Best PC DVR Software, For Any Platform?

jshamacher writes "I've used MythTV for several years (first on Slackware, now via Mythbuntu) and it's good. But not great — I have a list of annoyances as long as my arm. For example, even 0.22 still has problems playing many DVDs and I frequently have to fall back on Xine. Since upgrading to new hardware, I've had issues with sound dropping out; these problems only occur for Myth, not for anything else. So now I'm trying out alternatives. Freevo seemed promising when I tried it a few months ago but it had its own issues. I'm also increasingly getting pressure from my family to get things like NetFlix streaming working on this machine. This seems to imply migrating to a Windows-based solution. I threw XP on it and tried MediaPortal but could never get that to control my Motorola cable box via the IR blaster. So my questions to you: What DVR software do you use? Are you happy with it? What don't you like? Are there any packages out there that 'just work' as media hubs and for time-shifting cable TV?"

Comments

Linux MCE

[Captain Splendid]

Only just started fiddling with it, but it looks incredible. Always find it odd it doesn't get more mention when these topics arise.

Re:Linux MCE

[Ynot_82]

Linux MCE is an integrated bundle of software.
The PVR part is MythTV, so may be be what the OP is looking for

I personally love Myth, and wouldn't change it for anything
but saying that, I use it as a media front-end only (no broadcast TV)

Re:Linux MCE

[EndingPop]

LinuxMCE uses MythTV for DVR functionality. It does use Xine/Mplayer for DVD playback. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinuxMCE#Software_components

Re:Linux MCE

[nametaken]

This doesn't solve the Netflix issue. Netflix is in bed with Microsoft and delivers using Silverlight 2.

It doesn't make any kind of sense that a business would deploy any solution using Silverlight, but whatever. I've whined about this before and obviously Netflix doesn't care.

Re:Linux MCE

[Orion Blastar]

Netflix also works on the PS3 system by Sony. My brother rents Netflix and they let him see movies on his PS3 via an App he downloaded for it.

Novell Moonlight does work as a Silverlight plug-in for non-Windows operating systems like Linux, etc. Some people want to boycott Novell because they licensed Microsoft technology but when you need C# and Visual BASIC.Net for Linux, *BSD Unix, and Mac OSX they got you covered with Mono, and Moonlight for Silverlight support. I compare Silverlight to Shockwave Flash, just another virtual machine system and they both kind of do the same things.

Re:Linux MCE

[h4rr4r]

Moonlight does not support DRM, MS refuses to let them and both it and the mac version are falling behind.

Silverlight is a fucking trap!

Re:Linux MCE

[Belial6]

The poster needs to forget using a PC for Netflix. The video quality streamed to the PC is VASTLY inferior to what gets streamed to the Roku. Being able to steam to your computer is great on a 17"-22" monitor, but once you start getting up to living room TV sizes, you can really see the lower quality.

Re:Linux MCE

[Scyber]

Netflix's HD streams (720p) are only available to devices and not to computers. Roku, XBox 360, PS3, & some TVs and BluRay players all have access to the netflix HD streams, while the PC do not. Not all content is available in HD (it is a subset of their already limit streaming library), but when its there, it is pretty nice. The HD streams are pretty common for newer TV shows too.

SageTV on XP

[FormulaTroll]

I use Sage TV (http://www.sage.tv/) on XP (If you're going to end up going that route anyways). It's been pretty reliable and I like the interface. I've also considered moving to Windows 7. I hear the media center functionality built in is pretty robust.

Re:SageTV on XP

[jvbunte]

I used to swear by SageTV up and down. I was a very early adopter of this software and was promised "Free Upgrades" when I originally purchased it. Apparently "Free Upgrades" only applied until version 5.0+ was released, then it started costing money for every major revision.

It's still good software, however I have a problem with advertising "Free Upgrades" and then skipping out on that claim. I stopped using them on that alone. (Don't lecture me on how they need to get paid for their work, I get that. Don't advertise "free upgrades" if you aren't going to follow up with that claim.)

I have since moved to XBMC http://xbmc.org/ running on an ASRock ION 330 plugged straight into my home theater receiver and it plays 1080p pretty well, 720p flawlessly. The only drawback of XBMC is that it doesn't record (it was never meant to). Its playback capabilities are unmatched in my opinion (mplayer backend, if mplayer can play it, so can xbmc). It's crazy easy to install and use. I use the genuine Microsoft MCE usb remote control which is supported out of the box with no special LIRC knowledge.

