Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-1850 MC-Kit Hybrid Video Recorder

One of the best Freevo cards out there

Strengths: Fast on-board hardware encoding/decoding. USB IR blaster and remote included. Native Vista MCE support.

Weakness: Instead of FM, it would have been nice to have two cable tuners and an ATSC tuner on one card.

The over-the-air reception on this card is great. I can pull in over 10 local HDTV channels with a basic set of bunny-ears. Couple this with an HD cable box and the IR blaster and you are set for life. I really wish they had made it a dual tuner card with ATSC instead of including the worthless FM tuner... oh well.

By WhetWurm - Apr 8, 2008

Good tuner with many features

Strengths: Dual tuner with radio reception; video processing does not slow down computer

Weakness: None so far

The card fit easily into the little used PCI Express slot on my computer. Windows update found the most recent driver after the supplied driver was installed. After reading about the many problems with the included WinTV software I opted to use Sage TV as an alternate. This software provides many options and is very reliable. Over- the-air reception (with an antenna) is good and cable reception...
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The card fit easily into the little used PCI Express slot on my computer. Windows update found the most recent driver after the supplied driver was installed. After reading about the many problems with the included WinTV software I opted to use Sage TV as an alternate. This software provides many options and is very reliable. Over- the-air reception (with an antenna) is good and cable reception is excellent on my HD monitor. I have not yet tried the recording function. Radio reception is also good. Keep in mind that this tuner only receives over-the-air signals, such as ATSC (digital), and clear QAM (non-encrypted) HD signals via cable box. It will not work with encrypted digital signals with cable cards. The included IR blaster connects to cable boxes to enable direct channel switching with the included remote. The card can also be connected to other devices, such as a VCR, to make digital transfers.

By techno2 - Apr 7, 2008

Great Hardware, Awful Software

Strengths: PCIe x1 Slot Compatible, Useful Accessories Included, ATSC/QAM support, Vista Ready

Weakness: Bundled Software Package (must use for QAM), Multiple Tuner Issues

The hardware in the box is great. The card is awesome and well built. The remote is somewhat cheap feeling but acceptable. The IR box and blaster look and work fine. This card works quite well with Vista Media Center. I have a dual-tuner configuration though, and there are problems with IR and certain programs. The card does what it is supposed to do and worked without problems. The included...
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The hardware in the box is great. The card is awesome and well built. The remote is somewhat cheap feeling but acceptable. The IR box and blaster look and work fine. This card works quite well with Vista Media Center. I have a dual-tuner configuration though, and there are problems with IR and certain programs. The card does what it is supposed to do and worked without problems. The included software, however, is horrible and should not be used. The interfaces are ancient and probably haven't been updated in ten years. WinTV crashes on and off and the bundled IR program does not work with more than one tuner. Hauppauge should really look into trashing WinTV and its "friends" and making a new app. If you are planning to use SageTV, Beyond TV, or Windows Media Center, this card is for you. If you plan to use the software included with the tuner you buy, look elsewhere.

By Techiec - Feb 17, 2008

So far, so good!

Strengths: HD quality, compatibility with Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit, easy to install, remote functions very well

Weakness: SD quality is hard to look at (not necessarily the cards fault though), remote has more buttons than necessary (maybe good from a different point of view)

I highly recommend this HD tuner card. You can record HD television while watching an analog signal and vice versa. I haven't tried this card out in any Linux distros yet, but I will be sure to try it out soon. The only real complaint I have is with the remote, because the buttons are small and too close to each other. It's probably more of just not being used to the remote than anything, but I...
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I highly recommend this HD tuner card. You can record HD television while watching an analog signal and vice versa. I haven't tried this card out in any Linux distros yet, but I will be sure to try it out soon. The only real complaint I have is with the remote, because the buttons are small and too close to each other. It's probably more of just not being used to the remote than anything, but I had to come up with a weakness to pick out. Overall, I was very satisfied with this product.

By gnub - Oct 8, 2007

Don't waste your money

Strengths: None

Weakness: Everything

I bought this card about three months ago, and it is already dead. While it worked, the picture was okay if it was viewed in a small window. I had to load the drivers each time I rebooted my PC. Windows Vista's Media Center never recognized the board, so I had to use the Hauppauge's applications which was one of the worst applications I have ever used. For example, I setup a timed recording for a...
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I bought this card about three months ago, and it is already dead. While it worked, the picture was okay if it was viewed in a small window. I had to load the drivers each time I rebooted my PC. Windows Vista's Media Center never recognized the board, so I had to use the Hauppauge's applications which was one of the worst applications I have ever used. For example, I setup a timed recording for a test, and then I edited the timer recording and changed the start time three times. What happened was that each time I edited the timer recording, it must have created a new one, so I would get three automatic recordings started one after another, and each one hanging because of the previous one. Deleting the whole timer recording, or even removing the timer application did not stop the timer from recording. Also, about 50% of the times, starting/stopping recording manually hung the application. The radio didn't pick any stations in the basement where I have my PC. Anyway, don't waste your money. It would be okay it was $10 or so, but not at over $100 which was what I paid.

By SMB; - Jan 7, 2008