Hauppauge WinTV PVR USB

[Phillip Schlueter]

Anybody have success getting a WinTV PVR USB to work. This hardware was
iffy in XP and Hauppauge had an update for it's software. I doubt that they
will support this device in Vista......sigh! It was $250.00 when I bought
it. The story I am getting from both hardware and software vendors is they
won't have updated drivers or programs that work with Vista until it's final
release. HOW SHORT SIGHTED! And more over AOL doesn't even have a beta for
Vista, so what are 8 to 10 million people going to do when Vista is
released. Personally I don't think MS is going to make it's early 2007 goal
although the OS seems stable enough. I would hate to be in their call
center if released without a resonable amount of vendors having taken
Vista's release seriously and provide working drivers. Really!! not even
the usuall Anti Virus programs work. That's just a sin.

I love the new look and feel of Vista, but think because more than 1/2 of my
software and many devices don't work, I'll just go back to XP. Not much to
do with a new operating system that only Office and some assorted programs
work with. The upgrage advisor only mentioned 2 problems so I was excited
to instal Beta 2. : (

Flip

 

[Tom Scales]

Anybody have success getting a WinTV PVR USB to work. This hardware was
iffy in XP and Hauppauge had an update for it's software. I doubt that
they will support this device in Vista......sigh! It was $250.00 when I
bought it. The story I am getting from both hardware and software vendors
is they won't have updated drivers or programs that work with Vista until
it's final release. HOW SHORT SIGHTED! And more over AOL doesn't even
have a beta for Vista, so what are 8 to 10 million people going to do when
Vista is released. Personally I don't think MS is going to make it's
early 2007 goal although the OS seems stable enough. I would hate to be
in their call center if released without a resonable amount of vendors
having taken Vista's release seriously and provide working drivers.
Really!! not even the usuall Anti Virus programs work. That's just a sin.

I love the new look and feel of Vista, but think because more than 1/2 of
my software and many devices don't work, I'll just go back to XP. Not
much to do with a new operating system that only Office and some assorted
programs work with. The upgrage advisor only mentioned 2 problems so I
was excited to instal Beta 2. : (

Flip

Do you mean the PVR USB2? Haven't tried it in Vista yet, but it is rock
solid reliable in XP. I use two of them every day. You just have to get
the right drivers (rarely the latest ones).

If you need any help in XP, just write me privately and I can get it to work
for you.

As for the rest of your post, this is why Vista is BETA!

Tom

 

[Mario Rosario]

Flip,

Be patient. Vendors jump at the chance to get their drivers on Microsoft
OSes.

Mario

 

[Jonah]

Anybody have success getting a WinTV PVR USB to work. This hardware was
iffy in XP and Hauppauge had an update for it's software. I doubt that they
will support this device in Vista......sigh! It was $250.00 when I bought
it. The story I am getting from both hardware and software vendors is they
won't have updated drivers or programs that work with Vista until it's final
release. HOW SHORT SIGHTED! And more over AOL doesn't even have a beta for
Vista, so what are 8 to 10 million people going to do when Vista is
released. Personally I don't think MS is going to make it's early 2007 goal
although the OS seems stable enough. I would hate to be in their call
center if released without a resonable amount of vendors having taken
Vista's release seriously and provide working drivers. Really!! not even
the usuall Anti Virus programs work. That's just a sin.

I love the new look and feel of Vista, but think because more than 1/2 of my
software and many devices don't work, I'll just go back to XP. Not much to
do with a new operating system that only Office and some assorted programs
work with. The upgrage advisor only mentioned 2 problems so I was excited
to instal Beta 2. : (

Flip

I got 2 Hauppage PCI cards in XP machines and an older version I may
just try in Vista. Drivers for Hauppage have always been a pain in the
arse so I am not expecting a success but I will give it a go after the
footie and report back later. Don't know about USB versions though
haven't got one.

