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Free PVR Software that Works With Windows

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dicecca112

Member
Joined
Feb 25, 2004
Location
MA, USA
And it must work with an ATI Theatre550Pro Chipset. BeyondTV and SageTV do not work right, or at least I can't get them to work right. Free Trials are fine too, because if I like it I will buy it.
 
If you have a separate box for it, you can just use Linux. There are several different free PVR's for Linux. I'm setting one up now (MythTV). There's also Geexbox, Freevo, and one other I can't think of atm.

Is there any particular reason it has to be Windows? If it's a dedicated PVR box, it's just going to sit by the TV and do PVR stuff anyways, not like it needs to run other stuff.
 
not a dedicated TV box, and linux is an opition but not at the present time. Need a spare HD. I found one called mediaportal but its rather slow. It works though.

I have a box that I can use my LCD as a tv, it just doesn't have recording, so I have the Theatrix card in my sig, to record stuff while I'm at class or out partying so I can watch at a later date.
 
i second that request, is there any PVR software that will run as a service, not requiring the program to be open, and do schedulled recordings?
 
TiVo. I'm aways preaching the benefits and simplicity of using dedicated hardware devices for stuff like this. You can find a complete TiVo for like $100 and up. How much is a hard drive? $60-70-80-90? What about the "All-In Wonder" video card? What about the soptware? You will still need a cable box or DSS box if you use digital cable or DirecTV. Just buy a TiVo, and be done with it. Smartest thing I ever did IMO. Using a PC for something like this just makes no sense to me.

If your cable TV or DSS provider offers a TiVo with INTEGRATED TUNERS, this sweetens the deal by 2x IMO (makes using a PC as a DVR seem stupid - seriously). My DirecTV TiVo allows me to record 2 different shows at the same time, and I can ALSO watch a 3rd show that I recorded earlier. Never have to see any commercials, AND your regular "TV Experience" is integrated directly with your DVR service (opposed to 2 seperate systems with a primary TV setup, and a seconmdary PC setup).

With a TiVo, you will have remote control that works out-of-the-box, low-power consumption + low-heat output, and a unit that ALWAYS works and simply does NOT crash (I mean NEVER crashes unless the HD dies). It also fits nicely into (or on top of) your Audio Rack or DVD player, and you don't need a seperate monitor (uses the TV as its GUI). Also, what if you need to do some serious work on your PC, but you are in the middle of recording a show? You either deal with a slow system, or stop your recording. What if your system crashes in the middle of a recording? With a TiVo, no worries. I can be surfing, burning a CD, downloading off Bit Torrent, and whatever w/o affecting my Show's recording on the TiVo.

Glad to be a TiVo fanboy :D

:cool:
 
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I pay $5/mo for the service. I'd GLADLY pay 5x that for the convenience TiVo offers me. Seriously. I don't watch commercials any more (this affects regular TV viewing as well, NOT just pre-recorded stuff), and I don't have to sit at my PC to watch recorded programs. The total integration of the TiVo into your existing TV system is cake, and 100% rock solid. I rely 100% on a PC for my Audio Production needs, but a TiVo wins this "DVR" battle over a PC anyday IMO. No-hassles...

Believe me, once anyone tries a TiVo (especially with DUAL INTERGRATED TUNERS), you will never look back. Dedicated Hardware for this task is just "right".

Can you tell how much I love my TiVo? I'd rather get rid of my PC before I get rid of my TiVo, and the PC is worth 15x what I paid for the TiVo. Like the commercials say "TiVo will change your life", and it did! I work "Prime Time", and I never saw any of the Primetime TV lineup for about 3 years. I used to record The Simpsons and King Of The Hill on VHS - what a PITA!!! I got a TiVo, and I can watch any of my favorite shows whenever I want to while I lounge on my bed after I get home at 1:30AM with a few clicks on the remote. AND I can watch a 1 Hour Show in about ~42Minutes w/o commercials ;) . Even if my PC crashes :p

:cool:
 
MythTV is a lot more versatile and powerful than Tivo, and there are no monthly fees. It does cost more to set up though in most cases, and takes a lot more work. When it's set up though, it's much nicer. Some things MythTv does that Tivo doesn't:

1) Rip DVD's and create a video library. It De-CSS's and removes region codes.
2) Arbitrarily large storage, just throw more drives in. Kaltag has 2.4 terabytes of storage on his mythtv system. Tivo is limited to one small drive
3) client/server architecture so you can have one central server doing the work and he recordings and then you can watch it from any tv in the house that has a frontend attached.
4) It works as a video game console emulator. You can run mame on it and store all your games from every video game console out there
5) you can rip all your music and store it and play back whenever you want from any pc
6) Better compression- You can use mpeg-4, which allows you to store more than 2x as much as mpeg2, which tivo uses
7) arbitary number of tuners- Tivo has one. You can't record one thing and watch another with tivo. With MythTV, I can record 5 programs at once and watch another if I have enough tuners in my PC.

