Compro's dual DVB-T tuner

[Steve]

Compro is jumping aboard the MCE dual tuner train with its new VideoMate T750.

http://lifestyle.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=7098

[Silent Shark]

Awesome.

I have the Videomate T300 in my PC, which has a dual analog-digital tuner. The hardware is fantastic and has never let me down, and finally the software is good enough to match. In the early days the software was rubbish, but it was frequently updated. It shows they care!

My current card works very well with MCE, providing you are watching it. If you schedule MCE to record something, the card can take ~1 second to tune to your desired channel, in which time MCE decides that there is no signal and gives up on your recording. I don't know if this is a common problem with MCE, but I thought I'd mention it. Also the power up schedule feature is only for the Compro software, not for MCE (although i suppose you could specify for it to turn on and not record, so that MCE can do the recording).

I own 3 different Compro cards and they are all good, reliable pieces of kit. I'd have this card on my shopping list if it was PCI-E.

[Steve]

I have four tuner cards in my possession. I have a Compro U3, Compro T200, Hauppauge Nova-T 500 and a Terratec Cynergy XS Hybrid. Compro's tuners don't play ball with my other tuners, so I'm using the latter two.

[blinky]

Got a T200 which I've just taken out of my case - to allow for better cooling . The software isn't great but they do regular driver updates. I've got a Terratec 2400i PCIe dual tuner which works great but currently lacks linux and hence MythTV support.

[RavenNight]

The Compro T200 I have is shocking, the software is terrible, regularly crashes, when you update to the latest drivers (which you have to do to pick up any channels) the remote stops working. Every couple of days I have to rescan which can take up to an hour. The tuner works okay under Vista Media Center but unless they've really improved the software avoid like the plauge. Plus the customer support is non-existent, I've contact them several times about my problems and haven't had a single reply.

[blinky]

Never really used the software other than watching a bit of live TV / Radio. The bugs are the software and I've never used the remote other than to test it functioned.

There's a strong Compro community at www.tv-cards.com

http://www.tv-cards.com/messageboard...ic.php?id=9052 448 posts on the T200/T300.

The only difference between the T200 and T300 is the analogue capture but you can capture from S-Video and Composite with the T200.

There used to be a distro list which would mail you whenever a new driver or app appeared - even if it wasn't visible on the website. Don't know if it still works though.

I use webscheduler for recording - cannot recommend it highly enough, particularly when coupled with XMLTV GUI for getting the EPG from Radio Times.

ProgDVB is also a good app although one part of the setup is a little counter-intuitive for DVB-T cards (it was initially written for DVB-S).

Never had any problems with it needed rescanning every few days.

[directhex]

no linux support :x

[Silent Shark]

Well, I did have trouble at the start (as you'll see from that tv-cards link you posted. I start on page 2), but these days I have no problems.

I used to use a Videomate PVR/FM, which is now in my brothers PC and working fine. My dad has a T200 in his PC and apart from struggling for signal on some channels, his is fine too. My T300 is doing well. Works fine in XP Media Center, and Vista Media Center. I do recommend these cards personally.

Maybe I've just been lucky .

[blinky]

Computer TV cards need a stronger and better quality signal than PVRs, videos and TV. This is partly because all the items in the case are good sources of RF interference.

The other trick which can help with stuttering is to raise the task priority of the TV app.