I use MythTV with a Hauppage HD-PVR back end for video recording, and although I believe there is a MythTV FrontEnd addon for XBMC, I simply share my recordings directory via CIFS and let XBMC mount the share directly for playback. I like the seperate MythTV backend because I have two XBMC/ASRock installations and both can then read from the same source for playback in either room.

XBMC: Free (Please Donate, its really that awesome)
MythTV: Free (Please Donate, its really that awesome)
ASRock ION 330: About $350 on newegg
Hauppage HD-PVR: About $200 on newegg

Re:SageTV on XP

[RedR]

I too have to give SageTV a big thumbs up. I've had it in place for over 5 years now and its been awesome!! I have it running on my main TV with a dedicated box and 5 tuners. It serves two bedroom TV's via a media extender product (via wired network tho wireless is supported too) as well 3 PC's in the house. It supports SD HD DVD (DVD "backups") and quite a bit more. Has support for music, weather and assorted other features that can be added via community packages. It does support changing the channel on STB (Set Top Boxes), as well support having more than one STB. I currently have one using the IRBlaster, and one using USB->Serial. This setup was fairly quick but did require some research on their forums. It is hands on though, and if you want to use any community packages you'll be reading the forums on how-to's. Again mine has been in place for 5+ years, with little effort since then to add new features, or make minor adjustments to storage locations, and setups for it. It uses Java and again for a "stable" production system, I've held back on any automatic updates to the main system. In short, I let the world test out the updates for a week or few before updating my main SageTV box with Windows or Java updates. While you are at it, take a look at GBPVR http://gbpvr.com/ Its FREE, so hard not to have a look. It does support many if not all features that SageTV has, including IRBlaster/USB->Serial to control a STB. My only issue with it 5 years ago was it didn't have as many features as SageTV, including ones I needed at the time. But again, it was and is FREE, so it is well worth checking out.

EyeTV

[drrck]

If you have a Mac, Elgato's EyeTV product keeps getting better and better with each release. There are open source add-ons for commercial skipping, exports to iTunes/iPod, ect and the interface is pretty user friendly. It won't do Netflix by itself, but if you're hooking up a media PC then you've already got access to Netflix.

Re:EyeTV

[sl3xd]

I'll also throw in with EyeTV. But, the thing to remember with EyeTV is that everything centers around TV:
* TV Broadcasts
* Output(s) from TV tuners (Sattelite/Cable) - and you would want an IR blaster for channel changing

EyeTV does not play DVD's, or any other media other than that which is recorded by EyeTV.

But what EyeTV does, it does well:
* TV Guide Integration is pretty good, with a number of providers, depending on your locale
* Scheduling (and auto-scheduling of series)
* Editing of TV episodes - it's good enough for cropping out commercials if you want to keep the show.
* Good hardware support
* Easy to use
* Auto (or manual) Exports to a variety of formats. (Whatever QuickTime supports - which is pretty much anything if you have the right plugin)
* Easy (and automated, if desired) exporting to iTunes (for iPod or Apple TV's)
* Can stream to an iPod Touch or iPhone
* iPhone/iPod Touch interface application.
* Integrates with ElGato's "Turbo.264" hardware, which is a USB H.264 encoding accelerator. Not the best compression quality, but it's generally faster than a dual-core Intel box.
* If you have EyeTV on other macs in your network, it can use Bonjour to stream the TV shows to the other machines.

So while it has a number of features that are quite Apple-centric (ie. good iPod/Apple TV integration), iPod Touch/iPhone application, etc... it still lets you export to pretty much whatever format you want easily. Or, if you don't want to do it that way, you can look inside the "eyetv" recording, and you'll find the raw MPEG stream, and you can use whatever software you want to export it.

Windows Media Center

[Sporkinum]

Windows Media Center, specifically Vista media center, has worked out well for me. I got a cheap ($250), refurbed gateway that came with a dual tuner card and Vista home premium. The listings are occasionally flakey, and the scheduled recordings won't automatically adjust if shows are pre-empted by football games running long. I control everything through the xbox360 using a $10 remote I bought on ebay. Very user friendly and cheaper than heck.

Re:Windows Media Center

[stikves]

Definitely agree on Windows Media Center.

With my multiple HDTV tuners, excellent remote, Netflix, and Hulu plugins, and also Internet TV, it's basically irreplaceable. I'm not even mentioning you can stream to multiple Xbox'es on your house over the network... Oops, I mentioned that :)

Re:Windows Media Center

[FrankSchwab]

I've got Windows 7 Media center running with a Linksys Media Center Extender.

