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

[Ryokurin]

Originally Posted by cncb

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

You can't actually tell until you take it out of the box. You have to look at the tuner, not what device manager says, or the picture thats on the box. The one I picked up a few days ago didn't report QAM in its name in device manager, like one I got a year ago did but both suppor it just the same. In the one I got the other day, the picture was a 74021, but in reality it was 74041.

It was my understanding, at least what I remember reading a year ago is that unless you happen to get a box that is one of the first runs (over a year old) or a card that was meant for OEM use, then you'll likely have a card that supports QAM.

[cncb]

Originally Posted by Ryokurin

You can't actually tell until you take it out of the box. You have to look at the tuner, not what device manager says, or the picture thats on the box. The one I picked up a few days ago didn't report QAM in its name in device manager, like one I got a year ago did but both suppor it just the same. In the one I got the other day, the picture was a 74021, but in reality it was 74041.

Interesing. I might risk it since they are so cheap. I guess worst case I could take it back...

[Enormous]

Originally Posted by Ryokurin

In the one I got the other day, the picture was a 74021, but in reality it was 74041.

I got the exact same thing here.

[mightyt]

So, I am new to HD. If I have Time Warner Cable with a HD Cable Box, what will I get with one of these cards?

[maxpower]

Originally Posted by mightyt

So, I am new to HD. If I have Time Warner Cable with a HD Cable Box, what will I get with one of these cards?

This card will not help you get HD from your Cable Box, but it will let you get any in-the-clear QAM HD channels that likely include your locals and maybe a couple others. Or you can use it to get over-the-air HD if you have an antenna.

[Mitch G]

And, you can receive analog, basic cable.

[gmijackso]

Ok, just to support the effort a little. I just bought a 1600 from the website a couple days ago and had it shipped. The card I received was model 74041 LF which IS the model that supports QAM.

As for the 1600 vs 500 debate earlier (which I think was eventually solved) I'll add that the 1600 and the 500 are WAY different. Despite the obvious digital/analog differences, while they both DO have hardware encoding on board, the 1600 uses a Conexant tuner/chipset while the 500 (which is almost literally two 150s on a single board) uses a phillips tuner/chipset. The phillips has been the standard for TV for ages and generally has the best quality. The conexant chipset was the problem with getting the 1600s to run on linux for a LONG time (drivers were recently released).

As for noticeable quality differences, I don't notice. I have a 500 and a 1600 (non-Qam) installed in my server, and can't tell a difference really in the analog. Since I've never had a different Digital tuner to compare to, I can't rate the digital tuner.

Anyway, dunno if that helps anybody, but that's my view on the cards. I like them, and I bought another. So now I'll have the 500, and 2x1600s giving me 4 analog cable, one QAM and one ATSC. That should last me awhile!
Thanks for the notice on the $60 card!

[Mitch G]

Thanks for the comparison between the 500 and 1600.
It's good to know that despite the differences in chips, you didn't see any noticeable difference between the analog captures.
That puts my mind to rest.

Thanks,


Mitch

[Spartan]

Originally Posted by gmijackso

Ok, just to support the effort a little. I just bought a 1600 from the website a couple days ago and had it shipped. The card I received was model 74041 LF which IS the model that supports QAM.

As for the 1600 vs 500 debate earlier (which I think was eventually solved) I'll add that the 1600 and the 500 are WAY different. Despite the obvious digital/analog differences, while they both DO have hardware encoding on board, the 1600 uses a Conexant tuner/chipset while the 500 (which is almost literally two 150s on a single board) uses a phillips tuner/chipset. The phillips has been the standard for TV for ages and generally has the best quality. The conexant chipset was the problem with getting the 1600s to run on linux for a LONG time (drivers were recently released).

As for noticeable quality differences, I don't notice. I have a 500 and a 1600 (non-Qam) installed in my server, and can't tell a difference really in the analog. Since I've never had a different Digital tuner to compare to, I can't rate the digital tuner.

Anyway, dunno if that helps anybody, but that's my view on the cards. I like them, and I bought another. So now I'll have the 500, and 2x1600s giving me 4 analog cable, one QAM and one ATSC. That should last me awhile!
Thanks for the notice on the $60 card!

Note that there are two types of PVR-500 cards. See here: http://forums.snapstream.com/vb/showthread.php?t=33675

I do not have experience with the two types, but am only aware of their existence.

I did pick up another HVR-1600 from CC the other day, and it was the *41 model. THanks, OP!

[cncb]

I picked one up the other day and it was indeed a model that supports QAM even though it did not list QAM on the tuner. Unfortunately, I could not get it to work with my system. It locked up my PC several times and otherwise it would not pick up a few ATSC stations that my A180 cards have no problems with. Must be some kind of unknown conflict in my system. Oh well, I guess it is going back...

