New HDTV Adapter for Notebooks

Saw This Article from the NY Times.

HDTV adapter that plugs into USB port on notebooks and captures HD over-the-air signals. For XP and Vista only, so far.

Sounds promising. With the programming offered over the web and something like this, there may not be any need for a TV!

 

I wonder how it compares to the HVR 950?

 

Which laptop screens can display HD?

 

Anything with a resolution of 1920×1080 or higher.

 

Oh... blast... grumble... moan

*Wrings hands*

 

I don't think it's anything to get too worked up about.

The over-the-air HDTV signals are just going to be the signals broadcast by local TV stations. No cable or satellite channels.

One nice thing, though, is you can get your local channels or you'll be able to pick up local channels when travelling or waiting at airports in the U.S.

 

Even if you don't have a screen of that resolution, you can still scale it down to something that would fit. It would still look pretty darn good.

 

*Heart skips a beat*

 

Dude...you're going to love it. At least look at the HVR950 though...I did the darn review and you have the same laptop as me!

 

Great review,after reading I really want one of these devices. I don't need one but I am a sucker for cool gagdets. Are there any other options out there besides the two mentioned above, I deff want to do a little more research before I buy one. Also since using it as a DVR takes up lots of space would recording on to a external USB HDD be possible without lowering quality?

 

The bandwidth for a USB connection is large enough to handle pretty much any HDTV recording...you'll be fine even up to 1080i or 1080p.

 

Night, quick question. How is the software with the Hauppauge Win-HVR-950, I didn't see much about it in the review. I just bought the Pinnacle HD pro stick today and though it is working fine the software it came with is pretty bad and I was wondering if the 950 had the same problem. Please let me know

Thanks

 

Isn't DVB limited to 720p or there is 1080i/1080p broadcasting ?

 

I actually don't know what resolution it is broadcasting in, I read somewhere that fox and abc broadcast in 720p while cbs in 1080i or p I'm not sure my player doesn't tell me. But I do know it looks damn good even though my screen isn't "HD"

 

What do you mean bad? I've got Hauppauge's in-house solution...which seems to work fairly well minus the occasional ghosting issue.

 

Mainly the Program Guide, the best way to explain it is to look at the attached picture. As you can see it only shows the current shows playing and you have to scroll down to view shows later on in the day, and it only goes a few hours ahead, I think 3.

Oh yea and the fact that the program lags....When watching a show and you hit the program guide button or any other button it take a min for the menu to come up

 

On Night's suggestion, I got the HVR950. And I'll rep him for it.

It fits a specific need of mine, so I'm impressed with it. The analog signals were I live are worthless (an external antenna or a signal booster might help, but don't know which ones work with the HVR950), but the digital signals on my A8Jp (and on my Gateway desktop) are impressive. It almost looks 3D. Fortunately, I can pick up most of the local networks with digital. The other digital offerings tend to be foreign language and religious programs, neither of which are my cup of tea. Options will vary based on location.

The controls are a little funky. It took me 3 days of use to find the volume control (on the left hand side and you have to look closely). There's no paper manual, which is a downside.

If you get the HVR950, I recommend downloading the current software from Hauppauge's site. Folks have reported some minor issues with the software on the CD. I believe there is another update in the works. They provide a link in the paper installation instructions. Bonus points - you don't have to "register" or provide any user info - so no spam. If you use Titan TV (channel guide on the web), you do have to register for that. It integrates with WinTV for recording, etc.

I plugged in the device, ran the software (needed to run the HVR950 software twice on both computers, the WinTV software was fine on the first install).

You need a mouse to navigate, change channels, and adjust volume. There are some hotkeys but I haven't figured them all out yet. Only Ctrl+Y gives you full screen. As does a right-click of the mouse. There may be a manual on the CD. I haven't looked at the CD since I downloaded everything from the web, so I haven't RTFM yet. From other reviews, though, it sounds very basic.

It apparently can also pick up radio transmissions. But I haven't found out how to do that. Any advice Night?

I watched Die Another Day on it last night on the local channel's digital channel. The graphics and sound were great for my laptop (speakers aren't so great). I turned off all apps, including antivirus. Wasn't hooked up to the web.

There were occasional "stutters" in the picture and sound. Since every review mentions this, I don't think it's a fault of the software or hardware. My guess would be that since ATSC is transmitted over the air, that environmental factors might affect this. It was most noticeable when cars drove by in front of the house. Which may (or may not) support that statement.

I got mine from Compusa for $99 with a $20 mail in rebate. For $80, it's worth it.

Potential concerns:

CPU intensive. I think my CPU temp got up to 77C and the fan was always on). A NB cooler is recommended.

Disk space: You can record TV shows. Takes a lot of disk space, is also CPU intensive, and the NB has to be on for it to work.

Startup programs: It adds a couple of startups, and has noticeably slowed the NB startup time. Not so much on the desktop. Easily taken care of in msconfig, I suppose. Haven't tried yet.

Battery life: You really need to be plugged in for this. I'd bet the battery would take a huge hit from either watching or recording.

That being said, it does fill a need I've had (times when the TV isn't available) and there's a network program to watch. You can also plug your cable/satellite cord into it and it will scan for those.

 

I've had an Artec T14A, which is very similar (if not the same? mentions a program called "ArtecMedia") for a while now. It's worked pretty well for me; picture quality is good. It works with a lot of other media/PVR software; I use it with SageTV myself so I don't know how good the included software is. (should work with Windows Media Center for those of you that have it)

Only thing is that you have to use an external antenna (comes with a fairly compact one) and that it does not work with QAM/cable (at least as of right now).