On the positive side, It Just Works. Having a paperback sized MCE (cheap on Ebay, BTW) next to the big-screen rather than a PC is very nice.

On the negative side, Microsoft keeps trying so hard to prevent users from doing what they'd like.
For example, they changed to the .wtv file format late in the Vista cycle, which broke things like dvrmstoolbox that was used for commercial skipping, and had no desire to help fix it. That's fixed by the community now, of course.

They also broke ripped DVD playback on the extender. For the Vista media center, it was found that by creating a hard link to the DVD files (and giving the hard link a ".mp4" (IIRC) extension), DVD's would play fine on the extender. With Windows 7, sorry, but that workaround has been disabled.

Re:Windows Media Center

[wolrahnaes]

One more vote for MCE.

-CableCARD support
-Netflix client built in (though no HD for now)
-Great remote
-Very simple but functional UI
-Free if you have a half-decent edition of either of the last two Windows releases
-Xbox (with software), Xbox 360, and numerous other devices supported as extenders for a single central home DVR

I won't give up my HD cable channels, so Windows MCE, TiVo, and Moxi are the three options, end of story. Only one of those allows me to build my own machine and centralize all the tuners. If Myth or one of the others gains CableCARD support in the future, they might be worth considering. Until then...

Windows Media Center

[coolmoose25]

I set up Windows Media Center on Vista and I like the way it works. It's pretty simple to use and set up. I bought a 2 tuner card for it so I can record 2 shows simultaneously. Even more useful is the integration with Amazon UnBox and Video On Demand. It just works. Makes trips to the video store extraneous. I haven't tried Netflix as I want simple on demand outside of my cable box. This machine is set up in the living room, and is hooked up to a 37 inch panel. I bought the overpriced remote for Media Center and that works well too (although the kids keep losing it) Overall, I'm happy with the quality, and plan on upgrading to Windows 7 at some point, but really don't have a need as it simply works well now.

Now, cue the MS Haters and mod me down. I know, I know... I'm stupid and don't know what I'm talking about.

TiVo for the win?

[powerlord]

The Original Questioner asks " So my questions to you: What DVR software do you use? Are you happy with it? What don't you like? Are there any packages out there that 'just work' as media hubs and for time-shifting cable TV?"

I realize that the TITLE says "PC based DVR software" and the questioner certainly mentions only that, but they don't mention commercial solutions at all, so I'll throw in my answer:

TiVo

I have a Series3 that I bought with a lifetime contract ~2 years ago. I do not pay a monthly fee, and as of now, I am "saving" that cost (the lifetime contract covers ~ 2 - 2.5 years of monthly service fees).

- It has two built in tuners.
- It integrates with most IR remotes.
- It can be controlled via IP (there are free remotes for iPhone/IPod and other devices to control it, etc.)
- TiVo maintains a web site where you can log in and tell your DVR to record something.
- Any Internet enabled TiVo (Series3, TiVoHD, TiVoHD-XL) can also hook into AmazonVideo, Netflix and Blockbuster accounts.

- It also passes "the wife" test.

Outside of initial setup (when we were on cable TV and I had to get TWC to come out and put CableCards in the thing), the ONLY maintenance I've had to do is reset its listings when we decided to drop cable completely and switch to using an Over-The-Air antenna, and changing the batteries in the remote.

Re:TiVo for the win?

[jimbogun]

I'm in the Tivo boat on this one. It's just easier. I spent so much time setting up MythTv (I've done it on PCs, laptops, and even an xbox) and maintaining it was always a pain. I finally got fed up enough and bought a Tivo. Since then, I haven't had any complaints, except as he said, resetting listings when you switch providers. I've really enjoyed the Tivo suggestions feature as well. I was tempted to get the lifetime contract, but instead I'm willing to pay ~$100/year for someone to maintain my DVR for me.

Re:TiVo for the win?

[Yaztromo]

I'm on the TiVo boat as well. If you want to serve up media from a PC, throw pyTiVo on it, and point it at whatever directory contains your video files. The format of the video files doesn't even matter -- on the back-end it uses ffmpeg to do the video conversion.

I have a refurbished Compaq with a 2.4Ghz Core2Duo I bought last year, and it can convert at about 200fps, easily saturating the TiVo's network capabilities. Once setup, the system just appears in the Now Playing List. It has easily passed the wife test in my home over and over again (especially as she has access to the movies directory over the network from the desktop of her Mac -- if she gets something she'd like to put up, she knows to just drag and drop it into the folder, and then start playing it from the NPL on the TiVo).

Yaz.

Re:TiVo for the win?

