I've got a Vista T100 and it doesn't even work with its own software. Works fie with Media Centre though.

Nice review bit-tech, been a while since I've read a tv card review. I think you should review things like this more often, people do have htpcs and need to know what the best kit out there is.
I agree that compros own software is dire, I've never even been able to make it work and found that wmc randomly decides it no longer receives a signal.
Shame that the product is pretty poor but still nice to see it reviewed.

I have a Hauppage Satellite tuner card somewhere, but i uninstalled it as the software was buggy as hell. I could occasionally get an impressive BBC HD picture on it though, might have to see if there are any recent software improvements.

Meh. I'd be far more interested in a Windows 7 Media Center compatible dual tuner Freeview HD card to be honest. Any of those on the horizon?

I picked up a previous model of the Compro Videomate and the media centre problem kind of put me off. Their DTV4 isn't but it would a lot nicer if you had just one place to go for all your media needs. Shame really.

Originally Posted by TFA
Does anyone actually have both Freesat and Freeview?

Yes, they do. In fact anyone that has a modern apartment/flat will have a shared Satellite system for Sky or the like. If you're lucky you'll also have two feeds for Sky+, or.. Twin Freesat feeds.

My new PVR project involves twin DVB-S2 & twin DVB-T2 tuners, running under MythTV. It's going to be awesome when completed. :)

However, whilst this may be a nice tuner - a lack of DVB-S2 (Freesat HD) or DVB-T2 (Freeview HD) leaves it behind the times. Wake me up when they actually support the latest DVB protocols!

Originally Posted by dazedandconfused
wmc randomly decides it no longer receives a signal.

Try right-clicking the tuner in Device Manager, go to Power Management, and uncheck 'Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power'. My network adapters used to switch off after a few hours, despite constant use >.<

Also, re the Compro TV tuner not waking up the computer, was 'Allow this device to wake the computer' checked in the device properties in Device Manager?

wow looks pretty crappy, seriously such a low capture rate but then again its not meant for capturing HD channels I guess which is a bummer. I have a dual HDMI capture card, doesnt have a tuner but since I use a sat box anyways not a big issue and it works pretty well.

Yawn.

Wake me up when someone makes a dual DVB-T2 tuner PCI-e card.

Good review, would be good to see more stuff like this.
Also your banner ads on the right and bottom of this page aren't clickable in Chrome for some reason.

There is no point reviewing this sort of rubbish. I mean you can buy 10.00 GBP DVB-T tuners on the 'Bay that will work fine with WMC (Windows 7). Nobody forking out to get a satellite feed would skimp on the card... Still waiting for a dual DVB-T2 tuner (preferably with USB 2.0 and PCIe cards) - nice :-).

Originally Posted by Fordy
Wake me up when someone makes a dual DVB-T2 tuner PCI-e card.

My thoughts exactly

I got Asus My Cinema and it also doesn't perfectly work with its bundled software, therefore I'm using Media Center

Anybody know any decent Dual Freesat HD cards?

With every one going nuts for HD perhaps the someone should warned the unwarry that freesatHD requires a dvb-s2 tuner. A standard freesat tuner dvb-s cannot get the HD stuff ( which for 90% is the point in bothering with freesat)

As for everyone wanting dvb-t2 freeviewHD tuners +1 from me

Originally Posted by Senilex
Anybody know any decent Dual Freesat HD cards?

the only Freesat HD cards I know of are all single tuner -
is hauppauge WinTV-NOVA-HD-S2 single tuner
WinTV-HVR-4000 and 4400 ( 4 in one multi tuner type )
terratec does 2
Cinergy S2 PCI HD and
Cinergy S2 USB HD



PS If you want to escape the limitations of 2 tuner windows media center or get HD freesat on xp/vista I recommend sagetv7 ... It's what any self respecting mediapc addict uses


PPS Compro - analogue tuners in the uk in 2010 - seriously ..??

It doesn't take a genius to realize that waking a computer up isn't done by the drivers but by the firmware and a RTC on the card, which would need to use a feature of the motherboard to detect wakeupsignals from the card, which if available should be enabled in the BIOS wakeup settings of the computer.
Mind you the software would have to write the time it needs to wake to the card's flash memory.
But anyway I think that if it's grayed out you should check your BIOS settings, or they are simply lying and it doesn't have that functionality at all.
Note though that many computers also have an option in the BIOS to wake the computer at a set time, that might be usable as an alternative if the software of the TV card starts with windows and will try to record.
And then afterwards you could use windows task scheduler to close down the computer again, although at that point you are doing an awful lot of work to achieve a simple thing.