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I bought this tuner card to use with Windows Media Center on Vista (and subsequently Windows 7). I mean studying, was ideal. The hardware support is excellent (Windows 7 will put in the proper driver from Hauppauge on it it's own, not sure about Vista).I bought it to use on a second monitor on my computer in a college dorm room. It was a great decision because it took up so much less space than having a dedicated TV(and was cheaper too), and being able to record my favourite shows while I was out partying. I strongly encourage any parents out there who think they'll need to buy a TV for the childs dorm room should look into buying another cheap monitor and this card to use. Being able to pause live tv makes it even better, along with all the other DVR features (being able to get live sport scores, view online media, extend media to XBOXs etc).
A free trial version of "Ulead MovieFactory 6" is still available on the www.corel.com website. The tuner is very good, especially for HDTV, but the recorder software fair for analog TV only and it is useless for HDTV. As the other reviewers have said, this product has good to great hardware and very poor software. The selection of pci tuner cards is limited.I had been using an older TV tuner card and old DVR software in my pc to record favorite TV shows and movies, edit out the commercials, and burn to dvd. The two are just not matched up to work together. The recorder software is a stripped out trial version of Corel's "Ulead MovieFactory 5". I purchased this new tuner to upgrade to HDTV, but it's not capable of doing the same off broadcast HDTV. I'm better-off using my old setup on analog cable tv.
Does not record sound when recording live TV. Can't watch a show on one station and record on another station. You can find cards for cheaper that have better package software.
The tuner on the 1600 seemed somewhat less sensitive than the tuner on the 950Q, which makes a difference, since only one station brodcasts loally, while all the others are about 30 miles away. I'm setting up a PVR to gradually take the place of my multi-VCR system, and to be able to record some of the broadcast digital HD channels. WinTV 6 has trouble tuning the digital stations and won't handle multiple tuners (i.e. Since I was intending to use the setup with Sage Media Center, the WinTV software was just for testing anyway, so that was OK (though more usable software would have helped). Since I sometimes need to record 4 shows at once, I may buy an additional 1600.There are a few other dual-tuner products, but this was the only one that was a PCI interface. the 1600 + the 950Q).
You have to be careful about the antenna-orientation or you get unwatchable video, but if it's set up right, the HD video is beautiful. The 1600 lives in the same system with a Hauppauge 950Q, on a WinXP dual-core system. I have an attic antenna, not a large rooftop one. Hauppauge has a newer version of WinTV that is supposed to handle multiple tuners. Though it recognized both tuners, it wouldn't let me do anything useful with them and was overall pretty buggy. The analog cable tuner works fine, and I can record 3 shows at once with the 1600+950Q combination.
Others are PCI-express, which I don't have.
I'm using the analog input for now as this is the cable I have. I am currently using this on a Vista Home Premium home-made system. Media Center picked it up and using Microsoft's channel guide, I have an easy to use PVR. I'm sure the digital input will work as well. Great buy on Amazon.
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