Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-2250 Dual TV Tuner Encoder
The Hauppauge WinTV HVR-2250 is a dual TV tuner and encoder to get fantastic television reception using two tuners so you can watch television on one tuner and record on the other.
Ease of Use, Performance: 24/25
Look & Feel: 24/25
Features 23/25
How much I enjoy 24/25
Total: 95/100
The Hauppauge WinTV HVR-2250 is a dual tuner and encoder using the PCI Express connection for great television reception that includes an IR remote and receiver. The WinTV 2250 uses two tuners and two hardware MPEG-2 encoders so you can watch and record on two separate channels and watch one of the channels.
The Hauppauge WinTV HVR-2250 comes with the tuner card which is a low profile PCI-Express connection card with the IR dual receiver transmitter and an IR transmitter with a remote control. There is also an A/V Adapter panel to use for a separate rear panel connection with an A/V Adapter Cable and a CD with drivers and the WinTV program.
The Hauppauge HVR-2250 uses two TV tuners and two hardware encoders that can record on two separate channels as well as watch one channel while recording another. The tuners use digital ATSC or Clear QAM cable as its input from regular coax inputs on the rear of the card or from the auxiliary adapter to receive up to 1080i digital television.
The card is easy to install and use along with the WinTV program but there are other TV tuner programs you can use that work great such as SnapStream’s Beyond TV or Sage TV. The Hauppauge HVR-2250 also works well with Windows Media Center as its main control program but I really do not recommend using the Windows Media Center program.
Installing the card is simple and I used both the TV tuner card and the adapter card for my computer setup with the adapter a couple of slots away. Using the two card slots makes sense when you use the card on a low profile or small form factor case for a home theatre personal computer system.
The PCI-Express connection allows for use in the most modern motherboards and is simple to install just like any other PCI-E card and even comes with both long and short metal plates to attach to the card and adapter. Once installed the CD contains the drivers for the card and the WinTV program but you should check the Hauppauge website for current up to date drivers.
Setting up the WinTV program is also easy and I found the WinTV program does get all the channels that the other programs do but not the Windows Media Center. I used the Windows Media Center and only got the four main channels in my area but on WinTV I get all the main channels and the secondary ones on the digital broadcasts.
The WinTV program has plenty of configuration options and can receive clear QAM or clear cable TV channels broadcast over cable television. Using the Hauppauge HVR-2250 you can receive both digital ATSC channels from over the air broadcast antennas and clear QAM channels through cable television without having to use a cable television box to watch cable TV on your computer.
You can also use the AV inputs to input and record or edit movies and video from a DVD player, video camcorder or other source. You would need an editor to edit these recordings but Windows Movie maker is a free program and there are others that are not expensive if you want to use the TV Tuner as an input for video and audio.
The AV input works fine with my Panasonic camcorder and records just fine straight from the play function of my camcorder as well as straight form the AV output of a DVD player. You can use the HVR-2250 TV Tuner card to record and edit camcorder video as well as a replacement for a cable TV box for regular clear channel that are not scrambled.
I do not have cable TV so could not comment on how clear or well the channels come in for that but the digital channels all come in very well using WinTV and the Hauppauge tuner. I found that the WinTV program does get all the channels when you scan but it did have a few problems getting all of them a couple of times I did the scan.
I also had problems with the WinTV program freezing or locking up while watching TV so I am not sure this is the best program to use as the television viewer. I did try both Sage TV and the Beyond TV programs using trial versions and they both worked very well with the TV tuner without any problems at all.
Also using the Windows Media Center on my Windows Vista Premium I had no problems except for the one of not getting any secondary digital channels. The Hauppauge WinTV HVR-2250 TV Tuner works very well and television on my PC comes in very clear and sounds great in high definition 1080i.
You can easily record using the simple onscreen buttons or the remote, set up a schedule to record or use the easy to see loading bar to go forward or back in the show and pause a current show. The use of the automatic recording and being able to pause, fast forward and rewind live TV is a great part of a DVR that is part of the Hauppauge WinTV package.
The Hauppauge HVR-2250 is a fantastic TV Tuner and the WinTV program works well but you may want to spring a little extra money for a separate TV tuner program. I had no problems using the tuner and with the additional A/V adapter and low profile this tuner makes a great HTPC tuner card.
I highly recommend the Hauppauge HVR-2250 as a great dual tuner for receiving television from antenna or cable box on your computer.