Best (free) PC TV Software

[artemicion]

I need to get TV through my PC for space conservation reasons so I purchased the Hauppauge PVR 350. However, all the reviews I have read make it pretty clear that the bundled software is lacking, so I was wondering if there were any recommendations for 3rd party software (that's hopefully free). I'd like it to be able to perform TiVo-type functions like scheduling recordings and have tv guide-type features.

Any recommendations?

 

[Traire]

http://www.gbpvr.com

 

[Todd33]

www.sage.tv

Not free, but you get what you pay for.

 

[jevans64]

I bought the SageTV bundle when I bought the PVR350. I actually liked TitanTV better. TitanTV isn't pretty compared to SageTV, but it displays A LOT more listings per page than SageTV did. I can't stand the TiVo look anyway.

A couple of things about TitanTV and PVR350. TitanTV scheduling feature doesn't work with FireFox ( probably an ActiveX thing ), so you'll need IE for that. You'll need to follow the instructions concerning WinTV Scheduler and Windows Task Scheduler service. Install the Hauppauge components in the order sugested on their site. If you have an Intel CPU with HyperThreading, you will need to disable HyperThreading in the BIOS. It seems that the WinTV software doesn't work well with HyperThreading and will result in program lockups / missed recordings.

Since I mainly record episodic TV, I just set up the weekly recording with the Scheduler and just use TitanTV to schedule / record select programs.

I'm not trying to knock GBPVR but it just looks like another TiVo clone. You can see that it only has a seven listing - 4 column time listing. My TitanTV page has a 19 station - 6 column time listing and is COLOR-CODED.

Before paying for SageTV or BeyondTV take a look at the TitanTV ( free ) sutff that came with your PVR350 package.

http://www.titantv.com

 

[Todd33]

SageTV isn't a web listing of shows, it's DVR software.

 

[NeoV]

Sage > other TV/DVR software..

 

[jevans64]

Originally posted by: Todd33
SageTV isn't a web listing of shows, it's DVR software.

Yes. I am aware of that since I have the SageTV package. Why do all the PVR software copy the TiVo format ( usually that bland blue interface ) with limited listings on the page?

I am just saying that the Web based solutions are more practical for listing browsing and are free.

 

[kylebisme]

I like Windows Media Center a lot more than anything else I have tried, but it isn't exactly free.