• 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.)

• 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).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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 settings\all users\shared documents\application 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.)