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Customer Reviews for Hauppauge - WinTV-for Laptop and Notebooks
Hauppauge - WinTV-for Laptop and Notebooks
Model: HVR-950Q
SKU: 9234205
UPC: 785428011912
Supports analog NTSC TV, digital over-the-air ATSC TV for North America plus clear QAM digital cable TV. Supports all 18 ATSC high definition digital TV formats for North America, including the highest definition 1080i. Includes Hauppauge's WinTV v6 application for TV watching and recording on PC's. Vista Premium certified for Microsoft's Vista Media Center application.
Average Customer Rating:
3.6
out of 5
(114 Reviews) 114
Rating Snapshot 114 reviews
5 stars
43
4 stars
34
3 stars
11
2 stars
6
1 star
20
70% of reviewers would recommend this product to a friend
(
80 out of
114)
Customer Reviews for Hauppauge - WinTV-for Laptop and Notebooks
Review 1 for Hauppauge - WinTV-for Laptop and Notebooks
Easy to use external tv tuner.
Customer Rating
4.0
Value for Price
3.0
Compatibility
5.0
Features
3.0
Ease of Installation
5.0
What's great about it: Easy to install, doesn't take up an internal card slot.
What's not so great: Could be less expensive for what it its, the remote is horrible.
Decent for what it its, don't expect it to move mountains, but it will play tv (and most importantly for me span it over 3 monitors).
I would recommend this to a friend!
Reward Zone number: 2814176964
Reward Zone number: 2814176964
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Review 2 for Hauppauge - WinTV-for Laptop and Notebooks
first time - install - some instructions not good
Customer Rating
4.0
Value for Price
3.0
Compatibility
4.0
Features
4.0
Ease of Installation
3.0
What's great about it: instructions not great... once figured out - worked great
What's not so great: windows 7 drivers - says ok - but not working =- on second PC
over all worked great - had to figure out digital cable issues with channel numbers - but not the fault of Haup - overall - I like it and think it will come in handy
I would recommend this to a friend!
Reward Zone number: 2180393248
Reward Zone number: 2180393248
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Review 3 for Hauppauge - WinTV-for Laptop and Notebooks
Works great with Windows Media Center. Free HD.
Customer Rating
3.0
What's great about it: Interface using Windows Media Center is user friendly. Remote!
What's not so great: Antenna is pretty weak. Can only record and watch one thing at a time, unlike a typical DVR.
Thinking about getting rid of Cable so I was looking at a capture device for live TV or TiVo. TiVo requires you to rent a card from Time Warner, but the whole point is to stop paying Time Warner money. The Windows Media Center interface is very user friendly when you looking up channels and trying to record. The remote works great when you are playing back your recordings, you can FFWD, Pause, etc with ease. The capture quality is OK. Sometimes the skin tones look funny, too pink or too green or something. And unlike my DVR, you cannot record 2 things at once, or record one thing and watch another. You have to commit to one show at a time. But watching HD TV shows on your computer or laptop is pretty cool. The device does get super hot so be careful of that. The included software is kind of generic, so use Media Center.
I would recommend this to a friend!
Reward Zone number: 903275512
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Review 4 for Hauppauge - WinTV-for Laptop and Notebooks
Crashed computer twice
Customer Rating
1.0
Posted by: fanmech
from Morgantown WV
on 04/30/2013
Value for Price
2.0
Compatibility
3.0
Features
4.0
Ease of Installation
3.0
What's great about it: easily returnable
What's not so great: crashed computer
Installed easily but remote did not work from start. Unit worked great for 4 days and then picture froze and usb port malfunctioned. Returned to store and exchanged for another one. New one would not install because USB port still not working. Formatted computer, and reinstalled windows, USB port now working, inserted device into USB and it killed the port again, had to reinstall windows again. Returned product to Best Buy for a refund.
No, I would not recommend this to a friend.
0points
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Review 5 for Hauppauge - WinTV-for Laptop and Notebooks
great for on the go
Customer Rating
5.0
What's great about it: easy set up
What's not so great: to much hassle
great for keeping up with tv without a tv on hand.
I would recommend this to a friend!
Reward Zone number: 2637958006
Reward Zone number: 2637958006
-1point
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Review 6 for Hauppauge - WinTV-for Laptop and Notebooks
good tuner
Customer Rating
4.0
This tv tuner is great. now I can record all my favorite shows and watch them later.
I would recommend this to a friend!