Jonah

 

[Peter M]

Flip,

Be patient. Vendors jump at the chance to get their drivers on Microsoft
OSes.

Tell that to HP and Canon. They must have mislaid the memo.

 

[Zapper]

Did you try their Vista drivers? Did they not work? What did support say
about them? Are you trying to run on x86 or x64?
http://www.hauppauge.com/pages/support/vista.html

 

[Mario Rosario]

I got 2 Hauppauge PCI cards in a box in storage.

I got 2 Hauppage PCI cards in XP machines and an older version I may
just try in Vista. Drivers for Hauppage have always been a pain in the
arse so I am not expecting a success but I will give it a go after the
footie and report back later. Don't know about USB versions though
haven't got one.

Jonah

 

[Phillip Schlueter]

As for the rest of your post, this is why Vista is BETA!

Sorry Tom, my point is if software and devices don't even work at all--what
is there to test. I'm already bored with it. If we have to wait for 6
months to a year to get the most common hardware to work MS will never get
the bugs outta Vista and I've been testing MS products since Win 95 and the
old MSN in the days they thought they could compete with other online
services. Some of the vendors I have spoken to claim they are not
developing drivers or new software until the code is not going to change,
claiming it's a waste of their time. I have to believe they have had access
to Vista for quite some time and are way behind not to have their own betas.
I'd be willing to work with pre-bata's rather then have completely
non-functional hard and software. I have 4 other computers so I'm not
crippled.

P.S. The drivers that came with my WinTV PVR USB (ver 1.2) didn't work at
all in XP. The version that is currently available and has not been
upgraded ever were a problem in XP if you even sneezed near the box.

Flip

 

[Zapper]

....but it is the truth. The code IS changing...many/most/some drivers
written for Beta1 of Vista no longer work under Beta2.(Creative...)

Officiallly this beta is not for end users, it is supposed to be for
technology professionals to test for implementation.

I would love for all my stuff to work also, but I am not going to blame the
hardware vendors for not jumping through hoops to get their consumer
products up and running for Beta2.

 

[Mario Rosario]

Peter,

It is not easy to get drivers to work in a 50 million lines of code
Operating System. Even if you work for HP or Canon.

Mario

 

[Phillip Schlueter]

Thanks Zapper! I was at their site and there was nothing about Vista to be
found. Maybe I just overlooked it. But my box is before USB2. There must
have been something fundamentally wrong with the WinTV PVR USB as I upgraded
to XP one month after I purchases the PVR and it didn't work until I got the
new XP drivers. They are buggy and the sound from the PVR was never good.
I have an ATI wonder TV PCI card in a spare 'puter and it has great sound
and works, but I'm not as fond of the interface.

Flip

 

[Zapper]

I used Google to find that list..I have found that most manufacturers
websites are impossible to navigate.

I think the major change for he USB2 PVR was adding hardware Mpeg2
support(which was necessary to run in Windows XP Media Center 2005)

Do you happen to know which chip the atiwonder tv card uses? I have a
generic card using hte Ati 550 chip and it works wonders in MCE and
Vista...you can then use the Media Center in Vista if it is supported. It is
the best interface for DVR on the PC(in my opinion..i have tried beyondTV,
yahoo, and several others)

 

[jonah]

Anybody have success getting a WinTV PVR USB to work. This hardware was
iffy in XP and Hauppauge had an update for it's software. I doubt that they
will support this device in Vista......sigh! It was $250.00 when I bought
it. The story I am getting from both hardware and software vendors is they
won't have updated drivers or programs that work with Vista until it's final
release. HOW SHORT SIGHTED! And more over AOL doesn't even have a beta for
Vista, so what are 8 to 10 million people going to do when Vista is
released. Personally I don't think MS is going to make it's early 2007 goal
although the OS seems stable enough. I would hate to be in their call
center if released without a resonable amount of vendors having taken
Vista's release seriously and provide working drivers. Really!! not even
the usuall Anti Virus programs work. That's just a sin.