You can get it for $60 from ZipZoomFly.com.

Not true; 720p is considered HDTV. Also many HDTVs do not display 1920x1080, most only have a resolution of 1366x768 or lower.

 

You probably have to purchase a small add-on. I know I haven't gotten it to do that. Forgot about updating the software :twitcy: I'm gonna go do that now.

 

Thanks, Night. I looked into it more. Apparently, it's a piece of hardware you need to install. But withstreaming over the web of most radio stations, not really an issue.

 

So night, I just purchased an E1505 and I want to get the same card you're talking about. I just want to make sure of a few things first.

It is Vista compatible, correct? Also, When I plug my cable cord from the wall to the USB dongle thing, I will get the same channels I get as when I'm watching my TV, correct? I just want to make sure I'm getting all of the same channels. I'm not too worried about how it works when I take my notebook out of the house, but I purchased a 22" dell LCD to use as a second monitor/TV along with this TV Tuner.

 

Yes it is Vista compatible. You have to download the drivers and programs from www.hauppauge.com though, as I think the stick is still shipping with XP drivers. Fortunately, you can integrate the TV tuner directly into Home Premium's MCE center as per Hauppauge's instructions posted on the driver page. Their drivers are a lot better than they were a few months ago.

As for the TV deal, you have to make sure that your cable connection is an analog cable connection. I'm fairly certain the digital stuff does not work well with this tuner. Comcast's lower 60 or so channels always worked for me, but right now I have Insight and they went mostly digital so now the stick is basically useless until I get a D/A converter for the cable signal.

 

Well, I have comcast ATM, but when I go to college I know the cable is going to be digital. I really don't want to have to spend an extra $100+ to be able to play TV on the laptop. Bahhh. Is that really how much a d/a converter costs? Because for the price of that, the tv tuner, and the extra monitor I'm buying I might as well just buy an LCD TV.

 

I'm still looking into a D/A myself

One solution is to feed the cable to a VCR and/or DVD player and then out back to the TV Tuner. You'll only tune to channel 3 and 4, and you'd use the VCR or DVD player to change channels. But it would work, and that's what I'm doing right now.

 

lol, thats actually what I'm doing for my normal TV right now. Not because I have to, but I just do for whatever reason. Well that seems like an easy fix. I was worried I was going to have to spend all kinds of money for a converter. I was about to just cancel the order for my monitor and forget all of it.

So alright, let me try to get this straight one more time.

I have my laptop. I have my 22" external LCD monitor. I hook up the monitor to the laptop. I then plug in the USB TV tuner into the laptop. Next, I take the cable from the wall to the VCR IN port, then I take another coaxial cable and plug that from the VCR OUT port into the USB TV tuner. From there, I should be able to watch all of the channels from my digital cable on my laptop.

Does that sound correct?

 

Sounds right. As long as your DVD player is digital capable (and I'm pretty sure all of them are)...it is a workaround solution, but it does work. You just have to use the DVD remote to change channels, and the laptop to change the volume. Cheap, but effective solution. I don't even really think about it anymore.

Just think, you don't even need a DVD-recorder with that setup! And you can easily convert VHS tapes into media recordings on a PC...and all that fun stuff.

 

Its actually a VCR, not a DVD player. It shouldn't matter though, right? How can I find out if its digital capable?

 

Try it. I can't really see why it wouldn't work...if it doesn't you pick up a cheapy DVD player with some spare change. They're surprisingly cheap, and you could return it if it doesn't work.

I haven't run into one yet that doesn't do the job.

 

Alrighty then. I just don't really want to purchase a DVD player for no reason though lol, but I guess its a cheaper alternative to a d/a converter.


Also, how are you liking your new monitor? I got the Dell E228FP,Wide 22 Inch Flat Panel. I'm pretty excited about it, but its back ordered -_-.

 

Oh, this bad boy was worth the wait. I feel a little guilty for the pain in my wallet though...but 24" was worth it for sure with the work I do.

 

Hey guys: I've got an interesting update...

After reading through and posting on this thread, I started getting curious about why I cannot get all the channels like I used to...I found out why.

Comcast (the original cable I had) used one scheme for their basic channels that allowed me to hit all the channels by telling my TV tuner to use the standard analog channel frequency format. After updating my drivers, and dealing with Insight a little bit, I had the following three options when my TV tuner channel suite looked for channels:

Analog/Broadcast
Cable
Cable HRC (harmonically related frequencies)

I switched mine over to HRC Cable (der...) and suddenly I'm getting at least two times the channels. The HRC cable format is new, and Hauppauge must have added it in so that it would work with some cable companies. So I also tried the 'standard' Cable format, and suddenly I'm seeing EVERYTHING! But the bottom line is that I now can get all those channels that I paid for without the VCR.

Somedays, I wonder about my ability to actually double check my settings...

 

I think we get technology fatigue. Two weeks ago, I figured out how to mute my MP3 player - after using it for 6 months. And I'm one of those "RTFM" people. Either didn't register or just forgot.

When you can build your own PC (not quite, but almost there), tweak your OS, feel comfortable with registry edits, and still not figure out a simple feature like mute on an MP3 player, you feel kinda dense.

Thanks for the info. I haven't tried cable yet. Mainly because there's noisy feedback on the shared cable when the landlord records (or when I record) - which is why the HVR950 tuner for digital was a good fit. It seems unlikely that feedback would go away through the tuner on the computer. But it might be worthwhile to occasionally record a show to watch later. Assuming there's no feedback from recording on the computer. It seems to be related to the use of the cable company's DVR, so should be OK.

Thanks again for a great recommendation.

 

Now I just gotta find one more thing...