Comparison of PVR software packages
Encyclopedia
The following is a comparison guide for popular DVR (digital video recorder
, sometimes PVR, personal video recorder) software packages.
(PVR) software packages.
Porting MythTV to Windows is under development.http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Windows_Port
There is also a Windows Home Server Edition
1. The Personalized Intelligent Recording and Scheduling feature, similar to TiVo
enables the PVR application to record programs based on past viewing habits and interests.
2. Windows Media Center
has the ability to skip commercials
automatically after installing an external plug-in called "DVRMSToolbox" (which is not supported by Microsoft
) or "Lifextender" .
3. MythTV
has the ability to perform Personalized Intelligent Recording and Scheduling after installing an external plug-in called "tvwish" or "MythMiner" (neither of which are supported by MythTV
).
4. Windows Media Center
supports CableCard when used on CableLabs certified OEM Hardware. http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060131-6081.html Windows 7 Media Center supports CableCard on any hardware that passes the Digital Cable Advisor tool in MCE. http://www.anandtech.com/show/3588
5. Supports over-the-air epg when using cards/boxes which support this functionality, and in areas where such a service is available. Also supports XMLTV programme data is provided by various sources for various costs depending on territory. The supported 14day Radio Times feed for the UK is free of charge; over the air 7day programme data is also available in the UK.
6. To take advantage of operating system power management with Beyond TV, the main user interface must be closed.
7. Subscription-free EPG is available in areas where program listings data is freely available without violating copyright laws or data owners' Terms of Service. In North America, Schedules Direct provides legally-licensed EPG data for a nominal fee of $20 per year.
8. EPG is supported via WebEpg
9. Is Supported by 3rd party plugins. ComSkiphttp://gbpvr.com/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Utility/ComSkip and ShowAnalyzer http://www.dragonglobal.biz/
10. Windows Media Center supports two NTSC (Analog) tuners and two ATSC (Digital) tuners out of the box. Using additional tuners requires registry modifications. Windows 7 Media Center supports up to 4 tuners of each type out of the box, DVB-T, DVB-S, NTSC/PAL.
11. Vista Media Center can do partial intelligent recordings. You can do recordings based on key words, actor(s) names, or other genres.
12. Elgato's contract with TitanTV for the US market will expire in 2010. When it expires TV Guide will become the sole EPG provider for EyeTV in the United states. There one year of TV Guide EPG service costs $19.95.
13. XBMC Media Center supports the SiliconDust HDHomerun with the MyTV Plugin.
14. No native subscription free EPG built in, but EPG data available using third party services.
15. Support is limited to content broadcast as 'copy freely' (DRM Free)
16. Supports any tuner card supported by LinuxTV framework; which is pretty much everything. DVB-T2 is not official support but reported to be working by those with compatible tuners.
17. The official MythTV plugin MythWeb allows browsing programme guide, scheduling recordings, management of media and playback via a [Adobe Flash]-based player; which works on [Android] phones and tablets. MythDroid among other applications support remote control of TV playback and local playback on Android devices. The remote control emulates for the most part a conventional remote rather than a complete touchscreen context aware controller such as that supplied by Sonos.
18. DVB-C is achievable using certain cards that are detected as DVB-T tuners. And also using addons such as DVBLink
19. Smartphone and tablet control of the full range of Windows Media Centre features is possible on iOS/iPad/iPhone/Android. http://www.evoscan.com/home/
s are implemented natively (without third-party add-ons) in the PVRs.
1 Possible with third-party software.
2 Windows 7 OS only
3 Implemented with FFmpeg (no add-on needed)
Information about what video codec
s are implemented natively (without third-party add-ons) in the PVRs.
All features must be available after the default install otherwise the feature needs a footnote.
1 Yes with registry change.
2 Yes with retail third-party plugin
3 Yes with free supported third-party plugin
4 Yes with free unsupported third-party plugin
5 Yes with free third-party software Web Guide 4
6 Yes with add-on software called DVBLink Server
7 Yes with using symlinks, or just adding folders in settings
s require a TV Tuner in order to work. Many DVRs, as seen above, can handle multiple tuners.
Digital video recorder
A digital video recorder , sometimes referred to by the merchandising term personal video recorder , is a consumer electronics device or application software that records video in a digital format to a disk drive, USB flash drive, SD memory card or other local or networked mass storage device...
, sometimes PVR, personal video recorder) software packages.
