Hauppauge 1213 WinTV-HVR-2255 Dual Hybrid PCI-E TV Tuner Board with Media Center Remote Control and Receiver

I tried SiliconDust HDHomeRun Dual High Definition Digital Television HDHR3-US (Black) but had pixelation problems several times every show on two channels so I decided to try Hauppauge 2250 PCI-E Dual TV Tuner card and I am so delighted. Not only are my pixelation problems history, I also get better picture, FM radio, and analog channels for no additional cost!This is my setup on Windows 7 64-bit. First let me say that installing the card and setting up the Hauppauge 2250 was the easiest part of my setup. I have TimeWarner cable and am paying $41/month for standard internet (10Mbs download and 1MBs upload) and basic cable. I have a three-way splitter on the cable coming out of the wall. One cable goes directly to the FM radio on this Hauppage 2250 pc card and I receive numerous FM channels which I can access through the radio player in Windows Media Center (WMC).The second cable runs from the splitter to the TimeWarner modem to my ooma Hub - VoIP Phone Device with No Monthly Phone Service Bills where I get a landline for free then to Netgear WNR2000 for wireless connection of printers, tablets, smartphones, etc and then ethernet out to Gateway DX4350-UR21P Desktop (Black) from where I can couch surf on Logitech Illuminated Ultrathin Keyboard with Backlighting, Logitech Wireless Mouse M505, and Logitech Wireless Touchpad with Multi-Touch Navigation (910-002345) which share one unifying USB receiver so only one USB slot is taken in my pc. I especially like the keyboard which lights up only when my hands come near for easy viewing in a darkened room.The third cable runs to the TV tuner in this Hauppauge 2250 card. I did not install or use anything else included in the box as the ir cable was too short and I don't need extra inputs. The Hauppauge 2250 card is available on Amazon card only without all the extras Hauppauge 1229 WinTV-HVR-2250 White Box for System Builders Dual Hybrid PCI-E TV Tuner Board but I purchased the 1213 instead of the 1229 thinking I was going to use some of the extras which seemed like a bargain for only $9.40 but I ended up not using any of them.The Hauppage CSR told me that the tv tuner was a dual tuner and that during installation I would have to decide between whether I wanted digital HD OR analog SD OR antenna. However, using Windows 7 64 bit Windows Media Center, I just followed the prompts letting it automatically install and W7 WMC found 2 digital tuners AND 2 analog tuners and I clicked that is correct and let it search for channels finding both analog SD and digital HD on ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, TBS, CW, HSN, and WGN as well as analog only on CNN, TNT, Lifetime, Nikelodeon, USA, MTV, FNC, SPIKE, TWC, AETV, AMC, DSC, BRAVO, MBNBC, CNBC, EP, Food, FX, KUSI, HGTV, TLC, HIST, SyFy, WEP, TCM, Comedy Channel, LMN, Toon, Disn, APLP, TVLAND, BET, and IONSATP. All of the analog channels I was unable to get on the HDHomerun dual tuner as it does not have an analog tuner. While I would prefer HD to SD, I like receiving all these analog SD channels that I did not get on the clear-qamm HD only tuner. Some shows I like are not available anywhere in HD and others are available in a variety of places in HD or SD for various prices. For example, I would not want to live without the Daily Show with Jon Stewart or the Colbert Report which I can watch on HuluPlus in HD for $8/month or on the Comedy Channel website for free or iTunes for $1.99 per episode which comes to about $32/month (tip, buy Apple stock not Apple products)or in SD with this 2250 card for free. So in Windows 7, this one Hauppage 2250 card is viewed in WMC7 as 4 tuner choices but only available to use two at a time with these two hybrid tuners able to free switch around between digital HD, analog SD, and FM radio automatically controlled by WMC7. WMC in Windows Vista was able to control only 2 tuners which may have been with what the CSR was familiar.I control my WMC with my Logitech Harmony One Universal Remote with Color Touchscreen using the Infrared receiver in the Windows 7 Vista XP Media Center MCE PC Remote Control and Infrared Receiver for Home, Premium and Ultimate Edition with USB 2.0 Extension Cable Type A Male to Type A Female 6 ft, Black to get the receiver on top of my Onkyo HTX-22HDX Ultra-Compact HD Home Theater System (Black) with add-on speaker set making 5.1 surround sound without any tweaking on my Gateway DX4350-UR21P and then HDMI cable out to Samsung 52" HDTV. BTW, the code you need for your Harmony One remote to send signal to the IR receiver to control you W7WMC is Ortek VRC-1100.It was much more of an ordeal than I anticipated to get this setup. I tried many products and found that all kinds of various electronic issues that were further complicated by no technical support or technical support that did not speak