Anybody got the Hauppauge HDTV USB Adapter for $20 on Black Friday?

[SuperJediMedia]

I bought one, it's Very nice and cheap for $20, but I hate the software.

I wonder what's the BEST TV software there is?

[EmuZombie Veteran]

My vote is for SageTV. I've built a whole house dvr system out of it. 1 server computer with 5 tuners, and 4 clients.

Other good choices are BeyondTV, and if you can deal with DRM, Windows Media Centre.

By the way, the topic would be better suited for the software forum instead of hardware :)

[ndoggfromhell]

WatchHDTV is an awesome piece of software and I highly recommend it. Read over the site and it will explain setup. Did i mention it's free?

Stay away from the linux MythTv unless you really have nothing better to do and want to spend hours getting it to "somewhat" work.

[gnuman]

Such an unbiased POV from a windows users about MythTV.

There are distros with myth already incorporated but it depends on the hardware you purchase. Personally USB just hounds the CPU and wouldn't be as good as a PCI solution.

[ndoggfromhell]

"Such an unbiased POV from a windows users about MythTV."

It is unbiased. I'm a huge fan of Ubuntu and the Fedora linux distros and use them at work with Windows in a Virtual Machine. As far as MythTV goes... it's a struggle to setup and get working. Far more time and effort than the Windows counterparts.

In XP and Vista i've never encountered a problem installing any of the following Tuners:

ATI HDTV Wonder pci, K-World Atsc A110 pci, Kworld UB435Q usb, Kworld 340U usb, Pinnacle PCTV-HD Pro Stick usb, Pinnacle PCTV-HD Pro PCI, Hauppauge Wintv PVR-150

All of them work in Windows XP with a multitude of tuner applications including Media Center.

In Mythbuntu, Mythknoppix, and Mythdora:

ATI HDTV Wonder - after loading firmwares and setting boot options exactly as detailed in the official support forums for each release... nothing!

K-World ATSC 110 - Almost the same steps to get it working that I followed for the ATI Card and ended up with nothing but a headache.

K-World USB tuners - Not Supported in Linux, so i didn't expect them to work and wasn't surprised there.

Pinnacle USB tuner - yeah right, linux and usb tuners are not a good mix.

Pinnacle PCI tuner - worked in Mythbuntu! followed a similar process to the above two cards and it worked on this one. Only drawback was that any recorded TV would stutter every 20 or so seconds. This might have been an issue with the SATA drivers though. Live TV was fine.

Hauppauge PVR-150 - IVTV setup sorta worked for this card. TV tuner would work, Radio couldn't detect a station despite knowing the frequencies.

PC based HDTV has been a project of mine for over 3 years now and I continually visit the linux distros with MythTV integrated. I am continually disappointed by them. These cards are all pretty common and should be supported out of the box or through a package update. I understand the base distros not supporting the tuners out of the box, but these are actually supposed to be media center distros. Half the above tuners refuse to work in all the distros. Not one of the above tuners failed to be recognized or installed in Windows XP MCE or Windows Vista Ultimate, nor were there any reduced functionalities. The ATI Software has its glitches, but atleast the cards work!

My advice to OP is to use Vista Ultimate and enjoy your tuner.

Gnuman: I can't wait to see Mythdora or Mythbuntu on a media center pc in Bestbuy, but neither are ready for that.

[EmuZombie Veteran]

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Great post ndoggfromhell, not everyday people can back up their post with such knowledge.