Which Freeview card would you go for?

DarkShadow

DarkShadow

DarkShadow

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I can get a Hauppage DEC 2000 T for £30 delivered.

I can also get the V2 Nebula PCI for £80 delivered.

Is the Hauppage software that bad? I'm aware 3rd party apps are available. I've heard the Nebula is the dogs danglies.

I'm pretty skint atm, does the nebula justify the extra cost? Does anyone have the Hauppauge by any chance?
 
The Nebula is a good card, but I think there are better cards available for similar or even less money such as the Terratec Cinergy DT2400i.

I stopped using my Nebula after a while of owning this card...
 
I have owned a Nebula DigiTV card for just over a year.

I have been really pleased with its performance.

Also ,their excellent software is updated every few months.

I'm sure other cards do the job but I'm glad I chose this one as its been great.
 
Baron_Samedi said:
The Nebula is a good card, but I think there are better cards available for similar or even less money such as the Terratec Cinergy DT2400i.

I stopped using my Nebula after a while of owning this card...
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Some more information on this please.

I've found the DT retail version for £60 delivered. I've read some reviews on it and there are some mixed thoughts on it.

With the nebula I get 10% student discount, so it's a price difference of £18.

It's now a show down between the Terratec and the Nebula V2.

Some more advice please!
 
The Terratec (using V4.98 home cinema software) is a treat to use and having twin tuners is the icing on the cake.

With the Nebula I have to process recordings in order to make them error free and of a format compatible with DVD. With the Terratec I can just use them as is.

Also, hibernate works on the Terratec but never has on the Nebula.... have a look at http://www.digitv-forum.co.uk for information about just how good the software actually is...
 
The compro cards work pretty well. picture quality is same is same as any digitv card (broadcast quality). software can be iffy but generaly works well and updates fairly reguarly. the pc power up sheduled recording is a nice feature and then shuts down again when done. Software on cd is likely old and latest can be downloaded from comprousa site. theres even a vista ready driver! .

Cyberlink Powercinema can also be used if required.
 
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Baron_Samedi said:
The Terratec (using V4.98 home cinema software) is a treat to use and having twin tuners is the icing on the cake.

With the Nebula I have to process recordings in order to make them error free and of a format compatible with DVD. With the Terratec I can just use them as is.

Also, hibernate works on the Terratec but never has on the Nebula.... have a look at http://www.digitv-forum.co.uk for information about just how good the software actually is...
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That's the nebula forum?

Really stuck on which to go for, what's the UI like on the terratec?
 
Do all the terratec cards use the same software? (i presume so)

I'm after a TV card, but i've only got half height slots in my machine, so im looking for either a half height card or a usb version.

Any ideas? I'm not that bothered about dual tuners... obviously it would be nice, but it's not essential.
 
Each of the Terratec cards use a version of Home Cinema.

They do a USB version of the Cinergy but I would have a look at the Freecom USB card first as I know from experience that it works really well despite flaky looking software (that can be replaced for MCE compatible software) as it has BDA drivers.

If you really need a low profile card then the Nebula is a nice option.
 
Baron_Samedi said:
Each of the Terratec cards use a version of Home Cinema.

They do a USB version of the Cinergy but I would have a look at the Freecom USB card first as I know from experience that it works really well despite flaky looking software (that can be replaced for MCE compatible software) as it has BDA drivers.

If you really need a low profile card then the Nebula is a nice option.
Click to expand...

So just to confirm a few things here...

Which of these cards you've mentioned are windows media center MCE compatible? I presume that's ideally what I'd need.

Is there a disadvantage to the usb versions?

Whats the best MCE compatible software available? I just want to be able to easily find and record tv programs. I won't be using it to actually watch tv as my plasma has freeview built in. My machine is currently running XP Pro SP2, but if it would be much better I might consider purchasing Windows Media Center?
 
My son has had a WinTV-HVR-1100 for about 6 months. The picture quality is good the user interface is good, the hybrid recorder isn't so good. from my point of view the worst part has to be the scanning. It seems that it doesn't pick up test signals, example if you scan before 6pm you get abc1 and the kiddies channels, but if you scan after 6pm you get bbc3 bbc4 ect. I haven't found a way round this (although I only have spend about a minute trying). Plus the on screen menus seem messy and channels don't have there correct freeview channel numbers.
Would find it hard to recommend :(
 
Baron so which are you recommending? It's just a one off investment, hence I want to make the right decision.

Still keep reading mixed reviews on the terratec!

Does anyone know the behaviour of TV cards in dual screens? I.e will it maximise without problems on panel #2?

KangooVanMan said:
Please can you point me in the right direction for these 3rd party apps.
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www.dtvrecord.com

www.digiguide.com
 
:D Dark_Shadow, if you want one tuner, in a stock XP environment I would advise you to buy the Nebula.

If you want twin tuners, and believe me I did after a short while, I would go for the Terratec. For me it wins in the UI, selectivity of the tuner and build quality of the hardware.


Now, Terratec did get a beating over its driver software but this has been corrected and... the software the used originally for the UI (supplied by Cyberlink) was chronic and changing to Home Cinema (latest version 4.98) has made things much better. Believe me, I did contemplate sending my card back to Germany until I found out about the driver fix but now I wouldn't be without it

If I could find all the bits for my Nebula I would be quite willing to sell it. The software tries to be all things to all men and doesn't do one thing exceptionally well.
 
KangooVanMan said:
It seems that it doesn't pick up test signals, example if you scan before 6pm you get abc1 and the kiddies channels, but if you scan after 6pm you get bbc3 bbc4 ect. I haven't found a way round this (although I only have spend about a minute trying)
Click to expand...

This is normal for any digitv card. abc1 stops transmitting after 6pm. also the cbbc and bbc3/4 channels are basicaly the same channel, they switch over at 7oclock i believe. it is beneficial to set them up as seperate channels though as the epg data is on different service id's. theres a few other channels like this such as ftn and idealworld.
 
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