Review by Godthi Vamsy for Hauppauge 1193 WinTV HVR-1500 Notebook Express Card HDTV Tuner/Video Recorder Media Center Kit
Rating:
All the features stated in the description work really well. Its a breeze to install and make it work with Windows media center. Also works very well with Vista. The remote is very handy and can be used as a media center remote control. It also controls other programs playing media on the laptop. It does not slow down the system even when it is recording videos. Excellent value for the money.

Review by Jack C. Hayden Jr. for Hauppauge 1193 WinTV HVR-1500 Notebook Express Card HDTV Tuner/Video Recorder Media Center Kit
Rating:
Excellent hardware. Kit uses Windows Media Center. This

is MUCH too slow. Downloaded Hauppauge WinTV from their website

and now it works VERY well.

Review by T. Payne for Hauppauge 1193 WinTV HVR-1500 Notebook Express Card HDTV Tuner/Video Recorder Media Center Kit
Rating:
Product works as advertised. I use it in conjunction with the Windows Media Center that came on my new laptop (therefore I can’t speak for the included software) and have not had any problems at all. HD picture looks great. Does a great job of recording. Occasionally there is a blip in the signal, but that probably has more to do with the antenna’s location than anything else. Completely satisfied with purchase.

Review by E. Boles for Dazzle Video Creator Platinum [OLD VERSION]
Rating:
This is a response to critics. I carefully read the reviews of Pinnacle Studio 10, which this package comes with, and negative comments on Pinnalce support, on the various venues on Amazon.com. So I almost didn’t buy this. But I’m glad I took the chance. To be sure, I haven’t yet actually got to the point of burning the DVD, only capturing. But the installation and the capturing (from VHS) and editing I’ve done so far have been perfectly smooth and incredibly easy. And Pinnalce support – live chat — was prompt. It turns out that the problem I had wasn’t with the software or PC at all, but with my VCR (the right stereo channel did not output). I don’t know the specs of the Gateway I’m using except that it has 1 MB of ram, which I suspect is really what one needs. Video capturing programs take a lot of a PC’s resources like gaming programs do. Overall, I find the software very easy to learn and use. I get the sense that most of the people who write reviews are the disgruntled, not the pleased. In fact, I’m writing this because, despite the critics, I’m impressed with just how easy it is to piece together and edit (create menus) from different video sources. If I have a problem with burning, I’ll write again.

Review by Mr. BBQ for Dazzle Video Creator Platinum [OLD VERSION]
Rating:
Despite it being advertised as having hardware compression, it dropped frames during capture. Even though the capture app would say zero frames were dropped, the captured video was very choppy with audio dropouts. Analyzing the file with VirtualDub (an excellent free program) verified there were indeed dropped frames. My software-only Turtle Beach Video Advantage drops fewer frames. Given this is the point of the device, it gets one star for failing to achieve this basic task. (My system is well above the stated minimums.)

The software supplied with the unit (which you must use, as the device works with no other standard capture programs) has no ability that I was able to find for adjusting the incoming audio level, which was quite low.

The software also lacks a simple/quick capture program that will just capture video to a file on disk (I use other editing software and just wanted a quick direct-to-MPEG2 option). You have to load the full Studio program, and the capture section had no option for turning off the preview during capture, I suspect one of the reasons it drops frames. The preview window is tiny and not resizable, which makes seeing your capture adjustments pretty much impossible.

Given the poor performance, bloated and inflexible software, and a previous bad experience with the Pinnacle DC10a, I will never purchase a Pinnacle product again.