General information
Basic general information for popular DVRDigital video recorder
A digital video recorder , sometimes referred to by the merchandising term personal video recorder , is a consumer electronics device or application software that records video in a digital format to a disk drive, USB flash drive, SD memory card or other local or networked mass storage device...
(PVR) software packages.
| Name | Official Website | Windows Microsoft Windows Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal... |
Macintosh Macintosh The Macintosh , or Mac, is a series of several lines of personal computers designed, developed, and marketed by Apple Inc. The first Macintosh was introduced by Apple's then-chairman Steve Jobs on January 24, 1984; it was the first commercially successful personal computer to feature a mouse and a... |
Linux Linux Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds... |
Price | Latest stable release | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Beyond TV | Beyond TV | $99.99 software & remote. | 4.9.3 Build 6335 Oct 15, 2010 |
Not compatible with DVB tuners. While Snapstream is providing minor fixes for Beyond TV, they no longer actively updating and developing the software as they are focusing on commercial appliations. Despite the lack of a new version, their fanbase (in the forums) maintains active and the program is still available. See also: List of digital television deployments by country |
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| CenterStage Centerstage CenterStage, now obsolete, was a media center software application with a 10-foot user interface design for the living-room TV that allows digital content stored on an Apple Macintosh computer running Mac OS X to be played on a standard television set.... |
CenterStage | Free | Development ceased December 2008 | ||||
| DVBViewer | DVBViewer | €15.00 | 4.8 (May 1, 2011) | ||||
| CTpvr | CTPVR | $29.95 - Media Center; $14.95 - Client | UPDATE Mar-08: CTpvr has sold its products and TV Listings service to an (as yet) unknown company. Currently not available. | ||||
| Easy HDTV DVR | Enigma Industries | $30.00 | 1.2.1 | Lightweight DVR for ATSC/ClearQam tuners on Windows. | |||
| EyeTV Elgato ElgatoSystems is a hardware and software manufacturer that makes television viewing and recording products specifically for the Macintosh family of personal computers, including EyeTV software... |
Elgato | Bundled / €79.99 | 3.1 | Free with all Elgato USB tuners, but available separately for use with other tuners. | |||
| Freevo | Freevo | Limited | Free | 1.9.2 Beta 1 (Dec 22, 2010) | Open source Open source The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology... , written in Python Python (programming language) Python is a general-purpose, high-level programming language whose design philosophy emphasizes code readability. Python claims to "[combine] remarkable power with very clear syntax", and its standard library is large and comprehensive... |
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| DVB Vulture | DVB Vulture | Free | 2 | Open source Open source The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology... , written in C C (programming language) C is a general-purpose computer programming language developed between 1969 and 1973 by Dennis Ritchie at the Bell Telephone Laboratories for use with the Unix operating system.... ; server + client, network streaming, recording, epg |
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| GB-PVR GB-PVR GB-PVR is a PVR application, running on Microsoft Windows, whose main function is scheduling TV recordings and playing back live TV. This PVR also acts as a home media center with a digital video recorder, a radio station online tuner, a music and movie player, a library of images and other... |
GB-PVR | Free | 1.4.7 (August 29, 2009) | Includes Integrated EPG, media server; PC client (local or networked), MediaMVP clients, web-scheduling. (built on the .NET 2.0 Framework) | |||
| Got All Media | Got All Media | Free | 7.0.0.4 (March 22, 2009) | TV , Video, Audio stream player, Remote control support, Weather | |||
| InterVideo WinDVR InterVideo WinDVR InterVideo WinDVR was a commercial digital video recorder software package for Windows operating systems. It lets you watch and record TV shows on the PC by allowing it to work as a TV set and a DVR at the same time. It requires that the host PC have a hardware based TV turner card... |
Corel | Discontinued. Previously bundled with various TV tuner devices. | |||||
| Media Center/JRiver Media Center Media Center (software application) Media Center, or formally, "JRiver Media Center" is a multimedia application that allows the user to play and organize various types of media on a computer running Windows.... |
JRiver | With Parallels | No | $49.98 | 17.0.24 October, 2011 | DirectShow video player, audio, images, 10 foot GUI, Remote control, DLNA | |
| MediaPhoenix/ShowShifter ShowShifter ShowShifter is widely regarded as the original Media Center/10 foot UI/HTPC software application but is no longer commercially available. It is notable in that it was the first publicly downloadable software to attempt to do this and as such defined this market for years to come... |
MediaPhoenix | MediaPhoenix - Unreleased ShowShifter - Discontinued (Was £30) |
