How is the 'Hauppauge WinTV Go' tv tuner?

[deadken]

I got my son a new 19" LCD monitor and a new Haupauge WinTV GO TV tuner as part of his X-mas presents. Both were on sale and I couldn't resist the prices. I put a ATI WinTV Pro in my Daughters machine almost 2 years ago and other then the software and a slight sound delay it is pretty good.

Honestly, I hate the way the audio is out of sync on her PC, and the fact that she can't easily record shows is a pain. ATI seems to be way out of whack with their software and support. I called up after doing a full system re-install on my daughters machine only to find out that the latest software that I had downloaded was buggy as heck and I had to revert to the previous version to get things back to normal.

Does anyone have experience with Haupauge products? This one was $45 - $30 MIR, so I don't expect too much from it. I was tempted to get a Theatre 550 based tuner, but I didn't want to go with ATI again at the moment.

-Thanks for any help/info.

 

[bendixG15]

PVR-150 is the standard one for under a $100

 

[deadken]

Originally posted by: bendixG15
PVR-150 is the standard one for under a $100

Ok... But, I have the "WinTV Go".... Anyone have any experience with it? Is it worthless? I just don't want to wait until Xmas morning to install it and find out it wasn't worth the $15 that I paid for it (assuming I get the $30 rebate, of course).

If the 'WinTV Go' isn't any good, I will look into getting another card before Xmas morning.

 

[tuongo]

I used that card - now I use the PVR-150. WinTV Go is good to just watch tv. I tried recording something once and it was a bit tedious (maybe I didn't know the right application to use). Anyways, it's all software decoding too, I think, so it's not as good as it can be. I think I got it for that price you mentioned about 4 years ago. I got my PVR-150 card a year or two ago. Probably $50 or less after rebate.

 

[openwheelformula1]

It's as good as a return. I wouldn't even bother opening it.

 

[shadowfang]

But PVR-350 does use hardware encoding/decoding I think. I like that card.

 

[deadken]

Thanks for the information:


I am glad to hear it functions as a TV tuner ok. I don't know how much recording my son would do (I had considered swapping this with my daughters card if it would actually record well). Hopefully my son won't be into recording much. I never considered hardware vs. software encoding. It makes sense for the price.

I have already sent in the UPC code for the rebate, so it's to late to consider returning it. I guess my choices are to: open it and try it, sell it as 'NIB', or just toss it out and consider it another lesson on avoiding impulse buys. I think I will just try it and see how it does.

Interesting. I remember hearing good things about the 350. Unfortunately, it would probably be way overkill for my son.


Thanks again to all of you guys. I see I most likely 'got what I paid for', and I don't mean that to sound like a bad thing. If the TV functions work ok, then that will be fine with me.

 

[ivwshane]

The biggest issue I have with most hardware encoding tv cards is the lack of support for use with programs like dscaler. After using dscaler for several years it seems like no one can make a decent tv watching program.

PVR programs are nice but just to watch tv nothing beats dscaler and that's probably the only benefit I can see to getting a software based card.

 

[deadken]

Originally posted by: ivwshane......

PVR programs are nice but just to watch tv nothing beats dscaler and that's probably the only benefit I can see to getting a software based card.

What is 'dscaler'? A free software TV tuner program? Is it a good program that I can use with this card instead of the included software?