Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
49 of 51 people found the following review helpful.
Good CableCard tuner for the price
By J. Fendrick
I just received this tuner today, and have had it running for about four hours, so I will edit if I encounter any issues in the next few weeks.Preliminary review - good tuner for its price range. If you don't need the four tuners in the Ceton InfiniTV, or the three tuners in the SiliconDust HDHomeRun Prime, this two-tuner box from Hauppauge is worth the look. As for me, I already had a card for ClearQAM, so I didn't really need more than two tuners. HD quality on my HTPC is equal to the quality from the cable company DVR (which is going back tomorrow!).First things first - don't even mess with the CD in the box, download the latest software and firmware directly from Hauppauge. The firmware has been updated at least twice in the last two weeks, and will probably be updated quite frequently as more features are added.Following the instructions in the box, installation went smoothly. I did encounter a bit of a hiccup in getting my CableCard activated, but it is a known issue with activating CableCard equipment on Cox's network (short version - just ask the tech to send two "cold hits" to your box, about five to ten minutes apart - it seemed to work for me).If your cableco uses SDV / tuning adapters, you may want to wait - Hauppauge is still working on getting tuning adapter support. However, I don't, so it was a non-issue for me.You'll probably want to run a clean line to this box - no splitters - just to make sure you have sufficient strength and quality of signal.Overall, my early impression from this box is very favorable. If it continues to work well, I will be recommending that all my friends abandon the cable company DVR and build their own HTPC's.EDIT 11/8/2011: I've been using the WinTV-DCR-2650 for about two months now. In that time, Hauppauge has released several firmware and driver updates, and the tuner appears to be quite stable now. In the two-month period, I did miss one recording, but that was due to issues with Windows Media Center moreso than the tuner (the tuner and WMC didn't communicate very well on whether I could record a "copy once" flagged channel); the issue was resolved by reconfiguring WMC. If two tuners are sufficient for your needs or you are using in combination with a QAM tuner, I continue to recommend this tuner.EDIT 3/3/2012: Almost six months since I bought this tuner, and I still highly recommend it. By my calculations, it will have paid for itself in another month over Cox DVR rental rates. The firmware has been stable for about three months.
17 of 17 people found the following review helpful.
Woks ok, but has to be unplugged every now and then...
By Sunny Goldfish
I bought this mainly for the price... it was $75.00 cheaper than the HD Homerun Prime by Silicon Dust. It has one less tuner (2 instead of 3) and lacks the network sharing feature of the HD Homerun. Basically, you plug it into the wall, and connect it to your computer (via USB). Then plug a coax in for your cable line. You have to have an M-Card from your cable company. I have Comcast in South Jersey and I was able to go to my local Comcast office and pick up a cablecard free of charge.Once you plug everything in, you go into Media Center and run through the setup. At one point during the setup, you'll get a screen with three numbers that you have to give to Comcast to activate the card. There's a self-install line that you should call instead of the general number. It's mentioned in another review on here, so search the reviews for Comcast and you should find it.After I called, I completed the setup in Media Center and I was good except I didn't get any of my premium channels. A follow-up call the same day resolved that issue.All-in-all, the device worked well for the first few days. Eventually though, I started getting "turner unavailable" messages in Media Center on startup and also while the device had been in use for a few hours. The only solution was to unplug the unit and plug it back in. It's not that big of a deal but if you are buying this to get rid of your cable box (like me), this can get annoying.In the end, I ended up returning it to Amazon and ordering the HD Homerun Prime. As I said, it costs more but it has an extra tuner (which is nice) and you can view it from any computer on your network (like a slingbox). I didn't think I would need more than two tuners, but if you are recording something and watching something else, you need an extra tuner if you're watching on a second computer. Also, if you want to record two things at the same time and watch tv, you need three tuners.In sum, it works pretty well with the exception of the error that causes it to loose connection ever now and then. If you are looking for something to use in addition to your cable box (like, for instance, if you only want to use it as a DVR), this is probably your best bet, but if you're looking to replace your cable box, I'd go for the HD Homerun Prime.
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful.
Now works with Time Warner and Receives SDV programming as well!!
By Adam J. Miller
Depending on your carrier and computer configuration, this device can be anywhere from plug and play, to some tinkering required. If you are willing to put in the work to set up, this is a great device. If you can follow instructions and minor tinkering does not intimidate you, you can successfully install this device. If that thought overwhelms you, this product is not for you. The device works with SDV (with a cable card and tuning adapter). I have installed with Time Warner Cable and the Hauppauge tunes every station that my cable box tunes including premium movie stations.Start with the directions in the box. Make sure you follow them closely. Do not use the CD though. enter the following url [...] to download the updated software from the WinTV-DCR-2650 Digital CableCARD receiver support page at [...]. Download, unzip, run setup and execute step one and two.Now, if you are using a tuning adapter (I am using the Motorola MTR700), you will want to enter the following url [...] to download the tuner adapter update from the 'Tuning adapter' tab of the support page. Make sure that you follow the five steps in order.So once that is completed you should have your cable line from the wall to your tuning adapter 'in' port and then out from your tuning adapter to your receiver. Both the tuning adapter and receiver should be connected via USB to your computer (NOT TO EACHOTHER LIKE TIVO).At this point you should be ready to go, unless you are using an NVDIA GPU. If that is the case and you are tuning audio but no video (the infamous black screen syndrome), then you are having a driver issue. Either roll back your driver, or download the beta driver released On 1/31/12 by entering the following url (http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us) and selecting the appropriate download from Option 3. I am running the Beta Driver and it is working well.My experience with the device so far has been very good. WMC is using 150mb of ram to run in the background or 210mb when not and very little processing power either way. Recording with both tuners simultaneously did not significantly increase ram or cpu usage.Please note: While I am reporting smooth usage, I am running an i7 on an EVGA X58 SLI3 MB with 3x4GB of 1600mhz or ram, an EVGA GeForce GTX 550 Ti as my primary video card, and a TB allocated from a 7200rpm SATAII storage drive with 32mb cache. I am running win 7 64bit. I have no clue how this device performs on a slower system, but I am very happy with it on mine.$2.00 cable card/tuner rental versus a $22 dvr rental, and I now have all of my channels on my computer.
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Johannes
Finally something that works
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Cute and fun overall
