Hauppauge HVR-2250

From MythTV

The Hauppauge HVR-2250 dual hybrid tuner capture card

The HVR-2250 is a PCI-e 1x low profile capture card which features 2 'hybrid' tuners. A hybrid tuner is one that can record both NTSC and ATSC/QAM sources but shares the hardware to do so. Because of this, each tuner can only record from one source at a time. Since the card features two tuners, it is possible to record 2 sources simultaneously. For example you will be able to record (2x NTSC, 1x NTSC and 1x ATSC/QAM, 2x ATSC/QAM).

The card features a coax input for either an antenna or cable input. The internal splitter will send the feed to each tuner so there is no need to run two cables to the card (finally!). There is one S-video input and a corresponding minijack audio input as well (its mislabeled as "Remote control receiver on the diagram). Included with the card is a PCI bracket with an additional S-Video, Compositie Video, and RCA Audio inputs which connect to the headers on the card. Finally, there is a USB Windows Media Center remote and receiver with dual IR Blasters included.

This card has an excellent feature set and any updates on driver development and mythtv integration should be added here.

Linux Drivers

There are no drivers for the SAA7164 chipset as of yet, but work is currently progressing towards making Linux drivers a reality.1 Stay tuned for more info as it becomes available!

Excerpt from an email from Hauppauge support on 11-19-2008: "Support for the WinTV-HVR-2250 is expected by the end of the year."

Opinions

This is the one we have all been waiting for! Dual hardware encoders for analogue, and dual ATSC/clear QAM tuners all on one coax plug in a low profile PCIe 1x interface (second coax plug is for FM radio). This will meet all your current analogue encoding needs as well as future-proof you for ATSC OTA and clear QAM for digital cable. Reviews of this card online are calling it "the gold standard of home theater PC TV tuners" 2 and with a feature set like this, it's not hard to see why.