SnapStream's Beyond TV 3 - The Must-Have Home Multimedia Software
by Andrew Ku on May 12, 2004 12:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Mobile
The TV in Beyond TV - Settings
Recording format, rendering options, signal source, etc. can all be accessed via the settings sub-menu.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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DFranch - Friday, May 14, 2004 - link
One feature which Snapstream still does not have that Sage Tv has had for some time is multiple tuners. I have 2 tuners in my machine and in 5 months I have only had 2 conflicts on my machine.Please do a review of Sage Tv 2.0. It does not seem to get nearly as much press as Snapstream, but it is a really execellent product.
glennpratt - Thursday, May 13, 2004 - link
JackHawksmoor: x86 machines actually can turn themselves on, one of the machines I had even let you set timers in the BIOS. x86 has nothing to do with it by they way, its a function of power managent. More importantly newer PC's support S3 standby which uses almost no power and restores in seconds. My MCE machine with an AXP 2000+ actually goes to standby and restores faster then a TiVo (which also just goes to standby, doesn't actually turn off).The MCE remote has a power button on it, push it, it goes to standby. It will power back up if it needs to record a show or when you push the button again.
glennpratt - Thursday, May 13, 2004 - link
BTW, MCE 2004 now has an HDTV Tuner.http://www.vboxcomm.com/news_specific.asp?id=49
segagenesis - Thursday, May 13, 2004 - link
First decent review of Beyond TV ive read. Im not sure if SageTV is any better (a review of this in the future could help?). I lack the time to setup MythTV and this would be a good alternative, and I dont really care much about wanting multiple tuner support since I already have a PVR from my cable company. It would really complement things by allowing me to record shows I can put to disc later, something I cant do otherwise unless I had ReplayTV or Tivo with hacks.JackHawksmoor - Thursday, May 13, 2004 - link
Sorry! I keep thinking of other features I want, and the review isn't clear on. Can this software initiate a dial-up connection to grab program guides? That's another needed feature (unless you've got broadband).JackHawksmoor - Thursday, May 13, 2004 - link
Whoops, one piece of information I'd like to know is what other formats "ShowSqueeze" can convert to. It would rock if you could set this to automatically convert some shows to like a Divx or MPEG-1 format for a Palm OS unit (the review only mentions Windows Media, and dosen't actually specify that it allows settings for smaller screens, etc.).I'd also like a feature to automatically set a show to get copied to a DVD-RW after it's been recorded (so I could watch it on a TV in a different room, etc.)
JackHawksmoor - Thursday, May 13, 2004 - link
Great review! Really informative!I'd LOVE to make a PVR out of spare parts, but unfortunatly there's no way for an x86 system to turn itself on for a recording, and I don't want to leave a system running all the time. I'd probably do it otherwise.
(Technically I think someone could take advantage of features in most BIOS like "wake on network access", etc. Include some piece of hardware that does nothing but wake up the computer-software on the computer tells that piece of hardware when the next time the computer needs to be turned on is, and then the device triggers a wake on LAN (or whatever) to wake the computer up at that time). COULD probably be done.
I think current Macintosh's can wake themselves up at prescribed times, and I've got an older PowerMac in the closet, so maybe I should look into that...
glennpratt - Thursday, May 13, 2004 - link
Web control is available for Windows Media Center 2004.http://www.showtell.com/mce_webguide/2/
Also, a proof of concept has shown that HDTV is possible in MCE 2004 if the manufacturers would write BDA drivers for HDTV cards. With the SDK its also pretty easy to write programs for MCE which have access to alot of the things MCE does.
I imagine, the future of HDTV on the computer will involve HDTV analog inputs (Component or RGBHV) from your cable or satelite box to avoid broadcast flags. It would be nice to stream the digital HD stream directly to the hard drive, then simply play it back, but I imagine the industry will never allow pay TV computer decoder cards.
orogogus - Thursday, May 13, 2004 - link
crazy_vag-in all likelihood, probably never. You'd need a HDTV capture card, that was HDCP enabled (never going to happen) or a tuner that could tune in pay-channel HDTV (satellite or cable- QAM). They don't exist (well, the FusionIII has QAM but it really doesn't work 100% and it will only tune unencrypted channels)- probably run into HDCP problems here anyway cause the network will likely turn it on for pay channels (not to mention encryption). However, if they ever broadcast Sopranos on over the air channels, you could do it now or in the future, since HDCP shouldn't ever be applied to OTA content. Cheers
buleyb - Thursday, May 13, 2004 - link
agreed #6, MythTV, once setup properly, is the best option for making a HTPC