SnapStream's Beyond TV 3 - The Must-Have Home Multimedia Software

The TV in Beyond TV - Settings

Recording format, rendering options, signal source, etc. can all be accessed via the settings sub-menu.

Click to enlarge.

For most users, there isn't really anything here, minus the "screen saver" field that may need editing. Though, depending on the system configuration, the deinterlace mode may need to be changed. The screen saver is the number of minutes before the screen dims to go into Beyond TV 3's sleep mode. Keep in mind that this doesn't affect the system status, it is just a visual thing.

SmartSkip is part of Beyond TV 3's timeshifting system, where "smart chapters" are inserted in the timeshifting bar to help navigation. Disappointingly, we were not able to get SmartSkip to work when we enabled it. It sounds like Beyond TV 3 detects major scene changes based on the signal image, so in theory, it is completely independent of the program guide.

UPDATE 5/13: We got Smartskip to work, and it works fairly well. (Our fault this time, we forgot to change a folder permission back after testing some other stuff.) After talking with some of the tech guys down at SnapStream, we found out that SmartSkip works as we suspected. Basically, it detects visual and audio changes between scenes to develop "smart chapters." We really liked this feature, but the algorithms behind this need to be improved a bit. Most of the time it was able to segment out commercial breaks, but frequently it would mark a chapter even though there was no major scene change, which was a bit annoying.

Click to enlarge.

Click to enlarge.

Click to enlarge.

Click to enlarge.

TV listings are generated from the zip code and channel lineup scheme that are configured in the set-up wizard.

Remote recordings are those scheduled from a remote computer at SnapStream.Net within your account. This is a clever idea that helps ensure a greater degree of security while at the same time maintaining the ability to schedule a recording of your favorite TV show when you are a world away on a trip or just out of town. Of course, constant internet access is needed for this, so this is only practical with broadband internet access.

Click to enlarge.

Showsqueeze is Beyond TV 3's feature that auto converts MPEG-2 recorded files to the Windows Media format. This is so that PDAs and other mobile devices can view/play the recorded files off the media server.