Freeview on PC

Lyrrad

Hi

Having read info on this forum and elsewhere I do not believe that any USB Freeview hardware is up to much. With this in mind is it possible to connect a normal Freeview box up to a PC monitor, and if so what hardware would I require other than the digibox.

Thanks in advance

Browntoa

theres always a PCI Freeview card, much more stable, this sort of thing

http://1726.tchosts4.net/home.asp?linkcode=GRPIN-230100103

wolfman

The Nova-T PCI card from Hauppage (sp?) is ok too. Well supported in Windows and Linux.

If you were to go for a USB one, make sure there are BDA drivers available, otherwise you'll have to run the software that comes with it. You won't be able to choose from the plethora of software out there.

I've got a Freecom DVB-T which has BDA drivers for Windows, and works out of the box in Ubuntu. I don't think the drivers are quite ready for Vista, but they're due soon.

Both the Freecom and Nova-T can be found on Amazon for good prices.

GbPvr is the best, free Windows software to use with a card.

jampton

Please correct me if I am wrong - I thought Vista versions (inc the media centre) already had BDA drivers included - I am sure I have seen vista ready logo on various DVB products.

I am interested in this as I hope to build (cobble together from kit lying around hopefully !) a media centre pc . Is there such a thing as a dual tuner card or do I need two cards (so i can watch one channel and record another) ?

wolfman

Whether a device has BDA drivers is up to the manufacturer. I think the Freecom does have Vista drivers, but they may be beta, or buggy.

I use Linux now, but one of the guys here was having a problem with the frequencies being set, or rather rounded to the nearest whole number which was ruining the reception.

Dead_Eye_Jones

to answer the original question, yes you can connect up a freeview box. You will however need a graphics card (or similar) that has video in. Typically you can get a scart to phono plug and the card should pick it up without having to go through the tuner.

I have done this in the past, with everything from my old beta max (ahead of its time with its video phono out!) and old ondigital box.

But if you want to buy another dig tuner, go for it, its prob easier if it works..