Review: Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-900 mini TV tuner

Don Bradbury reviews a tiny analogue/digital TV tuner for the traveling computer user

Product	WinTV-HVR-900 mini TV tuner
Company	Hauppauge
Web	www.hauppauge.com
Price	£74.99
We like
We don't like
Rating	8.5/10
Requirements

While desktop computers are well catered for in terms of adding an internal or external TV tuner, few are small enough to pack up with a laptop for use while out and about in the car. Hauppauge have plugged this gap with the WinTV-HVR-900, an analogue and Freeview DVB-T digital receiver. Little bigger than a keyring, and complete with USB plug cover, it's small enough to pop in a pocket, or perhaps the notebook's cover case, and it even provides a simple high-gain rod aerial.

So you just load the software to the computer, plug the tuner into a spare USB2 port (by which it is also powered; USB 1.1 is not supported), attach the aerial, and carry out a scan of TV channels that are available in the area in which you happen to be, with automatic identification of channel names.

This list might change, depending on where you are, but you should be able to receive about 62 digital channels, including a stack of digital DVB-T radio frequencies, as well as the usual array of analogue channels.

The Hauppauge software lets you record TV shows to the computer's hard disk using high quality MPEG-2 compression, a major advantage for the traveller, and you can pause or replay the show in the usual way with this arrangement, as well as 'window' it to taste while viewing. You can also burn programs to DVD (approx 1.6Gb per hour).

Software

Included is WinTV-Scheduler, so you can record your favourite TV programs on a daily, weekly or once-only schedule. You have to pre-time about 10 seconds to launch WinTV and set up for recording, and you have to allow at least 30 seconds between scheduled programs to give the recorder time to set up its disk buffers.

Well, "high gain" or not, the provided aerial is unlikely to give you adequate reception unless you happen to be within close proximity to a decently powerful transmitter, and line-of-sight with it. Indeed Hauppauge recommend that you plug in your rooftop digital aerial while at home. We found that to be necessary, but it does depend on your location.

Recording

You'll need lots of spare disk space if you're to record TV shows, typically 1.5 Gb per hour, but the facility is there for those who are adequately equipped. As for the rest of your computer setup, you'll need a 2.0 GHz P4 or equivalent (2.8 GHz processor for analogue TV recording with MPEG-2), Windows XP Service Pack 2, a free USB2.0 socket, a sound card and speakers (usually built into laptops), graphics with Direct Draw support, a CD-RW drive to create VCDs or DVD-RW drive to create DVDs (optional), and of course a television license.

Certain areas cannot receive digital transmissions as yet. To check if you can receive a digital transmission in your area, input your post code at: www.dtg.org.uk/retailer/coverage.html

In conclusion

This Hauppauge offering will be welcomed by travellers with suitably equipped hardware. It's success as a TV receiver depends on the location in which it is used, and especially so if you're to rely on the aerial which the pack includes. But with decent computing power, good signal strength, and appropriate operating system, the device works well. The unit comes with a 2-year warranty and includes Hauppauge's WinTV 2000 software on CD, for viewing and recording programmes.

 

Don Bradbury