The Hauppauge 1199 WinTV-HVR-1600 includes dual TV tuners to let you watch both digital and analog television on your PC, in a window or full screen. With PVR software and built-in hardware for MPEG-2 encoding, you can also record television onto your computer for viewing later without slowing down your computer.
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 Dual tuners lets you watch both digital and analog signals. View larger. |
With dual format TV tuners, the WinTV-HVR-1600 lets you watch ATSC digital TV as well as QAM digital TV and analog cable TV. ATSC digital TV, which typically requires an antenna for reception, is the over-the-air HDTV standard for North America. ATSC broadcasts range in resolution from standard definition up to the high definition 1080i format. (To check the ATSC digital transmissions in your area, input your zip code at titantv.com.)
The WinTV-HVR-1600 also lets you watch and record QAM channels, which are unencrypted digital channels broadcast by your local cable operator. If you don't have access to digital television channels yet, you can also watch regular analog cable television. And with the included remote control, you can control your cable TV or satellite set top box.
In addition to high-definition video, the card also features a dbx-TV stereo decoder for great TV sound. The card has Composite/S-Video and audio inputs that allow for connecting VCRs or cable/satellite set top boxes.
Your Own Personal Digital Video Recorder!
With the included software, you can easily record TV shows to your hard disk using MPEG-2. Several recording options are available depending on your playback needs; higher quality video requires more disk space. Generally, 5 gigabytes of disk space is used per hour of ATCS digital TV recordings.. Thanks to the built-in hardware MPEG-2 encoder, your PC continues to run at full speed even while recording.
 The WinTV application offers an elegant interface to watch TV in a window or full screen. View larger. |
The Hauppauge 1199 WinTV-HVR-1600 plugs into a PCI slot and is compatible with Windows Vista, XP with Service Pack 2, and Windows XP Media Center Edition. With XP-MCE and Vista, you can add the WinTV-HVR-1600 as either the primary or secondary TV tuner. The Microsoft Media Center application supports up to two TV tuners so you can watch on channel while recording another.
What's in the Box
WinTV-HVR-1600 PCI card, IR remote control receiver, IR Blaster (remote control), CD-ROM with WinTV software.
Customer Review: Good but not great
Decent PCI TV tuner with good picture quality. Hauppauge software WinTV sucked, so ended up using it with Vista Media Center and it worked fine. Could not get QAM working but that's ok. Have been using it for the last year or so. But if someone would want to buy it now, I would not recommend it for this price. There are better cards available like the 2250 from Hauppauge.
Customer Review: Nice picture. Clumsy software.
This gives a fine picture on a fairly ordinary PC with 2GB RAM and 2.6Ghz Pentium 4 processor with Windows XP. But, the setup configuration is confusing and non-intuitive. For instance, the inputs on the config screen don't seem to match the physical input jacks and, in some cases, are listed twice. I had a black-and-white picture with no audio after following the instruction sheet and was about to ask for tech support when I accidentally tried another input that I was certain was incorrect and "magically" cured the audio and color problems. No opinion on the remote or the recording capability as I'm feeding the board with an external digital-to-analog TV converter box and using its controls instead of the Hauppauge remote, and am not recording (i.e., no PVR use). But, I get a nice picture that can be resized and no obvious effect on PC performance.
There was a time when TVs and speakers sat on a cabinet in the corner of a room, inconspicuous and small. But now they are the focus of the modern living room and take pride of place on the wall - so how do you get them up there and what are the advantages?
The first big plus of hanging your TV on the wall is the floor space that you'll free up. In a small room this can make all the difference, changing a cramped environment into an airy space. In a larger room, it will allow you to get a more interesting piece of furniture or extra seating in place of a dull TV cabinet.
With the new large plasma screens that are increasingly the norm, placing the TV up on the wall means you can sit back on a sofa or lie back in bed, look up and enjoy a cinema experience. And speakers up high will give better acoustics, so that you get more from your music system.
Of course you must make sure that the wall you are using is strong enough to carry the load. Plasma, wall mounted screens are heavy and need adequate support so you don't end up with a disaster on your hands. The same applies if you are wall mounting a box TV set. LCD screens, until now not as popular as plasma screens are improving in quality and have the distinct advantage of being lighter weight so they may well gain market share.
An electrician can help to hide the wiring which would otherwise be exposed, tavelling up the wall. This is certainly a job for a professional - he will need to run the wires through the wall cavity and bring them back out at the right level. Alternatively wiring can be camouflaged by being painted the same colour as the wall or wrapped in tape that, again, matches the wall. You will also need an electrician to run the cables for your video feeds, in addition to the power cables.
Wall mounted speakers have the advantage of being smaller than traditional speakers so they will make less of an impact on the look of your room. They can also be angled in any direction, allowing them to be installed on any part of the wall and still be effective. If you want something even less visible then in-ceiling and in-wall speakers use the ceiling and wall cavities as the speaker cabinets, with only the front exposed, which can be the same colour as the ceiling or wall so they are barely visible.
And if even that spoils the aesthetics of your room you can go for the ultimate sound experience. This involves the speakers being placed entirely in the wall cavity and using powerful electronic devices called transducers which can transmit high quality sound through solid walls. This is the technology that cinemas use and as long as you have a wall cavity there's no reason why you can't have it at home. You'll need the expertise of a good electrician who is familiar with the technology and you'll need to buy the hardware but prices are coming down and certainly this system is becoming a feasible alternative. And it will allow you complete freedom to decorate and arrange your room as you wish.
Home entertainment is getting more sophisticated and exciting but the bits you don't need to see are increasingly easy to hide - surely that's the best of both worlds. Just get the right hardware and a good electrician to help you and you can enjoy all the benefits of modern entertainment technology.
Expert electrician India Cooper reveals how wall mounted TVs and speakers installed by an experienced electrician can improve the quality of your home entertainment. To find out more please visit http://www.ratedpeople.com/find/electrician
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