Customer reviews for the Hauppauge WinTV Nova-TD 500 Dual digital DVB-T PCI TV card

stop worrying...

Reviewed by Greg Neumann. Review Posted 30/05/2008

Just bought 2 of these dual tuners for two different machines and both are (now) working.
In the first install, a VISTA Home Premium setup but on an 'old' motherboard (circa 3-4 years old design), I ran into the "device not installed" problem whereby the bios doesn't recognise the card and so VISTA has no chance of installing drivers. Moved the card to another PCI slot. No change. Moved Tuner to yet another PCI slot (slot 1!) - and the device was recognised which, together with the latest drivers off Hauppauge web site, then installed effortlessly and tuned in both tuners via Media Centre first time.
Second install - another VISTA premium but on a much more modern GIGABYTE board. Recognized and installed drivers first time and tuned into Media Centre no hassle.
Stop worrying; card is fine but you need to have some way of investigating IF you get install problems - that's the nature of this technical area. If this scares you, got for an external USB TV Tuner and clutter your desktop!

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Does exactly what it says on the tin (well, Box actually...)

Reviewed by powerarmour. Review Posted 02/01/2008

Lucky to have received the Single antenna/VIA IC/Linux Compatible version... :)

Works fine/tested in MythTV, but using it 24/7 in Vista Home Premium 32bit Media Center with the latest 4.3.25080 drivers without any issues at all, both tuners detected and as long as you have decent signal strength you wont get any stutter.

Much better than my previous Hauppauge HVR-1110 for Vista MCE use, recommended.

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Works Well

Reviewed by Chris Shaw. Review Posted 07/12/2006

Using Windows Media Center 2005, this works well. Unlike the Terratec Cinergy 2400 that I have just ditched for repeated signal bombs...

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Good Linux Support

Reviewed by Stuart Ward. Review Posted 07/02/2007

Despite the specification stating only windows support, Linux drivers exist and are in standard kernel look for cx88xx module.

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Best with Media Center

Reviewed by Calum. Review Posted 21/11/2008

I've used this card in a Windows XP machine and a Windows Vista machine. Both worked well. I use a roof-top aerial.

The remote control isn't the prettiest thing but is well build and is fully featured.

The supplied TV watching software has a very poor user interface which completely ruins the experience in so many ways. I'd advise you to install just the drivers, and use Windows Media Center. On Windows XP however, you must purchase separate MPEG-2 decoder software which is ridiculous. The Windows Vista media center is particularly slick and irons out a lot of the bugs in the XP version.

Once set up in your living room, you won't regret this choice. The only problem is you'll need to invest in a bigger hard disk to store all the shows.

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Works fine with Linux

Reviewed by Julian. Review Posted 06/11/2008

Well I ordered one of these a week ago, to use on a Gentoo Linux system with MythTV. I did my research to try and find a card that plays nice with Linux. The reviews for this card seemed good for the most part, except for the so called 'diversity model'. Upon receiving the card, I noticed it looked pretty different to the image on the box (what with it having 2 inputs and other discrepancies). To cut a long story short, The model I received is a new version. I called Hauppauge, who finally said that this card does work with Linux. However, I tried with the 2.6.24 and 2.6.25 kernel and had no joy. Using the 2.6.27 kernel, the card works absolutely fine. You will also need to use the latest firmware available on linuxtv.org. There are plenty of useful guides around to help with Linux installation. It uses the dvb_usb_dib0700 kernel driver. Recommended for any Linux user.

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May be OK under Linux after all

Reviewed by Anonymous Review Posted 01/08/2007

At the time of writing, some suppliers are shipping a substitute card, the Nova-TD-500. As I noted in a previous review, this card is incompatible with Linux and there are no plans to create Linux drivers. I have contacted Hauppauge about the problem for Linux users and they were extremely helpful. The substitute cards are a short production run forced on them by a part shortage, and the original model is already back in production. They have agreed to replace my card for the Linux-compatible model and other Linux users have reported a similarly helpful attitude. It is also worth noting that patches have recently been written that reportedly enable the remote control and fix the Linux driver stability problems that some users have encountered.

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Good Digital Dual Tuner Card

Reviewed by Benjamin.. Review Posted 19/01/2008

Really a very good Tuner card, works with Linux but you'll need to get the latest firmware. I'm using MythTV on FC6, Kernel 2.6.22; 2.6.20 works too. You may need to patch the kernel so your remote control works with lirc. (http://www.linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/How_to_install_DVB_device_drivers) Once thats done you'll end up with a pretty smart Media system - So I'm here today, to get my 2nd card which will give me a 4 tuner system - we now have MythTV frontends streamed to 3 rooms, remember every time someone's watching a live tv programme thats one less tuner available for your systems background recording services, plus its not nice to see the message that no tuner's available just when you need to see that show. It's really a great card :-) (ah yes - I dont score anything 100% thats why its marked as 3's and 4).

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Seems Very Sensitive to Reception

Reviewed by Jonathan A. Review Posted 30/09/2007

Seems very sensitive to reception strength as frames are often interrupted. I have had PVR's that have not been impacted to this degree by the quality of reception. The TV software provided is very 'old fashioned' hence I am using it with Microsoft Media Centre which works very well and had no issues recognising the twin tuners. Overall easy to install, instructions / drivers downloaded from website are good and the remote works very well but I do think you will need Microsoft Media Centre if you intend to run the P.C with this card in it into your main T.V. Microsoft Media Centre tuning doesn't seem to pick up the Radio Digital Channels, just T.V channels whereas the Hauppage software provided does pick up both T.V and Radio hence you may need to install the Hauppage software for Radio Stations.

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O.K but seems to suffer from too many 'No signals'.

Reviewed by Jonathan A. Review Posted 11/11/2007

The card was fitted O.K and works well within the Media Centre Edition but I encounter a large number of 'No Signal' screens which may be because I use a splitetr on the signal, but may suggest the card is 'too' sensitive(not sure). Occasionally the PC crashes which may be due to MCE software but seems to be getting itself into a knot sometime when recording two programs at the same time.

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