3.1 | Supports some older TechnoTrend/Hauppauge Hauppauge Computer Works Hauppauge Computer Works , or just Hauppauge, is a US manufacturer and marketer of electronic video hardware for personal computers. Although it is most widely known for its WinTV line of TV tuner cards for PCs, Hauppauge also produces personal video recorders, digital video editors, digital media... boxes which are not BDA Broadcast Driver Architecture The Broadcast Driver Architecture is a Microsoft standard for digital video capture on Microsoft Windows operating systems. It encompasses the ATSC and DVB standards and gives developers a standardized method of accessing TV tuner devices... compliant, such as the Dec 2000-t/3000-s and first generation Nova-t USB boxes, which are unsupported by other PVR software. |
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| MediaPortal MediaPortal MediaPortal is an open-source media center software project, often considered an alternative to Windows Media Center. It provides a 10-foot user interface for performing typical PVR/TiVo functionality, including playing, pausing, and recording live TV; playing DVDs, videos, and music; viewing... |
MediaPortal | Free | 1.1.3 (February 14, 2011) | Open source Open source The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology... (built on the .NET 2.0 Framework) |
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| Meedio Meedio Meedio is a company that made a media center software with the same name, and was acquired by Yahoo! in 2006. The new software is named .... TV/Yahoo Go! TV |
Meedio Meedio Meedio is a company that made a media center software with the same name, and was acquired by Yahoo! in 2006. The new software is named .... TV/Yahoo Go! TV |
Discontinued/Free | 2006 | Only available in the US | |||
| MeediOS | MeediOS | Free | Open source Open source The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology... (built on the .NET Framework) |
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| MythTV MythTV MythTV is a free and open source home entertainment application with a simplified "10-foot user interface" design for the living-room TV, and turns a computer with the necessary hardware into a network streaming digital video recorder, a digital multimedia home entertainment system, or home theater... |
MythTV | Limited | Free | 0.24.1 (November 10, 2010) | Open source Open source The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology... |
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| SageTV SageTV SageTV Media Center was a proprietary, commercial DVR and HTPC software for Mac OS X, Windows and Linux. It requires that the host computer have a hardware based TV tuner card. The SageTV software has an integrated Electronic Programming Guide that is updated via the Internet... |
SageTV | $79.95 software; $29.95 client; $29.95 per mediaMVP client; | 6.6 | Java based. SageTV was purchased by Google on 20 June 2011 and its online store was shut. No statement has been made about the future availability of SageTV products. | |||
| SesamTV | SesamTV | Free | Version 2.2 last updated in 2007 | See http://www.sesamtv.com/download.html | |||
| Arcsoft TotalMedia Theatre | ArcSoft | $99.99 software. | 5.0.1.114 | All-in-one media player for videos, Blu-ray, DVDs, and AVCHD.Plays 2D DVDs, videos, and photo slideshows in 3D.Online video playback, download and sharing. | |||
| TVedia | TVedia | $34.95 | 4.2 | ||||
| Tvheadend | Tvheadend | Free | 2.9 | Open source Open source The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology... . TV streaming server for Linux supporting DVB-S, DVB-S2, DVB-C, DVB-T, ATSC, IPTV, and Analog video (V4L) as input sources. Supported by Showtime Media player and XBMC |
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| Tvtime Tvtime tvtime is a program for Linux that allows a person to watch television through his or her PC using a TV tuner or a satellite receiver card DVB-S.... |
Tvtime | Free | 1.0.1 (September 8, 2005) | Open source Open source The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology... . High quality television application for use with video capture cards on Linux systems. tvtime processes the input from a capture card and displays it on a computer monitor or projector |
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| Video Disk Recorder Video Disk Recorder VDR is an open source application for Linux designed to allow any computer to function as a digital video recorder, in order to record and replay TV programming using the computer's hard drive. The computer needs to be equipped with a digital TV tuner card. VDR can also operate as an mp3 player... |
www.tvdr.de | Open source Open source The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology... . |
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| Windows Media Center Windows Media Center Windows Media Center is a digital video recorder and media player developed by Microsoft. It is an application that allows users to view and record live television, as well as organize and play music and videos... |
Windows Media Center | $110-$319 (OS Price) | 7600.16385.090713-1255 (July 13, 2009) | Included in Windows XP Windows XP Windows XP is an operating system produced by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops and media centers. First released to computer manufacturers on August 24, 2001, it is the second most popular version of Windows, based on installed user base... MCE 2005 and Windows Vista Windows Vista Windows Vista is an operating system released in several variations developed by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops, tablet PCs, and media center PCs... Home Premium and Ultimate editions, Windows 7 Home Premium, Professional, and Ultimate. |
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| Winfast PVR2 | Leadtek WinFast | Bundled free with many Leadtek/Winfast TV tuner devices. | |||||
| Name | Official Website | Windows Microsoft Windows Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal... |
