TV Card - Free Software?

[LosOjos]

Hi all,

 

just wondering if anybody has a solution for this:

 

In my home PC, I have a hybrid analogue/digital TV tuner PCI card (Pinnacle, the 800i I believe). The CD that came with it disappeared a couple of house moves ago and downloading from Pinnacle's site requires I pay for a licence (stupid IMO; if I have the card in the machine, that should constitute a licence to use the software!), so I have no software for it. To make things more complicated, I'm using Windows Server 2008r2 as my main OS, dual booting Ubuntu (as a student I can get a free copy of 2008r2 and with a little tweaking it's near identical to Win7, so it suits my moth filled wallet!)

 

So far, I've managed to get Windows to recognise the card using Vista x64 drivers, but have no software to be able to tune it in. Windows Media Centre obviously doesn't come with 2008r2. I've tried Media Portal, but it doesn't recognise the card. I've tried VLC, but couldn't see any way to tune to a particular channel. I haven't tried much with Ubuntu yet, although I did install MythTV - couldn't for the life of me figure out how to tune that in either.

 

Ideally I'd like to be able to tune it in just as you do in Media Centre, with all channels coming up as options and being able to use it like any PVR. My main purpose for doing this is I want to record some retro gaming, so I can live without the digital side of the card if there's software only capable of tuning the analogue side.

 

Any ideas?

[difinity]

There is a Vista 64Bit driver on this page, is it worth a try ?

 

Pinnacle PCTV drivers

[LosOjos]

There is a Vista 64Bit driver on this page, is it worth a try ?

 

Pinnacle PCTV drivers

 

Cheers but I've already done that, Windows now recognizes the card but I can't find any free software to use it

[difinity]

What about ?

 

http://cdnexpress.pinnaclesys.com/akdlm/SupportFiles/TVCenter/TVC540/PinnacleTVCenterProSetup_5.4.0.3032.exe

[LosOjos]

What about ?

 

TVC 6 Download

 

That's not free, you need a license and I lost the disc with my licence number on it, hence me looking for a free equivalent...

 

I know you're trying to help, but I have said all of this

[plexer]

The lite version of this may work ChrisTV PVR - The PVR that TAKES control OVER Your TV Card. Watch FREE online TV with ChrisTV Online. TV Cards with MPEG2 Hardware Encoding. Developed by Chris P.C. srl

 

Ben

[LosOjos]

The lite version of this may work ChrisTV PVR - The PVR that TAKES control OVER Your TV Card. Watch FREE online TV with ChrisTV Online. TV Cards with MPEG2 Hardware Encoding. Developed by Chris P.C. srl

 

Ben

 

Thanks, I had looked at that and it does look interesting, but I don't think I can record in the lite version and the main goal here is to record some game play clips from retro consoles (without resorting to putting my video camera on a tripod and aiming it at the TV lol)

[SimpleSi]

have a really good fiddle with all the settings in the advanced options of the capture card settings in VLC and make sure you've ticked Device properties and Tuner properties and see if you can get anything going from there.

 

Does the the card have video in/s-video in or just RF tuner?

 

Si

[LosOjos]

Bit more research reveals it's the 310i, not the 800i

 

Going to try to source some drivers for this one and see if I can get VLC to recognise it...

[LosOjos]

I had already installed the 310i drivers, I was just being special when I wrote that opening post...

[LosOjos]

I'm sick of trying to get this thing working now, so I've bought one of these instead: USB 2.0 to 3 RCA Audio S-Video TV VHS DVD+ RW Capture Converter PC Adapter Cable | eBay

 

All being well, VLC will see it and my life will be easy (NOTE: I fully expect it won't be that simple!)