best PVR software for WinXP?

[destrekor]

what i am looking for:
lots of options for editing the quality settings for encoding itself.. such as in color settings, and not just for display.. its a family computer downstairs, and i would rather burn dvd's with the shows and watch them in my room on my tv.. so i'd prefer color to match what it looked like from the digital cable source

ability to define video decoder (in case i want to watch from the pc, at times I do). i know beyond tv offers this option.

divx recording.. but question.. my haupaugge 150 has hardware mpeg2 encoding.. so would divx bypass that feature and take up a lot of resources? if so, would it be better to just record to mpeg2 and use nero recode to re-encode everything when burning to dvd? or any program to re-encode for that matter.

support for my windows media center remote.. and i have it hooked up with the ir blaster, so it needs to be able to support the ir blaster and be able to change channels on its own (the pvr software, that is) through the usb device.

from there, typical pvr features... and if any of the programs have differences in video encoding quality.. whichever encodes the best

thanks

right now im really lookin at Beyond TV 4 and going to try the 21day trial

edit: answered one question myself:
http://snapstream.helpserve.com/index.p...gebase&_a=viewarticle&kbarticleid=1408
since the system is an athlonxp 2500+ mobile (at 2.3ghz, about to underclock back to the stock 2ghz since its not my gaming system anymore, and didn't provide a big boost anyway ), i'd be stuck, at best, using medium divx settings... fvck that i want the best image quality possible.. i can always archive on dvd's with nero recode or something

 

[Markbnj]

Big :thumbsup: for Beyond TV 4. I have had it since Christmas. It's a very slick piece of work, and completely stable on my system w/ATI TV Wonder Elite tuner. The version I got came bundled with the Firefly remote, and I give that a hearty endorsement as well.

 

[Traire]

Originally posted by: destrekor
what i am looking for:
lots of options for editing the quality settings for encoding itself.. such as in color settings, and not just for display.. its a family computer downstairs, and i would rather burn dvd's with the shows and watch them in my room on my tv.. so i'd prefer color to match what it looked like from the digital cable source

You can do this independant of whatever PVR software you want to use. Since you have a PVR 150, you should get the Hauppauge Tweak Tool. It will let you adjust color, brightness, contrast, etc.

Originally posted by: destrekor
ability to define video decoder (in case i want to watch from the pc, at times I do). i know beyond tv offers this option.

GBPVR software allows you to select the decoder codec in its options.

Originally posted by: destrekor
divx recording.. but question.. my haupaugge 150 has hardware mpeg2 encoding.. so would divx bypass that feature and take up a lot of resources? if so, would it be better to just record to mpeg2 and use nero recode to re-encode everything when burning to dvd? or any program to re-encode for that matter.

It wont "bypass" the hardware mp2 encoding. The Hauppauge card ALWAYS encodes to mp2, there is no way to bypass that function, even when your just watching tv in real time. The image your seeing is post mp2 compression. Any transcoding to DIVX will require a lot of CPU cycles, so it would be better to do the transcoding of previously recorded files, say at night when your sleeping, instead of in real time.

 

[IamDavid]

Originally posted by: Markbnj
Big :thumbsup: for Beyond TV 4. I have had it since Christmas. It's a very slick piece of work, and completely stable on my system w/ATI TV Wonder Elite tuner. The version I got came bundled with the Firefly remote, and I give that a hearty endorsement as well.

How big of an improvement is V4 over 3.5? Any idea? I have 3.5 and like it..

 

[Markbnj]

I only used the trial of 3.5, and for a short time, so I am not the one to give an analysis. Snapstream has a list of the fixes and updates from 3.5 to 4 on their site. What I can say is that 4.0 is cool .

 

[doan]

Originally posted by: Traire

Originally posted by: destrekor
what i am looking for:
lots of options for editing the quality settings for encoding itself.. such as in color settings, and not just for display.. its a family computer downstairs, and i would rather burn dvd's with the shows and watch them in my room on my tv.. so i'd prefer color to match what it looked like from the digital cable source

You can do this independant of whatever PVR software you want to use. Since you have a PVR 150, you should get the Hauppauge Tweak Tool. It will let you adjust color, brightness, contrast, etc.

Originally posted by: destrekor
ability to define video decoder (in case i want to watch from the pc, at times I do). i know beyond tv offers this option.

GBPVR software allows you to select the decoder codec in its options.

Originally posted by: destrekor
divx recording.. but question.. my haupaugge 150 has hardware mpeg2 encoding.. so would divx bypass that feature and take up a lot of resources? if so, would it be better to just record to mpeg2 and use nero recode to re-encode everything when burning to dvd? or any program to re-encode for that matter.

It wont "bypass" the hardware mp2 encoding. The Hauppauge card ALWAYS encodes to mp2, there is no way to bypass that function, even when your just watching tv in real time. The image your seeing is post mp2 compression. Any transcoding to DIVX will require a lot of CPU cycles, so it would be better to do the transcoding of previously recorded files, say at night when your sleeping, instead of in real time.

GBPVR is a very flexible program and also has an option for scheduled transcoding