Macintosh Macintosh The Macintosh , or Mac, is a series of several lines of personal computers designed, developed, and marketed by Apple Inc. The first Macintosh was introduced by Apple's then-chairman Steve Jobs on January 24, 1984; it was the first commercially successful personal computer to feature a mouse and a... |
Linux Linux Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds... |
Price | Latest stable release | Notes |
Porting MythTV to Windows is under development.http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Windows_Port
There is also a Windows Home Server Edition
Digital/Personal Video Recorder (DVR / PVR) features
Information about what common and prominent DVR features are implemented natively (without third-party add-ons).| DVR | Subscription Free Electronic Program Guide Electronic program guide Electronic program guides and interactive program guides provide users of television, radio, and other media applications with continuously updated menus displaying broadcast programming or scheduling information for current and upcoming programming... |
Power Management Power management Power management is a feature of some electrical appliances, especially copiers, computers and computer peripherals such as monitors and printers, that turns off the power or switches the system to a low-power state when inactive. In computing this is known as PC power management and is built... |
Multiple TV Tuner Cards TV tuner card A TV tuner card is a kind of television tuner that allows television signals to be received by a computer. Most TV tuners also function as video capture cards, allowing them to record television programs onto a hard disk much like the Tivo digital video recorder does.-Variants: The interfaces for... Support |
CableCARD CableCARD CableCARD is a special-use PCMCIA card that allows consumers in the United States to view and record digital cable television channels on digital video recorders, personal computers and television sets without the use of other equipment such as a set top box provided by a cable television company... Support |
ATSC Tuner Support | Automated Commercial Skip Commercial skipping Commercial skipping is an advanced feature in some digital video recorders that makes it possible to automatically skip commercials in recorded programs... |
Teletext Teletext Teletext is a television information retrieval service developed in the United Kingdom in the early 1970s. It offers a range of text-based information, typically including national, international and sporting news, weather and TV schedules... |
Schedule Timed Recordings | DRM Digital rights management Digital rights management is a class of access control technologies that are used by hardware manufacturers, publishers, copyright holders and individuals with the intent to limit the use of digital content and devices after sale. DRM is any technology that inhibits uses of digital content that... Support |
DVB-T / DVB-T2 / DVB-C / DVB-S / DVB-S2 tuner support | Smartphone/Tablet playback | Smartphone/Tablet syncing | Smartphone/Tablet remote control | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Beyond TV | ||||||||||||||
| CTpvr | ||||||||||||||
| Easy HDTV DVR | ||||||||||||||
| EyeTV Elgato ElgatoSystems is a hardware and software manufacturer that makes television viewing and recording products specifically for the Macintosh family of personal computers, including EyeTV software... |
External add-on | |||||||||||||
| Freevo | External add-on | |||||||||||||
| DVB Vulture | ||||||||||||||
| GB-PVR GB-PVR GB-PVR is a PVR application, running on Microsoft Windows, whose main function is scheduling TV recordings and playing back live TV. This PVR also acts as a home media center with a digital video recorder, a radio station online tuner, a music and movie player, a library of images and other... |
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| Got All Media | ||||||||||||||
| CenterStage Centerstage CenterStage, now obsolete, was a media center software application with a 10-foot user interface design for the living-room TV that allows digital content stored on an Apple Macintosh computer running Mac OS X to be played on a standard television set.... |
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| MediaPortal MediaPortal MediaPortal is an open-source media center software project, often considered an alternative to Windows Media Center. It provides a 10-foot user interface for performing typical PVR/TiVo functionality, including playing, pausing, and recording live TV; playing DVDs, videos, and music; viewing... |
Using Plugin | Partial support | ||||||||||||
| Meedio TV/Yahoo Go TV | ||||||||||||||
| MeediOS | ||||||||||||||
| MediaPhoenix/ShowShifter ShowShifter ShowShifter is widely regarded as the original Media Center/10 foot UI/HTPC software application but is no longer commercially available. It is notable in that it was the first publicly downloadable software to attempt to do this and as such defined this market for years to come... |
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| MythTV MythTV MythTV is a free and open source home entertainment application with a simplified "10-foot user interface" design for the living-room TV, and turns a computer with the necessary hardware into a network streaming digital video recorder, a digital multimedia home entertainment system, or home theater... |
(Location Dependent) | Limited | External add-on | |||||||||||
| SageTV SageTV SageTV Media Center was a proprietary, commercial DVR and HTPC software for Mac OS X, Windows and Linux. It requires that the host computer have a hardware based TV tuner card. The SageTV software has an integrated Electronic Programming Guide that is updated via the Internet... |