Reward Zone number: 2794360155
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Review 7 for Hauppauge - WinTV-for Laptop and Notebooks
Great alternative to DVR
Customer Rating
4.0
Value for Price
5.0
Compatibility
4.0
Features
4.0
Ease of Installation
4.0
What's great about it: Easy set up, files can be edited.
What's not so great: Hasn't worked in Linux... yet.
My VCR quit. New VCR's no longer include tuners unless you want to special order one for well over $400.
This little gadget looked promising, and Hauppauge's web site promises it will work with Linux, so I got one yesterday. My $275 Toshiba Celeron Windows7 laptop made a flawless 2 hour recording of a movie last night while I was sleeping. I opened the file using Avidemux in Linux to cut before show, after show and ads and the finished mpeg looks great.
Bottom line $83 once for this little device that lets me keep a recording for my own, legal use or $20+ every month to the cable company for their "decoder" and a limited storage DVR... It's a no-brainer.
I would recommend this to a friend!
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Review 8 for Hauppauge - WinTV-for Laptop and Notebooks
Great Little Tuner Card
Customer Rating
5.0
Value for Price
4.0
Compatibility
5.0
Features
4.0
Ease of Installation
5.0
What's great about it: Reliable
What's not so great: Nothing
I bought this to replace an internal TV tuner card that repeatedly froze and locked up my PC. Since switching to this USB Tuner card it has performed flawlessly. Installation is simple, picture is great, works with my Windows 7 windows media center.
I would recommend this to a friend!
+4points
4out of 4found this review helpful.
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Review 9 for Hauppauge - WinTV-for Laptop and Notebooks
Excellent alternative to an expensive DVR or TiVo
Customer Rating
4.0
Value for Price
5.0
Compatibility
5.0
Features
4.0
Ease of Installation
4.0
What's great about it: The bundled recording software
What's not so great: The recorded video files are quite large
My DVD-RAM recorder was showing its age and I wanted an alternative to record TV shows off open (no decoder box) cable onto a digital medium (I.e. a computer hard drive). I didn't want to be locked into a TiVo subscription and I don't have a cable or satellite TV subscription with a bundled DVR. This fit the bill perfectly. It tunes in the analog cable channels I receive plus the local TV stations that come over cable for free in HD, plus a few other free HD channels I receive. The key is that I am not passing the cable signal through a decoder box. It only works for analog and "in the clear" (QAM) digital.
The tuner comes bundled with software to allow recording of shows. It works very well for scheduled recordings, including repeat schedules (e.g. Every Sunday nite, 9:00-10:00pm). The programs are recorded in .ts file format, which requires just under 4GB (analog) or 5GB (digital HD) for one hour of recording, large compared to other video file formats like .mp4. Still, it's relatively cheap to buy a 1 TB hard drive these days, so that's not a huge disadvantage, just something to be aware of. I have it plugged into the USB port on a laptop, with The recordings going to an external USB 2.0 1TB hard drive, both of which I had already for my iTunes music library.
The only other minor gripe is that while it's easy to start "instant" recording, I haven't figured out how to have it automatically stop recording 60 or 90 (or whatever) minutes later, which means you have to manually stop an instant recording.
All in all, though, I'm very pleased with this purchase, and more importantly, so are my wife and 10 year old son.
I would recommend this to a friend!
+4points
4out of 4found this review helpful.
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Review 10 for Hauppauge - WinTV-for Laptop and Notebooks
This thing really works good
Customer Rating
5.0
Value for Price
5.0
Compatibility
5.0
Features
4.0
Ease of Installation
5.0
What's great about it: Records QAM and ATSC high defintion video
What's not so great: Analog NTSC uses software encoder
This hardware records ATSC via an external antenna in high quality HD Video. This hardware also records QAM video from your cable company also in high definition, high quality. It wont record encrypted cable channels. NTSC analog video uses a software encoder that's not as good. ATSC and QAM video are recorded in a .TS format.
This unit comes with Hauppauge own WINTV software that is very good and works with Windows. If you have an Apple computer you will have to purchase Eyetv from Elgato and the video is recorded in an .mpg format.
For Windows computers you can also use Windows Media Center or download NPVR that is free and supported by independent developers. I have NPVR also installed and it works just as well.
The unit comes with a tiny antenna but you will need to use a larger better quality external antenna if you want your video to come out.
I have 3 of these tuners.
I would recommend this to a friend!
+4points
4out of 4found this review helpful.
