I've decided to buy a digital TV tuner card for the PC so that I can watch TV from my desk as this is where I spend most of my time. Many, many years ago I had a Hauppauge WinTV on Windows 98, however, this stopped working on XP and they didn't release a fix for it. Having looked around and comparing various models I decided to get another card from Hauppauge.
Hauppauge WinTV Nova TD500
Hauppauge WinTV Nova TD500
Hauppauge WinTV Nova TD500
I purchased the PCI bus version and installation was simple, although whilst cleaning the insides of the PC I must have blown some dust into the power supply which then shorted and blew up. Anyway, with a suitable replacement fitted I was able to continue and start playing.
Unfortunately, I was slightly less pleased with the software. The WinTV7 application is very buggy and crashes when I use dual monitor, change the channel or use the TV guide. After a lot of searching on the internet, this seems to be a common problem which does not get addressed by Hauppauge. Most solutions involve ditching the Hauppauge software and installing a third party TV program. There is Windows Media Centre, MythTV, but I have been using GB-PVR.
With GB-PVR the Nova really shines - full digital TV with AC3 audio, pause and rewind live TV and with the Nova's dual tuner I can watch one channel and record another. If only I could find two programmes worth watching...
For £60 this is a good piece of kit, it just needs the software support from Hauppauge.
Update: This hardware does not appear to work on Windows 10, neither does it work on any Linux or MacOS platform.
