GBPVR vs. Beyond TV

[hawesn]

I am very new to the whole PVR on PC idea. So please be nice if this is a real dumb question.

I have been using a Beyond TV trial version for a few days and really like it. What are the major advantages/disadvantages of using GBPVR? (the obvious advantage being the price)

[pcostanza]

Having never used Beyond TV, I'm not really qualified but having been a GBPVR user for awhile, the best thing to me is the help you get on this forum. Rarely have I seen a question asked that hasn't been answered.
Also, regular updates and sub sees they're needed and it's continued improvement with each release.
If you do decide to stay with GBPVR, please consider donating to sub for all his efforts.

[stefan]

I don't think beyond supports the MVP, so you can't use beyond in more than one room, right? Nor does it have a client/server setup possibility so you can watch tv on a computer that does not have the capture cards in it. GBPVR does both of these (note: I haven't used beyond, but I can't see they mention any of these features on their website).

[herbs]

Beyondtv has client/server setup just like gbpvr so you can use beyondtv in more than one room with another pc, also I believe there is an unoffical mediamvp client (or at least a beyondtv skin) but not as robust as gbpvr's method of doing things.
I personally found beyondtv picture quality not as good as gbpvr out of the box but I tried an older version, also if you live outside the USA then xmltv setup was not as simple as gbpvrs method of getting epg data.
I suggest you run both and see which one suits your needs the best.

[Braklet]

BeyondTV (like SageTV) charges extra for client/server access. Streaming LAN video is a mandatory requirement for me. They also do not (officially) support direct access via a MediaMVP client which was another thing I wanted (so that I didn't have to have a full computer just to access all my digital media).

I originally planned to build a MythTV/Linux PVR, and installed GB-PVR as a hardware verification step more than anything. I ran into a lot of AMD64 driver problems with Linux and decided to really give GB-PVR a try.

[Plug Alert!]

I liked GB-PVR so much that I donated to the project what I would have spent anyway on Beyond or Sage. Nowhere, and I repeat NOWHERE else (including the many MythTV-dedicated resources) will you find the same level of support that Sub dedicates to his PVR project. He might be a little nuts but I'm happy to throw a few bucks around to make it worth his while.

[sub]

I liked GB-PVR so much that I donated to the project what I would have spent anyway on Beyond or Sage. Nowhere, and I repeat NOWHERE else (including the many MythTV-dedicated resources) will you find the same level of support that Sub dedicates to his PVR project. He might be a little nuts but I'm happy to throw a few bucks around to make it worth his while

Thanks...I think.

[Braklet]

Thanks...I think.

Hey, you elided my "" . Comment intended as friendly jest. I'm truly impressed at the sheer time and effort you expend on GB-PVR. I think it ranks favorably to anything out there, commercial stuff included.

[kayak4ever]

I am very new to the whole PVR on PC idea. So please be nice if this is a real dumb question.

I have been using a Beyond TV trial version for a few days and really like it. What are the major advantages/disadvantages of using GBPVR? (the obvious advantage being the price)

I am not really that computer literate so I am judging the difference as an end user. The only reason I tried Beyond TV was that I wasn't getting sound on 4 channels because I hadn't downloaded the newest Hauppauge drivers for my pvr150. I found the layout of GBPVR much better and with all the plugins, you have more flexibility of deciding what you want the program to do (something us non-programmers hardly ever get to do!). For example, on my main screen, using the community skin, I get the weather, what's being recorded now and what's being recorded soon (but not the stocks because I am not interested in them). The screen isn't too "busy" and I have great choice in how the info is displayed. I tried the theatre plugin and like the fact I can find out what's playing at almost all my local theatres. Check out the plugins that let you search for programs, movies, etc. I am using showsearch now and it works well. I have also installed TVGuidesupercharger but I haven't been able to figure out what part of the instructions I am missing to actually use it to search for TV programs, movies, etc. I am looking forward to the Webadmin which will apparently let me set an order for resolving conflicts.

I fully agree with the idea posted on another post today that you should try the GBPVR plugins one at a time so you can clearly identify where any problems come from (in my case, it is usually a mistake on my part).

The forum is the next best thing. Having a whole community of people who want the same or similar things that allows you to better understand how the program works and adapt it to your needs. I don't think that a commercial program would let you change the irremote.ini file to have a "change aspect ratio" key or a "regain focus key".

[wtg]

Gbpvr's hardware requirements are lower too. I originally installed BeyondTV on a lower-end machine and it was completely unusable. The menu navigation was incredibly slow, but gbpvr worked great.

Emphatic "ditto" of everything already said. An active plug-in community and better support than you'd get anywhere, commercial or otherwise. If you do actually run into a bug, you'll likely see a fix soon. With your commercial choices, you're lucky to get an automated response to an email.

I really don't know how sub's wife puts up with it.

[stalky14]

I just switched to GB from BeyondTV because BTV doesn't let you manually edit the channel map and still get guide information. Also, the picture quality and CPU usage are better in GB with my Hauppauge PVR-150. But worst of all, BTV couldn't be left running with the GUI up for more than 40 or so hours without hanging my machine*. GB has been rock-stable for me so far for several weeks.

BTV has a prettier UI and is always buffering, as opposed to GB's needing to be paused to start buffering, but its flaws were showstoppers for me. I have a paid version, so maybe I'll switch back at the next revision if they fix the problems.

* Machine is a Shuttle XPC AthlonXP-2200 with 512MB, PVR-150, Nvidia 5200FX(?), and Soundblaster Extigy.