Hauppauge adds QAM support to the WinTV-HVR-1600 dual tuner card

by Ben Drawbaugh posted May 18th 2007 at 3:36PM

There are never enough PCI slots to support all the tuners we want in a home theater PC . Sure if you are satisfied with one or two tuners you're fine, but if you go big with lets say 8, you need to get more than one tuner per PCI slot. The Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-1600 does just that, and now they have added support for QAM, which is great for watching HD cable channels without a set top box or even a CableCARD. Sure you can't watch HBO or any of the other encrypted channels, but there is still plenty of great HD programming out there. As with anything else there is a catch, the QAM support is only available on the retail version of the product, and as we all know; Windows Media Center Edition and Vista Media center, don't support QAM. So you will have to use the bundled software to take advantage of the new feature.

Filed under: Media PCs, Tuners, Cable

Tags: Hauppauge, QAM, WinTV-HVR-1600

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Neutral

Wes @ May 18th 2007 3:47PM

But MCE does support QAM. Maybe not with the Hauppauge cards, but the Silicondust HDHomerun does it:

http://www.silicondust.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=20167&sid=24608d305d15980ee4ac1337662035bf

Neutral

Ben @ May 18th 2007 3:49PM

Yes I know, I tried to work that info into the post, but I just couldn't find a place.

Plus MCE doesn't support QAM, but the HDR tricks MCE into working with it.

I have been a HDR supporter as long as anyone.
http://www.engadgethd.com/2006/10/30/engadget-hd-review-hdhomerun/
http://bjdraw.com/2007/03/09/where-ive-been/

Ben

Highly Ranked

aaron @ May 18th 2007 3:41PM

fyi there IS a way to get QAM into media center.... HDHomeRun works flawlessly with xp&vista mce.

Highly Ranked

clifton @ May 18th 2007 4:52PM

Or you can use beyond tv 4.6.1 which also works with the 1600 and vista and mce

Neutral

tpp @ May 18th 2007 6:47PM

ExpressCard compatible version or replacement from another company anyone?

Neutral

Steve @ May 18th 2007 7:30PM

Not true! Vista and MCE (as well as other PVR apps) can tune and playback QAM programming with HD Homerun.

Neutral

aynecott @ May 19th 2007 1:51AM

many thanks for the valuable information
-------------------------------------------------
Free Software Download
http://www.populardownload.net/

Neutral

Brad @ May 19th 2007 9:10PM

Is this a dual-QAM tuner? I know it has dual tuners. But the description on the Happauge site implies that "dual tuners" means a single ATSC and a single NTSC?

I want to use this with Vista MCE, but I want to be able to record two QAM channels at once.

Neutral

Joe @ May 19th 2007 9:36PM

The 1600 is a dual tuner, NTSC analog on one tuner, and ATSC/QAM on the second tuner. Both tuners can be used at the same time, if you use a 3rd party app like GBPVR or Sage.

Neutral

Joe @ May 19th 2007 4:28PM

I don't understand... why is it that only certain versions of the 1600, unlike mine, support QAM. Real let down...

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