Best PVR software

[ianbergman]

So I found a thread on hardware, but not software, so here goes --

I just bought the WinTV-PVR 250, mostly for its hardware decoding, but now i'm looking for the best software. I've been playing with SageTV 1.4 (can't download the new 2.0 w/out first buying 1.4), and am not particularly impressed. What do you guys think? What's the best software out there with built-in TV scheduling and recording, commercial skipping, saving/conversion into multiple formats... you name it.

Thanks!

P.S. For now, I'm only looking for Windows solutions

 

[gunblade]

I used to have WinDvr 3, which is not bad in itself.

 

[thedarkwolf]

I bought a pvr-250 a couple weeks ago and have been pretty impressed with Sagetv. I haven't bought it yet though. Still just screwing around .

Beyond TV is another good one that has a 30 day trial. I haven't gotten around to playing with it yet.

MythTV is suppost to be the best if you can get it to work. Its linux based and FREE!!!!! I've been trying and haven't had much luck getting linux to see work with my pvr-250 yet. Its supported but I suck at linux. I have some guides that go completly over how to set it up all the way from installing linux on my computer at home. I'll post some links later. MythTV is suppost to do pretty much everything.

 

[ianbergman]

Gonne give this a daytime bump just in case

 

[thedarkwolf]

The MythTV how too

KnoppMyth
A premade version of linux with Mythtv already setup. Haven't had much luck with that one yet either.

 

[ianbergman]

knoppix (sp?) is fantastic... problem is, I'm running this off my main desktop to take advantage of multiple monitors, etc, and i need to be running Windows on that machine. Rebooting every time I want to watch TV doesn't sound like fun @ all, so I think unfortunately Myth is out, for me - for now.

So I'll check out WinDVR3 and BeyondTV tonight, see how they work out.

 

[JohnFDeLuca]

I use MythTV and while there are still some issues with the Linux driver for the PVR-250/350, it is a well polished product with a good deal of active support. It's replaced my Tivo in the living room as the main PVR. It's not for everyone, and it's far from a snap to set up but if you can get it set up, it's the best.

 

[ianbergman]

I'm loving BeyondTV 3, actually. Myth is equally great or better, but my linux box is a POS, and I'd rather have this in my desktop, which is, alas, Windows.

I can recommend BeyondTV though - it's awesome.

 

[sparkyclarky]

Sage seems to be the most stable out of the Windows apps. I'm running the V2 of it, and the interface is quite nice overall - simple and functional.

 

[thedarkwolf]

I like the way beyondTV does the guide so its transparent and a few other things but overall I like Sagetv better. Still haven't bought anything though. Next week I am going to wipe out everything again and give Mythtv another try.