Reliable software to watch USB TV Tuner

londonman81

I recently bought a USB TV Tuner which came with ArcMedia software.

That software started off well but then kept crashing.

I am now looking for new software which will work reliably.

Having done a Google search - which nowadays are increasingly useless - everything I either doesn't work with my TV Tuner or costs a lot of money (with no guarantee that it will work).


Does anyone use software with a USB TV Tuner which works reliably?

Thanks!

fwor

It depends on what chipset the receiver is based on.

I've used MythTV (free and Open Source) with two different types of Hauppauge USB TV tuners with great success, and am watching BBC News on one of them as I type this. But be aware that this is Linux-based.

For Windows, I have heard good things about GBPVR, which is also free. Whether it will work will depend entirely on whether you can find a driver that is compatible with your tuner.

One other thing: have you tried ArcMedia to see if they have any s/w updates? Quite often the s/w shipped on disc with the product is an early release and very bug-ridden.

st999

I use Windows Media Centre, just install the USB TV drivers and use that.

Stan

GeoffX

If you're looking for software to watch and record TV - rather than a Media Centre clone - then DVBViewer is an excellent piece of software . It costs €15 but is stable and works well with multiple tuners.There's no trial version, but I can happily recommend it without reservation. Just check that your tuner is supported. Most seem to be.

ProgDVB has a free version, but I never found it stable enough to use regularly. That might have changed by now as it's a couple of years since I last tried it. If you try and like ProgDVB then you'll probably like DVBViewer even more as it's better designed and coded.

londonman81

fwor wrote: »

It depends on what chipset the receiver is based on.

I've used MythTV (free and Open Source) with two different types of Hauppauge USB TV tuners with great success, and am watching BBC News on one of them as I type this. But be aware that this is Linux-based.

For Windows, I have heard good things about GBPVR, which is also free. Whether it will work will depend entirely on whether you can find a driver that is compatible with your tuner.

One other thing: have you tried ArcMedia to see if they have any s/w updates? Quite often the s/w shipped on disc with the product is an early release and very bug-ridden.

I tried using GBPVR but they couldn't have made it more difficult to figure out....when I click on 'Live TV' in the player it does absolutely nothing.

I tried reading the wiki manual for it and half the screens they describe dont even match what I am seeing on my computer.

Why do they have to make DVB software so difficult to set-up??

Doublespresso

I'm bumping this thread as I am also looking for a reliable DVB software preferably free

I have a Creative DVB USB stick, (which doesn't seem to be supported by DVBviewer) although the supplied software is easy enough to use, it lists the channels in an awkward order and doesn't seem to have a user friendly program guide.

Any help appreciated.

jaydeeuk1

When I used to use XP, GBPvr was the only software I could get to work reliably.
DVDdream and dvbviewer seemed easy to use, but often crashed or refused to tune in to ITV hd.

As a side, win 7 media center is easily the best media center program I've used. A massive improvement on previous versions. (just wished ATI would sort their 4000 series drivers out though!)

fwor

As I said earlier, what will work depends almost entirely on the chipset inside the tuner.

In that respect, you are more likely to be successful using Linux than Windows, because the Linux kernel has wider hardware support built-in (not by choice - they are forced to do it because so few hardware manufacturers supply drivers for Linux). In addition to MythTV, which is a fully-blown multi-room PVR system, I've used the much simpler MeTV which simply worked immediately with my Hauppauge tuner - no drivers needed.

Despite the negative comment above, I'd give GBPVR a try if I were forced to use Windows, as it cost nothing but time to try out.

poppy10_2

Ignore the linux geeks, MythTV is almost impossible to install and use without a PhD, documentation is virtually non-existant, and if you try and ask questions you will get shot down in flames.

Try Mediaportal - it's free and open source, but more importantly works well and is rock-solid for me.

http://www.team-mediaportal.com/download.html

fwor

poppy10 wrote: »

MythTV is almost impossible to install and use without a PhD

Hehe - when did you last try to do it? The last Mythbuntu install I did was almost trivial. Yes, you have to understand what an IP address is, and you need to understand how it works, but the days of working at the command line are long gone.

However, it's true that MythTV is very functional (capable of supporting multiple backends which handle the tuners and frontends which handle the displays) and therefore needs a bit of research to set up properly.