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Review on Enhance Your TV Experience with Hauppauge 1657 WinTV-dualHD Cordcutter Dual USB 2.0 TV Tuner: Perfect for Nvidia Shield and Windows PC by Justin Albright

Revainrating 3 out of 5

Poor Reception: Computers and Accessories

I live in direct line of sight to Seattle's major television towers. I'm about 1-1.8 miles away, on top of a hill, overlooking the hills they are on. My only potential issue with HD OTA reception would be if the signal is too strong. I bought the Hauppage WinTV Dual knowing I could get Linux drivers for it. I tried it with several servers and then connected it to a Raspberry Pi4 via TVheadend. I went through a lot of trial and error including buying some antennas and amplifiers and eventually the Pi 4 and battery allowed me to move around the house including the top floor window overlooking the TV towers. At one point I suddenly had good reception on the Pi 4, but it never happened again. I regularly have only -75 bdm signal and 18.x dB signal-to-noise ratio (or haven't read the "0%" signal-to-noise ratio list). There may be physical issues such as a loose USB connector or defective internal components. The thing also gets very hot even when not actively taking. ...and it's so massive you can't plug anything else into a port next to it. I then tried the ancient HDhomerun (2 generations ago, before "plugging in") and I immediately had crystal clear reception on all HD channels. . I can't believe how I killed myself trying to eliminate variables just for the tuner to become a point of failure. It would be a lot less painful if it just didn't work fully, instead of working poorly. Now I paid an extra year with Comcast because the only thing I needed was local HD TV (to watch football).

Pros
  • Confident
Cons
  • Out of Style