BEST TV/capture/media software

[archcommus]

I have a thread going in Video about TV tuners but not enough discussion about the software. Basically I just want to know what the best TV/capture software is out there right now. The card I'll be getting will come bundled with PowerCinema 4. Should I stick with that or are there much better options?

 

[Goosemaster]

The best are Beyond TV by Snapstream Meddia, Myth tv @ mythyv.org, and MS media center 2005.


I personally use Beyondtv 4 and love it. The selling point, all the way back to v3 was the transcoding. It will automatically convert your raw mpeg2 files into smaller mpeg2, wmv, or divx (avi) files

I leave it doingthis overnight so Everytime I show up all shows except the brand new ones are in divx. It REALLY saves you a LOT on HD space.

MythTV is very nice, but it is more user-friendly to "tinker" - people who have the time to mess around with their PVR. Beyond TV and MS meddia center 2005 "jsut work." don't get me wrong, myth is great and it works fine by default, but you'll get the customization bug and you'll be trapped forever

Unfortuantely I have not kept up with sage TV but I have heard good things recently such as how it now supports transcoding as well.

 

[duragezic]

Are you guys capturing from HDTV or what?

I'm curious about trying my VIVO functions that came with my 7800GT, and I made a quick 1 minute recording of 24 with Windows Movie Maker then converted it to a "high quality" WMV. Still didn't turn out too good. Regular cable TV is 640x480 right? Or is it actually worse than that due to interlacing?

But its weird though, cause 640x480 is just the 4:3 version of the standard DVD 720x480, and when I encode DVDs to Xvid at a fairly high bit rate, they definitely look much better than my quick encode. Of course I'm sure theres better options than Movie Maker, it was just the only thing I had to test out functionality with.

 

[Goosemaster]

Originally posted by: duragezic
Are you guys capturing from HDTV or what?

I'm curious about trying my VIVO functions that came with my 7800GT, and I made a quick 1 minute recording of 24 with Windows Movie Maker then converted it to a "high quality" WMV. Still didn't turn out too good. Regular cable TV is 640x480 right? Or is it actually worse than that due to interlacing?

But its weird though, cause 640x480 is just the 4:3 version of the standard DVD 720x480, and when I encode DVDs to Xvid at a fairly high bit rate, they definitely look much better than my quick encode. Of course I'm sure theres better options than Movie Maker, it was just the only thing I had to test out functionality with.

tv is the equivalnet of 320x480 msot of the time. NTSC is capable of 525 horizontal lines.

 

[archcommus]

Originally posted by: Goosemaster
The best are Beyond TV by Snapstream Meddia, Myth tv @ mythyv.org, and MS media center 2005.


I personally use Beyondtv 4 and love it. The selling point, all the way back to v3 was the transcoding. It will automatically convert your raw mpeg2 files into smaller mpeg2, wmv, or divx (avi) files

I leave it doingthis overnight so Everytime I show up all shows except the brand new ones are in divx. It REALLY saves you a LOT on HD space.

MythTV is very nice, but it is more user-friendly to "tinker" - people who have the time to mess around with their PVR. Beyond TV and MS meddia center 2005 "jsut work." don't get me wrong, myth is great and it works fine by default, but you'll get the customization bug and you'll be trapped forever

Unfortuantely I have not kept up with sage TV but I have heard good things recently such as how it now supports transcoding as well.

Thanks for the info. I'm really interested in the transcoding you speak of however I really like that MythTV is free. Does MythTV have any transcoding at all?

 

[doggyfromplanetwoof]

Hmm, for me its like this:

Frontend: Meedio (Freakin awsome, customize it how ever you want, many plugins and themes for free.)

PVR: MeedioTV/SageTV (Frankly, SageTV has the better PVR software, however, meedio does just fine.)

DVD Player: (Nvidia PureVideo, if your using ati for an HTPC, I feel sorry for you.)

Buncha of other goodies out there too, htpcnews.com for more info.