[markdavis]

Last time I tried pyTiVo with my TiVO HD, the results were far from stellar. I do store many of my DVD's as 1Mb/s 264 + AC3 AVI files and it just didn't seem to like it. It down-res'ed them horribly and the resulting video was poor. Plus, I believe it trashes the AC3, resulting in just stereo (yuck) sound.

Now, it has been at least a year since I messed with it (and gave up on it). If you think it has improved, I will give it another shot.

Not having decent local streaming of video files has been my #2 complaint with TiVo (#1 being that we can't easily backup the damn settings to a USB key or something so if the unit dies we can recover many hours of work done with preferences, season passes, stations, etc). Otherwise, the TiVo HD is *extremely* impressive and I highly recommend it... it runs circles around any cable provider's DVR or "software" solution I have seen.

For viewing? LG BD390

[llamalad]

I'm still using MythTV for recording TV, but I'm currently selling off my MythFrontends.

For viewing I've switched to an LG BD390. Much less hassle, plays everything I've thrown at (including HD streams recorded by the MythBackend) via UPnP and also does NetFlix and YouTube streaming.

For Linux, MythTV backend and XBMC frontend.

[Yosho]

The MythTV backend for recording TV is great, but the frontend is very rough around the edges, even after years of development. As a general media center, XBMC is fantastic; its support for playing DVDs, video files, and music is the best I've found on Linux. There's also a plugin for XBMC that gives it functionality as a MythTV frontend, and while it doesn't have quite the same range of capabilities as the official MythTV frontend, it nonetheless works well.

Unfortunately, there's no way you're going to be streaming Netflix movies in Linux, due to Netflix's DRM. The only way to do it is with a Windows box or using an embedded solution. I use an Xbox 360 for that.

Windows 7 and Media Browser

[Laoping]

In years past I've used XBMC on the Xbox and Linux, then more recently Boxee and MediaPortal. I started wanting something that just worked, and was a bit easier to setup. I really like many of the Linux media programs, but they do take a bit of maintenance. So when the RC of Windows 7 came out I figured I'd give it a go. Once I found Media Browser (www.mediabrowser.tv), I was sold.

So reasons I think Windows 7 is the way to go.

1. Media Browser - Fantastic plug-in for media center. Almost as good as XMBC in it's prettiness and useability. Very impressive to show off to your friends and high Wife Acceptance Factor.
2. Easy - It took me about a week of fiddling after work to get it setup the way I wanted.. and I had no issues getting DTS HD or pass-through audio to work. Very easy to get hardware accelerated video to work with ATI. If you use windows 7, check out the antipack, gets your hardware accelerated video working fast, along with all your audio. (http://babgvant.com/blogs/andyvt/archive/2009/08/02/antipack-get-your-videos-working-without-destroying-your-pc.aspx)
3. Cheap Video card - I bought a Radeon 4350 off of Newegg, with passive cooling. Does 1080p video with 1 - 5% cpu usage.
4. NetFlix , Media Center has a NetFlix plugin, no HD video, yet.
5. Easy TV - Has a nice TV Guide, easy to make it work right. I do not have a cable card tuner for it yet, but Ati has on you can get off of ebay, and new models are coming out next year. Cable card tuner would eliminate your ir blaster issue. In the mean time there are a few MS Media Center remotes that come with ir blasters. Also TV shows go right into Media Browser.

As this is slashdot I bet I will get spammed for saying so, but IMHO it is the best all around system out there right now.

There are 3 prime-time PVR's on Windows

[TomXP411]

Sage TV, Beyond TV, and Media Center are all mature products that work well on Windows.

Media Center is very "Microsoft-y", and it's not as configurable as the others. The upside is that it's seamlessly integrated with Windows, and it passes the WAF test rather well.

Sage TV is a tinkerer's dream, but I never managed to get it successfully up and running with QAM channels mapped.

Beyond TV was my favorite for a long time, as it's both configurable and stable. The only problem is that Snapstream has slowed active development of the consumer product. Their prime focus is on developing for the Enterprise market. (Think one server, recording a dozen news channels at once, extracting closed-caption information to create a searchable database.) BTV has one great bonus feature: It can automatically re-compress video down to H.264 and drop the show in to iTunes as a Podcast. This is pretty slick, since it lets you save several TV shows to your iPod or iPhone and take them with with you.

BTV and Sage can both record HD through the Hauppauge HD-PVR, and all 3 can record ClearQAM content (usually your local TV stations.)

