Comparison of PVR software packages

The following is a comparison guide for popular DVR (digital video recorder, sometimes PVR, personal video recorder) software packages.

General information

Basic general information for popular DVR (PVR) software packages.

Name	Official Website	Windows	Macintosh	Linux	Price	Latest stable release	Notes
Beyond TV	Beyond TV	Yes	No	No	$99.99 software & remote.	4.9.3 Build 6335 Oct 15, 2010	Not compatible with DVB tuners. While Snapstream is providing minor fixes for Beyond TV, they no longer actively updating and developing the software as they are focusing on commercial appliations. Despite the lack of a new version, their fanbase (in the forums) maintains active and the program is still available. See also: List of digital television deployments by country
CenterStage	CenterStage	No	Yes	No	Free	?	Development ceased December 2008
DVBViewer	DVBViewer	Yes	No	No	€15.00	4.8 (May 1, 2011)
CTpvr	CTPVR	Yes	No	No	$29.95 - Media Center; $14.95 - Client	?	UPDATE Mar-08: CTpvr has sold its products and TV Listings service to an (as yet) unknown company. Currently not available.
Easy HDTV DVR	Enigma Industries	Yes	No	No	$30.00	1.2.1	Lightweight DVR for ATSC/ClearQam tuners on Windows.
EyeTV	Elgato	No	Yes	No	Bundled / €79.99	3.1	Free with all Elgato USB tuners, but available separately for use with other tuners.
Freevo	Freevo	Limited	Yes	Yes	Free	1.9.2 Beta 1 (Dec 22, 2010)	Open source, written in Python
DVB Vulture	DVB Vulture	No	No	Yes	Free	2	Open source, written in C; server + client, network streaming, recording, epg
GB-PVR	GB-PVR	Yes	No	No	Free	1.4.7 (August 29, 2009)	Includes Integrated EPG, media server; PC client (local or networked), MediaMVP clients, web-scheduling. (built on the .NET 2.0 Framework)
Got All Media	Got All Media	Yes	No	No	Free	7.0.0.4 (March 22, 2009)	TV , Video, Audio stream player, Remote control support, Weather
InterVideo WinDVR	Corel	Yes	?	?	?		Discontinued. Previously bundled with various TV tuner devices.
Media Center/JRiver Media Center	JRiver	Yes	With Parallels	No	$49.98	17.0.24 October, 2011	DirectShow video player, audio, images, 10 foot GUI, Remote control, DLNA
MediaPhoenix/ShowShifter	MediaPhoenix	Yes	No	No	MediaPhoenix - Unreleased ShowShifter - Discontinued (Was £30)	3.1	Supports some older TechnoTrend/Hauppauge boxes which are not BDA compliant, such as the Dec 2000-t/3000-s and first generation Nova-t USB boxes, which are unsupported by other PVR software.
MediaPortal	MediaPortal	Yes	No	No	Free	1.1.3 (February 14, 2011)[1]	Open source (built on the .NET 2.0 Framework)
Meedio TV/Yahoo Go! TV	Meedio TV/Yahoo Go! TV	Yes	No	No	Discontinued/Free	2006	Only available in the US
MeediOS	MeediOS	Yes	No	No	Free	?	Open source (built on the .NET Framework)
MythTV	MythTV	Limited[1]	Yes	Yes	Free	0.24.1 (November 10, 2010)	Open source
SageTV	SageTV	Yes[2]	Yes	Yes	$79.95 software; $29.95 client; $29.95 per mediaMVP client;	6.6	Java based. SageTV was purchased by Google on 20 June 2011 and its online store was shut. No statement has been made about the future availability of SageTV products.
SesamTV	SesamTV	Yes	No	No	Free	Version 2.2 last updated in 2007	See http://www.sesamtv.com/download.html
TotalMedia 3.5	ArcSoft	Yes	No	No	$79.99 software.	3.5.40.242	For time-shifting and MPEG-2 capturing, a Pentium IV 2.0 GHz processor (or higher) or equivalent is required. To support high-definition TV, recommend enabling DX-VA (video card hardware acceleration). Minimum requirement for display adapters: ATI Radeon 7200 or better, nVidia Geforce MX 440 or better, Intel 82865 or better.
TVedia	TVedia	Yes	No	No	$34.95	4.2
Tvheadend	Tvheadend	No	No	Yes	Free	2.9	Open source. TV streaming server for Linux supporting DVB-S, DVB-S2, DVB-C, DVB-T, ATSC, IPTV, and Analog video (V4L) as input sources. Supported by Showtime Media player and XBMC
Tvtime	Tvtime	No	No	Yes	Free	1.0.1 (September 8, 2005)	Open source. High quality television application for use with video capture cards on Linux systems. tvtime processes the input from a capture card and displays it on a computer monitor or projector
Video Disk Recorder	www.tvdr.de	No	No	Yes			Open source.
Windows Media Center	Windows Media Center	Yes	No	No	$110-$319 (OS Price)	7600.16385.090713-1255 (July 13, 2009)	Included in Windows XP MCE 2005 and Windows Vista Home Premium and Ultimate editions, Windows 7 Home Premium, Professional, and Ultimate.
Winfast PVR2	Leadtek WinFast	Yes	?	?	?		Bundled free with many Leadtek/Winfast TV tuner devices.
Name	Official Website	Windows	Macintosh	Linux	Price	Latest stable release	Notes

^ Porting MythTV to Windows is under development.[3]
^ There is also a Windows Home Server Edition

Digital/Personal Video Recorder (DVR / PVR) features

Information about what common and prominent DVR features are implemented natively (without third-party add-ons).