Using Plugin | |||||||||||||
| SesamTV | ||||||||||||||
| TotalMedia 3.5 | ||||||||||||||
| TVedia | ||||||||||||||
| Windows Media Center Windows Media Center Windows Media Center is a digital video recorder and media player developed by Microsoft. It is an application that allows users to view and record live television, as well as organize and play music and videos... |
External add-on | ; also honors the "do not record" flag which was disallowed by the courts. | ||||||||||||
| DVR | Subscription Free Electronic Program Guide Electronic program guide Electronic program guides and interactive program guides provide users of television, radio, and other media applications with continuously updated menus displaying broadcast programming or scheduling information for current and upcoming programming... |
Power Management Power management Power management is a feature of some electrical appliances, especially copiers, computers and computer peripherals such as monitors and printers, that turns off the power or switches the system to a low-power state when inactive. In computing this is known as PC power management and is built... |
Multiple TV Tuner Cards TV tuner card A TV tuner card is a kind of television tuner that allows television signals to be received by a computer. Most TV tuners also function as video capture cards, allowing them to record television programs onto a hard disk much like the Tivo digital video recorder does.-Variants: The interfaces for... Support |
CableCARD CableCARD CableCARD is a special-use PCMCIA card that allows consumers in the United States to view and record digital cable television channels on digital video recorders, personal computers and television sets without the use of other equipment such as a set top box provided by a cable television company... Support |
ATSC Tuner Support | Automated Commercial Skip Commercial skipping Commercial skipping is an advanced feature in some digital video recorders that makes it possible to automatically skip commercials in recorded programs... |
Teletext Teletext Teletext is a television information retrieval service developed in the United Kingdom in the early 1970s. It offers a range of text-based information, typically including national, international and sporting news, weather and TV schedules... |
Schedule Timed Recordings | DRM Digital rights management Digital rights management is a class of access control technologies that are used by hardware manufacturers, publishers, copyright holders and individuals with the intent to limit the use of digital content and devices after sale. DRM is any technology that inhibits uses of digital content that... Support |
DVB-T / DVB-T2 / DVB-C / DVB-S / DVB-S2 tuner support | Smartphone/Tablet playback | Smartphone/Tablet syncing | Smartphone/Tablet remote control |
1. The Personalized Intelligent Recording and Scheduling feature, similar to TiVo
TiVo
TiVo is a digital video recorder developed and marketed by TiVo, Inc. and introduced in 1999. TiVo provides an on-screen guide of scheduled broadcast programming television programs, whose features include "Season Pass" schedules which record every new episode of a series, and "WishList"...
enables the PVR application to record programs based on past viewing habits and interests.
2. Windows Media Center
Windows Media Center
Windows Media Center is a digital video recorder and media player developed by Microsoft. It is an application that allows users to view and record live television, as well as organize and play music and videos...
has the ability to skip commercials
Commercial skipping
Commercial skipping is an advanced feature in some digital video recorders that makes it possible to automatically skip commercials in recorded programs...
automatically after installing an external plug-in called "DVRMSToolbox" (which is not supported by Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
) or "Lifextender" .
3. MythTV
MythTV
MythTV is a free and open source home entertainment application with a simplified "10-foot user interface" design for the living-room TV, and turns a computer with the necessary hardware into a network streaming digital video recorder, a digital multimedia home entertainment system, or home theater...
has the ability to perform Personalized Intelligent Recording and Scheduling after installing an external plug-in called "tvwish" or "MythMiner" (neither of which are supported by MythTV
MythTV
MythTV is a free and open source home entertainment application with a simplified "10-foot user interface" design for the living-room TV, and turns a computer with the necessary hardware into a network streaming digital video recorder, a digital multimedia home entertainment system, or home theater...
).
4. Windows Media Center
Windows Media Center
Windows Media Center is a digital video recorder and media player developed by Microsoft. It is an application that allows users to view and record live television, as well as organize and play music and videos...
supports CableCard when used on CableLabs certified OEM Hardware. http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060131-6081.html Windows 7 Media Center supports CableCard on any hardware that passes the Digital Cable Advisor tool in MCE. http://www.anandtech.com/show/3588
5. Supports over-the-air epg when using cards/boxes which support this functionality, and in areas where such a service is available. Also supports XMLTV programme data is provided by various sources for various costs depending on territory. The supported 14day Radio Times feed for the UK is free of charge; over the air 7day programme data is also available in the UK.
