WinTV HVR-1600 2 Tunners?

[joe123]

Hi. I recently got a WinTV HVR 1600 and it says that is has 2 tuners:

http://www.hauppauge.com/pages/produ...a_hvr1600.html

Does this mean that I can record 2 shows at once with this card?

I currently have it setup via my S-video to my Time Warner Digital Cable box. If I connect the cable to it, will it be able to record 2 shows at once?

I know it says 2 tuners, but can it encode 2 shows at once, hence, be able to record 2 shows at the same time?

[mattdcknsn]

From what I have read in other threads Sage does not support that yet. I think they are working on that in the next release.

[joe123]

That was a fast reply

Well, I have the latets SageTV and it's working right now. I have 2 WinTV 150 and this one which shows up as WinTV 418.

The "Setup Video Sources" shows "WinTV 418 Video Capture S-Video" currently using and works just fine, and "WinTV 418 TS Capture" which I have not added yet.

Do you know if the WinTV HVR-1600 card itself can encode 2 shows at once? Like the WinTV PVR-500?

[ke6guj]

I think that 6.1.3 enabled support for both tuners. If so, you'd be able to record two shows at the same time, but it would be 1 analog NTSC and 1 digital ATSC, instead of 2 analog shows like the PVR-500

[joe123]

Cool.

So if I have my TW Digital Box hooked up via S-cable to the HVR-1600, and straight Digital Cable hooked to the HVR-1600 tuner input, I can record 2 shows at once?

By the way: Not sure if I just lucked out or what, but I bought a WinTV PVR 150 at Fry's and inside the box was this WinTV HVR-1600 Tunner and software.

[mattdcknsn]

Originally Posted by joe123

That was a fast reply

Yeah I happened to refresh and see your post. good timing

Originally Posted by joe123

Do you know if the WinTV HVR-1600 card itself can encode 2 shows at once? Like the WinTV PVR-500?

From what I've read, it "technically" can record 2 shows at once, but there was something with Sage that prevented it. This was right when it came out, version 6.0.19 (I think). I havent followed anything with the Betas though. Not enough time to follow it all.

Edit: too late.

[ke6guj]

Originally Posted by joe123

Cool.

So if I have my TW Digital Box hooked up via S-cable to the HVR-1600, and straight Digital Cable hooked to the HVR-1600 tuner input, I can record 2 shows at once?

Nope, you would need a QAM tuner for that, and the 1600 doesn't have that. You need to hook up an OTA antenna for it.

By the way: Not sure if I just lucked out or what, but I bought a WinTV PVR 150 at Fry's and inside the box was this WinTV HVR-1600 Tunner and software

I've heard of that happening lately. Sounds like Hauppauge ran out of 150's and just tossed in 1600's instead.

A similar thing happens in the Hard Drive world. I've gotten extra large HD's from Western Digital a couple times like that. A 200Gig drive in a 160Gig box


Sometimes it is easier (and cheaper?) for the manufacturer to do a "free upgrade" and get the order out to the customer than to hold the order for manufacturing to catch up.

[joe123]

Originally Posted by ke6guj

Nope, you would need a QAM tuner for that, and the 1600 doesn't have that. You need to hook up an OTA antenna for it.
.

I am confused.

Let's start with this. Does the WinTV HVR-1600 have 2 encoders or not? The box does say 2 tunners, but I am confused if it can encode 2 recordings at once?

[ke6guj]

It can record 2 recordings at the same time, 1 Analog NTSC recording and 1 Digital ATSC recording.

For the NTSC recording, you'd hook up straight analog cable or your STB via s-video.

For the ATSC recording, you'll have to hook up an over-the-air antenna so that it can record the digital broadcast. However, the ATSC tuner can not record a digital QAM broadcast, so you can't record digital cable channels with it.

With 6.1.3, Sage can use both the NTSC and ATSC tuners at the same time to record 2 shows.

[joe123]

Originally Posted by ke6guj

It can record 2 recordings at the same time, 1 Analog NTSC recording and 1 Digital ATSC recording.
.

So if it can record 2 shows at once, then it has to have 2 MPEG encoders, right?

