WinTV-PVR USB2 review

Hauppauge's WinTV-PVR USB2 hopes to cash in on the success of Sling Media's Slingbox by providing a cheaper way to stream your TV over the internet. Unfortunately, it's nowhere near as good.

The small black box you get in the package is nothing more than one of Hauppauge's old analogue USB TV tuners. A digital version is due to be released later in the year, but there's no excuse for not having that option now. As the TV tuner has no Ethernet port on it, it's down to your PC to do the streaming, which means that it has to be on all the time.

Streaming is provided by a free application called Orb (www.orb.com). This is easy to set up, with a simple wizard that asks you to identify the analogue TV channels and choose which folders you want to share content from. From the Orb website, you can log into your account and view your media.

Each TV channel is listed as a link that launches Windows Media Player. This means that there's no simple way to change channel, and you have to click on another link if you want to watch a different programme.

The Slingbox lets you connect a set-top box and control it using an infrared transmitter, so you could even access recorded shows on your PVR. The WinTV-PVR USB2's approach isn't quite as slick. To use a set-top box, you have to have Windows XP Media Center Edition. Orb then picks up the list of channels from MCE. Picking a channel from Orb's website prompts your Media Center to send the appropriate infrared signal to change channels. While this means you can watch live TV, you can't access any recorded shows stored on a PVR.

The closest you can get is by sharing folders on your PC, such as the recorded TV programmes folder, and selecting a file manually. It works, but it's not as slick or as easy as the Slingbox. The only advantage of Orb is that you can also use it to stream your music collection, by sharing the appropriate folders.

Streaming TV over a standard broadband connection with an upload speed of 256Kbit/s produces a decent picture in a window, but it looks a mess if you watch it full screen. It's fine for following the cricket or catching the news, but you won't be enjoying Lost like you would at home. Unlike the Slingbox, though, you don't need a dedicated application, so you can stream video from any device with a web browser and Windows Media Player.

The WinTV-PVR USB2 is a pale imitation of the Slingbox and far less flexible. If you like the sound of its music and video file streaming options, you can use Orb for free on your current PC.

Author: Seth Barton