6. To take advantage of operating system power management with Beyond TV, the main user interface must be closed.
7. Subscription-free EPG is available in areas where program listings data is freely available without violating copyright laws or data owners' Terms of Service. In North America, Schedules Direct provides legally-licensed EPG data for a nominal fee of $20 per year.
8. EPG is supported via WebEpg
9. Is Supported by 3rd party plugins. ComSkiphttp://gbpvr.com/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Utility/ComSkip and ShowAnalyzer http://www.dragonglobal.biz/
10. Windows Media Center supports two NTSC (Analog) tuners and two ATSC (Digital) tuners out of the box. Using additional tuners requires registry modifications. Windows 7 Media Center supports up to 4 tuners of each type out of the box, DVB-T, DVB-S, NTSC/PAL.
11. Vista Media Center can do partial intelligent recordings. You can do recordings based on key words, actor(s) names, or other genres.
12. Elgato's contract with TitanTV for the US market will expire in 2010. When it expires TV Guide will become the sole EPG provider for EyeTV in the United states. There one year of TV Guide EPG service costs $19.95.
13. XBMC Media Center supports the SiliconDust HDHomerun with the MyTV Plugin.
14. No native subscription free EPG built in, but EPG data available using third party services.
15. Support is limited to content broadcast as 'copy freely' (DRM Free)
16. Supports any tuner card supported by LinuxTV framework; which is pretty much everything. DVB-T2 is not official support but reported to be working by those with compatible tuners.
17. The official MythTV plugin MythWeb allows browsing programme guide, scheduling recordings, management of media and playback via a [Adobe Flash]-based player; which works on [Android] phones and tablets. MythDroid among other applications support remote control of TV playback and local playback on Android devices. The remote control emulates for the most part a conventional remote rather than a complete touchscreen context aware controller such as that supplied by Sonos.
18. DVB-C is achievable using certain cards that are detected as DVB-T tuners. And also using addons such as DVBLink
19. Smartphone and tablet control of the full range of Windows Media Centre features is possible on iOS/iPad/iPhone/Android. http://www.evoscan.com/home/
Video format support
Information about what video codecVideo codec
A video codec is a device or software that enables video compression and/or decompression for digital video. The compression usually employs lossy data compression. Historically, video was stored as an analog signal on magnetic tape...
s are implemented natively (without third-party add-ons) in the PVRs.
| DVR | MPEG-1 MPEG-1 MPEG-1 is a standard for lossy compression of video and audio. It is designed to compress VHS-quality raw digital video and CD audio down to 1.5 Mbit/s without excessive quality loss, making video CDs, digital cable/satellite TV and digital audio broadcasting possible.Today, MPEG-1 has become... |
MPEG-2 MPEG-2 MPEG-2 is a standard for "the generic coding of moving pictures and associated audio information". It describes a combination of lossy video compression and lossy audio data compression methods which permit storage and transmission of movies using currently available storage media and transmission... |
MPEG-4 ASP MPEG-4 Part 2 MPEG-4 Part 2, MPEG-4 Visual is a video compression technology developed by MPEG. It belongs to the MPEG-4 ISO/IEC standards. It is a discrete cosine transform compression standard, similar to previous standards such as MPEG-1 and MPEG-2... (MPEG-4 Part 2 MPEG-4 Part 2 MPEG-4 Part 2, MPEG-4 Visual is a video compression technology developed by MPEG. It belongs to the MPEG-4 ISO/IEC standards. It is a discrete cosine transform compression standard, similar to previous standards such as MPEG-1 and MPEG-2... ), i.e. DivX DivX DivX is a brand name of products created by DivX, Inc. , including the DivX Codec which has become popular due to its ability to compress lengthy video segments into small sizes while maintaining relatively high visual quality.There are two DivX codecs; the regular MPEG-4 Part 2 DivX codec and the... , XviD XviD Xvid is a video codec library following the MPEG-4 standard, specifically MPEG-4 Part 2 Advanced Simple Profile . It uses ASP features such as b-frames, global and quarter pixel motion compensation, lumi masking, trellis quantization, and H.263, MPEG and custom quantization matrices.Xvid is a... |
H.264/MPEG-4 AVC H.264/MPEG-4 AVC H.264/MPEG-4 Part 10 or AVC is a standard for video compression, and is currently one of the most commonly used formats for the recording, compression, and distribution of high definition video... (MPEG-4 Part 10) |
