TV tuner software

[Stanimir Stamenkov]

Could anyone recommend good software application for watching TV
using a tuner card? I didn't like the one (InterVideo Home Theater)
came bundled with the card I've bought and I've tried couple I was
able to find on the Internet but all seems to have various quirks
including messing too much with my system configuration.

 

[Cari \(MS-MVP\)]

They're all really specifically matched with the tuner card. The only one I
can think of that might work would be ATI's MultiMediaCenter.....www.ati.com

 

[Guest]

I think carrie mvp needs to get a major grip on herself...First,with a TV
tuner card,or an all-in-one,all you need from that mfg are the drivers,forget
the software..all of it.With microsoft encoder (downloadable),and its
utilitys,
you can capture,watch,edit,video.You can also work the video thru xps movie-
maker.I've run sony and ati TV hardware always w/o thier software,also the
CAP9 utility works great for quick viewing of TV currently playing.

 

[Stanimir Stamenkov]

/Andrew E./:

I think carrie mvp needs to get a major grip on herself...First,with a TV
tuner card,or an all-in-one,all you need from that mfg are the drivers,forget
the software..all of it.With microsoft encoder (downloadable),and its
utilitys,
you can capture,watch,edit,video.You can also work the video thru xps movie-
maker.I've run sony and ati TV hardware always w/o thier software,also the
CAP9 utility works great for quick viewing of TV currently playing.

My card's WDM driver seems to work fine as I've tried it with
various applications I've found on the Internet (including a Java
based one). One which appeared pretty cute (lite and functional) is
"Kastor! TV" <http://www.kastortv.org/>.

I've tried Movie Maker but I wasn't able to manage the card's
configuration to switch to a channel and receive video but it is
really not convenient to use Movie Maker as TV watching software.
I'll try the Microsoft encoder utilities as you've suggested, too.

My specific problem with all the applications I've tried: detecting
the right signal format. AFAIK, most channels from my cable provider
have their video in PAL and the audio in SECAM (but I'm really not
that techy). Strangely, some of the applications play audio only for
those channels which are on PAL D/K and the others play audio only
for channels on PAL B/G system. In no application I've found
separate settings for the channel's video and audio format.

So I'm searching for an application which could handle the TV signal
better, as my stand-alone TV does without any manual intervention.

 

[bxf]

Really depends on your card and what you want to do besides simple
viewing.

Go here: http://www.tv-cards.com

 

[Stanimir Stamenkov]

/Cari (MS-MVP)/:

They're all really specifically matched with the tuner card.

All applications I've tried work with cards which have a WDM driver,
i.e. the actual card doesn't matter (so much).

 

[bxf]

My TV-capture card has an MPEG1/MEG2/MP4S/DX50 hardware encoder, and
finding a 3rd-party application for it is not easy. VIRTUALDUB is one
of only two products that produces correct graphs for this hardware
(the other being Roxio Capture). It is free, so why not give it a try?

 

[Stanimir Stamenkov]

/bxf/:

Really depends on your card and what you want to do besides simple
viewing.

Go here: http://www.tv-cards.com

Thank you for making me look at this one again. Previously I've
tried couple of the applications mentioned on that site but I've
missed ChrisTV [1]. I really need application for "simple watching"
but which is capable of handling my cable signal fully. ChrisTV has
lots of options making somewhat hard to setup but I've managed to
detect all my channels using it (other applications have failed to
catch couple) and I was able to customize couple of the channels
which need a different video system to play audio.

The K!TV I've mentioned in my other post in this thread has options
to customize the video system for the different channels but seems
it has been ignoring it so I wasn't able to get audio with most of
the channels. The InterVideo Home Theater don't have per channel
setting for the video system so I had to quit the application to
change that setting only to watch one channel or other.

The only draw back of ChrisTV is that it isn't designed well for
multi-user environment or stated otherwise it doesn't work for users
with non-Administrative privileges.

 

[bxf]

If you are not interested in capturing, I'd say that you should try AIW
Player from http://fightersoft.openvision.ro .

It puts much emphasis on convenience, and also has some control over
pins, etc, that may enable you to use it with your hardware. I
recommend a look.

 

[Stanimir Stamenkov]

/bxf/:

If you are not interested in capturing, I'd say that you should try AIW
Player from http://fightersoft.openvision.ro .

It puts much emphasis on convenience, and also has some control over
pins, etc, that may enable you to use it with your hardware. I
recommend a look.

Thank you for the many pointers you've provided. That last app (now
is called Star Media Center) seems too unstable, or at least that
current version available. It pops up a lot of "Division by zero",
"Interface not supported" etc. dialogs signifying internal errors
and I haven't been able to use it.

I've finally decided to stick with Kastor TV - I've found workaround
to setup the channels using a different video system. It runs most
smoothly from all the apps I've tried. ChrisTV is the only one which
copes to detect all my channels, though (using some of its
alternative scanning methods).

 

[bxf]

/bxf/:


Thank you for the many pointers you've provided. That last app (now
is called Star Media Center) seems too unstable, or at least that
current version available. It pops up a lot of "Division by zero",
"Interface not supported" etc. dialogs signifying internal errors
and I haven't been able to use it.

Yes, now that you mention it, I also had some of these errors. But, as
far as I recall, they mostly disappeared after playing a bit with some
of the configuration options, such as compatibility mode, etc.