2008-07-26, 08:07 PM
As I got Cyberlink PowerCinema with a Hauppauge Nova HD S2 card, I thought I would install it and give it a whirl - it retails for $149 on the Cyberlink website!
I so quickly noticed it's shortcomings compared to GBPVR & its sheer lack of configurability....
You can't knock the look of it - it is very polished, but on so many points it is inferior to GBPVR, like only playing certan file types, no control over decoders used, no prologic surround sound available (unless you pay more).
One of its selling points is that it comes with an EPG service over the internet - which I thought would be useful for sat channels. But it turns out the free version it comes with only gives you a handful of channels, and even if you pay more you only get the missing Freeview ones - no satellite. Like earlier builds of GBPVR, you can't watch any of the sat channels it finds unless they are in the EPG. I spent ten minutes scanning in the available channels, another ten playing with it and then hit the delete button!
It really highlighted to me how great GBPVR is. Hmm - about time I contributed again...
*I did like the photo slideshow animations though. Either they copied it from Vista Ultimate, or vice-versa, but It totally transforms the usual static image slide-show when the picture is zoomed in, zoomed out, panned up, down, left, and right. One for the wish list, I think.
I so quickly noticed it's shortcomings compared to GBPVR & its sheer lack of configurability....
You can't knock the look of it - it is very polished, but on so many points it is inferior to GBPVR, like only playing certan file types, no control over decoders used, no prologic surround sound available (unless you pay more).
One of its selling points is that it comes with an EPG service over the internet - which I thought would be useful for sat channels. But it turns out the free version it comes with only gives you a handful of channels, and even if you pay more you only get the missing Freeview ones - no satellite. Like earlier builds of GBPVR, you can't watch any of the sat channels it finds unless they are in the EPG. I spent ten minutes scanning in the available channels, another ten playing with it and then hit the delete button!
It really highlighted to me how great GBPVR is. Hmm - about time I contributed again...
*I did like the photo slideshow animations though. Either they copied it from Vista Ultimate, or vice-versa, but It totally transforms the usual static image slide-show when the picture is zoomed in, zoomed out, panned up, down, left, and right. One for the wish list, I think.
Lounge media center; Asus UEFI mobo-Intel Core i5-GeForce GTX970-Samsung EVO SSD 256gb-2x Samsung F1 1tb-NovaT USB-Nova HDS2-Samsung 51" plasma
