Why I will never buy another Hauppauge product ever again.

[+Warwagon MVC]

Why I will never buy another Hauppauge product ever again

I recently dug out my old PVR-350 Tuner card because I wanted to convert some old VCR tapes to my computer. The original cd came with a version of WinTV. It wasn't the greatest software but it was free and made it very simple to record VCR tapes off the tuner card.

So today I install the tuner card in an XP machine and go online to look for the drivers and the WinTV software. WinTV is now up to version 6. It is available for download, but you can only install it IF YOU HAVE THE ORIGONAL INSTALL CD THAT CAME WITH THE CARD It actually checks for the cd during installation....WTF.....!!!! Of course they let you order the cd for $9.95. I remember throwing that cd away a long time ago knowing I could get the drivers online. I got the drives, but there really isn't any software built into XP for capturing video other than movie maker and it doesn't see my card. What a bunch of bull****.

The next tuner I buy will not be hauppauge.

[Solid Knight]

Seems stupid since you have the hardware.

[+Nik Louch Subscriber²]

That sounds a bit wacky!

[Doli]

ATI did the same thing with my old HDTV Wonder. I think it has to do with the mpeg-2 decoder license, they dont want anyone just downloading and using it. The decoder is used for HDTV but it could be used for DVDs.

[a1ien]

+1 Hauppage is teh sux0rs.

[kukubau]

Ask someone who owns a hauppauge tuner to make you a copy! Or better, search the net for a cd-iso!

[Madoshi]

there was some crap included with my old TV Wonder Pro that was CD-only, with updates on ATI's site. ATI VCR or whatever they called the recording app.

drivers were on the internet but once i lost the CD, the card (unsupported by Media Center 2005, Vista) became kinda useless without the CD-only program :( and using things like VideoLAN are just too complicated for what its worth.

[gdodson]

I recently installed an HVR-1600 and downloaded the latest software from their website and it didn't ask for the original disc.

[Invizibleyez]

I use an ATI based card that was supposed to come with ATI catalyst media center, but it did not. All I had to do to get the software was write them (Visiontek in this case) an email. Within a few days I had a CD in the mail with the software ready for me.

It may be worth a try to call or email your card manufacturer for an updated disc.

[Klownicle]

Not a good time to say you can download the original install cd from a well known wintv website? http://www.shspvr.com/ Its there for when people loose there install cd like I did. Also includes resources on beta drivers and related problems. Call it the unoffical help page for all WinTV products.

[+Warwagon MVC]

I got it working. found some old drivers from rapidshare. took a little forcing.

At the end of the day I got my 1996 video from high school called "The Mr Jock Show" transferred off a VHS tape and onto my computer. It will be the shown on Neowin on January 1st in the Member Videos 2010 thread

[+LogicalApex MVC]

Very odd. Never had that problem when installing WinTV the few times I've downloaded it. Though I use Media Center primarily...

[DDStriker]

I got it working. found some old drivers from rapidshare. took a little forcing.

At the end of the day I got my 1996 video from high school called "The Mr Jock Show" transferred off a VHS tape and onto my computer. It will be the shown on Neowin on January 1st in the Member Videos 2010 thread

I had an older disk lying around (version 2.2~) and i was going to grab the latest driver for you but i didn't seem to need it?

http://www.hauppauge.com/site/support/supp...pvr250-350.html

is that the right one?

there is also a v7 however i'm not sure if it will work with your card or not (based on there list)

http://www.hauppauge.com/site/support/support_wintv7.html (installation download tab)

[Xenomorph]

This doesn't make sense.

I can still download the software for m 1998 WinTV PCI card.

Also, the "WinTV" software is garbage.

Go with something like ChrisTV or DScaler4.