Amazon.com Product Review
The Hauppauge 1196 WinTV-HVR-1250 lets you watch, pause and record both digital and analog television on your PC, in a window or full screen. With PVR software you can also record television onto your computer for viewing later without slowing down your computer. Thanks to MPEG-2 encoding, video quality is superb.
 | The Hauppauge 1196 WinTV-HVR-1250 offers: - Watch, pause, and record digital and analog TV on your PC.
- Compatible with ATSC and QAM digital TV, and NTSC analog cable TV signals.
- Convenient remote control.
- MPEG-2 software encoder for analog TV.
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WinTV software makes it easy to record your favorite shows. View larger. | |
Watch and record high-definition digital television on your computer. View larger. View ports. |
Watch High-definition Digital TV on Your Computer The WinTV-HVR-1250 lets you watch ATSC digital TV as well as QAM digital TV and analog cable TV directly on your computer. ATSC digital TV, which typically requires an antenna for reception, is the over-the-air HDTV standard for North America. ATSC broadcasts range in resolution from standard definition up to the high definition 1080i format. (To check the ATSC digital transmissions in your area, input your zip code at titantv.com.)
The WinTV-HVR-1250 also lets you watch and record QAM channels, which are unencrypted digital channels broadcast by your local cable operator. If you don't have access to digital television channels yet, you can also watch regular analog cable television. And with the included remote control, you can control your cable TV or satellite set top box.
In addition to high-definition video, the card also features a dbx-TV stereo decoder for great TV sound. The card has S-Video and stereo audio inputs that allow for connecting VCRs or cable/satellite set top boxes.
Your Own Personal Digital Video Recorder! With the included software, you can easily record TV shows to your hard disk using MPEG-2. Several recording options are available depending on your playback needs; higher quality video requires more disk space. Generally, 5 gigabytes of disk space is used per hour of ATSC digital TV recordings, and 1.5 gigabytes of disk space is used per hour of Analog recording using Hauppauge's SoftPVR for Windows XP and Media Center.
With the WinTV-Scheduler software, you can easily schedule the recordings of your favorite television shows daily, weekly, or just once. You can then play back the recordings at your leisure, burn them onto CD or DVD for playback on another computer or your television, or with video editing software (not included), you can even edit the shows. This is great for saving favorite movie clips, clips of your home team's dramatic last-second win, or your favorite player's grand slam.
The Hauppauge 1196 WinTV-HVR-1250 plugs into a PCI express X1 or X16 slot, and is compatible with Windows Vista, XP with Service Pack 2, and Windows XP Media Center Edition. With XP-MCE and Vista, you can add the WinTV-HVR-1250 as either the primary or secondary TV tuner. The Microsoft Media Center application supports up to two TV tuners so if you have a second tuner in addition to the WinTV-HVR-1250, you can watch one channel while recording another.
What's in the Box WinTV-HVR-1250 PCI Express bus TV tuner, remote control with batteries, remote control receiver cable, WinTV software CD-ROM, quick installation guide, and half-height bracket for use in low-profile chassis.
Customer Reviews
Average Customer Review
(155 customer reviews) 80 of 84 people found the following review helpful
A Great Value, but still a basic Tuner Card,
October 19, 2009 Richard A. Anderson "Rick Anderson" (Maryland) - See all my reviews
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Hauppauge 1196 WinTV-HVR-1250 PCI-E x1 TV Tuner 1196 (Personal Computers)
Pros:
One of the lowest cost Hybrid Tuner Cards out there that can do both Analog and Digital Tuning. It works well, can view a clear picture on the computer, smooth, NOT choppy nor freezes. Includes WinTV7 which is needed to watch digital channels (ATSC or clear QAM), Windows Media Center only supports Analog (NTCS) Channels. The card is small (1/2 Height with 1/2 Height headers that can be swapped on) and its PCIe so it will fit a PCIeX1 or PCIeX16 slot.
64Bit supported just as well as 32Bit, running this on Vista Home Premium 64Bit.
Cons:
Does NOT have a MPEG Encoder chip, so no hardware conversion of the Analog signal, your CPU will have to work harder to do a software MPEG conversion. With weaker CPU's that might be a problem, my Athlon X2 6000+ runs at 40%-50% utilization while watching analog channels. I'm pretty sure Digital Channels do NOT need a MPEG Encoder chip, the digital signal is already streamed as MPEG, and watching digital channels my...Read more
39 of 39 people found the following review helpful
Absolutely Fantastic for a MythTV Box!!!,
November 24, 2008 E. Holt (Indianapolis, Indiana) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Hauppauge 1196 WinTV-HVR-1250 PCI-E x1 TV Tuner 1196 (Personal Computers)
I purchased this card to be put into a MythTV (Linux) home-built DVR. I previously was only recording standard definition non-digital cable channels. I recently purchased a HDTV for my bedroom/office and wanted to be able to take advantage of that. This card works perfectly with MythTV and Linux. The tuner found all of the digital channels in the air that my TV was able to find with the antenna connected directly to it. This card seems to lock onto signals very well, as I havnt seen a single issue in any of the recordings made from it yet. You can't beat free over-the-air high definition of the local networks!!! I'm thrilled. Buy it!
22 of 23 people found the following review helpful
Instant TiVo,
April 13, 2010 deipnosophist (Alexandria, VA) - See all my reviews
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Hauppauge 1196 WinTV-HVR-1250 PCI-E x1 TV Tuner 1196 (Personal Computers)
If you have Windows 7, there's really no point in delaying the purchase of this TV tuner. Windows automatically identifies the tuner, installs the drivers, and then it's only a matter of opening up Windows Media Center (WMC) and letting it guide you through the steps. I was concerned that just having a direct cable connection (no cable box...obviously) would limit the channels. But I get pretty much all the cables I do normally plus the HD channels. Having an HD monitor and a large hard drive (HD recording takes up about 5 GB/hour) makes this capable of taping full seasons and plenty of movies without batting an eye. Movies on all cable and basic channels are categorized for you. You can browse titles in an iTunes-like view and BluRay movies are even marked as such just the way they would in the store. I use iTunes for a lot of things, but not anymore. Why pay the money for shows and movies you can record yourself? Why wait patiently for buffering and annoying commercials on Hulu when...Read more