Lots of advantages to MythTV, although the install is challenging for sure. I'm working on mine atm, and it has already taken several days.
 
MRD said:
MythTV is a lot more versatile and powerful than Tivo, and there are no monthly fees. It does cost more to set up though in most cases, and takes a lot more work. When it's set up though, it's much nicer. Some things MythTv does that Tivo doesn't:

1) Rip DVD's and create a video library. It De-CSS's and removes region codes..

True. The reason for this is due to copyright issues with a TiVo with integrated Digital Tuners. There is never a generation loss to analog in these TiVo systems (like my DirecTV TiVo), so burning a DVD from one of these TiVo's is equivalent to a bit-accurae clone of the material. Standalone TiVo's DO have DVD-R capability, but MUST use an Analog Video Input from another Tuner Box (no digital video connections, so you get a generation loss).

MRD said:
2) Arbitrarily large storage, just throw more drives in. Kaltag has 2.4 terabytes of storage on his mythtv system. Tivo is limited to one small drive.

FALSE. You can put upto TWO 127GB drives in a TiVo. Even with my single 120GB drive, I stil have 105 Hours of recodring time. Plenty for me. Max wold be arouind 230 Hours on a TiVo. If you have that much free time, I truly admire you :p . Last time I checked, I have 50 odd "Season Passes", and I have plenty of room to store 5 or 10 episodes of most of my favorite shows. TiVo uses a smart storage strategy and continually makes room for new recordings, and you can opt to store certain programs "Until I Delete" them. Plug-n-play.

MRD said:
3) client/server architecture so you can have one central server doing the work and he recordings and then you can watch it from any tv in the house that has a frontend attached. .

Standalone TiVos (w/o built in tuners, with analog inputs) can be networked IIRC, and the DirecTV TiVo's (w/built in tuners) can also do this with a USB-to-Ethernet adaptor and some special Linux software w/ appropriate hacks. This goes back to the copyright issue of sharing "Bit Accurate Copies" of the program material. TiVo is just "smartly" protecting themselves from Copyright Infringement Lawsuits. The ReplayTV also has networking ability IIRC (also has analog inputs w/generation loss - no digital inputs). PS - There is a whole community involved in "hacking" TiVo's. Check www.tivocommunity.com , or http://www.dealdatabase.com/forum/ . Pages and pages of cool stuff you can do on a TiVo.

MRD said:
7) arbitary number of tuners- Tivo has one. You can't record one thing and watch another with tivo. With MythTV, I can record 5 programs at once and watch another if I have enough tuners in my PC. .

Partially False - My DirecTV TiVo has 2 BUILT IN tuners. I can record 2 different DirecTV programs, and watch a 3rd pre-recorded program all at once for $5/month. Does the Myth TV have built-in tuners, or are you required to supply your own tuners? IIRC - you also have to pay to purchase any extra Tuners, and you still have a monthly fee for "extra tuners" (at least DirecTV does). 1 Tuner plus 4 extras would be an extra $20/Month on my DirecTV bill :eek: opposed to the $5/mo I pay for my TiVo with 2 tuners. If you have a standalone TiVo, then you are limited to ONE analog input. This is why the INTEGRATED DUAL TUNER models are so appealing IMO (and the fact that there is NO generation loss - fully digital streams).

MRD said:
Lots of advantages to MythTV, although the install is challenging for sure. I'm working on mine atm, and it has already taken several days.

This sounds like a cool system. I'll have to look into it. Is this essentially a dedicated PC, or is this proprietary hardware? My TiVo is just so darn convenient. 2 Satellite cables, a Phone Line, TOSLINK Optical and S-Video to my Reciever, and a power cord. Very clean, VERY small, and dirt cheap IMO ($100 "out the door" INSTALLED with a 4-way switch included :eek: ). It has not crashed on me once in over 2 years. I'll do some searching for the MythTV system since I have no clue about it. Something to consider (assuming the cost is not much more than a $100 TiVo :) ).

Rock On :cool:
 
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