Showshifter 3.12 review
Showshifter is a commercial offering out of the UK with a lot of interesting features for the DIY PVR enthusiast with a very big difference, unlike most of the PVR software packages available, both open soure and payware, Showshifter has an amazing ability to work with a large variety of TV cards.
For this review I downloaded the Showshifter trial version, which can be downloaded from their main site here.
As readers may be aware I’ve been having all sorts of problems with TV cards of late, mainly due to compatibility. Showshifter is the only PVR software package I’ve used that works with every TV card I own, from the Hauppauge USB, through to the cheapy Leadtek card and the Dvico DVBT digital tuner. Not only did they work, they worked really well.
Showshifter comes with the normal variety of components you’d expect in a decent PVR package: the ability to pause live TV, a Digital Video Recorder, DivX™ Integration, Electronic Program Guide - browse TV listings and set timed recordings, DVD Player, Music Jukebox and CD Player and Digital Picture Viewer. There are a small number of additional plugins available, but nothing to exciting.
Of note was the ease in which I could integrate the TV guide with the program: this is a common problem you tend to find with many PVR software packages if you live outside of the US or UK.
Tuning was quick and easy, and although my remote didn’t work immediately with Showshifter, its keyboard commands are easy enough to allocated to a programable remote. Recording quality was excellent, although the Divx codecs provide so many choices in relation to recording quality that for many this choice is actually a bad thing.
Generally speaking I didn’t like the navigation features for recorded movies and music, mainly because it looks more like a Windows file manager than an easy to browse visual selection, but this is only minor. Whilst I’m being picky, VCD’s dont play straight from the player either, you need to go into setting and select a file to play; again though this is minor and not untypical of similar pieces of software.
Positives: works with virtually every TV card there is, easy to use and navigate, clean layout, runs quickly
Negatives: cost, lack of extra plugins
Recommendation: if you are new to DIY PVR’s and don’t want to spend a lot of money on hardware or time trying to get other packages to run, Showshifter is for you. Sure, its not free, but sometimes time is better spent making money instead of stuffing around with settings, and with Showshifter you really can’t go wrong.