Note: If you have run HCWCLEAR, you must reboot your PC and leave the WinTV-HVR-850 installed. After a reboot you will see the Found New Hardware Wizard installation message, hit Cancel. then continue below.
If you have one of the following products: a Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-850, WinTV-HVR-950, the original Colossus or HD PVR model 1212, you must use WinTV v8 or WinTV v10. WinTV v8.5 does not support these products. A WinTV v8.5 Activation Code will be needed to install this WinTV v8.5 version. Yes, the WinTV-HVR-955Q can be used with Windows Media Center in Windows 8, 7, Vista and with Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005. To use the WinTV-HVR-955Q with Windows Media Center, download and install the Windows Media Center driver installation package, which will install the WinTV-HVR-955Q Windows driver and the Hauppauge MCE Soft Encoder. Hauppauge Wintv Hvr 950 free download, and many more programs. Video: Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-1200 Driver Version A02. Video: Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-1200 Driver Version.
Note: to use the WinTV-HVR-850 with the Windows Media Center application, click the Windows Media Center install tab above.
WinTV v7 application and TV tuner driver download package
File name: wintv7_cd_3.9g.exe
File size: 151.4 MB
Date: 02/12/2015
This download is a complete installation package, including drivers for supported WinTV products plus the WinTV v7 application and utilities.
Installation notes:
A valid WinTV application CD-ROM will be needed to install this WinTV v7 version. Any WinTV v6 or WinTV 7 application CD can be used during the install. If you do not have your original WinTV CD-ROM but would like to update to WinTV v7, you can purchase a new CD on the Hauppauge webstore for $9.95
If you have a WinTV v7.2 CD-ROM with Extend, then the latest version of WinTV Extend will also be installed.
To install the WinTV v7 application update
- Download the WinTV v7 installation package to your PC. After downloading this file, the file is normally saved in the Download directory on your PC
- Insert your original valid WinTV CD in your CD-ROM drive
- Run wintv7_cd_3.9 from the Download directory on your PC
This will complete the driver and application installation for your WinTV.
To install WinTV v7 on a PC or laptop without a CD-ROM drive
If your PC or laptop does not have a CD-ROM drive, do the following:
- at the conclusion of the installation a dialog box will pop up saying 'Activation required'
- Click Enter Product Code
- You will find the Product code on your WinTV v7 Installation CD
- Enter the Product code including dashes and dots
Release notes for WinTV v7 version 3.9G:
- Update to the WinTV-HVR-955Q driver to fix problems seen when switching channels quickly
- Fixed an error 'You do not have access to make the required system configuration modifications...'
- Increased Pause Buffer bar size
- Fixed TitanTV tvpi file association bug
- New NOVA-HD-USB 2 driver to fix issues in Turkey and other countries with low symbol rates
- New HVR-1975 driver to fix issues with 6875 Symbol rate
- Fixed no Extend tab showing on upgrade installation
To install the latest driver:
Leave your WinTV-HVR plugged into your PC. Follow the following steps:
- Download the WinTV-HVR driver update
- Unzip this file to a directory you will remember, such as WINTV. It will create a new folder. To install, open the folder.
- Run HCWDRIVERINSTALL.EXE.
- This will install the WinTV-HVR base driver. At the completion of the driver install you should see a message which says Drivers have been updated successfully.
SoftMCE Setup
This is the software MPEG encoder needed for Windows Media Center in Windows XP and Windows Vista. This is NOT required for Windows 7 or Windows 8.
File name: SoftMCE_setup.exe
File size: 2.3 Mb
Date: 4/14/2010
Setting up your TV tuner in Windows 7 Media Center
Here is a screen by screen view of the setup of Windows Media Center. It was based on the WinTV-HVR-1600, but the setup with other WinTV-HVR products will be similar.
Bug fixes for the Windows Media Center 'Low bit rate' error message
Microsoft has released Windows Media Center patches for the 'Low bit rate' error message.
Click to view the information from Microsoft.
Remapping clear QAM channels in Windows 7 Media Center
Here are some instructions on remapping clear QAM TV channels in Windows Media Center.
