Snapstream's Beyond TV 3.4 released

http://www.snapstream.com
from WinCustomize Forums

Ever wanted to set up your computer to be able to act as a Tivo? Snapstream Media's BeyondTV lets you do just that and with a decent system, it can do it incredibly well.

I can say, as an owner of a Tivo, and very happy with it, Snapstream has come a long way with their software to the point that it's pretty compelling stuff if you're interested in recording shows to your computer.

5,227 views 6 replies
Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I love SnapStream PVS. Been useing it for quite some time. Nice to see a more Tivoish system, but still way out of my grandparents legue. They have been looking for a DVR/PVR system. Anyone know of a good set box they wouldn't have to pay service for?
Reply #2 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Hmm sounds nice but I'm quite happy with my Media Center Edition PC, I love being able to control it with my remote control.
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Reply #3 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I tried the SnapStream PVR and I was very disapointed with it. I really liked the interface, but the display and recording quality was totally unacceptable. I did change it to use the highest quality codecs, but it was still much worse than the other PVR packages I've tried. I have a ATI Radeon 9800 AIW and it doesn't seem to work real well with the Radeon cards. The other aspect that I didn't like was that it always has the stream caching on. In other words, if you don't use the PVR (pause live TV, etc...) and just want to view live TV it is still thrashing the CPU and hard drive trying to cache the video stream. It's probably not a big deal, but I got annoyed seeing the CPU meter and hard drive lights going full tilt when watching live TV. I prefer other packages that only cache the stream when PVR is turned on.

On the positive side, the interface is one of the best I've used. Although I think a better one could be made with DesktopX. Anyone up for it? Brazen??? And the Media server and ability to stream to other PCs in your home (or on the Internet) is very cool. Also, it doesn't work with HW decoders.

Just my 2 cents worth...



Reply #4 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I tried this last night. It seems to work real well but it is certainly a resource hog. I have 2 gig of RAM on a 3 Gig proc. The proc. idles at 50% while it is open just as Carpe says. Still...it does a great job of recording my programs, it looks great and it will be especially nice if I can burn the programs to DVD without too much effort.
Reply #5 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Carpe:
Always timeshifting is easily disabled in the config. It's in the Web Admin page (http://localhost:8129) so you may not have found it. As far as video quality, I have mine configured were I can't tell the difference between live TV and recorded TV on a properly calibrated 32" Wega.
Reply #6 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Caffiend,

Thank you for the tip. I never saw the option to turn off the time shifting. I was surprised at the poor video quality, especially since they are now supporting DivX codec. From reading the SnapStream forums it looked like it was an issue with the ATI drivers. I guess I'll have to try it again.

Thanks!