WarmFluffyUK
The Big Wad Bolf.
The other day I was thinking about getting a freeview card for my PC as I would like to be able to record directly to my HDD off air, when I came across a USB DVB freeview stick made by Freecom. It wasn't mega expensive so I took the plunge and bought it.
After it arrived and I had it all running, I was wondering if I could use other software with it as the supplied software is a bit buggy. My boyfriend is a member of the Digital Spy Forums and he said I can use the new freecom BDA drivers, and that means lots of software will utilise this device. I found some free software called DVB TV Web Scheduler. I was a bit skeptical at first about how useful it would be, but I installed it anyway! I must say this is one of the most useful pieces of software I have every used. So what does it do:
It runs on your PC as a service and allows you to set up recording schedules for freeview. The interface is via a web browser, which means you can use the scheduler from anywhere on the web. I can be at work, connect to my machine, view the TV planner, double click on a program and my PC will record it for me. Really kewl.
And what did I have to do to get it working? Well the main problem after setup and telling it what area I am in, was that is refused to download the info for the program guide. But I found another piece of software that did this called XMLTV, this connected to the web, downloaded the program schedule for my selected channels and created the relevant XML file! I have set that to run on login and set Web Scheduler to update at 8:00AM, I'm usually logged on then.
I was talking to Mr Axe earlier and he said he has a similar thing for Sky+, but you need Sky+ for that, something I will be getting soon I hope. But until then, this is a very useful piece of software, and the best thing is, it's FREE!!!!!
After it arrived and I had it all running, I was wondering if I could use other software with it as the supplied software is a bit buggy. My boyfriend is a member of the Digital Spy Forums and he said I can use the new freecom BDA drivers, and that means lots of software will utilise this device. I found some free software called DVB TV Web Scheduler. I was a bit skeptical at first about how useful it would be, but I installed it anyway! I must say this is one of the most useful pieces of software I have every used. So what does it do:
It runs on your PC as a service and allows you to set up recording schedules for freeview. The interface is via a web browser, which means you can use the scheduler from anywhere on the web. I can be at work, connect to my machine, view the TV planner, double click on a program and my PC will record it for me. Really kewl.
And what did I have to do to get it working? Well the main problem after setup and telling it what area I am in, was that is refused to download the info for the program guide. But I found another piece of software that did this called XMLTV, this connected to the web, downloaded the program schedule for my selected channels and created the relevant XML file! I have set that to run on login and set Web Scheduler to update at 8:00AM, I'm usually logged on then.
I was talking to Mr Axe earlier and he said he has a similar thing for Sky+, but you need Sky+ for that, something I will be getting soon I hope. But until then, this is a very useful piece of software, and the best thing is, it's FREE!!!!!