WinTV Digital Signal Strength Indicator
The WinTV Digital Signal Strength indicator displays information about the quality of the digital TV channel you are watching. This application is used with the WinTV v6 and WinTV v7 applications.
Click here for instructions on using this application.
IR Remote control application
Remote control applet. After you run this applet, an icon will appear in your Windows device tray showing that the Hauppauge remote control is active..
Name: 2_68_30339_IR32.exe
Size: 443KB
Updated: Oct/ 7 /2010
WinTV-Scheduler update for WinTV version 6
TV Scheduler version 25_26071.exe
This TV program scheduler for WinTV version 6 allows 'background recording' on dual tuner WinTV products.
Name: sched25_26071.exe
Size: 3.8 MB
Updated: March 11, 2008
Soft MCE driver
This file is required for analog TV in Windows Media Center.
Name: softmce_setup.exe
Size: 2.2 MB
Updated: 4/14/2010
Is a free Personal Video Recorder (PVR) and Media Centre application for Microsoft Windows.
SnapStream Beyond TV™ 4 : 'Proving that a PC can rival TIVO' !
- Supports the latest Hauppauge TV tuners.
- Record more than one show at the same time or watch one while recording another with multi-tuner support
- Record an entire TV series Record one show, every episodes, or only new episodes of your favorite show
- Enjoy the full screen interface Choose shows and setup recordings from the comfort of your couch
- Easily find shows using the integrated Electronic Program Guide (EPG)
- Record and watch HDTV shows with over-the-air HD support on the WinTV-HVR-1250
- Skip commercials with SmartSkip™
- Find shows faster with the new browse by category feature, or search by title or keyword
- No subscription fees
- Schedule recordings away from home via the Internet or a web-ready phone
Making a TV connection to your WinTV
What Operating Systems are supported by the WinTV-HVR-850?
- Microsoft Windows 8 and 7 -32 and 64 bit
- Windows Vista (all versions), 32-bit and 64-bit
- Windows XP, XP Pro or Windows XP Media Center Edition, with Service Pack 2 (or greater.)
System Requirements
- Minimum processor recommended:
- 2.2 GHz P4 or 1.8 GHz Centrino or equivalent (minimum).
- 2.8 GHz processor for analog TV recording with MPEG-2 (minimum).
- Graphics display adapter with 64MB of memory (minimum).
- Sound card or system.
- USB 2.0 port (will not work with USB 1.1).
- CD-ROM drive (for Software installation).
Can I use the WinTV-HVR-850 with Media Center?
Hauppauge Wintv Hvr 1600
Yes, the WinTV-HVR-850 can be used in Windows XP or Vista Media Center. Simply download and install the latest MCE Kit from the Hauppauge website, which will install the driver and necessary 'Hauppauge MCE Soft Encoder'. Under Windows 7 only the driver is required, the Soft Encoder is included with the OS. Here is the link: http://hauppauge.lightpath.net/software/mce/mcekit_setup.exe
Please note: you will only be able to configure WinTV-HVR-850 as either an Digital tuner or an Analog tuner. You will not be able to switch between Digital and Analog channels.
NOTE: You must set up an analog TV tuner in Media Center first before you can proceed to set up a digital tuner.
What type of channels will I receive with the WinTV-HVR-850?
NTSC Analog CableTV or over-the-air analog TV: You can use your cable TV from the wall to connect to the WinTV-HVR-850 and receive all of your basic Cable TV channels. You can also use a roof top antenna to receive 'over-the-air' TV.
ATSC over-the-air digital TV: Supports all ATSC formats, up to the high definition 1080i format!
NOTE: For ATSC digital TV, a rooftop/out door antenna is recommended for optimal results/signal strength.
Analog channels are MONO audio only.
Digital channels are STEREO.
Can I get HD with the WinTV-HVR-850 through my Cable or Satellite box?
What type of recordings can I make with the WinTV-HVR-850?
Using the WinTV 7 application the WinTV-HVR-850, will record in a transport stream (TS)
For ATSC digital TV recordings, the recording format and bit rate is exactly the same as the broadcast format (i.e. ATSC 1080i is recorded at 1080i).
For NTSC analog cable TV recordings, our SoftPVR is used to create Transport Stream files (TS)
Note: TS files can be converted to MPEG files using options in the WinTV 7 configuration menu.
