TV Tuner Software Alternative

[Polarman]

I purchased a ATI TV Wonder 650Pro TV tuner Card when i recently upgraded.

It comes with Catalyst Media Center wich is basicaly Cyberlink PowerCinema 3 remake. I did not find it to my liking so i tried Cyberlink PowerCinema 5 trial instead. It's not too bad but still...

Too many useless gizmos and gadgets, resources hungry and lacks overall customization. + It did not save some settings. (I don't care about the temperature in New York or whatever)

Is there an alternative that i could try out that is not overly bloated and probably eats less ressources that works with the type of card i use. Maybe there's an open source project out there? who knows!

Thx for any suggestions.

[puntoMX]

I presume you are running Windows XP or Vista?

One I know of is made for Linux called MythTV.

[Polarman]

XP

[jrf2027]

One I know of is made for Linux called MythTV.

If you're leaning towards Linux, you may want to look at a new Ubuntu branch called Mythbuntu - which is a melding of MythTV into the Ubuntu distribution. You can probably dual-boot between Mythbuntu and XP, and you may be able to view your MythTV shows on XP using VLC.

If I only had a TV tuner card, I'd test it out for you...but I don't.

[puntoMX]

It seems there is no much on XP that comes close to MythTV or Mythbuntu... I know that I would have Linux on my HTPC

[kamrananvaar]

A project aimed at building a Linux distribution for media center PCs has achieved a major new release. LinuxMCE 0704 is based on Kubuntu, and offers lots of flashy features, such as whole-house high-definition video distribution, optional alpha-blended graphics, gyroscopic remote control, and much more.

LinuxMCE appears to comprise a set of add-ons -- such as the MythTV DVR (digital video recorder), for example -- that sit on top of Kubuntu, the version of Ubuntu that uses KDE (K desktop environment). It adds numerous fancy features, including the optional alpha-blended UI (user interface)

http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS6449672401.html

[Griefage]

i think hes looking for a windows alternative tv tuner software. only ones i know of are leadtek and cyberlink, both are kinda dissapointing. if youre tv tuner card supports a winfast software give it a shot. it has alot more settings you can configure without the big animated menu etc. i personally just don't care for the GUI on either. leadtek's mainly because of the skin they use that you can't change to match default, it seems a little buggy at times.

[GrofLuigi]

Dscaler is the software I would recommend to anyone, anytime - if it works with that particular TV card.

GL

[Griefage]

Dscaler is the software I would recommend to anyone, anytime - if it works with that particular TV card.

GL

interesting grof! thanks for sharing, i'm looking into it. gotta love the open source gems like this lol.

my main objective is to be able to record realtime cable or s video efficiently with good quality. read a few comments that says its great for watching tv on but not so great quality on recordings.

ran across WinDVR also while reading up on it. might be another alternative for ya polarman.

[kooler]

I like the media centers on the windows products like vista ultimate and media center xp 2004-05

but i am using this product as of now. its open source and it supports all the big tv tuners..

i truly like it... mediaportal

hope this helps

[GrofLuigi]

For recording, with most (cheap) TV Tuner cards (the ones that don't come with integrated audio input, i.e. you connect a cable to your sound card), THE ONLY SOLUTION that will prevent Audio/Video desync is a program that dynamically resamples the audio to the desired frequency. Such programs are VirtualDub - one of the best freeware video programs ever and VirtualVCR (DirectShow based, handles TV tuning a little better).

The reason is that most (cheap?) sound cards vary their frequency slightly all the time - for long recordings it can become noticeable.

*** edit - I don't know on what hardware is ATI TV Wonder based.

GL

Edited August 15, 2007 by GrofLuigi

[Griefage]

I like the media centers on the windows products like vista ultimate and media center xp 2004-05

but i am using this product as of now. its open source and it supports all the big tv tuners..

i truly like it... mediaportal

hope this helps

very interesting software. i tried it out for a little while but there seems to be a lack of support for software cards and strict encoder/decoder's used in it. winfast 2000 xp expert here, saw several folks having problems with the software. bummer too, i liked it

[Polarman]

Sorry about taking this long to reply.

After trying out various software and suggestions here, i came to this conclusion:

ATI Catalyst Media Center 1.0 (aka power cinema 3): I really hope that version 2.0 will be better because it sucks royaly right now.

Cyberlink Power Cinema 5 (3902) trial: Way too overloaded! 208MB to install just to watch tv and a few dvd's. Come on... it feels like the bloated Nero software. Too much nonsense. Like i need that.

Snapstream BeyonTV 4.6.1 trial: Smaller than PC5 but what's this... I CANT STOP IT FROM RECORDING CONTINUOUSLY. It can fill up your hd in no time. Uninstalled immediatly. No fix on their forum.

Dscaleer: Smallest out there. I did not like it. feels like the old DOS days.

Media Portal 2.2/2.3: Seemed good until all the flaws popped out. Fullsrceen did not work neither resizing. Alt-tab srews it up.I type 45 and it goes to channel 56?? to get channel 45 i have to type 40! Too many booboo's.

You know what, i feel i'm better off installing MMC 9.16 from when i had my all-in-wonder card. At least, i could choose what apps to install. Simple as that.

[Mercury_22]

Try Chris-TV , and if you don't need PVR Functions it's free

[cyprod]

I used to have an ATI all in wonder card and will agree, the software that came with it was terrible. The only one I found that I really liked was WinDVR, it was an older version, but in my opinion, it was near perfection. All it did was watch tv and record it, worked flawlessly. Unfortunetly, since it's an older version, I don't know if you could still get it.