Hauppauge 1187 WinTV-HVR-1250 Hybird PCI-Ex1 TV Tuner 1187

I read some good reviews about this product so I figured I would give it a try. I installed it in my computer(windows 7) and all of the drivers installed automatically without any issue. I attached my cable(Comcast Xfinity digital cable) and tried to set it up in Windows Media Center, but with no luck. I tried many different configurations and methods but could not get it to work. The drivers said that everything was working properly, so I assumed that there must have been a communication problem with WMC. I purchased the recommended program from their website hoping that their software would remedy the problem. Unfortunately, it did not. Everything says the card is working properly but the card does not recognize the cable signal. I'm sure that if I could have got this card working it would have a much higher rating, but unfortunately I could not so 1 star it is.

When it works, it is what I would want.When it crashes, it takes my whole system with it, sometimes along with some of my work. Something as small as dragging the screen from one monitor to the other on a two monitor system. Sometimes, changing channels, and occasionally while just sitting there... Crash!Yes, I've tried the most current update, my OS is current, I've got plenty of processing power/memory/drive space (and yes, it *is* plugged in.)I think this is very simple. This is one of those applications that were tested so that if they are able to find a way to make it work, they ship it. Testing should be to see if you can make it fail, and if it does, you fix it, before your customers have to deal with it, 'cause they're not going to be very happy. It is clear, in the number of ways that I can make it fail, sometimes while being very careful with it, that the testing of this devices software is seriously flawed.This device has been removed from my system. It costs too much in lost time and effort on my other computing tasks.

I'm giving the card itself five stars, based on its ability to work well with current operating systems such as Windows 7. Once you install it, it should work fine, just as other reviewers have pointed out. You don't need to install software to get things working. However, the firmware can be upgraded. I'm not sure how important that will be these days, but a number of years ago, a firmware upgrade came out that made the tuner much more sensitive. I ended up getting the maximum number of bars on all channels, which had not been the case before. The point is, if a firmware upgrade can improve things, it's a potential option.If you want to use the capture card capability, for getting analog recordings from a VCR or camcorder, the included software will work but is not great. The instructions are not all that helpful. But if you want to capture video, you might want to edit it, make DVDs, etc. In that case, you'd want a third party software application anyway. I use  Pinnacle Studio Ultimate Version 12 [OLD VERSION ], but there are many options.If you don't have Windows 7, or something that will do what you need, you can use their tuner software. My first tuner card predated Windows XP MCE. Once that came out, many users of my old video card flocked to it and abandoned the bundled ATi software. Hauppauge's software and tuners are much newer technology, but now that companies such as Microsoft consider Tivo-like functionality a necessary part of the OS, I'm not so concerned with the bundled software.Hauppauge makes a number of models of tuner cards, and sells each one in a variety of configurations. So do your homework. The 1187 is the version with the card, and the software you may or may not want to use. There are versions with remote controls, and if you want to use one with Windows Media Center, I'd suggest making sure you get one with a Media Center Edition remote control. It's the one with the green button with a Windows logo.I also have two 2250 cards in my primary home theater system. Each card has dual tuners, so I can record up to four things at once. By "dual tuners," I mean dual concurrent use tuners. This card has an analog and a digital tuner, and since analog broadcast TV has all but disappeared, (plus you can't use analog and digital at the same time) I think of this as a single tuner.If you have enough slots, you might be able to get two of these for less than the price of a 2250, but prices always change. The 2250 might or might not be a better deal if you already know you want two tuners now. If you don't anticipate the need to record more than one program at a time, you can save money with this card, and adding another one later is a simple task as long as you have a free slot.

This TV Tuner Card works well once you download the new drivers, etc. from the website. As I use it primarily for putting old VHS tapes to my hard drive to burn to DVD, I was a little frustrated at the lack of instructions as to how to set the Tuner Card up. That seems to be a common problem with most electronic items these days though as this is not the first product I have purchased with less than satisfactory documentation. Once I got it all figured out after much research on the internet, it works great. I would have given it 4, maybe even 5 stars if the instructions had been better.