VP8 VP8 VP8 is an open video compression format released by Google, originally created by On2 Technologies.After purchasing On2 Technologies in early 2010, Google has provided an irrevocable patent promise for underlying patents for the VP8 format, and released a bitstream format specification under a... |
WMV Windows Media Video 'Windows Media Video is a video compression format for several proprietary codecs developed by Microsoft. The original video format, known as WMV, was originally designed for Internet streaming applications, as a competitor to RealVideo. The other formats, such as WMV Screen and WMV Image, cater... |
AVI Audio Video Interleave Audio Video Interleave , known by its acronym AVI, is a multimedia container format introduced by Microsoft in November 1992 as part of its Video for Windows technology. AVI files can contain both audio and video data in a file container that allows synchronous audio-with-video playback... |
ASF Advanced Systems Format Advanced Systems Format is Microsoft's proprietary digital audio/digital video container format, especially meant for streaming media... |
QuickTime QuickTime QuickTime is an extensible proprietary multimedia framework developed by Apple Inc., capable of handling various formats of digital video, picture, sound, panoramic images, and interactivity. The classic version of QuickTime is available for Windows XP and later, as well as Mac OS X Leopard and... |
MP4 MPEG-4 Part 14 MPEG-4 Part 14 or MP4 is a multimedia container format standard specified as a part of MPEG-4. It is most commonly used to store digital video and digital audio streams, especially those defined by MPEG, but can also be used to store other data such as subtitles and still images... |
Real Video |
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| Beyond TV | |||||||||||
| CTpvr | |||||||||||
| EyeTV Elgato ElgatoSystems is a hardware and software manufacturer that makes television viewing and recording products specifically for the Macintosh family of personal computers, including EyeTV software... |
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| Freevo | |||||||||||
| DVB Vulture | |||||||||||
| GB-PVR GB-PVR GB-PVR is a PVR application, running on Microsoft Windows, whose main function is scheduling TV recordings and playing back live TV. This PVR also acts as a home media center with a digital video recorder, a radio station online tuner, a music and movie player, a library of images and other... |
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| Got All Media | |||||||||||
| Mac Media Center | |||||||||||
| MediaPortal MediaPortal MediaPortal is an open-source media center software project, often considered an alternative to Windows Media Center. It provides a 10-foot user interface for performing typical PVR/TiVo functionality, including playing, pausing, and recording live TV; playing DVDs, videos, and music; viewing... |
1 | 1 | |||||||||
| Meedio TV/Yahoo Go TV | 1 | ||||||||||
| MeediOS | |||||||||||
| MediaPhoenix/ShowShifter ShowShifter ShowShifter is widely regarded as the original Media Center/10 foot UI/HTPC software application but is no longer commercially available. It is notable in that it was the first publicly downloadable software to attempt to do this and as such defined this market for years to come... |
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| MythTV MythTV MythTV is a free and open source home entertainment application with a simplified "10-foot user interface" design for the living-room TV, and turns a computer with the necessary hardware into a network streaming digital video recorder, a digital multimedia home entertainment system, or home theater... |
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| SageTV SageTV SageTV Media Center was a proprietary, commercial DVR and HTPC software for Mac OS X, Windows and Linux. It requires that the host computer have a hardware based TV tuner card. The SageTV software has an integrated Electronic Programming Guide that is updated via the Internet... |
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| SesamTV | |||||||||||
| Arcsoft TotalMedia Theatre | |||||||||||
| TVedia | |||||||||||
| Windows Media Center Windows Media Center Windows Media Center is a digital video recorder and media player developed by Microsoft. It is an application that allows users to view and record live television, as well as organize and play music and videos... |
1 2 | 1 2 | 1 2 | 1 | |||||||
1 Possible with third-party software.
2 Windows 7 OS only
3 Implemented with FFmpeg (no add-on needed)
Information about what video codec
Video codec
A video codec is a device or software that enables video compression and/or decompression for digital video. The compression usually employs lossy data compression. Historically, video was stored as an analog signal on magnetic tape...
s are implemented natively (without third-party add-ons) in the PVRs.