Windows 7 Media Center will also record encrypted QAM cable with a CableCard, but the CableCard capture devices aren't quite ready for public consumption yet; I believe the ATI box's firmware is still in closed beta, and the Ceton device will hit the market early next year. (The Ceton card will record 4 SD or HD shows at the same time.)

BTV and Sage can control your cable box with a USB-UIRT or MCE Remote (with an IR blaster). Media Center will only control your box with an MCE remote/blaster. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000W5GK5C/ref=ox_ya_oh_product">Amazon has one for about $40 that works well.</a>

BTV and Sage both can also stream live video to other PC's on the network. Media Center can only play back pre-recorded video; if you want to watch live TV an another PC, that PC needs a tuner card.

Tivo Warning

[clinko]

A HUGE warning about the Tivo:

Tivo lists show transferring is a big feature but...

EVERYTHING worth watching on cable is DRM'd. EVERYTHING.

It bugs me that they advertise this as a feature.

Blame Time Warner, Cox, Comcast, whoever you want, but the TIVO does not transfer anything but your fox, nbc, and cbs channels.

Analogy:
- Ford makes a car that can't drive over speed bumps
- Ford advertises the car jumping speed bumps
- After buying the car, Ford tells you to drive on limited roads or YOU can call your local town hall to fix every speed bump in town. Ford has no responsibility, and will not assist in any way.

Only 2 months left on my contract, and I'm done with this scam.

Re:Snapstream?

[Pieroxy]

I've tried many different solutions, and there is only one that "just works": Media Center. I know it's Microsoft and all, but the thing works. It doesn't do half of what MythTV is all about, but it just works. And with a careful set of codecs you can read pretty much anything.

Re:Consoles

[h4rr4r]

Because neither one records live tv?
Or lets you run your own apps?

MythTV automatic commercial skipping

[Dan667]

commercial skipping that does not even require a remote button press. That is the killer feature for me with MythTV and why I keep using it. I also have diskless frontends and when I want a new one I can just plug it in and it just works. And then there is the web interface that I can use to program recording shows from anywhere. I agree with other posters with just using xine or another player for playing DVD's and it not being a bad thing. You can send args to xine to surpress the splash screen and everything else and then seamlessly fall back to MythTV when you hit "end" on the remote so I don't see the problem. As for streaming, I got a blue ray player that has netflix streaming (a roku box would work and be cheaper). All of this is controlled with one universal remote. If you want flexiblity you get it with myth. If you constantly tinker and upgrade, you will always be tinkering with myth, but you can also choose to set it up and just use it. From everything I have seen, MythTV's flexibility beats everything else I have tried (to the point where people are using other solutions like xmbc as a part of their MythTV solution).

Re:Snapstream?

[Pieroxy]

I mean, My Movies 3 is probably the best thing since sliced bread for playing movies.

To be fair, sliced bread didn't help much for movies.

Re:Snapstream?

[hairyfeet]

I have to agree. Over the years I tried Myth, Mediaportal, XBMC, several different freeware TV capture packages, and I never could seem to find anything that "just worked" hassle free until I switched to Windows 7 HP x64. The windows 7 Media Center paired with an ATI HD600 USB I picked up for $20 on Woot! just works beautifully. Schedules, recording, it is all just nice.

So if this guy is wanting an 'easy peasy" solution I would have to go with Windows 7 Media Center. Just pick up the upgrade version, do a clean install, and he'll be good to go. The only thing he'll have to worry about is if he has some old funky off brand TV card it might not have Windows 7 drivers. That is what I ran into with my old EasyTV FM card, but if you keep your eyes out capture devices can be had for pretty cheap. Better to spend a little money and have a solid eay to use PVR VS going cheap and spending all your time fixing it, at least IMHO.

Re:VCR

[cyberstealth1024]

for me, this is moot, because the only show i record on my vcr is at 12:00 am!

Re:Consoles

[frozen_kangaroo]

I use an old, practically scrap, Pentium 4 hidden away in the loft running Mythbackend with tuners and big hard drives in it. It sits there and records programs. It uses a Fedora 9 distro, and dependency hell was dealt with smoothly by running yum.

Under the main television that we watch is a PS3, which sees the backend as a UPnP media server without any fuss. All recorded programs show up under the "video" menu. Any machine in the house can also be used as a frontend, if Mythfrontend is installed. Mythweb can be used to configure it remotely (even off-site if I'm feeling brave enough to let incoming conections to it from the outside world) so you can log in and set something to record if you are out and about.

I'm really happy with the system and not got any particular moans, other than the fact that tuners don't just work out of the box and forums have to be read ...