Hauppauge WinTV-DCR-2650 Dual Tuner Digital CableCARD Receiver

Pros: Price ($60 after rebate), built-in remote receiver, small footprint, Hauppauge website support, dependability.

Cons: None.

Other Thoughts: Set up easily, just followed instructions, one call to Comcast to pair. Only problem I had was not getting HBO channels and Comcast had to come out and tech spent over an hour with their support (and was quite frustrated dealing with them which I found amusing). After getting nowhere I asked him if he had another card with him, so he got a new one out and problem solved. The first card I had picked up at their service center had apparently been used and must have still had something imbedded that blocked those channels. Made sure I had latest updates and have had no problem with unit waking up to make recordings. Saves $17 a month for Comcast's garbage HD equipment and I'm planning to move to an area they don't serve so I can take all my recordings with me. Also, I received the rebate earlier than expected.

Pros: Does exactly what it is supposed to do. The unit also functions as an IR receiver and works flawlessly with Windows Media Center and my UR WR7 universal remote. Is smaller than the stupid, ugly cable box and reduces the cable bill by $5 a month. I now have a fully functional DVR.

Cons: You have to deal with cable company technical support. Painful.

Other Thoughts: Follow all the instructions. Run Windows Digital Cable Advisor, install firmware updates, WMC tuner set up. Pray to the Flying Spaghetti Monster for a competent technician but hang up and try again if you don't get one. TWC in NY have dedicated cablecard technicians so ask to be transferred. Your unit, cablecard and account need to be linked by the technician for it to work. Then be patient, it takes ~20mins before it actually works. But then you have your DVR.

Pros: Led lights, power cord, remote

Cons: The device. This device is cheaply made constantly freezing on a high end machine! I will be returning this piece of junk, it states it can be used in place of a DVR but cant get analogue channels JUNK!!!!

Pros: It works. Picture quality is very good.

Cons: None

Other Thoughts: Installation with the cableCARD was a painful experience. It took three service calls. The first tech said he didn't have a card to give me, then his supervisor made him come back. He said "Thats not a Tivo, it won't work" and left. Second tech installed a card that was recognized but wouldn't activate. It took over an hour to find out the card wasn't put in inventory by the warehouse so their system wouldn't authorize it. Tried another card which was defective. Third tech was a supervisor who brought a stack of cards, first one he installed worked, setup was completed in about five minutes. Best advice I can give is get to know where the screens are that show the various diagnostic codes are to make the installation as quick as possible.

Pros: Works generally as advertised. Comcast had some trouble with the pairing and had to come back twice. That's just par for the course with Comcast and Cablecards. (Why is sending a tech out to your house even necessary?? Everything important to getting it working is done remotely on their end.)

Cons: Cannot act as a network tuner. That's disappointing.

Other Thoughts: Like others, I bought it because of the Black Friday rebate. I didn't get the rebate check. The manufacturer's email address for inquiries is dead and just bouncing emails. That seems an awful lot like a big bag of mail fraud.

Pros: The unit works flawlessly with my Windows 8 Pro Media Center and 2 Xbox's as Media Center Extenders. (no more cable boxes for me!)

More in [Other Thoughts]

Cons: I purchased this as a Black Friday deal and with a large mail-in rebate. It was almost too good to be true! Over the years I have done 100's of mail-in rebates and have had good luck with them, but Hauappauge has been the worst thus far. I sent in the rebate, even took a picture of doing so, a couple weeks after purchasing it and I have yet to hear back from Hauppauge. I emailed their Rebates@hauppauge.com, but received an SMTP error back: mail.hauppauge.com #<mail.hauppauge.com #5.1.1 smtp;551 5.1.1 user does not exist> #SMTP#

I also tried calling, and after transferring me 3 times they finally were able to tell me they didn't have my mail-in. Luckily i have a copy of the UPC and the rebate, but they told me I needed the original. well I SENT THE ORIGINAL in with the rebate and it got "lost" by Hauppauge. What's the point to a mail-in rebate if I have to send it certified mail that may cost MORE than the rebate?
Anger and Frustration are the feelings I am having. It almost seems like they make it really difficult to get your money, so they don't have to pay out.

I don't recommend you buying Hauppauge

Other Thoughts: Only 2 tuners make it difficult to record a bunch of things, but that is really the only normal limitation to this device. You should have a really good switch to ensure clean streaming of HD content, but other than that there are no issues.

