TV Tuner Question : HP Expresscard TV Tuner of Hauppauge WinTV DVR950?

I recently ordered a DV9500T from Costco.com and I was thinking about getting a TV Tuner. (The reason I'm waiting is because I have yet to find out who my college roomate is and if he is going to bring the TV for our dorm, so I didnt order the Expresscard TV Tuner.)

I was just wondering about the quality of the HP TV Tuner and the Hauppauge WinTV DVR950 USB Tuner. The DVR950 is currently on sale at CompUSA for 59.99 and that seems to be a good price. Does anybody have experiences with these two tuners or are there any other TV Tuners that you guys can recommend. Thanks for the input.

DV9500T Specs:
Core2Duo T7500 2.2 Ghz
2GB RAM
WSXGA+
200GB (100x2) 7200RPM HD
GeForce 8600M GS
Webcam / Bluetooth / Fingerprint Reader

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=151685&page=2

this should answer your question. go to page 2 and youll see

 

I have no experience of the Hauppage one, but the Expresscard TV Tuner works flawlessly for me.

 

thanks. that quality looks very clear. If I didnt order the TV Tuner with my laptop, will it cost more to order it seperately?

 

yeah i think its 179.99 if purchased seprately. try ebay if you want one

 

I have the Pinnacle HD Stick, it works fine. But I the Hauppage HD tv tuner is very good. It cost way less than the hp express card and it give you more flexibility to use it with any computer.

 

I still like my AutumnWave OnAir GT USB HDTV tuner. ATSC, QAM, 32- and 64-bit drivers.

 

Future, although you may come out a bit cheaper getting one of these external cards you're looking at, or that folks are recommending (and likely get a better card), I still ordered mine with the built-in card... I might add an external later.

Not getting the tuner "because you think your roommate might bring the TV" is only half the equation to have a TV tuner card in any computer with Windows Media Center, which now includes ALL Vista systems with Vista Premium or Ultimate (on XP, it was only systems bought configured with Windows XP Media Center -- you couldn't buy that version of XP stand-alone).

Media Center (when it works -- and it CAN BE FINICKY -- does NOT play well with others -- like I installed Nero Ultimate and mine quit working, but since I'm not getting much use out of Nero, I'm going to uninstall it) makes a GREAT substitute for a VCR -- similar to Tivo, but without paying someone $10 a month and having to tie up a phone line... It has a built-in guide service that automatically updates via your net connection, and you can set it to automatically record your favorite programs, even series -- you can tell it to do this on only one channel, on every channel, at only one time, any time it airs, and only first run or first run and reruns.

With the exception of a couple shows I like enough to watch live AND record to keep, I mostly use it to record a "second-favorite" in a particular time slot to watch later, so I can watch my favorite and not miss the other one... and if you have two tuner cards (or a dual-tuner card), you can record TWO shows at once, or watch one and record another...

During the regular TV season, Media Center is one of my MAJOR uses for my desktop system... Even with a dual tuner, I still sometimes had to pick and choose this year, so I'm setting up my old HP Media Center system soon with its single tuner, and I'll have three going... and if need be, I'll have the dv9500t for a fourth, lol (then again, there ARE some things on the hard drive from MONTHS ago I still haven't gotten around to watching -- low priorities, I guess you'd call them)... With hard drives so cheap, I just keep buying more (and bigger) externals... run out of USB ports? Use hubs. Plus I have firewire, too...

However, since you didn't order the laptop with the built-in tuner, and installing stuff inside a laptop seems a bit more of an issue to me than for a desktop (maybe because I haven't tried it yet), I'm thinking some of these plug-in externals might be great!
Jeff

 

so you suggest ordering the Expresscard one? That could be an option because I ordered from Costco and I could go through with the return and then purchasing it again with the discounted tuner.

 

the current eBay prices for the HP one is around 60 dollars. That seems to be a good price.

 

So right now at Circuit City, the Pinnacle HD USB Pro Stick is on sale as is the Hauppauge DVR950. Which one do you guys prefer and though the DVR950 is cheaper, the price of either of these tuners is fine. I have my DV9500T running Vista Home Premium 32-bit. I'll be using this tuner in my dorm room. Thanks in advance for any recommendations.

 

The Pinnacle seems to get better reveiws. On the downside, the Pinnacle seems to get pretty hot while running but people say it hasn't affected things. I have the full HP kit ($75 off of Ebay) and my only complaint is how hot the thing gets while running. The Pinnacle is attached externally, so it really doesn't matter if it gets hot as long as it isn't self destructing. I think I would pay more for the Pinnacle vs. the Hauppauge if price doesn't matter to you.