DVR	Subscription Free Electronic Program Guide	Power Management	Multiple TV Tuner Cards Support	CableCARD Support	ATSC Tuner Support	Automated Commercial Skip	Teletext	Schedule Timed Recordings	Personalized Intelligent Recording and Scheduling [4]	DRM Support	DVB-T / DVB-T2 / DVB-C / DVB-S / DVB-S2 tuner support	Smartphone/Tablet playback	Smartphone/Tablet syncing	Smartphone/Tablet remote control
Beyond TV	Yes	Yes[6]	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No
CTpvr	Yes	Unknown	Unknown	No	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown
Easy HDTV DVR	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No
EyeTV	No[12]	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	External add-on	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Freevo	Yes	Unknown	Yes	No	Yes	External add-on	Unknown	Yes	Unknown	No	Yes	Partial	No
DVB Vulture	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	Supports DVB-T and DVB-S only	No	No	No
GB-PVR	No[14]	Unknown	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Unknown
Got All Media	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	No	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown
CenterStage	No	Unknown	No	No	Unknown	No	Unknown	No	Unknown	No
MediaPortal	DVB/XMLTV[5][14]	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Using Plugin	Yes	Yes	Yes	Partial support	Yes
Meedio TV/Yahoo Go! TV	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	No	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown
MeediOS	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	No	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown
MediaPhoenix/ShowShifter	Yes[5]	Unknown	Yes	No	Unknown	No	No	Yes	Yes	Unknown	Yes	No	No	No
MythTV	Yes (Location Dependent)[5][7]	Yes	Yes	Limited[15]	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	External add-on[3]	No	Yes [16]	Yes [17]	No	Yes [17]
SageTV	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Using Plugin[9]	No	Yes	Yes	No
SesamTV	Yes	Unknown	Unknown	No	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown
TotalMedia 3.5	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	No
TVedia	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	No	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown
Windows Media Center	Yes	Yes	Yes[10]	Yes[4]	Yes	External add-on[2]	Yes	Yes	Yes[11]	Yes; also honors the "do not record" flag which was disallowed by the courts.	Supports DVB-T/T2 and DVB-S/S2; does not support DVB-C[18]	Yes[18]	Yes[18]	Yes[18]
DVR	Subscription Free Electronic Program Guide	Power Management	Multiple TV Tuner Cards Support	CableCARD Support	ATSC Tuner Support	Automated Commercial Skip	Teletext	Schedule Timed Recordings	Personalized Intelligent Recording and Scheduling [5]	DRM Support	DVB-T / DVB-T2 / DVB-C / DVB-S / DVB-S2 tuner support	Smartphone/Tablet playback	Smartphone/Tablet syncing	Smartphone/Tablet remote control

1.^ The Personalized Intelligent Recording and Scheduling feature, similar to TiVo enables the PVR application to record programs based on past viewing habits and interests.
2.^ Windows Media Center has the ability to skip commercials automatically after installing an external plug-in called "DVRMSToolbox" (which is not supported by Microsoft) or "Lifextender" .
3.^ MythTV has the ability to perform Personalized Intelligent Recording and Scheduling after installing an external plug-in called "tvwish" or "MythMiner" (neither of which are supported by MythTV).
4.^ Windows Media Center supports CableCard when used on CableLabs certified OEM Hardware. [6] Windows 7 Media Center supports CableCard on any hardware that passes the Digital Cable Advisor tool in MCE. [7]
5.^ Supports over-the-air epg when using cards/boxes which support this functionality, and in areas where such a service is available. Also supports XMLTV programme data is provided by various sources for various costs depending on territory. The supported 14day Radio Times feed for the UK is free of charge; over the air 7day programme data is also available in the UK.
6.^ To take advantage of operating system power management with Beyond TV, the main user interface must be closed.
7.^ Subscription-free EPG is available in areas where program listings data is freely available without violating copyright laws or data owners' Terms of Service. In North America, Schedules Direct provides legally-licensed EPG data for a nominal fee of $20 per year.^[2]
8.^ EPG is supported via WebEpg
9.^ Is Supported by 3rd party plugins. ComSkip[8] and ShowAnalyzer [9]
10.^ Windows Media Center supports two NTSC (Analog) tuners and two ATSC (Digital) tuners out of the box. Using additional tuners requires registry modifications. Windows 7 Media Center supports up to 4 tuners of each type out of the box, DVB-T, DVB-S, NTSC/PAL.
11.^ Vista Media Center can do partial intelligent recordings. You can do recordings based on key words, actor(s) names, or other genres.
12.^ Elgato's contract with TitanTV for the US market will expire in 2010. When it expires TV Guide will become the sole EPG provider for EyeTV in the United states. There one year of TV Guide EPG service costs $19.95.^[3][4]
13.^ XBMC Media Center supports the SiliconDust HDHomerun with the MyTV Plugin.
14.^ No native subscription free EPG built in, but EPG data available using third party services.
15.^ Support is limited to content broadcast as 'copy freely' (DRM Free)
16.^ Supports any tuner card supported by LinuxTV framework; which is pretty much everything. DVB-T2 is not official support but reported to be working by those with compatible tuners.
17.^ The official MythTV plugin MythWeb allows browsing programme guide, scheduling recordings, management of media and playback via a [Adobe Flash]-based player; which works on [Android] phones and tablets. MythDroid among other applications support remote control of TV playback and local playback on Android devices. The remote control emulates for the most part a conventional remote rather than a complete touchscreen context aware controller such as that supplied by Sonos.
18.^ DVB-C is achievable using certain cards that are detected as DVB-T tuners. And also using addons such as DVBLink
19.^ Smartphone and tablet control of the full range of Windows Media Centre features is possible on iOS/iPad/iPhone/Android. [10]