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Review 11 for Hauppauge - WinTV-for Laptop and Notebooks
It's junk!!!
Customer Rating
1.0
What's great about it: Nothing
What's not so great: It consistently dissappoints
This tuner constantly suffers from a low bit rate problem and causes Media Center to crash despite having the cable company increase the signal. I have spent countless hours trying to troubleshoot this problem and can only conclude that it's a poor product. The tuner should almost work right out of the box with little fan fare. Unfortunately, that's not the case with Hauppauge. Don't buy it!!!
No, I would not recommend this to a friend.
-3points
1out of 5found this review helpful.
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Review 12 for Hauppauge - WinTV-for Laptop and Notebooks
Over all it is everything I expected it to be.
Customer Rating
5.0
Value for Price
4.0
Compatibility
5.0
Features
5.0
Ease of Installation
5.0
What's great about it: *Ease of set-up / installation *Ease of use *Great picture
What's not so great: *The remote should use the newer technology so it doesn't have to have a direct line-of-sight for it to work.
Set-up and use were very simple and straightforward from my perspective. I am somewhat technically savvy so I may have an advantage in that over standard consumers. The reception is as good as my regular tv and the picture is sharp. I usually watch it through my Windows Media Player and have had no problems (using Windows 7).
I would recommend this to a friend!
Other Best Buy Products I Recommend
Insignia - 32" Class / LED / 720p / 60Hz / HDTV
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+7points
7out of 7found this review helpful.
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Review 13 for Hauppauge - WinTV-for Laptop and Notebooks
Worthless
Customer Rating
1.0
What's great about it: zero
What's not so great: does not work
Do not buy this!! I bought this in April 2012 and have nothing but hassles with it since (now 10/12). It has constantly frozen up, cannot tune over the air stations and has had to be reinstalled multiple times. I just purchased a new Dell with 8 GB RAM 3210 CPU and it still does not work. It finally totally died tonight and cannot find any cable stations or tune in antenna stations. I am tired of reinstalling it. Do not buy this piece of junk!!
No, I would not recommend this to a friend.
-2points
5out of 12found this review helpful.
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Review 14 for Hauppauge - WinTV-for Laptop and Notebooks
Poor Instructions. Just would not work.
Customer Rating
1.0
Value for Price
1.0
Compatibility
1.0
Features
1.0
Ease of Installation
1.0
Where to begin? The instructions were confusing. The installation, acknowledged by the instructions, required "multiple reboots" of the Windows system. We had to download the drivers when the included installation disc would not load. After pushing through an hour of downloads, reboots and installs, followed by channel scans, the device was able to identify about 14 of 50+ channels. Just a waste of time and money. If it works for you, great. For us the only good thing was Best Buy's easy return policy.
No, I would not recommend this to a friend.
0points
6out of 12found this review helpful.
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Review 15 for Hauppauge - WinTV-for Laptop and Notebooks
Works great with Windows 7 Ultimate
Customer Rating
4.0
Value for Price
4.0
Compatibility
5.0
Features
4.0
Ease of Installation
4.0
What's great about it: All channels look great
What's not so great: Remote won't work
This is a great tuner and I've tried different brands. This is a keeper for me. The only problem with it is the remote will not work at all just using Windows Media Center othewise I would give this a 5 star rating. I find no need to install/use the WinTV cd. Not sure if you have to install WinTV to get the remote to work. Instructions don't say so. I can just use my wireless mouse anyway. You should not bother with the included antenna. Get the Mohu Paper Thin Leaf indoor antenna. Does any one know how to get the remote functioning?
I would recommend this to a friend!
+8points
9out of 10found this review helpful.
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Review 16 for Hauppauge - WinTV-for Laptop and Notebooks
Quick setup, good results
Customer Rating
5.0
Value for Price
5.0
Compatibility
5.0
Features
4.0
Ease of Installation
5.0
What's great about it: No hassles, it just works!
What's not so great: n/a
I got this when Comcast went to all-digital signals and I could no longer use an earlier analog USB solution for getting tv signals from my cable to my PC. Wasn't sure if I'd need another Comcast box between the cable and this device, but none was needed.
I like that this starts up more quickly than my earlier cable-to-PC converter, with no hassle. The channels are clear, change quickly when I flip the remote or on-screen controls, and give me the complete range of channels I have through Comcast (none are premium).
