As one of the few companies to focus on the TV tuner market, Hauppauge regularly claims to be the first with new technology. After being announced at CeBIT earlier this year, the WinTV-HVR-2200 was touted as the first TV tuner to pack twin hybrid TV tuners and an FM radio into a half-height card.
The WinTV-HVR-2200 is only slightly longer than a 16x PCI-E slot, so it will fit inside most chassis. Our sample had the low-profile bracket already fitted, but a full-height option is also included in the box.
The WinTV-HVR-2200 has a 1x PCI-E interface, and can be used with either Media Center Edition or its own software. It had no trouble working with Vista MCE in either digital or analogue mode, although you have to choose one or the other for each tuner during setup. With two tuners, both of which are capable of picking up either analogue or digital, you can watch one channel while recording another. The WinTV-HVR-2200 is also ideal if your current DVB-T signal is poor, as you can use analogue for now, and switch to digital when analogue is switched off and the digital signal strengthened.
The WinTV-HRV-2200 is supplied with version 6 of the WinTV application. The interface is much cleaner and easier to see from a distance compared with earlier versions, but it still isn't remote control-friendly. You'll need a keyboard and mouse to set recordings with the scheduler, which has no EPG built in, so times must be configured manually.
The FM radio is accessed via the separate WinTV Radio, which offers ten configurable presets, but no built-in recording facility.
The WinTV-HVR-2200 receives full marks for its hardware but, while it would make a great choice for a twin tuner for MCE, the bundled software is aimed at a desktop PC, rather than a media PC that you'll be using from the sofa.
Author: James Morris
Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-2200