Network Support
Each features is in context of computer-to-computer interaction.All features must be available after the default install otherwise the feature needs a footnote.
| DVR | Tuner Sharing | Hard Disk Pooling | Shared Media Database | Home Automation Home automation Home automation is the residential extension of "building automation". It is automation of the home, housework or household activity. Home automation may include centralized control of lighting, HVAC , appliances, and other systems, to provide improved convenience, comfort, energy efficiency and... |
Media Extenders | Placeshifting | Two-way Remote Control |
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| Beyond TV | |||||||
| CTpvr | |||||||
| EyeTV Elgato ElgatoSystems is a hardware and software manufacturer that makes television viewing and recording products specifically for the Macintosh family of personal computers, including EyeTV software... |
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| Freevo | |||||||
| DVB Vulture | |||||||
| GB-PVR GB-PVR GB-PVR is a PVR application, running on Microsoft Windows, whose main function is scheduling TV recordings and playing back live TV. This PVR also acts as a home media center with a digital video recorder, a radio station online tuner, a music and movie player, a library of images and other... |
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| Got All Media | |||||||
| Mac Media Center | |||||||
| MediaPortal MediaPortal MediaPortal is an open-source media center software project, often considered an alternative to Windows Media Center. It provides a 10-foot user interface for performing typical PVR/TiVo functionality, including playing, pausing, and recording live TV; playing DVDs, videos, and music; viewing... |
4 | ||||||
| Meedio TV/Yahoo Go TV | 1 | ||||||
| MeediOS | |||||||
| MediaPhoenix/ShowShifter ShowShifter ShowShifter is widely regarded as the original Media Center/10 foot UI/HTPC software application but is no longer commercially available. It is notable in that it was the first publicly downloadable software to attempt to do this and as such defined this market for years to come... |
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| MythTV MythTV MythTV is a free and open source home entertainment application with a simplified "10-foot user interface" design for the living-room TV, and turns a computer with the necessary hardware into a network streaming digital video recorder, a digital multimedia home entertainment system, or home theater... |
4 | ||||||
| SageTV SageTV SageTV Media Center was a proprietary, commercial DVR and HTPC software for Mac OS X, Windows and Linux. It requires that the host computer have a hardware based TV tuner card. The SageTV software has an integrated Electronic Programming Guide that is updated via the Internet... |
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| SesamTV | |||||||
| Arcsoft TotalMedia Theatre | |||||||
| TVedia | |||||||
| Windows Media Center Windows Media Center Windows Media Center is a digital video recorder and media player developed by Microsoft. It is an application that allows users to view and record live television, as well as organize and play music and videos... |
6 | 7 | 2 | 5 | 2 |
1 Yes with registry change.
2 Yes with retail third-party plugin
3 Yes with free supported third-party plugin
4 Yes with free unsupported third-party plugin
5 Yes with free third-party software Web Guide 4
6 Yes with add-on software called DVBLink Server
7 Yes with using symlinks, or just adding folders in settings
TV Tuner Hardware
DVRDigital video recorder
A digital video recorder , sometimes referred to by the merchandising term personal video recorder , is a consumer electronics device or application software that records video in a digital format to a disk drive, USB flash drive, SD memory card or other local or networked mass storage device...
s require a TV Tuner in order to work. Many DVRs, as seen above, can handle multiple tuners.
See also
- Home cinemaHome cinemaHome cinema, also commonly called home theater, are home entertainment set-ups that seek to reproduce a movie theater experience and mood with the help of video and audio equipment in a private home....
- HTPC (Home theater PC)Home theater PCA Home Theater PC or Media Center appliance is a convergence device that combines some or all the capabilities of a personal computer with a software application that supports video, photo, music playback, and sometimes video recording functionality...
- Digital video recorderDigital video recorderA digital video recorder , sometimes referred to by the merchandising term personal video recorder , is a consumer electronics device or application software that records video in a digital format to a disk drive, USB flash drive, SD memory card or other local or networked mass storage device...
- Hard disk recorderHard disk recorderA hard disk recorder is a type of direct to disk recording system that uses a high-capacity hard disk to record digital audio or digital video. Hard disk recording systems represent an alternative to more traditional reel-to-reel tape or cassette multitrack systems, and provide editing...
- DVD recorderDVD recorderA DVD recorder , is an optical disc recorder that uses Optical disc recording technologies to digitally record analog signal or digital signals onto blank writable DVD media...
- Media center (disambiguation)
- Silent PC
- Media serverMedia ServerA media server refers either to a dedicated computer appliance or to a specialized application software, ranging from an enterprise class machine providing video on demand, to, more commonly, a small personal computer or NAS for the home, dedicated for storing various digital media .-Purpose:By...