Video format support

Information about what video codecs are implemented natively (without third-party add-ons) in the PVRs.

DVR	MPEG-1	MPEG-2	MPEG-4 ASP (MPEG-4 Part 2), i.e. DivX, XviD	H.264/MPEG-4 AVC (MPEG-4 Part 10)	VP8	WMV	AVI	ASF	QuickTime	MP4	Real Video
Beyond TV	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Unknown	Yes	Yes	Unknown	No	No	No
CTpvr	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown
EyeTV	Yes	Yes	Unknown	Yes	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Yes	Unknown	Unknown
Freevo	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Unknown	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
DVB Vulture	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
GB-PVR	Unknown	Yes	Yes	Yes	Unknown	Unknown	Yes	Unknown	Unknown	Yes	Unknown
Got All Media	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown
Mac Media Center	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown
MediaPortal	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Unknown	Yes	Yes	Yes	No1	Yes	No1
Meedio TV/Yahoo Go! TV	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Yes	Unknown	Yes	Yes	Unknown	No1	Unknown	Unknown
MeediOS	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown
MediaPhoenix/ShowShifter	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown
MythTV	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
SageTV	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Unknown	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Unknown
SesamTV	Unknown	Unknown	Yes	Unknown	Unknown	Yes	Unknown	Unknown	Yes	Unknown	Yes
TotalMedia 3.5	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Unknown	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
TVedia	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown
Windows Media Center	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes1 2	Unknown	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes1 2	Yes1 2	No1

¹ Possible with third-party software.

² Windows 7 OS only

³ Implemented with FFmpeg (no add-on needed)

Information about what video codecs are implemented natively (without third-party add-ons) in the PVRs.

Network Support

Each features is in context of computer-to-computer interaction. All features must be available after the default install otherwise the feature needs a footnote.

DVR	Tuner Sharing	Hard Disk Pooling	Shared Media Database	Home Automation	Media Extenders	Placeshifting	Two-way Remote Control
Beyond TV	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	No
CTpvr	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown
EyeTV	Unknown	Unknown	Yes	Unknown	Unknown	Yes	Unknown
Freevo	Yes	Unknown	Unknown	Yes	Unknown	Yes	Unknown
DVB Vulture	Yes	No	No	No	No	Yes	No
GB-PVR	Yes	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown
Got All Media	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown
Mac Media Center	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown
MediaPortal	Yes	No	No	No	No	Yes	No4
Meedio TV/Yahoo Go! TV	Unknown	No	Yes1	Unknown	No	No	No
MeediOS	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown
MediaPhoenix/ShowShifter	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown
MythTV	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes4	Yes	Yes	Yes
SageTV	Yes	Yes	Unknown	Unknown	Yes	Yes	Unknown
SesamTV	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown
TotalMedia 3.5	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No
TVedia	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown
Windows Media Center	Yes6	Yes7	Yes	Yes2	Yes	Yes5	Yes2

¹ Yes with registry change.
² Yes with retail third-party plugin
³ Yes with free supported third-party plugin
⁴ Yes with free unsupported third-party plugin
⁵ Yes with free third-party software Web Guide 4
⁶ Yes with add-on software called DVBLink Server
⁷ Yes with using symlinks, or just adding folders in settings

TV Tuner Hardware

Main article: TV tuner card

DVRs require a TV Tuner in order to work. Many DVRs, as seen above, can handle multiple tuners.

See also

• Home cinema
• HTPC (Home theater PC)
• Digital video recorder
• Hard disk recorder
• DVD recorder
• Media center (disambiguation)
• Silent PC
• Media server

External links

• FLOSS Media Centers Comparison Chart

Notes

1. ^ "MEDIAPORTAL - Download MediaPortal for free!". Team MediaPortal. http://www.team-mediaportal.com/mediaportal-download. Retrieved August 14, 2011. 
2. ^ Schedules Direct
3. ^ Why is there a fee for the EyeTV Program Guide?
4. ^ How do I use TV Guide with EyeTV?