Watching TV the (semi) easy way (Hauppauge WinTV Nova)

Member Name: Siswell

Product:	Hauppauge WinTV Nova
Date:	23/04/05 (404 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Simple to use, Good quality images, Cheap

Disadvantages: May be a bit too basic, Not amazingly reliabe with Windows XP, Free Satelite TV is rubbish in general

If you've never heard of Hauppauge you probably don't know much about TV cards for your computer, yes they are big and yes they are one of the best, but they don't seem to do much else which will be the reason you've never heard them before . . .

The TV card range are split into a few different sections first there split into external boxes connected via a USB cable and the otheres are PCI cards which go stright into your computer and are cheaper and usually also quicker. Next theres different kinds of channels to view (all being free to view channels) theres the DVB or digital visial broadcast, in other words higher quality pictures, and then theres the standard analog signal. There is also the additional cartigory of Satelite or Terestrial (freeview).

I currently own the PCI satelite card (WinTV Nova-S), there appears to be minimal difference between it and the rest of the range but thats the one my opinions are based on. First impressions are very good, comes with enough instructions, standard satelite connector and a remote which looks a tiny but cheap but hey you can't have everything (not all WinTV cards come with remotes so check before buying). Next step setting it up, couldn't be more easy stick it in your computer install software and your half way home already! All you need then do is find the channels which with its inbuilt software is a case of pretty much pressing a button. The software itself is pretty basic but then again theres nothing to much to confuse you with, basic recording is a dodle as it just a case of pressing record. All in all basic but does work well, but however found it isn't the most stable of software in Windows XP and has on occasions crashed on start up but you just reload it and its fine.

For the satelite TV part i found this was a complete and utter waste of time i'm sorry to say you should definitly go for the terestrial (Nova-T) version instead! I mistakenly assumed you could pick up all the standard UK channels plus additional European ones, how wrong was i. Turns out you can't get ITV, Channel 4 or 5 as there all encrypted! You can however get all the BBC ones but the only additional ones are a few small stations and a load selling channels. So i can hardly recommend you this card i can however recommend the none satelite versions.

Other pointers you can't recorded more than one channel at a time you always need more than one card to do this (even with the Sky+ thing, it uses 2 cards!)

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