image: Hauppauge WinTV-HVR 3000 TV tuner

Review: Hauppauge WinTV-HVR 3000 TV tuner

PCI tri-mode TV tuner card with satellite, Freeview and analogue support

Price: £99

Manufacturer: Hauppauge

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Verdict

Pros: Multiple tuners; good value
Cons: Drivers aren't Microsoft certified; no HD capability
Overall: Hauppauge is a market leader in the tuner market and the WinTV-HVR 3000 hybrid video recorder is feature rich and turns in a solid performance. It’s only beaten by Hauppauge’s own WinTV-HVR 4000, which adds HD capability

Terry Relph-Knight, Personal Computer World 13 Mar 2007

During this transitional period between analogue and digital television services there are several ways you might want to receive, record and view programmes.

The Hauppauge WinTV-HVR 3000 is a PCI card that provides both analogue and digital tuners.

Connected directly to a dish aimed at a suitable satellite, Astra or Eutelsat, for example, the WinTV-HVR 3000 can receive Free-to-air DVB-S digital satellite TV and radio.

TV and FM aerial inputs allow for analogue TV, terrestrial Freeview digital TV and radio reception.

Included with the PCI card are a 45-key remote (with two AAA batteries) a short RCA to S-video adaptor cable, a T-style FM aerial, an IR remote eye cable, a quick install leaflet and software/documentation on a CD.

The back panel of the WinTV-HVR 3000 features a co-ax plug for the FM aerial, a co-ax socket for the TV aerial and a type ‘F’ socket for the satellite connection.

There’s also an S-video connector, a 3.5mm jack for audio line level input and a 1.5mm jack for connecting the IR remote sensor. A note on the supplied S-video breakout cable states that only the white video-in, phono input, is active on the UK version of this product.

During installation the Hauppauge setup software installs 12 software components for the WinTV-HVR 3000, including an optional 30-day trial of the TVTV EPG (Electronic Programme Guide). At present, none of the card drivers are Microsoft certified.

Following installation an initial channel scan must be performed, and with three possible signal formats this is quite a protracted and complex task.

On our test system the TV aerial input performed well, with no lack of sensitivity that often plagues such tuners. Analogue reception places quite a heavy processing load on the system, so a fairly recent and powerful CPU is required, while DVB-T/S is much less demanding.

The Hauppauge WinTV-HVR 3000 is an obvious candidate for choice of tuner card if you are building a home theatre PC.

Alternatively, for rather more money (£179) there is the WinTV-HVR 4000, a quad-tuner card that adds high-definition TV capability to all the options available with the 3000. The WinTV-HVR 4000 will go on sale mid-March.

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