Verdict: GBPVR doesn't have the snappiest name and setting it up is a bit tricky, but it's free and it's very good at what it does - an excellent Media Center replacement. GBPVR is a bit tricky to set up, but it's the best at recording and playing back TV.
GBPVR is a freeware Media Centre program. While it isn't perfect, once you've got it set up, it's the fastest and easiest to use of all the programs on test.
Setting up GBPVR's is easy, with a couple of significant caveats. Firstly, before you install the program, you need to have Microsoft's .Net Framework version 2 installed. If you try to install GBPVR without having this installed, it will throw up random error messages at various points in the installation without actually telling you what the problem is. You can download the Framework from
www.tinyurl.com.
The other tricky part is that you need some kind of MPEG 'muxer' installed before you can record TV programmes. This takes the video and audio parts of a digital TV signal and combines them, and there's a free one called AutoDVRConvert available from
www.heimiko.com.
Getting started
Aside from these initial complications, GBPVR is fairly easy to set up and there were none of the TV card problems or endless updates we experienced when installing XP Media Center Edition 2005. A configuration program helps you to set up both the directories where your media files are stored as well as your TV tuner. If your tuner supports
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the BDA standard, you can select the BDA Recording plug-in, which got our Twinhan digital TV tuner card working perfectly straightaway. GBPVR also needs to get program information for the Electronic Program Guide. It can grab this from a number of sources, but we found by far the easiest method was to get the information directly from the digital TV signal by selecting 'DVD EPG Broadcast'. It takes around five minutes to fill the EPG with programme information. Thereafter, you can set the program to automatically update the EPG at certain times of day. The final stage is to choose which remote control you want to use - GBPVR supports a variety of different remotes.
The program's main interface is not as fancy as that of Windows XP Media Center or of CyberLink PowerCinema, but it's clear and fast. Recording TV is probably the main reason to use a Media Centre package, so it's handy that GBPVR is built around the EPG.
Timeshifts and tags
Recording TV programmes is simply a case of using the remote or keyboard to select the programme, then pressing Record. If you don't want to leave your PC turned on all the time, GBPVR will automatically wake it from standby mode, record the programme and go back into standby mode. The timeshift mode works perfectly, pausing and resuming live TV without any noticeable difficulties.
GBPVR's media playback menus are more functional than pretty, but they work well enough. The main problem is that the music player doesn't support ID3 tag information for Windows Media Audio files, so the player doesn't list the title or track name for this type of file.
DVDs play perfectly, but you have to make sure that you have a program with a third-party MPEG-2 decoder such as CyberLink PowerDVD installed - you usually get such a program free with your PC. Despite initial complications, this is a great free Media Centre suite.
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Originally Posted by sub
, I don't think the reviewer (if the same person did all the media centre reviews) knows his/her subject matter very well. Also the multiplexer is only needed for digital cards but the review gives the impression you need it even with analogue cards. I can see Sub getting more visiters knocking at his website.
