WinTV-HVR-1800

[jrf2027]

To make a long story short, I'm in the market for a new TV tuner card for my PC. (AverMedia M791 tuner card driver conflicts with Nero Vision; neither Nero nor Gateway, the maker of the PC, seem interested in helping me solve the conflict; Nero works fine with AverMedia drivers removed.) Plus, with the upcoming TV Pack for Vista Media Center, I'd like a tuner with QAM support.

The Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-1800 appears to have all the features I would want in a TV card:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16815116016

But before I spend $100 on a card, I want to check to see if anybody using this card has had problems with it; specifically, any conflicts with Nero? Additionally, are there any other problems with it? Many of the problems I've seen on reviews of the card appear to be in machines based on AMD processors; I haven't seen any problems specifically in Intel systems.

Brief summary of my system: Intel Core 2 Quad 6600; 3GB RAM; Vista Home Premium 64-bit.

Thanks for any information anybody can provide!

(Or...anybody know a workaround for the AverMedia driver issue that doesn't involve me uninstalling the drivers each time I want to use Nero, then reinstalling the driver each time I want to watch TV? )

[ripken204]

i went for the ati 650 pro pci-e and it has been great so far, you should look at it. im not sure if it has all of the features that you want though.

[jrf2027]

Thanks for the recommendation. I have also looked at the ATI Wonder 650...I assume it works well with 64-bit Vista, based on your signature? Do you know if the ClearQAM works on it?

Also...have you used Nero Vision (either the version that comes with Nero 7 or Nero 8) on your system with this tuner installed? Any conflicts?

Edited August 13, 2008 by jrf2027

[ripken204]

by ClearQAM do you mean the digital? i only have analog cable so i have not been able to test it out yet. but that's another reason i got this card, so that i will be ready for when everything changes over.

i don't have nero vision but what exactly does that have to do with a tv tuner?

Edited August 13, 2008 by ripken204

[jrf2027]

i don't have nero vision but what exactly does that have to do with a tv tuner?

You would think nothing...but the driver for my current card, the AverMedia M791 (an OEM card installed in Gateway computers) conflicts with Nero Vision.

With the driver installed, Nero Vision crashes, actually it shuts down with no warning for no apparent reason. Once I uninstall the AverMedia driver Nero Vision works perfectly. If I reinstall the driver, Nero still works fine until I reboot the computer, then the problems start all over again. I can't get any hardware or software vendor involved in this conflict to offer any assistance - Gateway said that since Nero didn't ship with its computer, that I should uninstall it, swallow the blue pill, stop worrying and learn to love the bomb, etc. (FWIW, the Gateway chat tech closed the chat on me after telling me that I should never have even thought of installing Nero on the computer.) AverMedia doesn't have any plans to update the driver for this particular card even though the driver file is now over a year old. And Nero hasn't even acknowledged my technical support submission yet.

Doing some research, I've discovered that the WinTV-HVR-1800 shares many of the same chips as the AverMedia M791; however, the ATI 650 shares no common chips with either of these cards. The last thing I want to do is buy a new card with the same issues as the old card. Therefore, I'm now leaning towards the ATI card. The specs are what I want (PCIe, ATSC/ClearQAM/NTSC, hardware encoding), so I thank you for your suggestion.

ClearQAM is used by cable companies to deliver unencrypted HD content over cable lines - generally, your local HD stations, thus eliminating the need for an OTA antenna or set-top box to get your local stations in HD. The Vista Media Center TV Pack will allow you to use ClearQAM in Vista Media Center...or so a little birdie told me...

[ripken204]

well it's a great card so you should go for it.

the drivers are pretty good for it as well.

just make sure to get the PCIe version and not the PCI.