Windows Media Center Edition 2005:  Got this software at a discount, and it installed easily.  Got all the options configured, although I had to build an infrared connector using wire and an old remote control, since I couldn’t find the LED that came with the capture card.  Changes channels on my DirecTv box nicely, and records everything I throw at it.  However file sizes are huge, since it records in the dvr-ms format.  Need a bigger hard drive, but other than that, this software works best for the price.  Very satisfied.  This was cheaper than buying SageTV or BeyondTV, plus I got a new operating system to boot!

Snapstream Beyond TV 4.8.1: Nice interface, installed easily, found my PVR-150 MCE right away. Watched and paused live TV. Attempted again to pause it, said could not display TV as I needed to reconfigure some settings in the setup. Couldn’t get video in to work, but tuner-in worked. Tried to record a two hour show when I went to bed, upon awakening, the interface was locked up, wouldn’t allow me access to the program, or windows. Had to reboot the system. Nice visual appealing program, but not reliable, and at $69, too much money for a program that is bug prone. I have to give this software a 4, from 1 to 10. Not recommended.

GBPVR version 1.2.9: Not for the timid, and somewhat difficult ensuring all the settings are correct before it will work. After configuration, program worked fairly smoothly, although seemed a little slow and unresponsive. Especially when clicking on live tv, it took about 8 sec for the video to start. Also, when pausing the tv, the screen often went black, but the video returned after pressing play. My wife used it to pause her program, the program wouldn’t play afterwards, and the menu didn’t respond. Good software but needs to be optimized, is somewhat slow, and many of the older plugins, like the one for watching internet video, no longer work with this version. Nicely done software, and I enjoyed that it could play my windows dvr-ms files, but this software was too slow. But you can’t beat the price of free. Worth trying, 5 out of 10.

SageTV Media Center for Windows Version 6.3: Didn’t expect this software to amount to much, based on its quirky name. The program installed easily, and was easy to setup. Video quality was good, I could pause video and play afterwards, seldom without a hiccup. Also it had a wide variety of internet channels I could watch or listen to, which was one of my favorite options. The quality of the streaming video was better than expected. Sorely missing is the ability to add ones own internet channels for customization. All in all, this was the best PVR in the bunch, but the price is too rich for my blood, $79.95. 7.5 out of 10.

MediaPortal 1.0 RC1: - Oh, this looks like promising software. You would think this PVR software would do alot, considering it takes about 10 minutes to install on a fast system. After installation, it crashed. Restarted, it crashed. Did some fiddling with a menu that came up, looked like a debug menu. Restarted, no crash. Tried to setup my TV guide, but said it couldn’t find the tvguide.xml file. I subscribe to schedulesdirect.org, but apparently that’s not an option. Got to see the weather for my locale, but alas, no TV. Amazingly, my Hauppage remote worked, but I couldn’t back out of any menu using the remote, (using <-back or any other button on the remote didn’t work). Ended up using the esc key on the keyboard. Overall opinion, bloated software that does nothing. Waste of my time, thank God, not a waste of money. Stay away from this software until they come out with a new working release.

Yahoo Go for TV! version 0.2.5.5: This software installs the quickest, and is the easiest, in my opinion, to setup. All the options are very intuitive, including recording TV shows. On my 45 button Hauppage remote, I would merely press the record key, set the options, then to record. If there were no conflicting schedules, the program would acknowledge that. I would then close out YGT, and it would record all selected shows in the background. One of the major glitches I found with the software was the poor ability to rewind smoothly while it was recording. It would work, but only if you pressed the rewind button once. Holding it down would cause the show to lock up, and only a few minutes would be recorded, or the show would be split into two recordings. Also with this version of YGT, the video doesn’t fill the screen of my wide LCD monitor, as it did with the previous version 0.1.34, which was unfortunately buggy. So if you need a free, reliable PVR that does the basics, YGT is a good choice. One down side is that all recordings are in the dvr-ms format, which means a 30 minute show is at least 3.5 GB in size. Not for those with small hard drives. 7 out of 10.