Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-150

Among the least-expensive of Hauppauge's WinTV series of PCI TV tuners, the analog WinTV PVR-150 comes bundled with the Hauppauge's WinTV tuner software, which is easy to set up and lets you fine-tune a channel's frequency after setup, in case the automatic scan fails to latch on properly.

The software's controls are fairly compact. They run along a strip on the left of the interface and in a small strip along the bottom, leaving considerable room for the TV image itself. The timeshifting and recording controls are tucked out of sight until you activate them, and you can hide or display the control strips instantly by right-clicking anywhere on the TV image. This lean design comes at a price, though: some of the buttons are very tiny, especially in the timeshift and recording control panels.

Despite the well-designed interface, the remote control is frustrating. Several buttons don't activate the functions described on their labels, while some unmarked buttons do have functions. Unfortunately, the manual describes--incompletely--a different remote, and the online help doesn't mention it at all.

The WinTV-PVR-150 comes with Nanocosmos NanoPEG Editor 2.3, a basic MPEG editor for trimming or piecing together footage, though it lacks other common video-editing features. Another program, Ulead's DVD MovieFactory 3 SE, burns recorded programs to DVD or CD. We found capturing and managing still images particularly easy with the WinTV software.