Pros: It records up to two channels at a time!
I DID get my rebate! I'm mean oh snot it REALLY came back!

Cons: It has some problems!

Other Thoughts: I have had this for a while now and have seen a few problems, and figured out a few bugs.
1) Had to call Comcast ONE time to reset my cable card.
2) It seems to loose signal for no reason, if you don't catch it, your shows won't record. This is a problem as you almost feel like you have to be at home to record your shows. To fix this you have to un-plug and re-plug the box.
3) Since hooking this up I get a weird error from Media Center saying that my computer isn't capable of playing my recorded shows, but only in full screen. If I reduce the players size (out of full screen) the shows will begin playing again and THEN I can bring it into full screen. PITA!! This might cause a problem with recording also.

System specs;
Gigabyte MOBO
PhenumII 955 OC
AMD 6770 OC
4 Gigs DDR2
Win7 Home Premium

Pros: Works beautifully, or I should say WORKED beautifully with only about 10 channels.

Cons: The first unit was received from Newegg broken due to poor packaging i/e the circuit board was loose inside the enclosure. RMA and return shipping cost of $15, had a new unit about a week later. Unit worked fine after Comcast activated it with the exception of having only a few channels. Several more attempts to reactivate from Comcast proved fruitless. Comcast came out a few days later. I asked the tech upon his arrival how much he knew about CableCard, and he replied with "I never had
a CableCard call with a good ending". He could not figure it out, and had no spare CableCard with him. He was here way too long, and I needed to go to sleep as I was working nights, plus he arrived 30 minutes past the time he was supposed to, so I asked if we could reschedule, and make sure whomever came out the next time had a spare CableCard with him. The next day 2 techs arrived, (with no CableCard), and wanted to re-terminate all of my coaxes in the house. I didn't let them, as, I knew that wasn't the problem, and sent them on their way.
That was about 5 weeks ago. Since then I have built a new PC with a new install of Win 7 Pro, (yup, not Win 8). Upon installing the 2650 I was right back to where I was 5 weeks ago with only a few channels. Called Comcast's CableCard people, and they said it probably WAS a defective CableCard. Today I went to the local Comcast office in Rolling Meadows Illinois, and after spending 40 minutes in line, (20 minutes out in the cold), I sped away with another CableCard. Installed it, and now I DON'T EVEN DETECT CABLE!!! Called Comcast and now have somebody coming out next Tuesday.

Other Thoughts: I really just want to give up on this thing, but it's past 30 days, and can't return it for a refund. It's not Neweggs fault, nor do I believe Hauppauges, but is Comcast. What a nightmare.

Pros: It works with FIOS! I set a up a media pc, I3 processor using the on chip video and Windows 8. Had to add the Windows Media center which you can get for free now, Otherwise it is $10 or so for it. Picture quality is stunning. Ability to view/record two shows works very well. The USB connection is very convenient. Also using the HD PVR on this same PC to get the pay per view and other premium stuff off the FIOS DVR.

Cons: Appears not to support any of the premium stuff like HBO, Showtime, etc. Needs the Windows Media center to use it. You need a PC to use this as your TV tuner. File sizes are huge. You need a very fast wireless to stream these files to other PC's. FIOS support had difficulty getting the card to work. You need to rent the cable card to use this.

Other Thoughts: If I get the rebate I will have this for a really great price. Even without I am very happy with the way this works. There are many choices to get these files onto other PC's or even DVD to play anywhere. If using an HTPC and you don't need the premium stuff this gets you out of the set top box.

Pros: Easy set up, best $69 I ever spent. I've had nothing but great experiences with hauppauge products (150, 1600, 850. hd-pvr). Expected the same with this one and got it.

Cons: None. you get exactly what is described and worked right out of the box.

Other Thoughts: Had a bit of trouble getting it to work with Sage TV, but finally got SageDCT to work and it's awesome. I'm going to upgrade to a Ceton 4 tuner box only because I found out later that additional cable cards from Comcast are $10/mo if I want to add another one of these. This will end up being a backup. Saves me over $100/mo that I'm paying DirecTV with all the boxes and HD service, not to mention the space being able to get rid of 3 STB's , hd-pvr and IR blasters. Set it up in WMC so comcast can activate card (this is the only time you ned to run WMC),. Shut down Sage, run SageDCT, scan for tuners and generate file, paste generated data from text file in sage.properties, load Sage, then go delete null tuners and re-add them and you are off and running. You'll notice that this will show up as a network adapter in device mgr instead of sound and video.