Long, Boring, Outdated Story. Please Do Not Read.
After being annoyed by an external Hauppauge solution because the one I purchased was pricey and lacked digital/HD support, I purchased the Hauppauge WinTV-HVR 1600 from buy.com. I received it today and added the PCI card to my HTPC. I'm having some big issues. It just isn't working right at all but the symptoms vary greatly.
MC sometimes won't start TV (can't start tv). MC doesn't seem to be able to auto-scan for channels. When I get the included software to work and watch TV, only a few of our over-the-air channels appear. Of those few, only one of them play nearly flawlessly. The others stutter horribly and don't play smoothly at all.
I've even noticed some general video-card issues appear. There is a little more stuttering in MC's theater view now. I'm just trying to figure out what could be causing this flakiness and general strange behavior. This looks like it should be a great card but these troubles are obviously destroying that appearance. I was surprised when the included software couldn't even play the TV stream perfectly.
MC errors also included a could not decode frame error. Also, when I am editing the TV settings, any click in MC has a 1-3+ second delay and everything is much slower when doing anything related to the TV card.
I believe the issue with stuttering video may simply be a poor signal so there is no data--but it just stutters--I don't see missing blocks. Strangely enough, only one of at least 2-3+ digital HD channels tune when another digital TV on the same antenna gets them all. But the one that tunes looks amazing.
I wish I would have noticed your officially supported tuner card list. I definitely want an ATSC card. Is there any chance that support for this card could be added? It looks like it is Hauppauge's next big ATSC (maybe first) card so it would probably be worth adding support. If there is no chance I will look at possibly returning it.
What does it take to add support for various cards? Do you need the hardware or do such companies provide specs to their driver so other program authors can add support without buying the hardware?
ADDITION: Media Center is recognizing the card as the WinTV 418. It seems to scan channels VERY slowly. It will start with the first channel and take several minutes before continuing. I do hear audio from the channels as they are scanned or when finished scanning...sometime at least. If I try to play an analog channel, it says TV couldn't be played because of an unknown error but digital channels say it timed out probably due to no signal. Thanks!