My only drawback with this is that I had to label each channel individually, since the device only assigned a numerical sequence to the channels. For all the improvements this give me, and the ease of using it on my 22-inch monitor with a direct cable plug-in, it's certainly worth that minor bit of work. In fact, I like the picture quality so much I added a second monitor to my PC, so I can either watch TV while working, or use the second monitor to spread my work across two screens. The TV tuner stick was definitely the factor which swayed getting the second monitor. I like it!
I like that this starts up more quickly than my earlier cable-to-PC converter, with no hassle. The channels are clear, change quickly when I flip the remote or on-screen controls, and give me the complete range of channels I have through Comcast (none are premium).
My only drawback with this is that I had to label each channel individually, since the device only assigned a numerical sequence to the channels. For all the improvements this give me, and the ease of using it on my 22-inch monitor with a direct cable plug-in, it's certainly worth that minor bit of work. In fact, I like the picture quality so much I added a second monitor to my PC, so I can either watch TV while working, or use the second monitor to spread my work across two screens. The TV tuner stick was definitely the factor which swayed getting the second monitor. I like it!
I would recommend this to a friend!
+8points
8out of 8found this review helpful.
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Review 17 for Hauppauge - WinTV-for Laptop and Notebooks
Easy to use and set up Great price
Customer Rating
4.0
What's great about it: I'm able to watch tv with my laptop anywhere around my house.
What's not so great: ?
Can watch tv anywhere and from different sources over the air ,cable and the internet.I can also use as a DVR so I watch my favorite shows anytime they come on.
I would recommend this to a friend!
+8points
8out of 8found this review helpful.
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Review 18 for Hauppauge - WinTV-for Laptop and Notebooks
misadvertised there product!!!!
Customer Rating
1.0
Posted by: saboken
from Johnstown, PA
on 06/17/2012
Value for Price
1.0
Compatibility
1.0
Features
3.0
Ease of Installation
1.0
What's great about it: it's small
What's not so great: false advertising on box
First the software security wont allow it to be installed unless the cd is in a dirve on the system you are installing it on!! it says PC, Netbook, or Laptop right on the box!! I tried to install it on a netbook and from a flashdrive since my netbook does not have a optical drive and I get a error "NETBOOK DETECTED CONTACT SUPPORT" what is this? so I searched the Net about the error and found you must have the cd in a drive to install the software but for some reason netbooks are not allowed? this was a big deal breaker I will never buy one of there products again!!! why would they put it right on the box that it works on a Netbook? also if you loose the cd they will charge you $10.00 for a new one you can't use there updates unless a original disk is in a drive when you upgrade the software, I installed it on a desktop just to see how it works but I wanted it for traveling and draging my gaming system around is not a option, and buying a external usb drive for the netbook just to install Hauppauge software is not a reasonable expectation.
No, I would not recommend this to a friend.
-10points
6out of 22found this review helpful.
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Review 19 for Hauppauge - WinTV-for Laptop and Notebooks
Worth the time and money if you will use it.
Customer Rating
4.0
Value for Price
4.0
Compatibility
4.0
Features
4.0
Ease of Installation
4.0
What's great about it: Flexibility in broadcast standards, neat little gizmo for watching TV on a PC
What's not so great: setup is a bit longer than I wanted but it's okay.
I have a new all-in-one PC and this device allows me to watch TV on my PC and I love it. It took a bit to properly set it up as I have DirecTV but now it runs like a champ and I have zero complaints.
I would recommend this to a friend!
+1point
2out of 3found this review helpful.
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Review 20 for Hauppauge - WinTV-for Laptop and Notebooks
Great with Window 7 remote
Customer Rating
4.0
Value for Price
4.0
Compatibility
4.0
Features
3.0
Ease of Installation
3.0
What's great about it: Watching cable on my widescreen pc
What's not so great: remote does not work.
http://www.hdtvtunerinfo.com/win7mcqamsetup.html. This link really helped me set up my device. I can lay in bed and use my remote that came with my PC that I linked to watch Netflixs and my local cable. My cable provider made me use and additional box on my HD ready tube tv. After the purchase of my pc I really did not see the need to buy another tv. So I installed this device. Works great except the remote would not work. It took three days of research to find the step that I was missing to make it work on Windows Media Center. If you are not using a cable box you will not get channel guide info. Very happy over all with the product!
I would recommend this to a friend!
Other Best Buy Products I Recommend
Gateway - 23" Touch-Screen One All-In-One Computer - 6GB Memory - 1TB Hard Drive
(1)+4points
4out of 4found this review helpful.
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