Note: The WinTV 6 application recording are in MPEG format for both digital and analog.
Note: Not all recordings made with ATSC signals are DVD compliant.
Can I record one show while watching another with the WinTV-HVR-850?
No. The WinTV-HVR-850 will only be able to record the program that is being viewed using the supplied software.
You will not be able to watch a digital channel and record an analog channel simultaneously or vice versa due to the fact there is only a single tuner on the WinTV-HVR-850.
Stream DShowError: 'Create Filters CLSID_MainConceptMPEGEncoder Class Not Registered (0x80040154)' error when attempting to record?
If using the WinTV 6 application this indicates that the 'Soft PVR' is not installed. To verify Soft PVR installation, look under control panel/add remove programs and you will see the Hauppauge WinTV Soft PVR. To reinstall SoftPVR, install the SoftPVRUpdate.exe from your WinTV CD ROM (located in the SoftPVR folder).
(Note: If a hardware encoder model WinTV is already installed on your system, this will prevent the SoftPVR from installing properly. In order to install SoftPVR in this case, go to device manager and temporarily disable the drivers for the WinTV hardware encoder product. Install the SoftPVR and once completed, you may re-enable the hardware encoder in the device manager.
Black video window or choppy video when watching a digital TV channel
If you are watching a digital TV channel and you see choppy video, no audio or a black screen, then it is possible your PC is not fast enough to decode and play the digital TV channel you are watching. Please verify that your system meets the minimum requirements for using the HVR-850
Digital TV, especially ATSC high definition digital TV, is very CPU intensive. Many graphics cards have special built-in hardware to speed up decoding of high definition TV channels.
On graphics cards without special video decoding features, you can often improve the playback performance by using the Video Renderer settings located in the settings menu of WinTV 7. To open the setting menu click on the “gear” button located in the lower left of the WinTV 7 screen.
The default mode is EVR. The other modes are VMR9, VMR7 and Overlay. Each mode uses a different process to render video. Try each mode and use the one which gives you the best results. To use hardware acceleration put a check in the box “use hardware acceleration when possible. This will allow your graphics system to use hardware acceleration for video decode. Note: graphics hardware acceleration does not work on all systems. After making a change in video rendering settings Wintv must be restarted to take effect.
If you are using WinTV 6 then the render options are part of a separate program called Primary. Changes in the Primary applet must be made with the WinTV application closed. Open the Primary program by going to Start – All Programs – Hauppauge WinTV – Primary. After making changes close the Primary applet and open the WinTV application.
Where can I find the optional AV cable?
WinTV crashes on a Dell Vostro desktop
I receive a 'Low bit rate' error message when using Windows Media Center in Windows 7.
Click to view the information from Microsoft.
WinTV application locks or stops responding during analog scan under Windows 7.
In order to fix this issue, please check that your Power Options setting is not set to ‘Power Saver’. Please change it to ‘Balance’ or ‘High Performance’.
To change these settings on Windows 7, please do the following.
Click on Start and then Control Panel.
If Control Panel is set to View by: Category then click on ‘System and Security’ and then ‘Power Options’.
If Control Panel is set to View by: Large or Small icons then click on ‘Power Options’.
If you do not see Balanced or High Performance please click on the option for ‘Show additional plans’.
Once you make the change please restart your system. When the system restarts please rescan again for channels.
What file size will the recorded videos be?
Digital Broadcasts (ATSC or QAM)
The file size of a digital signal capture depends on the bitrate of the digital signal. The bitrate is set by the broadcaster and cannot be user configured. Bitrates for digital signals can range anywhere from about 1.2 Mbits/sec up to 19.3 Mbits/sec. Most of the time these bitrates are variable and not constant. Capture sizes for ATSC & QAM recordings are approximately 1.7 Gigabytes per hour up to 8.3 Gigabytes per hour.
Analog Broadcast.
The WinTV application has to convert analog signals to digital in order to record. There are four recording profiles. The following list shows recording file sizes for burning to 4.3Gb DVD:
Best - Approx 1 Hour+
Better - Approx 1 1/2 Hours
Good - Approx 2 Hours
Fair - Approx 3 Hours
WinTV v7 does not open or opens and then disappears?