I love the new look and feel of Vista, but think because more than 1/2 of my
software and many devices don't work, I'll just go back to XP. Not much to
do with a new operating system that only Office and some assorted programs
work with. The upgrage advisor only mentioned 2 problems so I was excited
to instal Beta 2. : (

Flip

OK I tried a Hauppage PCI card.

WinTV 878/9 with a 44085 PAL-I Tuner Chip.

Installed, Vista went online and found / installed video / audio
drivers successfully, I was suitably amazed.

Decided there was little chance of the WinTV 2000 app that came with
the card working so I tried the Media Centre. The media centre went
through the motions but decided I had no tuner installed despite the
fact that it Vista had installed drivers for it.

Tried the WinTV 2000 app installed under compatability mode but it
would not install even in a full admin account, did not expect it to
but worth a try.

Anyway partial success, I will investigate media centre further
tomorrow but I am not confident its going to work in this Beta
environment .

Jonah

 

[Zapper]

Just because Vista the OS sees a peripheral(your TV tuner card) and installs
drivers does not mean that Media Center(the app which happens to come with
Vista) will support it.

In order to guarantee a pleasurable experience of Windows Media Center,
Microsoft made the capability for real time Mpeg2 encoding required. What
this meant for every card I have heard of is hardware based, therefore
most(any?) cards that are over 2 years old are not going to be
"recognized/useable" in Media Center.

 

[Tom Scales]

Ah, the original USB.

It's a software encoder and not supported by MCE.

Blow big bucks ($59 on sale) and buy a PVR-150 PCI card

 

[Tom Scales]

The TV Wonder doesn't use the 550, as far as I know

 

[Paula]

Watching this thread so for the heck of it I set up my Hauppauge PVR USB 2
model # 29032 Rev. D158 on Beta 2 to see how it would work. Vista found the
new hardware and went to Windows Update to fetch the drivers and installed
those fine. After the drivers were installed I went to the setup within
Media Center and everything was configured fine. However, there is no sound
(Audigy 2) even though the sound is working fine in Vista. Video is choppy.
Dunno if that's a video driver issue (nVidia) or Media Edition or both.
This was my experience so far. Interesting to see what happens with future
builds.

Paula

 

[Zapper]

Did you record anything or just watch?

If you just watched, how about recording and see if the video is smooth.

While watching, it has been hit or miss whether it was smooth or
choppy...one time it obviously started thrashing when I opened Windows Mail,
then went perfect when I quit out...but other times it has been harder to
figure out.

What did you do to get your Audigy 2 to work. I have an Audigy 2ZS, and
tried to install the Beta 1 drivers from the Creative site. It did not work
first time, so I went back to onboard. Since I am only using headphones, I
am not really worried about it..but would love to know if you had to do any
tricks to get it up and running...

 

[Paula]

I was just watching but now that you pointed that out, I tried recording
something and it played back just fine. Still no sound though.

As to the Audigy question, when I first installed Vista I had a Turtle Beach
Santa Cruz card that was not recognized. Upon checking the manufacturer's
web site, they have discontinued that product and are no longer offering
support for it so I bought a new card, the Audigy 2 value. I installed it
after I had Vista all up and running. It recognized the new hardware and
asked for a cd with the drivers. I inserted the supplied CD that came with
the card and to my surprise, they installed fine and sound was now working.
Sometimes it gets a little quirky and raspy, but it's fine most of the time
.. Device Manager reports the driver date as 7/1/2004 and the version as
5.12.4.522. I have not tried any of the creative beta drivers or any other
driver since what is working now is good enough for the time being.
Paula

 

[Zapper]

I am running on x64, and I downloaded the drivers that were just suggested
this morning. I am only using headphone, so they worked(had to install
twice).
The driver # is 5.12.8.1164.
Headphones are working, but the system seems less responsive...will keep an
eye on it.
The driver package is called SBAX_WEBUP_LB_2_08_0004