DVR program for Windows 8 with on screen controls, short skip ahead (10 sec)

[Ban Bot]

I don't own a TV so I recently bought an Hauppauge 955Q for my laptop to watch Seahawk games (Go Hawks!) via local OTA broadcast.

The Hauppauge comes with WinTV which is easy enough to use, especially to hit record, pause the game, and walk away for an hour, and then return, hit play and skip ahead/back at will. The only problem, and it is really irritating, is the skip ahead is 30 seconds which is too long for NFL commercials.

So I googled and found that NextPVR is well reviewed so I gave it a try as it is very customizable. It comes with a 10 second skip ahead as default which was perfect. The problem is it has no on screen controls and is refusing to go full screen on my 28" monitor (attached to my laptop via HDMI). Due to the interface and lack of on screen controls I don't feel confident things are being recorded/paused correctly.

So, any alternative suggestions?

 

[code65536]

Any reason why you aren't using Windows Media Center? As far as DVR software goes, it's the best, IMO. It doesn't have a skip per se, but it does let you speed up playback and fast-forward.

But for material that has already been fully recorded, I actually prefer watching using VLC (the newer versions natively handle WMC's WTV format). The upside of VLC is that they have a great skip feature. I personally like the short skip (and I also remap the keyboard shortcuts in VLC so that simply hitting left or right arrow keys triggers the short skip--the default setting requires a modifier key, which is very annoying). It's just a few seconds, but the ability to do a lot of them in very quick succession (e.g., if you hold down the left/right arrow keys) makes this the best location control (in terms of the ease and precision of control) in any media player program that I've ever used.

 

[Ban Bot]

I am not using Windows Media Center as I believe it is an Add-on for Windows 8.

I will be watching the games while in progress so recording/pause will be used to maybe do a delayed start so I can skip commercials.