Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-850 HDTV USB 2.0 Adapter

Pros: easy to install,

Cons: extremely poor signal reception; distorted reception of even strong TV airwave signals; will have to return the tuner

Pros: Works perfectly in openSuse 12.1 with TV Time. Hot plug OK and and detected easily. Decent SD picture. Closed captions work fine.

Cons: Not very sensitive receiver. Either I need a much better antenna or I'm too far from the stations to use this with ATSC signals. I'd really like to see what HDTV looks like with this but maybe some other time.

Other Thoughts: I'm using this with a SD cable adapter for FIOS. The PCI slots on the Foxconn mainboard on my system appear to be shot and a USB adapter was the only way left to get a TV signal in my PC. I get to watch the few TV shows I like without fighting my daughters for the big plasma set in the living room.

Pros: Great price, portable. Win tv is good. I am using this with FIOS and a set top box.

Cons: had a strange hum when watching tv on every channel. I had it plugged into the USB ports on the top front of the case, when plugged into a USB port on the back which is on the mainboard the humm went away. Can't get all the channels. Have not used the set top box for a few years. The third day I am getting more channels...i think it is the set top box not the Hauppauge HVR-850.

Other Thoughts: I am satisfied

Pros: Seamless integration with Windows 7 Media Center. Easily transferable between systems due to USB (not PCIe) interface. Reliable for the last few months.

Cons: Often requires system reboot for W7MC to recognize the device. This is annoying but I can live with it considering how little I paid.

Other Thoughts: My last two USB tv tuners were Pinnacle-branded and neither lasted much more than a year. Hopefully this one will hold up better!

Pros: Cheap and small

Cons: software based mpeg2, included antenna has a lousy connection

Other Thoughts: for the first con, if you plan to use tvheadend or other linux tuner backend move along, tvheadend expects hardware based mpeg encoding which this device does not have.

for the second con, the provided antenna easily slips out of the tuner. You will need to either be very careful and not move the antenna around, modify the cable to have a direct coax connection, or use a different coax cable attached to a different antenna.

Pros: Works very well, for my limited purposes. I'm using Ubuntu 11.04 and mplayer's dvb:// to receive ATSC broadcasts (the standard used in the US).

I'm using this to time-shift the Olympics, and it works quite well, for this. I can't comment on signal sensitivity, but it tells me I get a 93% signal strength for the station I'm using. I have not noticed any signs of transmission errors.

Cons: None, so far.

Other Thoughts: I'm using this to time-shift the Olympics, and it works quite well, for this. I can't comment on signal sensitivity, but it tells me I get a 93% signal strength for the station I'm using. I have not noticed any signs of transmission errors.

mplayer has a -dumpstream option that you can use to save the raw MPEG-2 transport stream to a file.

I didn't try the included antenna. Instead, I just used a Godar FM 1A antenna, which is the best FM antenna I've ever found. I might buy their one of their HDTV-specific antennas, if I want to do more DVB recording.

Pros: Small, really simple format

Cons: none that I've found

Other Thoughts: I got this to record some of the Olympics - I have off air digital only and wanted to record the events while I was at work or asleep - didn't have any other recording device and didn't want to spend $$$ for one either. This unit was inexpensive, so I tried it. I'm running Kubuntu 12.04 on a AND Phenom X4 and have more than enough disk space - so why not. Got the device, plugged it in - installed Kaffeine (had to remove the webcam though as it fought) but within minutes was watching crystal clear TV and today I recorded 7 hours! (~40GB) Great stuff :) Thanks Hauppage - Newegg and all you wonderful *nix geeks!

Pros: I want to add more info to my review of 1/23. The issues that some other users have with this product "locking up" the PC are probably due to loss of signal. I must stress how sensitive these devices are to signal strength. I tried three different antennas (directional, multidirectional, and multidirectional with reflector). The latter worked the best, but you have to place all these antennas just right. Sometimes a rotation of a few degrees will improve the signal. You can watch the signal strength with the provided software. And sometimes, rotating too much will cause the station to freeze or go black. In some cases, you may need to restart the software if you made radical changes in the location of the antenna, but this should not be an issue once you find a permanent location. Finding good signal requires patience. I tried the three antenna in multiple locations an in all cases, the direction of focus was slightly different. For example, in the attic, (continued below...)

Cons: See previous post

Other Thoughts: (continued from above), the directional antenna worked bested when pointed at the broadcast peak (obviously), but the multidirectional antennas worked best turned 90 degrees away. In the living room, the direction was entirely different for the multidirectionals. This has to do with reflections I supppose. You have to test using the supplied software. I live in an area just north of Santa Barbara. This week, I brought the portable PC and antennas into SB to see what channels I could pick up. Only the local KEYT station was available no matter where I put these antennas (even out on a deck). A guy at Radio Shack in Santa Barbara told me that most people return their antennas due to reception issues, even though there are plenty of broadcast stations. So this goes to show that location is everything and if you live near mountains or other obstructions, you may need to search for signal. Thanks NewEgg for having this forum. It helped me get the right products for my needs.

Pros: I read the other reviews here and almost didn't buy this device, but I needed it right away so I bought it from a local store. Thanks everyone here for their comments. Here are mine. I am an IT manager with 40+ years experience w/hardware and software.

I wanted to get rid of cable. We only need the local channels and PBS. Everything else we get over the Internet. I bought this device and started testing, knowing that my biggest issue was going to be getting a signal. I installed this in both Windows 7 32-bit and 64-bit systems with NO (I repeat) NO problems. All subsequent issues were related to finding proper antenna placement. The software that comes with the device made this easy. First you have it do an Internet lookup of the channels in your area. Then you scan for those channels. A handy meter tells you signal strength. I started with a Terk indoor antenna and a portable computer. Continued below...

Cons: One one tuner. You can't watch and record simultaneously. I am ordering the Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-2250 because it has two tuners, but keeping this for my portable computer.

Other Thoughts: ...continued from above. I walked my house and yard inside and out including the attic. I ran the channel scan at each location until I find a place that received all the desired channels. Then I did a signal strength check on each channel. What I found was that a directional antenna didn't work, even through all the channels broadcast or repeat from the same mountaintop (about 30 miles distant, but just over another hill). I received ABC, NBC, FOX, and CBS, but not PBS. I could rotate the antenna to get PBS but then lost a local station. Eventually, I tested a multidirectional antenna and received all the channels although at a lower signal strength. Best of all, the multidirectional antenna works near the media center, so I don't need to run long cables). I am happy now, but I may soon buy an outdoor multidirectional antenna to boost the signal if I get sporadic reception. Finally, I am ordering the Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-2250 because I want two tuners. The HVR-850 will be for the road

Pros: Plug and play with Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit. Use Windows Media Center Remote. Still going strong for a year now. (cable tv free for 1.5 years! woo hoo)

Cons: Antenna is a bit underpowered. I live about 6 miles (as the crow flies) to the station towers and it pickes it up 'ok' as long as the antenna is in the window correctly. The suction cup falls off from time to time and the cord isn't very long. It also gets very hot.

Other Thoughts: I got this for about 30 more dollars back when I bought it. For over the air to my media center (Zotac Zbox) it works as advertised. My area only gets basic ABC/NBC/CBS/FOX/PBS so I'm not sure how it would do at greater distance and with more channels. I've been pleased and looking to pick up another for the other TV in the house at the current cheaper price.