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I have Windows 7 Professional. I just bought a Hauppauge dual tuner card. It says I can install WinTV or use Windows Media Center. Which is better/has better support for all cable streams? What have you used in the past? I tried searching for this but found no comparisons.

Please don't answer in a subjective way -- this isn't really a subjective question. Does one have more features/better support?

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I have one too! Definitely use Windows Media Center (WMC) but don't forget the IR remote control TSR (it lives in your systray) if you have a hand held remote control and want to use it with your Hauppauge TV card. You don't need to install the entire WinTV application from Hauppauge to get IR remote control functionality either. Just download the IR remote application from Hauppauge (or from the install CD) and install it either before or after you've configured WMC. If you install Hauppauge's bundled WinTV and then use WMC you'll probably be wondering why you ever thought Hauppauge's app was even worth a try. Just use WMC and the remote control software.

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  • Thanks, I just discovered that IR app. But also thanks for the advice about WMC being way better.
    – NickAldwin
    Aug 26, 2010 at 4:42
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For OTA HD broadcasts, I could NOT get MCE to work on Windows 7 Professional MCE with my single tuner card, so I bought a dual tuner card, thinking it would work better with MCE. No dice. Still had several channels that had very low signal strength and would not record, even though they would sometimes come in with a live broadcase. Even with a big roof antenna it wouldn't work. I found no help on the internet and even tried moving my TV card outside the computer with a custom PCI extension cable and wrapped in the static resistant bag and tin foil to rule out any within-computer electromagnetic interference someone mentioned.

I finally got fed up and called Hauppauge support and they suggested WinTV7 - it was only $10, so I bought it. Very much worth the price. Now, even with a very small antenna, I get amazing reception (26 miles from the transmitters).

I recall that even a few years ago MCE had trouble with my original single tuner card.

As I said, this was all for OTA digital TV broadcasts, MCE may work if you are using it for digital cable.

So, I use WinTV7 and TitanTV for listings and to set up recordings. Works great. Plex is also awesome for streaming through Roku and to phone. It even plays back the show before it's done recording since the recording format is set up to stream.

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I like Windows Media Center for DVR type functions seems to work pretty well in Win7.

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