Re: Which Digital TV PC Card for Windows, Linux, MAC, XP Media Centre, Showshifter?

[Pepe Duran]

Anybody ELSE recommend this card, and more importantly does the
"Showshifter" software actually work.


"DPandA" <sales@dpanda.com.au> wrote in message
news:40e1e53f$1@dnews.tpgi.com.au...
> DPandA DVB-T PCI was the first Digital TV card to be introduced to
Australia
> in 2003. http://www.dpanda.com.au/dpanda/dvbtpci.html
>
> European designed and built, it offers outstanding SD and HD performance
and
> increasingly features as the key component in HTPC's
> It has driver support for the forthcoming Windows XP Media Centre edition
as
> well as all current versions of Windows, and 3rd party support for Apple
Mac
> and Linux.
>
> Add Showshifter Home Media Centre and Streamzap PC Remote Control and you
> have all you need to turn your existing PC into a full featured HTPC
> http://www.dpanda.com.au/dpanda/accessories.html
>
> --
> David Porter & Associates Pty Ltd
> P O Box 2023
> Mansfield QLD 4122
> Australia
> 1300 655 574
> 07 3272 2212
> 07 3849 1310 Fax
> www.dpanda.com.au
> ABN 58 075 637 400
>
>

[Mike]

Pepe Duran wrote:
> Anybody ELSE recommend this card,

Its a rebadged haupauge Nova-T, which is a technotrend Budget.
"Budget" meaning no hardware mpeg decode.

The hardware works fine, but the bundled Windoze software is junk.
Great under Linux.

There are cheaper cards with more features, e.g. Aver $135 with RF
pass-through (wish I had that!) and analogue video in.
But for ms-windows, choose based on software.

> and more importantly does the "Showshifter" software actually work.

indeed. Dunno.


>>in 2003. http://www.dpanda.com.au/dpanda/dvbtpci.html
>>
>>European designed and built, it
> offers outstanding SD and HD performance

WTF is that supposed to mean? What is "high performance" in this
context. What other products does it "stand out" from?
Do you really want to buy from somebody who talks like that?
Its dishonest.

>>Add Showshifter Home Media Centre and Streamzap PC Remote Control and you
>>have all you need to turn your existing PC into a full featured HTPC

Assuming your existing PC has a fast enough CPU, ...

[Matt McLeod]

In article <40e4b3ad@quokka.wn.com.au>,
Mike <nospam.really@westnet.com.au> wrote:
>Pepe Duran wrote:
>>>Add Showshifter Home Media Centre and Streamzap PC Remote Control and you
>>>have all you need to turn your existing PC into a full featured HTPC
>
>Assuming your existing PC has a fast enough CPU, ...

Doesn't take much grunt to read MPEG-2 TS from the DVB-T card then
push it to disk. Ignoring the PIDs you don't want doesn't take
much more, nor does playing the results back on-screen.

A windows HTPC might still need lots of grunt to deal with all the
extra overhead involved in simply running Windows, of course, but
that's not really the issue here.

No comment on ShowShifter itself -- I do this stuff on Linux.
I did buy my card from DPandA, but that was before the other options
came on the market. These days I don't see much point paying the
premium for what is, as you noted, simply an OEM Technotrend budget
card.

Matt

[mclaren]

Dont know too much bout the cards so no use me commenting on that but let me tell you that showshifter is bloody excellent . I actually got it with one of those Eon3 Kits and am totally wrapped with it .

Extreemly user friendly and if you wanted to integrate it as a touch screen home automation deal , its very easy on the eye .

Good Luck .