I called hauppauge and talked to support. Not sure if I got mis-information or not, but the tech support guy said that this HVR-1600 card has only 1 encoder, so it can only record 1 at a time, but it has both tunners - so you can pick which one to record but only 1 at a time.

I will try to test it myself and see for sure if it can record 2 shows at the same time or not. Anyone else have this card and knows for sure?

[Tiki]

So if it can record 2 shows at once, then it has to have 2 MPEG encoders, right?

No. Old fashioned TV and Cable use an analog signal that requires an NTSC tuner to recieve (in the USA anyway, it's PAL in other countries). In order to store that type of program on a PC, you have to encode it into a digital file of some sort. MPEG is one format that is commonly used.

The PVR-150 and the new 1600 each have one NTSC tuner and one hardware-based MPEG encoder. The 1600 adds a new ATSC tuner as well, but not a second MPEG encoder. The MPEG encoder only works for the NTSC tuner, the S-Video input, and the RCA Composite input (and only one of these 3 can be used at a time).

ATSC is the new format used in the US for digital broadcasts including HDTV. In the next couple of years the old analog broadcasts will be phased out and replaced with ATSC for over the air broadcasts, so old TV's and VCRs with NTSC tuners won't work with roof-top antennas or rabbit ears anymore.

The new ATSC digital broadcasts are already digital so they don't need to be re-encoded into MPEG. They are simply captured and saved directly as a Program Stream (.PS) or Transport Stream (.TS) file.

That is why you have 2 tuners, but only one MPEG encoder.

I have not tried the new 1600 card, but it is my understanding that Sage can record from the ATSC tuner plus one of the other 3 inputs (NTSC tuner, S-Vid, RCA) at the same time.

[ke6guj]

Originally Posted by joe123

So if it can record 2 shows at once, then it has to have 2 MPEG encoders, right?

I called hauppauge and talked to support. Not sure if I got mis-information or not, but the tech support guy said that this HVR-1600 card has only 1 encoder, so it can only record 1 at a time, but it has both tunners - so you can pick which one to record but only 1 at a time.

AFAIK, digital capturing does not use an encoder, the stream is recorded directly to disk. So, it wouldn't need 2 MPEG encoders. And I found this at the HVR-1600 website, "A highly integrated MPEG-1/2 hardware encoder based on the Conexant -418 is on-board for recording analog cable TV to disk" . So, it does appear that they are correct in saying it only had 1 encoder, but I think it only needs one.

I will try to test it myself and see for sure if it can record 2 shows at the same time or not.

Yah, give it a try and see what happens. Just make sure you are using the 6.1.3 RC since the 6.1.x series added this.

"9. Added support for Hauppauge WinTv-HVR 1600 (can act as an ATSC + NTSC tuner that supports both inputs at once!)"


edit: too slow

[joe123]

Thank you guys for the clear explanation.

It makes sense now.

Best,
Joe

[kevpriest]

And this does work, by the way. I'm using my 1600 as two tuners (one ATSC, one NTSC) and they both capture at the same time.

I'm having a devil of a time getting the volume matched between the two tuners and my old 250, but that's a separate issue.

[joe123]

Any recommendations on a cheap and hopefully out of sight antenna to capture HDTV digital signals?

Or does it have to be one of those big type of antenas you see on roof tops?

[SHS]

What is the best HDTV antenna for my location?" Unfortunately, there is no single answer to this question.
Go here click on button Choose an antenna
http://www.antennaweb.org/

Maybe some like a RadioShack Low-Profile Omnidirectional Amplified TV Antenna Model: 15-1634 same as Winegard MS 2000 Metrostar

[ke6guj]

Originally Posted by kevpriest

I'm having a devil of a time getting the volume matched between the two tuners and my old 250, but that's a separate issue.

Does the volume in the analog tuner in the 1600 match the analog tuner in the 250? Those should be able to be tweaked in the registry.

However, you can't really tweak the capture volume of a digital recording since the tuner just records the incoming stream to disk. There is no encoding going on. You can adjust your system to play back the AC3 audio portion of the digital recording at a higher level with AC3filter adjustments.