Hauppauge WinTV HVR-1700 MC-Kit

Advantages: Watch TV on your PC! Record TV programmes with your PC! Record your home made videos onto your PC! So ruddy cheap!
Disadvantages: Needs PC to work, sound is mono, has to be PCI version to be cheap.

.... Now how does a child like him manage to get a TV Card with his sort of pocket money and get good quality for his money? Simple! He went and bought himself a Hauppauge WinTV Express card. This card is an analogue type card (meaning that it isn't digital) that arrives in a rather large box unbefitting the contents that are contained within. You get merely the TV Card, audio cable to link the card to your sound card, manual and software CD. You can hear it rattling around inside the box as you shake it, the box blatantly wasting precious card with all that space. But although I mourn the trees' wasted timbre (ish), the card itself is a very high quality piece of equipment. Unpacking the card was a cinch seeing as there wasn't much packaged in the first place. Installing it was easy as pie as well, requiring you to dismantle your PC... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Ecellent picture quality & ease of use
Disadvantages: Bit pricy

...on the internet cheaper than this. I have seen it on one site for £80+ pounds sterling, with returned units being sold from around from £60+. Considering the Video Capture unit I was about to buy would have cost me £80, and my existing internal TV card cost me around £30 a few years ago, I did feel it was a reasonable purchase. I have to say I am impressed with the quality of TV image I receive, it is far superior to what I have been used to from my existing internal card, and I now have an encoder to allow me to capture my old camcorder videos too. The unit is made by Hauppauge and is called WinTV, PVR2, personal video recorder. www.hauppauge.com... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful

Advantages: TV on your PC - novelty never wears off!
Disadvantages: Installation, compatibility

...My WinTV Go card was my first venture into the world inside my desktop PC, and as installations go it was not the easiest of tasks. I had a lot of problems with installing the card - less so with the physical installation, but rather the driver installation. Basically, it messed up my computer at first because the drivers that came with the card weren't compatible with my system. I should point out that it was not a brand new system, it only had Windows 98 and a reasonable speed graphics chip. It took several downloads from the Hauppauge website before I could get the TV card working, but it was ultimately worth it. I have found it very convenient to have the TV running in the corner of my computer screen while working. The fully resizeable screen is very useful, as well as the three different display modes (and the ability to block... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful