Homebrew PVR, part 4

Wow - I have got my PVR running exactly as I wanted! If you scroll down to part 3 you'll see how easy it was to get the remote control from the Compro card to talk to Media Portal (although the on-screen display kinda obviates the need for anything other than a wireless mouse) - or indeed any other IR device. The last bit of the puzzle was having it power-up and down by itself to make recordings - there is a plug-in called PowerSchedule that does precisely this.

The software seems to drive the card better than the Compro app - recordings never drop frames, it is never out of sync and it never fails to lock to a channel (none of which can be said of Compro's DTV app). It also happily runs a slideshow of your photos, plays an MP3 list AND makes a six megabit (well, on BBC channels anyway!) MPEG2 recording simultaneously. I'm a fan - the EPG is superb and as I mentioned - it makes Windows XP Media Centre look clunky.

If you do hose it up check out the "My Weather" pluggin.