[[JiF]Mike]

Wish I had seen this thread a few days ago... luckily it seems my CC still has them so I'll be heading there after work!

[mdnttoker]

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?f=45

[[JiF]Mike]

Just thought I would share the fun I had last night....

I got one of these last night, was pretty excited about it until I got to the boot screen of XP and saw it go black. I spent the next few hours troubleshooting only to find the power supply in my case decided to stop providing +5VDC.... So I moved all the components to an old case (non htpc case..let's just say waf rating went way down!) booted and pretty much the same thing happened. It would POST but go no further. I tried clearing CMOS, pulled all the cards except video card, reseated things..nothing. I couldn't even get my keyboard to work. My guess is when the power supply went...the motherboard did too.

Now I have my gaming rig temporarily setup with SageTV, connected to our TV simply so I could scan and find out what channels we get. I started the scan and went to bed...it found 7 channels. lol...all this trouble for 7 channels! I was planning on upgrading soon anyway...but I didn't want to be forced into it.

[t4uecker]

okay, this may be a silly question, but does this basically do the same thing that the hdhomerun unit does (in terms of receiving clear-QAM channels in HD) or is there some reason the hdhomerun might be a better option?

thanks,
tu

[Spartan]

Originally Posted by [JiF]Mike

Just thought I would share the fun I had last night....

I got one of these last night, was pretty excited about it until I got to the boot screen of XP and saw it go black. I spent the next few hours troubleshooting only to find the power supply in my case decided to stop providing +5VDC.... So I moved all the components to an old case (non htpc case..let's just say waf rating went way down!) booted and pretty much the same thing happened. It would POST but go no further. I tried clearing CMOS, pulled all the cards except video card, reseated things..nothing. I couldn't even get my keyboard to work. My guess is when the power supply went...the motherboard did too.

Now I have my gaming rig temporarily setup with SageTV, connected to our TV simply so I could scan and find out what channels we get. I started the scan and went to bed...it found 7 channels. lol...all this trouble for 7 channels! I was planning on upgrading soon anyway...but I didn't want to be forced into it.

Were the 7 channels QAM?

[[JiF]Mike]

I believe so..the channel numbers it came up with were pretty strange. I have a new PC (borrowed one from work for the weekend, while I await parts to arrive) and just got it set up. I have it scanning now, and I hope it finds more. If it doesn't find more then I'll probably return it.

[gmijackso]

Originally Posted by t4uecker

okay, this may be a silly question, but does this basically do the same thing that the hdhomerun unit does (in terms of receiving clear-QAM channels in HD) or is there some reason the hdhomerun might be a better option?

thanks,
tu

This basically does the "same" thing as the hdhomerun in a VERY loose definition of the word "same". In theory, it would do the exact same thing since they both should see all the qam channels available to you, but the 1600 is reportedly much harder of hearing than the homerun, in that it has a harder time receiving all the available channels. I have no first hand experience with the homerun, but that seems to be the consensus in the forums.

On that note, the 1600 is cheaper. And there was a posting today about there being new drivers that is reported to have helped both the qam and the analog a bit (i haven't yet tried the new drivers). So I guess your frugality or lack thereof is likely your guide.

[[JiF]Mike]

I returned my 1600 today. I might try the HDHomerun someday...but I didn't like the 1600.

[jasmithvr6]

I see this post is a little dated, but I just picked up two HVR-1600 cards from CC today for $29 a piece. They are version 74021, which hopefully means they'll support clear QAM. The caveat is that they only say "ATSC/NTSC 74021 LF" on the card label...no mention of QAM. I'm hoping that even so, the new drivers will do the trick. Has anyone else come across this and will it support QAM?

I am upgrading from Sage 5.1 to 6.3.10 and plan to run the new version on the HTPC for a few days to work out any bugs before introducing the new hardware. Thanks for the insight.

[EmuZombie]

Originally Posted by jasmithvr6

I see this post is a little dated, but I just picked up two HVR-1600 cards from CC today for $29 a piece. They are version 74021, which hopefully means they'll support clear QAM. The caveat is that they only say "ATSC/NTSC 74021 LF" on the card label...no mention of QAM. I'm hoping that even so, the new drivers will do the trick. Has anyone else come across this and will it support QAM?

I am upgrading from Sage 5.1 to 6.3.10 and plan to run the new version on the HTPC for a few days to work out any bugs before introducing the new hardware. Thanks for the insight.

I have some bad news for you. Just looked on CC's website, the card they have for $29 is not the one that supports clear QAM. In fact, the reason they are clearenced is because they've been replaced by the version that does support clear qam.

The hybrid 1600 card is the one that this post was originally about and is the one that supports qam. It is currently priced at $99.99.

And on a side note, I would have picked one of these up since I am using an antenna for hdtv but its not avaliable for shipping and not at any stores within 100 miles.