Hauppauge WinTV-DCR-2650 Dual Tuner CableCARD Receiver

As so many other reviewers have pointed out, dealing with cable companies is the hardest process in setting up this device. Once you have it communicating with the cable company, it works very well. I've had it connected to my always-on home server/media PC for several weeks without issues. I have a Windows 7 64-bit PC purchased one year ago, and setup and operation is fairly easy. Download the firmware/driver updates straight from the Hauppauge website - don't bother with the CD, as the WinTV software won't work with this device. I was a bit upset, as their website claims the DCR-2650 is compatible with their WinTV software. I was really hoping to use the WinTV Extend software to stream over my home LAN, but that simply does not work. (Do a quick search for XBMC ServerWMC to save yourself a few weeks of struggle if streaming to other devices is your intent!)I will briefly relay my experiences with Comcast in the hope it may help future purchasers. Calling them over the phone to order a cable card led to the tech spending 15 minutes fighting his computer before discovering you have to pick them up at a local office. My local office had to go hunting to find one - they said not many people ever request them. The activation did not work at first, so their techs "escalated" it to the next level of support with no results. I made a total of 4 calls to tech support, none of them able to help. They scheduled a service call but told me it was for a phone call only - no technician would need to come to my house. That afternoon, the tech showed up, very confused. He was very nice and interested in helping, but when I told him I was using the card for a Windows Media Center PC, he said he hasn't seen that setup in several years.Ultimately, my only issue was that my DCR-2650 was connected to the cable line through a couple of cable splitters and wasn't getting a clean activation signal. I disconnected everything else (Comcast TV box and cable modem) and ran the cable directly into the DCR-2650 (I was using my Comcast phone line with tech support at the time, so that disconnected me mid-call. I kept waiting for the tech to say something, but heard only silence haha!) I simply used my cell phone to call the activation line, the computer sent the activation signal, and it finally worked! Once you have it activated, you can reconnect your other devices - just make sure you have as clean of a signal as possible for the activation.I don't fault ANY of the folks I spoke with at Comcast. They were all friendly and genuinely trying to help me. I blame the bureaucracy that goes out of their way to dissuade the use of cable cards. I can see myself upgrading in the future to the Ceton infinitv 6-tuner card (or an equivalent Hauppauge offering) and eliminating the need for the terrible Comcast boxes. There is so much room for innovation in the cable industry, but they can't see past their own ecosystem and profit margins long enough to deliver anything more than a basic barely-functional TV box.

A few years ago comcast switched to this new all new digital network, and all my tuner card would no longer work, as they did not have cable card adapters. At the time this effectively put the home PC DVR, out of business, as tuner cards with Cable card adapters were about $250 to $350. I stumbled apon this card here, and was quite excited. I have owned a hauppauge card in the past, the video quality was nice, however getting the thing to work was a challenge. Some things never change, I didn't read the directions right, did not check the clock on the computer, windows media center windows 7, did not work the first time. SO I reinstalled windows 7 (my fault, not theres). Then I spent the better part of 12 hours trouble shooting the device. Everything seemed by the book on the installtion, untill I got to the windows media center Portion of the installtion. Every time windows media center would try to connect to the tuner the USB connection light would go from green to red, the only way to fix it is to restart the computer. After hours of trying to fix it I finally did something that worked (what it was I dont know). Video quality is just amazing, when compared to digital cards I had before the cable card, there is just no comparison. It is just like watching tv right out of the cable box.Con'sThere is a diag. program that you can download from the website, but you have to have .net frame work installed, of course that is not mentioned untill you go to install the app (when it fails. For most people this may not be a problem but if you only use your computer to record tv, and are having many more problems, this is really annoying.There are 2 outrageous problems. I have horrible stuttering on recorded video playback, I just use the device as a recorder and stream the video to other PC's in the house. This computer is running more than enough horse power for this application, a AMD phenom II quad core with 4 GB ram. To make matters worse about once a day, the Tuner card Stops working and the PC connection light turns red, and the computer needs to be restarted before it will work. Most reviews that I read said they did not have a problem with this so this is the reason I purchased this card. And for my use, it is impractical to go to the computer and look at the tuner. Im going to get a USB 3 card and see if that fixes my problems, as this seems to be the weakest link on the computer if not the card might go back.Other thoughts: did not effect my ratingWindows Media Center Sucks, with cable card tuners this is your only option. There are a lot of other much better programs wont work, as they can't or don't handle encrypted content (more or less). So you have to use crappy Windows media center. If you want to see what a good Program looks like look at Snap stream's Beyond TV. This is a great program that offers so much more flexibility: DRM free Video recording, Streaming over the internet, Customization recording quality settings (I miss this the most), Built in commercial skip, the ability to stream live TV to other PC's, something that people have wanted in windows media center but Microsoft has never thought it important to put in (perhaps maybe because they are the only company in this market now?)Bottom line:I like the brand, when it works video quality is just amazing but just too bugie for me right now, I am giving it the benefit of the doubt score right now, if I get the USB 3 card and it fixes my problems it will get a 4 out of 5 if not Its going back with a 1 out of 5 (i will up date my review)