Hauppauge 1213 WinTV-HVR-2250 PCI-E x1 Dual TV Tuner

Wow, I really dont know if I should give this product a one star or five star. I'll settle for a three for the pain it caused me.

First, my system: Core 2 Duo 2.53GHz, 4GB DDR2RAM, 256MB ATI graphics card w/HDMI out, 640GB HDD, Vista Home Premium 32bit. I am located in the mountains of SoCal, where OTA doesnt quite work, and so ClearQAM from TimeWarner is my only option.

Let me start off by saying if you are looking for a dual-tuner for digital/analog viewing, this is one of your best choices. However, expect to spend a night or two of surfing forums, updating drivers, installing hotfixes, etc... The problem is that Vista Media Center (initially) doesnt recognize the ClearQAM tuner, only the analog tuners. How to fix this? Well, my 8 hours of pain can be your simple gain.
Disclaimer: you will be adding a value to Vista's registry if you follow this review, so anything you do is on you alone!

1) If you've been trying to get the tuner to...Read more

Ok, I ordered the Hauppauge 1213 WinTV 2250 on Amazon. The device arrived promptly and the price wasn't all that bad. However, this was to the full extent of my pleasant experience with the product.

The Receiver/Blaster would not work even after installing new drivers from the manufacturer's website. I called tech support (which, by the way, is available M-F 9 to 6PM ET only) simply to determine that the supplied cable was defective. The tech representative-a fella named Brice Junior-assured me that he would send out a new cable and I should be up and running in a 3 or 4 days.

Seven days came and passed. I received no cable. I called back tech support and stumbled on Brice Junior again. Except this time, he had no idea who I was and had no recollection of his promise to ship me a replacement cable.

So we went through the same diagnostics again-as if this time the repair fairy had come to my house and repaired the cable. Well, again the WinTV did...Read more

I had 2 requirments for a TV Tuner Card. It had to be half-height and it had to be a dual tuner (so I can record one show and watch another). This card meets the bill. So far it has worked great. Sometimes when I tune to a channel in Windows Media Center the screen is blue and I have to change channels and then go back for it to appear. I don't know if this is because of the tuner or because of something else. Other than that I really haven't had any problems. Possibly a driver update will fix that problem.