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

Final Words

Overall, we have nothing but good things to say about Beyond TV 3. SnapStream has put a lot of thought into the multimedia experience, though there still is some fine-tuning that needs to be done (i.e. double listing TV shows).

The live TV information panels have more of a love-it or hate-it scheme. We have mixed opinions. The berth of information is helpful, but not all of it is necessary, such as the incredibly large live TV and recording icon in the upper left hand corner. Our own recommendation would be to follow Microsoft's example with Windows XP Media Center 2004. The information panel there is a separate page, with a small information panel for immediate viewing. What SnapStream is implementing now is a bit obtrusive in our opinion, though helpful.

Beyond TV 3 separates itself from the rest of the bunch with its web server capabilities and web admin interface. The fact that you can control recordings while away from home is extremely helpful, and so is the ability to stream TV over the network locally, as well as over the internet.

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Perhaps most interesting is that Beyond TV 3 is Pocket PC friendly. Though, we won't be using this capability much, it is probably worth investigating it for those TV buffs who own Pocket PC phones. In theory, you can watch streaming TV from your home on your PDA anywhere. We were comfortably watching TV and videos on our Dell X5 (using our awesome D-Link 802.11b/802.11g network) without any configuration woes.

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SnapStream isn't making this a cheap software title: $69.99 for CD-ROM and $59.99 for download, so this isn't a chump-change purchase. But if you are looking for a more solid TV/media server, this is the title to buy. SnapStream is hyping up their entrance into the consumer market: Best Buy, CompUSA, etc., which seems to be adding credence to their software title. With a few more improvements, SnapStream will easily have the trump multimedia title on their hands. It is arguably the best on the market, at the moment.

Beyond TV 3 already beats InterVideo's Home Theater hands down, which is why Asus probably should have taken a look at SnapStream instead. MSI is working on some sort of a media version of their MegaPC. We hope that they are considering their choice for software as much as they are for their hardware design. And if you own a Personal Cinema card and aren't willing to switch to ATI's All-in-Wonder line for their software benefit, Beyond TV 3 may be something right up your alley, since it looks like Forceware Multimedia is still going to take a while. For those with WinTV cards, this might be something worth considering too.