Customer Reviews

Hauppauge WIN-TV HVR-900TV USB 2.0 Analogue & Digital TV Tuner

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

Excellent portable link for laptop or TV, easy to assemble and install, working within 5 mins of starting set up.

Scans for channels and radio stations availible.

Excellent for traveling and great value for money.

Works very well with my Sony Centrino M notebook. Digital picture is crisp and very clear. Portable arial is high end with very good reception in my area.

Easy to install, well built and good value for money....

I bought this stick and was very sceptical about getting any digital reception, as I've no external ariel access in my bedroom. I I've tried other digital sticks before, but the lack of signal has let me down more than anything. Recently, I got a new PC with Vista (32 bit) and my old Pinnacle PCTV no longer worked, as I couldn't find a Vista driver. So I bought this, then realised it doesn't say it's Vista compatible - well, let me assure you it is. I never installed the software, however downloaded the latest driver - it also asks for the disc. I use it with Windows Media Centre and it picks up loads of channels. Windows Media Centre has lots of timer options, which I use regularly. The ariel I use was a tenner from Tesco and has a mains booster built in, which you can adjust the booster gain strength - I always have the booster strength turned right up.

Despite some of the reviews on this site I decided to buy it anyway. I'm glad I did. It all works fine. I get 66 Digital channels through freeview 6 analogue channels from the roof aerial and I still get 6 analog channels from the aerial that came with it (We can't get freeview with internal aerials in Luton). The Composite input runs the Cable box and PS2 fine (the image from the ps2 is a bit liney but still playable). The recording and pausing of the tv is just as good if not better that virgin media. Well worth the money.

I have had no problems using this tuner. The manual which should have been available for download wasn't on the pixmania site but a quick call to Hauppauge sorted that. Download the drivers from the Hauppauge website. Works well with MCE. The silly aerial is a waste of space but the tuner works well with anything bigger.

This is a very nice bit of kit. It installed easily and worked withing Windows XP Media Center edition 2005 flawlessly first time. Problem is that *only* the digital bit works within media center, not the analog. The suppllied WinTV2000 software has to be used to get analog signal, which is a bit dissapointing. I guess this may get fixed with future driver updates, but as of now (end Jan 2006) it doesn't. May be better to list it as "Digital bit is MCE compatible".

I am running Windows XP and have a decent graphics card but even after following all the advice from the manufacurers to check different settings, download the latest drivers, etc, it still would not record properly. On playback it freezes after about 30 seconds and stops working. Also the sound is out of sync with the picture. This product has a lot of glitches and whilst it may work for some people, you are taking a gamble that you will waste a lot of time fruitlessly, as I did. I have sent it back and suggest that no one should buy this apparently unrealiable product.

Serving on board a vessel in Tilbury near London our terrestial tv is really bad.
A collegue of mine bought a digital tv receiver for his laptop for 38 pounds and has brilliant reception now.
I opted for the more expensive hauppage ,thinking more value for a highrer price.
Well am I sorry ,my collegue enjoying watching perfect pictures while I feel the need to write my first review ever.
Scanned several times and get numerous options but despite having an atenna twice the sice of my collegue no reception or frozen pictures, it works ok in Belfast were I live,but I want it for when I'm away, the software is for TV specialists.
Errors pop up now and then and sometimes everything just frezes up.
In short it is far inferior to another product which also includes remote control and a perfect size antenna.
Don't buy

I simply do rate this item despite some of the hype on the other reviews. I spent a whole week installing and uninstalling the drivers and software. The farthest I managed to get was a TV2000 locked up screen which after a reboot put me back to square one. I have put it away in a drawer for a while as it just drove me nuts.

Further to my negative review on the equipment I also found that it looks as if no one deals with the avalanche of error reports I have sent to Hauppauge and Microsoft. WHY?

BS

I was looking for a TV tuner than would allow me to receive and record TV on an HP DM1 laptop on the move. The laptop is one step up from a netbook with only modest processing powerin the form of a 1.8GHz SU2300 processor - so consulted Hauppauge for advice - they recommended the HVR-900TV.

Easy to set up. Have tried it with WinTV v7 and Windows 7 Media Centre. For the occasional and undemanding use I make of it the Windows Media Player option is the preferred option - easy and straight forward to use.

Using the same external aerial as the TV it comes up with pretty much the same list of channels - but then we live in a strong signal area. Using the serial the comes with it yeilds half a dozen less chaneels. Bearing in mind this is a simply aeria lfor mobile use that seems a reasonable result.

Have used it on the move in the UK and France and does just what I want

There are a couple of minor irritations that stop it getting 5 stars. Firstly, having to install WInTV v6 from the supplied disc and then update this to v7 just makes the install process a bit longer - but no big issue. Having to reinsatll is you decise to plug the USB into a different socket is another minor inconvenience. The USB extension lead is useful - shame it is not double the length.

Would I recommend it? Yes - certainly. Just bear in mind this model is single tuner - so if you have a more powerful processor, and want to record two channels at a time, or have a satelite connection to record from you might want to look at the more upmarket models.