English or was not familiar with their products or was unable to solve their problems or with defective products. I remember the good old days when companies had their products checked out by TWO quality control departments before releasing to the retailer but now the consumer has to figure it out and return defective products within the alloted return timeframe. My FAVORITE technical support was Gateway who said "No Tweaking required, IT JUST WORKS!" So I am watching full 1080p with 5.1surround sound via the Hauppage 2250 tuner card and I am thrilled. My audio and video have never been better even when I was paying $100/month to Times Warner. My PC records faster and searches 1000 faster than the TW box I had to rent for $15/month - Good riddance! If I want to pay for more additional channels such as ShowTime or HBO, I would need to rent a descramble box from TW and place it in the cable from the three-way splitter to the tv tuner in the Hauppage 2250 card. However, I like Amazon Prime Instant Video for movies better as there is more available to watch when you want to watch something and my Amazon streaming experience is better than I ever got from Netflix, Blockbuster, or HuluPlus.I feel I have optimized getting the best tv entertainment experience for the least cost in my area and for my preferences. I think I am set now for the next year as Times Warner gave a 12-month price guarantee. Apparently 1080p will no longer be the best video quality out there when 4K is released this 3Q12 being 8 times better they say but it will be awhile before broadcasts, discs, and other video sources get up to that quality.If my review was helpful to you in any way, would you please click on HELPFUL below?

After reading the reviews, I was hoping for the best but prepared for a headache when I ordered this. I already had an old PC connected to a TV through a receiver, but I wanted to have a TV tuner and the ability to record local channels in HD in anticipation of cutting the cord and the new over-the-top offerings this year.I opened my case, popped this in, and installed the driver for the card and the remote. I hooked in the coax from my antenna, and viola, everything worked! Although the Hauppauge comes with PVR software, I did not install it and decided to go with Windows Media Center (WMC) for my PVR since that's already part of Windows 7 Pro and is *incredibly* easy to set up. At some point I might check out NextPVR, but so far WMC has been so easy that I haven't bothered. I honestly don't use the remote that often since I don't care for live TV (it would be great for channel surfers though), but the remote does work well. I probably should have bought the bare bone card option since I don't really take advantage of the features on the boxed version.I'm really happy with the ease of set up and the ability to now schedule & record free, high quality, over the air TV. I'm also think the two-tuner card is great so I can record two shows at the same time (something will eventually come up & you'll need both tuners). The HD picture and 5.1 sound quality are great, but I am fortunate to get all the majors with one of the new small flat antennas since the tuner card is very dependent upon that (I tested my reception on my TV first before getting this card; I would not recommend buying this card if you have iffy reception). The other cord-cutter's option, Hulu/Hulu Plus, doesn't always offer the max picture quality, and it definitely has a lower sound quality (stereo) compared to OTA broadcasts (5.1).Notes:*My setup (to show what an ancient computer this can run on, much of this is from 2006): Windows 7, Intel Core 2 Duo E6400, 4GB DDR2 RAM, ATI Radeon 5850 (card died about a month after set up, nothing to do with the Hauppage) // Nvidia GTX 750 (replacement card), Sony 1080p TV, Pioneer receiver, Flatwave antenna*WMC initially didn't detect both over the air tuners properly but it does once you go into the real set up options. I had read about that already so was not panicked.*WMC, if you use that option, gives you very large files (>4GB for an hour show) in .wtv format that can't be played on a lot of devices. Other PVR programs give more flexibility. We don't really watch TV on iOS/android so this is a non-issue for my family, but the long term storage is something to think about although storage keeps getting cheaper and cheaper. I set up MCEBuddy to detect when a recording is made & reformat & clean the commercials, but I still have some tweaking to be 100% happy with that (mostly with the automated commercial detection part).*I prefer KODI user interface for viewing shows/movies in general, but WMC is easier to skip ahead precisely if I haven't run comskip, a commercial detector program (like if we are watching a show while it's recording).*I can't speak for newer ATI cards, but old ATI cards have flaky drivers for HDMI 5.1 audio output, but I was able to get it to work.