Windows Meida Center
billbillw
Posts: 6,726
Gotta say, I'm impressed with how well Media Center works for TV viewing/recording when used with a digital TV card.
I had a TV card years ago (in fact, its boxed up somewhere). It was analog. It pretty much sucked, even when I hooked it to my rooftop antenna. The image was bad, the software was glitchy and crash prone. Overall, it was not a pleasant experience. After a short period, I took it out and gave up. At the time, I thought it would be great to have a digital tuner card, but they were very expensive and the reviews were terrible. Apparently drivers and software were bad.
Fast forward 3-4 years.
Back in December, Woot had the ATI TV Wonder HD 650 PCI for $25 shipped. I bit (I still had one PCI slot open). I figured it was worth a $25 gamble to see if they worked any better these days. Well, I wasn't really motivated to put in the card for the longest time, because I didn't have an antenna feed near my PC.
That changed today. I finally fed a cable under the house to the area of my PC and tied it into my OTA antenna. This was a two fold antenna run. 1st, I've been using my T-4087 FM tuner with my desktop rig lately and it was begging for my rooftop antenna. 2nd, I wanted to try out the TV tuner.
So, I installed the HD TV Wonder. Downloaded ATI Win 7 drivers and installed. Went into Media Center and setup the TV tuner. This took about 10 minutes, but once done, it worked very well. You can quickly check signal strengths, organize guide data, etc. Changing channels is very quick. Image quality is great. And the software seems pretty stable so far.
Overall, I'm very happy for a $25 investment. I don't plan to watch much serious TV on my PC, but its nice to have the option or to have the news or games on in the background. Its almost like having a 3rd single tuner Tivo.
I had a TV card years ago (in fact, its boxed up somewhere). It was analog. It pretty much sucked, even when I hooked it to my rooftop antenna. The image was bad, the software was glitchy and crash prone. Overall, it was not a pleasant experience. After a short period, I took it out and gave up. At the time, I thought it would be great to have a digital tuner card, but they were very expensive and the reviews were terrible. Apparently drivers and software were bad.
Fast forward 3-4 years.
Back in December, Woot had the ATI TV Wonder HD 650 PCI for $25 shipped. I bit (I still had one PCI slot open). I figured it was worth a $25 gamble to see if they worked any better these days. Well, I wasn't really motivated to put in the card for the longest time, because I didn't have an antenna feed near my PC.
That changed today. I finally fed a cable under the house to the area of my PC and tied it into my OTA antenna. This was a two fold antenna run. 1st, I've been using my T-4087 FM tuner with my desktop rig lately and it was begging for my rooftop antenna. 2nd, I wanted to try out the TV tuner.
So, I installed the HD TV Wonder. Downloaded ATI Win 7 drivers and installed. Went into Media Center and setup the TV tuner. This took about 10 minutes, but once done, it worked very well. You can quickly check signal strengths, organize guide data, etc. Changing channels is very quick. Image quality is great. And the software seems pretty stable so far.
Overall, I'm very happy for a $25 investment. I don't plan to watch much serious TV on my PC, but its nice to have the option or to have the news or games on in the background. Its almost like having a 3rd single tuner Tivo.
For rig details, see my profile. Nothing here anymore...
Post edited by billbillw on
Comments
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P.S.
*Note to self* Next time, make sure I speel cheek the title...
But besides that, I don't know if i'll ever get into programs like media center/XBMC/etc. I have a LOT of movies on my media server, but I just manually pick the movie I want to watch from the computer, then it opens full-screen automatically on my tv."Dr Dunn admitted that his research could also be interpreted as evidence that women are shallower than men. He said: "Let's face it - there's evidence to support it."
My System:Best Buy is for people who don't know any better. Magnolia is for people who don't know any better and have more money to spend.
TV: SAMSUNG UN55B7000 55" 1080p LED HDTV
HTPC: Chromecast w/ Plex Media Server. Media streamed from Media Server. -
Funny, usually I see the squiggly line in FireFox, but somehow I missed it. Too much multi-tasking. TV, photoshop, web browsing, cooking dinner...ryanjoachim wrote: »P.S.
*Note to self* Next time, make sure I speel cheek the title...
But besides that, I don't know if i'll ever get into programs like media center/XBMC/etc. I have a LOT of movies on my media server, but I just manually pick the movie I want to watch from the computer, then it opens full-screen automatically on my tv.For rig details, see my profile. Nothing here anymore... -
Understood!
The main problem I have is that 75% of the movies I have are part of a specific naming scheme I have. it goes like this: lemony.snickets.x264.bluray.1080p.mkv .
Title.codec.source.resolution. I would have to rename each and every folder AND file to match what media center or XBMC can read, so that they can pull proper media information/cover art etc.
Unless there's an easier way that I'm missing?"Dr Dunn admitted that his research could also be interpreted as evidence that women are shallower than men. He said: "Let's face it - there's evidence to support it."
My System:Best Buy is for people who don't know any better. Magnolia is for people who don't know any better and have more money to spend.
TV: SAMSUNG UN55B7000 55" 1080p LED HDTV
HTPC: Chromecast w/ Plex Media Server. Media streamed from Media Server. -
Don't know bro. I barely figured out how to make it work with the TV tuner. Nothing beyond that.For rig details, see my profile. Nothing here anymore...