 

[HomerSapien]

I vote for Sage. The 4.1 series has fixed just about all the problems of the past and it released studio for those who want to tinker with anything and everything about sage. Unfortunately it is playing catch up in the plugin area, but the creators have incorporated the best plugins into Sage itself.

 

[archcommus]

So Sage, Beyond, Myth...which one???

 

[archcommus]

Any big reason to go with Beyond or Sage over Myth? Since Myth is free and all.

 

[DarkTXKnight]

keep in mind that myth is linux based, so you have to have some familiarity with Linux to get it going just right.

What about GBPVR or Media portal?

 

[archcommus]

Originally posted by: DarkTXKnight
keep in mind that myth is linux based, so you have to have some familiarity with Linux to get it going just right.

What about GBPVR or Media portal?

Wait a min, does Myth not run on XP at all?

 

[episodic]

for simple and effetive, I always enjoyed windvr before I went to sattellite and tivo

 

[Goosemaster]

Originally posted by: archcommus

Originally posted by: DarkTXKnight
keep in mind that myth is linux based, so you have to have some familiarity with Linux to get it going just right.

What about GBPVR or Media portal?

Wait a min, does Myth not run on XP at all?

MythTV is a linux app. There are linux distributions of it coupled with knoppix, a version of linux that loads up compeltely and automatically off of a CD into your system memory. I naddition, there is a mthtv distribution that will format your PC and get it ready for mythTV automatically. It is actually pretty neat.

The downside is that you will need linux either way, and if you want to keep windows running, you might as well choose a windows option since dualbooting will jsut be counterproductive for a PVR....

 

[archcommus]

Originally posted by: Goosemaster

Originally posted by: archcommus

Originally posted by: DarkTXKnight
keep in mind that myth is linux based, so you have to have some familiarity with Linux to get it going just right.

What about GBPVR or Media portal?

Wait a min, does Myth not run on XP at all?

MythTV is a linux app. There are linux distributions of it coupled with knoppix, a version of linux that loads up compeltely and automatically off of a CD into your system memory. I naddition, there is a mthtv distribution that will format your PC and get it ready for mythTV automatically. It is actually pretty neat.

The downside is that you will need linux either way, and if you want to keep windows running, you might as well choose a windows option since dualbooting will jsut be counterproductive for a PVR....

Thanks, that eliminates MythTV at least then.

So I'll either be going with BeyondTV or SageTV I suppose. Is there much to contrast between these two?

Also, how does using something like BeyondTV on your computer compare to something like TiVo or a DVR unit provided by Comcast?

 

[archcommus]

Bump.

 

[Goosemaster]

Originally posted by: archcommus

...how does using something like BeyondTV on your computer compare to something like TiVo or a DVR unit provided by Comcast?

It is a LOT better. It allows you to customize the interface, and with the transcoding, keep TONS AND TONS of shows.

 

[xbassman]

I use SageTV 4 as well....

My wife uses it all the time (The interface is really easy to use)

I was using WinTV that came with my Hauppauge PVR-250 card until I purchaced the SageTV HD Media Center In-a-Box.

I came with everything I needed (except a video card upgrade) to start recording HD.
(AverMedia A180, StreamZap remote, Sage TV V4)

Here's a link....

SageTV HD Media Center In-a-Box

It also works well with many other capture cards. (I use my PVR-250 to record from my Satelite box outputs and analog OTA.)

 

[archcommus]

Originally posted by: Goosemaster

Originally posted by: archcommus

...how does using something like BeyondTV on your computer compare to something like TiVo or a DVR unit provided by Comcast?

It is a LOT better. It allows you to customize the interface, and with the transcoding, keep TONS AND TONS of shows.

Sounds great.

I'm sure Sage or Beyond would work fine, but since I have the personal recommendation from Goose for Beyond's transcoding capabilities, I think I'll choose that. Now I just need the card.

 

[Goosemaster]

Originally posted by: archcommus

Originally posted by: Goosemaster

Originally posted by: archcommus

...how does using something like BeyondTV on your computer compare to something like TiVo or a DVR unit provided by Comcast?