This can be caused by a corrupt Channel database so you will need to uninstall and reinstall. First you need to go to start, all programs, Hauppauge Wintv and in that folder run
“uninstall Wintv7” (or remove Wintv7 using control panel 'add/remove programs) then you need to remove the backup channel database.
Windows Vista, 7 and 8 go to C:program data ( this folder is a hidden folder so if you do not see it you need to “show hidden folders “ in your search
Options) once you can get to this folder you will see a folder label “Hauppauge” delete this folder.
Windows XP go to C:documents and settingsall usersshared documentsapplication data ( this folder is a hidden folder so if you do not see it you need to “show hidden folders “ in your search Options) once you can get to this folder you will see a folder label “Hauppauge” delete this folder.
Then download the latest version of Wintv7 located in the support section of the website and reinstall (note: you must have your original CD to validate the download.)
Prodinfo.exe is a program you can run which will extract information about the WinTV product you have installed such as model and serial number, MAC address, revision, and features which can be used to identify the exact model of your product. The driver for the device must be installed in order to run Prodinfo.exe
HCWCLEAR.exe is a program you run to remove all driver and files that were installed with the installation of the Wintv program.
A hybrid ATSCUSB 2.0 device by Hauppauge.
Support for the digital functionality of this device was added to the 2.6.26 kernel.
- 2Components used:
- 3Making it Work
Overview/Features
This device supports ATSC (i.e. OTADigital TV) and analog NTSC. It also has a connector on the side for an A/V cable dongle, however, such is not shipped with some versions of the device (though it apparently is in the case with the identical ElgatoEyeTV Hybrid US). The package includes a small dipole antenna and a short USB extension cable.
There may be slightly different versions of this device being sold -- internally the components are the same, but minor variances in the exterior shell casing. Models listed [1] include:
- model 01139: WinTV-HVR-950 with ATSC and NTSC tuners, and portable antenna
- model 01145: WinTV-HVR-950 for Mac's and PC's. For use in North America. Bundled with Elgato EyeTV Lite for Mac's and WinTV v6 for PC's
- model 01176: WinTV-HVR-950 with ATSC and NTSC tuners plus French/Englsh manual and portable antenna
Also see the HVR-950Q, released in Q1/08, which adds support for digital cable.
Components used:
- Xceive xc3028ACQ (tuner & analog demodulator)
- LG DT3303 (digital demodulator)
- Texas Instruments tvp5150 (video decoder)
- Empiatech em2883 (USB bridge and analog audio)
Identification
This descriptor is from a unit packaged as a 'WinTV HVR 950, model 1176', which is shipped with the A/V cables and toy-sized antenna but no remote:
Subsystem ID
Making it Work
Firmware
In order to use the LinuxTV driver, you need to download and install the firmware. Here is the procedure to follow (taken from the help found in extract_xc3028.pl):
Download the windows driver with something like:
Extract the file hcw85bda.sys from the zip into the current dir:
run the extract_xc3028.pl script found in linux/Documentation/video4linux:
copy the generated file so it can be picked up by the Linux kernel:
Drivers
Use a recent snapshot of LinuxTV's v4l-dvb drivers
- Both analog and ATSC digital reception are supported
- Read the above mentioned Firmware section for details on installing the proper firmware.
Analog Audio Issue
Analog audio appears to be problematic so you will likely need to employ SOX as a helper application, prior to starting the viewing app, in order to get any sound in popular apps like tvtime etc.
sox -r 48000 -w -c 2 -t ossdsp /dev/dsp1 -t ossdsp /dev/dsp
Note that there may be an associated delay (i.e. not in sync).
The root of the problem is that the em28xx presents itself as a USB audio device, and applications such as tvtime do not know to associate the video stream with the audio stream.
Note that Markus Rechberger maintains a version of tvtime that is patched to work around this limitation: Mcentral.de tvtime
Sample kernel output
provide the relevant portion of dmesg here
Remote Control Support
The WinTV-HVR950 package currently does not include a remote control. One may be available as an optional-extra upgrade; Support was added for the optional remote in the LinuxTV driver in hg version 9628 (November 16, 2008).