Chris Tweak - any good?

[groover km]

Has anyone tried this?

http://www.chris-pc.com/tweak/index.html

If so, what are your thoughts? I've just installed the 14 day trial and been playing with it, and so far it seems to work on channel changes ... haven't tried rebooting though...

[daphatty]

I went to the site (after I saw the post on byopvr.com) a few days ago but the fact that it's shareware shooed me away. 14 days is not enough time to judge a product. Heck, neither is 30 days for that matter. No one actually uses that sort of product on a daily basis so how can we make a financially sound investment decision when we haven't thoroughly tested the product?

The promises (a.k.a. feature set) sound interesting but not enough for me to invest any time in it right now.

[ejeffers]

Sounds like the Hauppage Tweak tool, but for 20 bucks. In my opinion, not worth it at all.

[groover km]

After playing with this for a day, I can say that it does make a difference; as any tuning will do. Is it any better than the TweakTool? Hmmm - yes and no.

First of all, at it's most basic it is just a different / prettier interface to the ProcAmp and DNR settings - all very good, but I can do that myself through graphedit, I don't even need the TweakTool. So not worth $20, no.

However, what it does seem to be doing (and how it differs from the tweaktool) is monitoring selected directories (I think). So in theory, it loads in the background at startup, and whenever it sees activity in my recording directory (for example) it checks_the_settings_on_the_card are what I set them to. So in theory, once it is set, it is set. Seems like a good idea in principle, no?

And I agree with you guys - $20 bucks *does* sound expensive. But then again, a $100+ card that works erratically or at poor quality because the drivers suck is even more expensive. Not to count the hours F@#$ing around with it - what's your time worth? I shouldn't even know my PVR150 is even THERE, it should be invisible, not adjusting sliders, updating drivers, fixing files....

I'm tired of the whole thing.

If I think it is making a difference - and I agree with daphatty that consistency is what counts - maybe I'll send the invoice to Hauppauge?

[groover km]

Don't want to spend more do we? I agree just use the free one works the same and most of those settings you can add/tune-on in the registry. That software is for people who don't know what to do, so that might be good for them to use.

Don't forget that many of the registry tweaks you refer to don't 'stick' on some of the newer driver releases. Which is why we have threads pages and pages long.

[groover km]

From the website:

"Most Personal Video Recorder (PVR) softwares are setting their default values when recording, you can use ChrisTWEAK Folder Monitoring feature to reapply your settings when a change is made in PVR's recording folder and subfolders.
This features allows you to reapply Image Settings, Sound Settings and Image Prefilter Settings."
http://www.chris-pc.com/tweak

A question for sub: Could a similar app / ability be built in to GB-PVR? And do you think it would make a difference?

[daphatty]

And I agree with you guys - $20 bucks *does* sound expensive. But then again, a $100+ card that works erratically or at poor quality because the drivers suck is even more expensive. Not to count the hours F@#$ing around with it - what's your time worth? I shouldn't even know my PVR150 is even THERE, it should be invisible, not adjusting sliders, updating drivers, fixing files....

I'm tired of the whole thing.

I feel you on this. I too would like to "set it and forget it." IMO, that is the only thing that makes a commercial TiVo better than our HTPCs.