA HD.

But, Hauppage tucked a bit about QAM at the bottom of their page here:
http://www.hauppage.com/site/products/data_hvr1600.html

This little bit mentions the "new" WinTV version 6 which led me to their support page here:
http://www.hauppage.com/site/support...t_hvr1600.html

Granted there is a caveat about some product codes supporting QAM and others not, so I guess its possible ymmv.


Mitch

[gibsonpa]

Maybe this is common knowledge, but this card (1600) seems to have some issues with Vista x64 and over 3Gb of memory.

Being a fairly new Sage user, I tried hooking up my directv receiver over the weekend via the s-video. The directv shows did come up in sage, but there was bad pixilation and drop-outs. Connecting the dtv receiver to a TV was fine.

After lots of google searches, turns out this has been a know limitation that since early '07. The Hauppauge website says to reduce your memory to 3Gb or less. Not a workaround I wanted to do.

However, there is a beta driver from them that addresses. After installing this driver, the issue is resolved. The driver version is: 1.62.25330.0

Just fyi from a newbie.