PVR software for Windows Vista

[Velcro Face]

I'm running Vista Business, and have a Leadtek WinFast TV2000 tuner card installed. Unfortunately, Leadtek has yet to update their Personal Video Recorder software to work in Vista, so I need some program to watch and record shows on my PC.

I realize I can upgrade to Vista Ultimate and get the Media Center, but $140 seems a lot to spend just for this feature. Besides, I could probably buy a new tuner card with Vista-compatible software for less. What's more, I'd like to record to DVD-ready MPEG2 files, and I understand that Media Center uses a different format.

I believe that Cyberlink makes a Vista-ready PVR, and Beyond TV is supposed to be Vista-ready. Are there any other (hopefully cheaper than $100) programs out there that will let me watch TV and record to MPEG2 files on my Vista Business machine? And which of them works best?

--
Michael

[Caple]

GB-PVR.
Free.
But I'm not sure if it will work with your card. Maybe with some plugin.
Check its website for more info.

[ScorpioDragon]

Try J. River Media Center. It works on my Vista Ultimate with no problems so far. I've used it for more than 2 months now, and I use it daily. I started using this software (which also has other multimedia functions) since the latest version of WinTV2000 didn't work under Vista with my Hauppauge PVR-150.

[Velcro Face]

GB-PVR.
Free.
But I'm not sure if it will work with your card.

Thanks for the suggestion. Unfortunately, GB-PVR fails to recognize my tuner card, even though it's listed as one of those supported.

--
Michael

[Velcro Face]

Try J. River Media Center. It works on my Vista Ultimate with no problems so far. I've used it for more than 2 months now, and I use it daily. I started using this software (which also has other multimedia functions) since the latest version of WinTV2000 didn't work under Vista with my Hauppauge PVR-150.

Thanks for pointing me to J. River Media Center. It recognized my tuner card, and was able to display a rather noisy picture, but the audio was messed up. When I went to configure the audio, no option was visible under audio line selection. I have a Compaq system with onboard Intel audio using the latest Realtek AC'97 drivers for Vista.

This makes the fifth PVR application I've tried. None of them display decent video, and they all have trouble with the audio in Windows Vista. This was never a problem in XP, but apparently Vista treats audio a whole different way. Perhaps I'll have to break down, disable my onboard audio, and buy an audio card.

--
Michael

[pepegot1]

You jumped the gun. Vista is not ready for the big time yet-stick with XP for now.