It is a LOT better. It allows you to customize the interface, and with the transcoding, keep TONS AND TONS of shows.

Sounds great.

I'm sure Sage or Beyond would work fine, but since I have the personal recommendation from Goose for Beyond's transcoding capabilities, I think I'll choose that. Now I just need the card.

They sell it on their site ( http://Snapstream.com )


Honestly, My recommendation is that you get a TV card, preferably an haupappage [sic] and try out the trail software that both SageTV and Snapstream (beyond TV) offer.

I really love BeyondTV but you might not.


In the end, you'll be the one who will ahve to live with it so do yourself a favor and try them both out

 

[archcommus]

Originally posted by: Goosemaster

Originally posted by: archcommus

Originally posted by: Goosemaster

Originally posted by: archcommus

...how does using something like BeyondTV on your computer compare to something like TiVo or a DVR unit provided by Comcast?

It is a LOT better. It allows you to customize the interface, and with the transcoding, keep TONS AND TONS of shows.

Sounds great.

I'm sure Sage or Beyond would work fine, but since I have the personal recommendation from Goose for Beyond's transcoding capabilities, I think I'll choose that. Now I just need the card.

They sell it on their site ( http://Snapteram.com )


Honestly, My recommendation is that you get a TV card, preferably an haupappage [sic] and try out the trail software that both SageTV and Snapstream (beyond TV) offer.

I really love BeyondTV but you might not.


In the end, you'll be the one who will ahve to live with it so do yourself a favor and try them both out

Makes sense, I'm gonna get a Theater 550 Pro card and then try the trial for both. Thanks for the help.

 

[HomerSapien]

Oh yeah... Check out Sage Forums and go to the customization page to see what modifications people have done to Sage. There is a transcoding stvi (think plugin), but i have used it.

The customizations i use are the nielm dynamic menus and jere jone's dirmon utility and showanalyzer to mark commercials. Both of Jere's software should work with beyond tv.

 

[Goosemaster]

Originally posted by: HomerSapien
Oh yeah... Check out Sage Forums and go to the customization page to see what modifications people have done to Sage. There is a transcoding stvi (think plugin), but i have used it.

The customizations i use are the nielm dynamic menus and jere jone's dirmon utility and showanalyzer to mark commercials. Both of Jere's software should work with beyond tv.

More the reason to try both out.

By default, beyond tv has the built-in functionality to mark commericals, transcode, and a bunch of other stuff.

 

[archcommus]

Originally posted by: Goosemaster

Originally posted by: HomerSapien
Oh yeah... Check out Sage Forums and go to the customization page to see what modifications people have done to Sage. There is a transcoding stvi (think plugin), but i have used it.

The customizations i use are the nielm dynamic menus and jere jone's dirmon utility and showanalyzer to mark commercials. Both of Jere's software should work with beyond tv.

More the reason to try both out.

By default, beyond tv has the built-in functionality to mark commericals, transcode, and a bunch of other stuff.

I was just noticing, does BeyondTV not have any sort of media center functionality (i.e., music and photos)?

 

[Gooberlx2]

Originally posted by: archcommus

Originally posted by: Goosemaster

Originally posted by: HomerSapien
Oh yeah... Check out Sage Forums and go to the customization page to see what modifications people have done to Sage. There is a transcoding stvi (think plugin), but i have used it.

The customizations i use are the nielm dynamic menus and jere jone's dirmon utility and showanalyzer to mark commercials. Both of Jere's software should work with beyond tv.

More the reason to try both out.

By default, beyond tv has the built-in functionality to mark commericals, transcode, and a bunch of other stuff.

I was just noticing, does BeyondTV not have any sort of media center functionality (i.e., music and photos)?

I think that's right. They have a "beyond media" app which integrates with beyond tv for the full media center deal.

 

[HomerSapien]

I didnt know beyond tv included commercial marking now... cool. I like having the choice between 2 good products.