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Some retailers here in Vic already have this stock.
Haven't been able to find a decent review of this card and am wondering whether to take the plunge with this or go with the good ol HVR-2200.
Personally I haven't had any experience with Compro's stuff and according to others their gear isn't all that crash hot. Bundled remote looks pretty ordinary too.
All I can say is from my experience is that compro sucks. I bought a T750 and had nothing with trouble and the support I got was next to nothing. Tried everything to get it working but in the end it was too dodgy. For example I would have all channels, then the next time I would turn on the PC they would be gone.
Anyways I can't recommend them especially after what I have heard about the HVR-2200, it sounds like a top product.
I have a Compro e600 and I wouldn't go with Compro again.
Some points:
support sucks - don't expect a response to any tech questions. Don't expect drivers to be released all that often... if at all.
card doesn't work reliably in a regular pcie slot - I have mine in a spare pcie16 slot (thankfully my mobo has 2)
still doesn't always resume from standby properly (requires reboot)
I have my old, rock solid, dvico single PCI tuner as my primary so that at least there's always a working tuner (and I never thought I'd call anything from dvico rock solid!!)
channel changes are quite slow.. the dvico is heaps quicker (under vista)
That said, the e900 might have addressed a lot of these issues .. not sure!
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Gigabyte P35-DS4 . 2GB RAM . 500G Samsung SATA2 . 300G Samsung IDE . Dvico Plus . Compro E700 Dual . Silverstone LC10M . Harmony 880 . Vista Ultimate . High WAF .
I'm always hesitant to review or recommend a product that I haven't used, so I won't. So that doesn't help you at all.
But I've personally used a Compro T-200a with Vista MCE and it works perfectly, no issues ever. A lot of cards had problems when they first went PCI-e and Vista came along. Nearly every manufacturer had issues with drop-outs on wake etc.
The newer cards, from all manufacturers, appear to have a better handle on it.
I'm always hesitant to review or recommend a product that I haven't used, so I won't. So that doesn't help you at all.
But I've personally used a Compro T-200a with Vista MCE and it works perfectly, no issues ever. A lot of cards had problems when they first went PCI-e and Vista came along. Nearly every manufacturer had issues with drop-outs on wake etc.
The newer cards, from all manufacturers, appear to have a better handle on it.
I suspect (don't know for sure) that it has the same chipset as the HVR-2200 (NXP 7164), so it should be comparable.
Justin
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VMC32: Asus M3N78-EMH HDMI, 4850e, TMG A2 CPU Cooler, 2x1GB Kingston HyperX 800, 2 x HVR-2200 (4 tuners), 500GB Samsung, NSK2480B. Connected to a Metz 32 inch LCD.
Office/Server: Abit A-N78HD, BE-2350, 2x1GB Kingston HyperX 800, 2 x AverTV Duo (4 tuners), CoolerMaster Centurion 5 Tower.
I have a Compro e600 and I wouldn't go with Compro again.
Some points:
support sucks - don't expect a response to any tech questions. Don't expect drivers to be released all that often... if at all.
card doesn't work reliably in a regular pcie slot - I have mine in a spare pcie16 slot (thankfully my mobo has 2)
still doesn't always resume from standby properly (requires reboot)
I have my old, rock solid, dvico single PCI tuner as my primary so that at least there's always a working tuner (and I never thought I'd call anything from dvico rock solid!!)
channel changes are quite slow.. the dvico is heaps quicker (under vista)
That said, the e900 might have addressed a lot of these issues .. not sure!
well if compro support sucks i'm not sure what to say about eveyrone else sure they not perfect but back in T300 days they were lot more helpfull then any other manufactorer out there.
same with software and drivers they released updates more than anyone else out there.
pice issue might as well be motherboard issue (somewhere half way i say) had some philps based cards that work very well in any slot on older motherboards while being problematic with new intel chipsets eg p45.
if E900 is on same chipset as 2200 plus it adds component input and works in any pcie slot it should be great card for MCE.
in short no manufacturer is perfect but going agaist some product without trying it first is nothing more but silly
From my experience using dvico, leadtek, dntv and kworld cards, the chipset is as important as the drivers. If the 2200 is as good as everyone says then the same chipset is a good start.
Interestingly I read a comment yesterday from someone who has had both the hvr-2200 and dtv1000, that the dtv1000 changes channels faster.
I currently have a dtv1000 and pe310 in my htpc and the pe310 blitzes the dtv1000, it has sub 1 second channel changes which is an important factor for me.
Digital broadcasts are only captured as MPEG or transport streams and cannot be transcoded with the card’s hardware. A pity because it would be nice to be able to save hard disk space by recording high definition broadcasts directly into MPEG-4.
Yes, & a bag full of pixie dust would be nice too....
Quote:
The Vista E900F supports some 3rd party PVR packages but unfortunately Windows MCE is not one of them (as confirmed by our tests and Anywhere’s tech support department). This is particularly frustrating since the remote includes controls for MCE! Although MCE appears to work, not all channels will be tuned, numbers will not always enter properly and things will run really sluggishly.
PEBCAK?
I wouldn't place too much stock in the magazine reviews - the original Dvico Dual was reviewed as brilliant by PC World. ROFL!
Justin
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VMC32: Asus M3N78-EMH HDMI, 4850e, TMG A2 CPU Cooler, 2x1GB Kingston HyperX 800, 2 x HVR-2200 (4 tuners), 500GB Samsung, NSK2480B. Connected to a Metz 32 inch LCD.
Office/Server: Abit A-N78HD, BE-2350, 2x1GB Kingston HyperX 800, 2 x AverTV Duo (4 tuners), CoolerMaster Centurion 5 Tower.
it always puzzles me as to why most PC magazines are full of clueless people.
couldn't care less for remote in media centre since you really need remote blaster to use mce features for paytv but since its philps based card i wouldn't be surprised if there was their typical inf file for drivers that let you setup remote for media centre usage.
anyways lets wait for some real experts posting comments on this card because sure as hell APC review doesn't mean much.
I certainly concur with the general opinion and expectation of poor quality reviews by magazine 'journalists' and in normal circumstances I would not link to such an article. However, there is currently a distinct lack of reviews for the card and a number of people seeking for said reviews. As it is the first review I have come across for the E900F, and the first posted to this thread, in this instance it seems that the lacking review was worth mention.
I'm not trying to be defensive. I am just emphasising the intent of the post, not the journalistic content of the link.
