Hauppauge intros WinTV-HVR-950Q USB tuner with Clear-QAM support

Been on the lookout for a USB TV tuner with NTSC, ATSC and Clear-QAM support? Look no further than Hauppauge, which has proudly introduced the WinTV-HVR-950Q to handle all of the aforementioned needs. Additionally, the stick comes bundled with a credit card-sized remote capable of controlling the action from any given sofa, and it obviously supports the firm's SoftPVR and SoftMCE software MPEG-2 encoders. We know you're eager to cram one in your laptop and hop on a jet to a land far, far away, so you'll be quite pleased to know that it ships this month for $99.

[whatishalo? @ Jan 7th 2008 2:56PM]

Cool. Hope it plays well with BeyondTV. Out of PCI slots in my HTPC and want to add another HD input.

[nerdwes @ Jan 7th 2008 3:09PM]

Have you looked at the HDHomeRun?

[Timmy @ Jan 7th 2008 6:21PM]

Beyond TV doesn't support QAM, other than the HD Homerun, so don't bet on it. Check the SnapStream forums from last week regarding the "future" of Beyond TV. Doesn't look good.

[Rakesh@SnapStream @ Jan 8th 2008 4:29AM]

Here's the post that Timmy's referring to: http://forums.snapstream.com/vb/showthread.php?t=43398

You can judge for yourself about the future of Beyond TV.

We support the HVR-950 right now so just using this device (the HVR-950Q) as an ATSC TV tuner will work just fine. It's the QAM part of it that we don't support, yet.

[helloUser @ Jan 7th 2008 3:01PM]

Mac compatible?

[Max @ Jan 7th 2008 3:12PM]

The Elgato EyeTV Hybrid is just a rebranded Hauppauge HVR-950 (predecessor to the one announced today) so I can only assume Elgato will follow suit with software support and their own version of this.

Here's hoping it happens soon!

[Dan S. @ Jan 7th 2008 3:24PM]

The Hauppage models work out of the box with Elgato's software.

[dhaasgob @ Jan 7th 2008 6:47PM]

All Elgato needs to do is add driver support (it's like the Pinnacle devices, not all of the USB stick ones work even though they are similar devices). IF they do end up supporting it, I might pick it up and drop my Hybrid.

I doubt they'll have a rebranded version of this for Macs. It would compete directly with the 250+ they released a few months ago (the 250+ has hardware encoding as its big selling point vs. the Hybrid and this device).

[Ian @ Jan 7th 2008 3:13PM]

Pretty next, but do note it uses software decoders.

[SuperQ @ Jan 7th 2008 3:59PM]

Hopefully MythTV will work as well.

[Joseph @ Jan 7th 2008 8:00PM]

Wow, this is an affordable way to start in with a linux MCE. Im thinking mac mini + 2 of these & linux MCE and gyro remote. Compact, functional, sweet!