Hauppauge HD PVR and Windows Media Center: Is it the working-class TiVo?

Wedging WinTV into Windows

Setting up the physical components of HD PVR is almost academic. It ships with a set of YPbPr component cables that connect to your STB; the cables that formerly connected your TV to the STB, now connect to the back of the HD PVR. Then a USB cable is all that's left to attach to the PC.

At this point, you should have plenty of hair remaining to pull out during Hauppauge's software installation process (I don't, at least not anymore, but I suppose that goes with my lifestyle choice). I'm a tester by nature, and on purpose, I don't make things easy on the component I'm testing, because there are no guarantees that a user in the real world will be in an easier situation than mine. I had already built my own media PC around a Gigabyte motherboard with an Intel Core 2 6600 CPU, in which I'd already installed a superb Hauppauge WinTV HVR-2250 tuner card. It's a fabulous double-dual tuner literally capable of recording two HD ClearQAM signals, and two standard-def analog signals, simultaneously (of course, I tried that myself once for the heck of it, and yes, it really does). With fewer ClearQAM channels available on my Comcast line, unfortunately, I'm now only able to use the HVR-2250 to record HD broadcast channels. However, the recording quality for those channels is outstanding, a very visible difference from the Comcast line, as you'll see for yourself momentarily.

At first, I tested HD PVR using the software that shipped with it: a set of WinTV-branded drivers (the presence on the CD of some of which, I suspect, is redundant since HD PVR is not a tuner but a capture device) and recording software called ArcSoft Total Media Extreme. Just to keep things difficult for myself, my intention was to leave the HVR-2250 card in the system, partly because I didn't want to lose my ability to record at least some television using Windows Media Center (which, perhaps by happy accident, may go down as some of the best software Microsoft has ever produced), and partly because I wasn't looking forward to the headaches that come with installing Hauppauge drivers. Anyone who has ever owned a Hauppauge product deserves a medal for endurance, although the quality and typically flawless performance of Hauppauge's tuner hardware has always been a reward in itself.

As predicted, making the two Hauppauge products co-exist was bizarre. The version of the WinTV driver that powers the HVR-2250, and the version that powers HD PVR, appeared to be different versions that could not co-exist. After installing the HD PVR software, Total Media Extreme appeared to work fine. Later, I discovered that the HVR-2250 was not working at all; Media Center believed it was still there, but every channel was dead air. I thought, sadly, that the HVR-2250 would have to go, at least for the duration of this test. I uninstalled its software and removed the card, but was then baffled to discover HD PVR failed to work. I uninstalled HD PVR's software, cleaned Hauppauge from the Registry completely, and then reinstalled it -- still nothing.

For reasons which may very well be inexplicable, HD PVR will now only work in my test system with HVR-2250 present, if the WinTV software is installed in this order: HD PVR first, then HVR-2250 on top without uninstalling the newer software first. My guess is, this is a symptom of all the hoops Hauppauge hardware and software have to jump through in order to make any digital recording on a PC possible in the first place.

I did have some trouble getting the sound capture to work properly, which required me unplugging and re-plugging the sound cables until I heard something. Strangely, I discovered that the STB would not send either video or audio to the HDTV with the computer turned off. Once working properly, you still have to have the front HD PVR switch turned on, even when your computer is off, for the HDTV to receive a signal from the STB -- which makes sense, because the capture device is interrupting the signal and needs to be powered.

Next: "Extreme On" and "Extreme Off," off and on