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[tjobbins]

Hi all

I'm thinking of taking the plunge and putting TV through MC as well.

I live in the UK, so I would need MC to work well with the UK digital Freeview service.

Can any UK users advise that it's working well for them?  And also suggest a suitable TV tuner I can buy for the UK?  If at all possible, I want dual tuners so I can watch+record.

Thanks in advance


Tom

[JimH]

Our wiki has an article on XMLTV.  Maybe there are other options.

Hauppauge makes a dual tuner card.  Pinnacle and Kworld are good USB tuners. 

[tjobbins]

Hi Jim,

Our wiki has an article on XMLTV.  Maybe there are other options.

Hauppauge makes a dual tuner card.  Pinnacle and Kworld are good USB tuners. 

So are you saying that the hardware will be no problem - there are definitely UK Freeview tuners that work in MC - but that EPG info is not supported without an eternal feed like XMLTV?

Thanks

Tom

[JimH]

I don't know what will work.  Sorry.  Someone else probably will.

The article on Wikipedia about DVB-T says that the UK uses it.  That's also what the U.S. uses.

One solution for XMLTV is mc2xml.  The web page says that it works in the UK.

[tjobbins]

I don't know what will work.  Sorry.  Someone else probably will.

The article on Wikipedia about DVB-T says that the UK uses it.  That's also what the U.S. uses.

One solution for XMLTV is mc2xml.  The web page says that it works in the UK.

OK thanks. So how do I go about checking hardware compatibility with MC?  Is there a master list of what TV cards MC supports?   Or does it support some generic card type/interface specification/protocol that I should look for the UK TV cards supporting?

Basically, how can I tell if a given random UK TV tuner will work in MC when I read its specs?

[rossp]

Hi all,
       I have been using MC14 with Freeview TV in the UK since 14 came out. Yaobing has made many improvements over the past few months and the TV is more stable and easier to use that ever before.
I currently use the Pinacle twin tuner freeview usb stick. This means I can record two channels at the same time. The stick works well with MC as it comes with bda drivers. I think you will find MC will work with any card/usb device if it has bda driver support (Yaobing please correct me if I am wrong).

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pinnacle-PCTV-DVB-T-Stick-2001E/dp/B000TSLSL8

To get the tv listings I use xmltv. You can set it up to be run by MC every day in the background by creating a simple xmltv.bat file as below.

Code: [Select]

@echo off
C:
cd \xmltv
"C:\Program Files\XMLTV GUI\Xmltvconsole.exe"

This creates a Listings.xml file in the C:\xmltv folder.

I have also tested the mc2xml program and this seems to work fine as well.

The only issue I have with TV is useing dual monitors. It seems very unstable if you switch the playback between monitors and frequently crashes MC. I you have a dual head setup make sure you run MC on the primary display. I will post this issue in a new thread when I get a chance.

Apart from the dual head display issue MC seems a good program to record and view tv.

Rgds...Ross

[tjobbins]

That's excellent, thanks so much Ross.

[tjobbins]

I think you will find MC will work with any card/usb device if it has bda driver support (Yaobing please correct me if I am wrong).

Oh, and if Yaobing or anyone else from J River could confirm the above is true, that would be great - in case I decide not to go for the same stick that Ross has.

Thanks

[Yaobing]

Oh, and if Yaobing or anyone else from J River could confirm the above is true, that would be great - in case I decide not to go for the same stick that Ross has.

Thanks

I see no reason to doubt that.  I coded MC DVB-T support as general as possible, only adding device specific coding when needed, and so far I have not added much.