TV Recording Certainly A Project

I said I wanted a project when I first mentioned building a computer to record TV programmes. That's certainly what I'm getting, I have had nothing but problems from the beginning and I'm only on the testing stage of the card. I couldn't get any signal when searching for channels but disconnected my freeview box to test it upstairs and when I got back upstairs it had found some channels on the second attempt. I think it could of been because it was splitting the singal without a booster on the aerial. Haven't connected my Freeview box back up to test this theory yet.

The actual card itself seems very good its just the software that came with that is crap. It's based around 6 or 7 year old programs, that I first used about that long ago. Anyone who isn't very technical doesn't stad much chance of using the bundled applications successfully.

I had already decided to try GB-PVR a free PVR program for Windows. After a few minutes of searching a found the information I needed to make GB-PVR recognise my card. This part worked fine but I have had hassle with the TV listings. I tried Bleb free listing but they can't show ITV channels so thats no good. Then had load of hassle using XMLTV listings but sort of got it working now. Another problem is that the 2 tuners in the card don't pick up all the channels, each tuner seems to pickup channels the other doesn't. This may be because of the aerial and will know better once I get a booster downstairs.

I have recorded several programs and watched some of them back all worked without any problems. At first there was a problem trying to play them back on the Xbox because of the format the programmes were being recorded in "dvr-ms" its about the only format the Xbox doesn't playback perfectly but after more hassle I got it recoring in "MPG" and all is now well.

I have recorded 3 programmes tonight, Beyond Boundaries, Cold Case, Incredible Animal Journeys and Las Vegas is recording at the moment. I probably wouldn't of had time to watch any of these normally, but with recording them I can whenever I get chance.

I could leave the card in my main computer for a while until I have more money because I can still use it to do most things while it is recording. If streaming to the Xbox works perfectly I could then put the TV recording computer under the stairs as I had hoped. The web scheduling worked perfectly once I got the channel listings sorted :-)