Beyond TV 4.2: Watch the Game, Record the Show
March 24th, 2006 at 6:51 pm by Soham
What a night for college hoops! This has been the most excited I’ve been for the NCAA tournament since leaving college. Who picked LSU (without Shaq) to beat Duke? How did UCLA overcome a nine point deficit in three and a half minutes to beat Gonzaga? Oh, and what a three for UT! Go horns!!! (Sorry, I went to UT.)
With all of the great basketball it’s a perfect time to launch a new version of Beyond TV 4. Just in time to setup for this weekend’s games.
Beyond TV 4.2 rolls out today with the ability to schedule recordings across channels. We added this feature in response to customer requests. It’s perfect for giving you even more show coverage when you have conflicts – such as when you’re watching hours and hours of basketball. Basically, it allows you to setup a show to record on any channel that it airs. So that gives Beyond TV even more options to find a show at a different time. So it doesn’t matter that the basketball games are killing all of your prime time recordings!
To make it work, simply schedule a recording from the program guide on the channel that you would prefer to have Beyond TV use (this way, you can give first preference to your HD channels). Then select the same show again. The menu that pops up will give you an option to edit the recording details. From this screen, you can change all of the recording options for the show including SmartSkip settings, ShowSqueeze settings, and the record across channels option. By default, Beyond TV will work as it does today – meaning it will not record across channels unless you set the option.
Also, if you’re having trouble finding new shows to record, check out our new statistics page (login required). This page gives you info about the most popular shows in the BTV community. To login, use your SnapStream.Net login info. If you don’t have a SnapStream.Net account, you can rerun the Setup Wizard to signup. To have your recording votes counted, choose to “Enable advanced features” in the installer or “SnapsStream.NET Settings-> Enable Advanced Featuresâ€? in the Web Admin. I encourage everyone to signup, have your vote counted, help generate more accurate stats, and save other BTV users from bad TV!
Right now, the data includes the show data from our beta testers and also everyone at SnapStream. For a while “Reba” was winning because pbmax had scheduled it on every box in the test lab. It will be interesting to see how these stats change as more people start using the new release and opt in to have their preferences uploaded.
Of course Beyond TV 4.2 also includes a normal slew of improvements and bug fixes. We’ve completely rewritten the guide updater to make it more reliable and improve performance. To see the complete list, check out the release notes.
As always, Beyond TV 4 point upgrades are free to all Beyond TV 4 users. So go grab it and get ready for more basketball action!
March 24th, 2006 at 7:16 pm
That collective viewing feature is neat, but aren’t you scared of people getting scared about SS (unfortunate initials in that respect) collecting their data?
March 24th, 2006 at 7:34 pm
Kurt, that’s a great question. The important thing is we’ve made the data collection opt-in. I think that users will see the value of the stats and want to have their voices heard as well. The idea is to generate a sense of community. It shouldn’t be about SnapStream getting your data, but about the community as a whole benefiting from everyone. The more people that participate the more accurate the data will be, the easier it will be for all of us to find cool TV to watch.
For more info, check out the privacy notice:
http://www.snapstream.com//products/beyondtv/btv-privacy.asp
March 24th, 2006 at 11:25 pm
Does this update finaly mean that SS can start moving closer to BM/BTV integration. I keep hearing that its in the works but I would just like someone to show me the Beef.
March 24th, 2006 at 11:45 pm
Great update. I like the statistics idea. I too am interested in the BM/BTV integration.
March 25th, 2006 at 8:22 am
Great update. I was disappointed with v4, but you have nailed my complaints re scheduling across channels, support for NVIDIA 6600, Black video on 3D Accelerated. I also like the statistics initiative. Thanks
March 25th, 2006 at 8:25 am
Good Update. Thanks SS.
And agreed on BM/BTV integration…it’s the only update that Im in dire need of.
March 25th, 2006 at 11:30 am
Nice set of features for a point release! I really like the idea of the menu to edit recording details, and that will be enough for me to upgrade sooner rather than later.
It would be fantastic if you could also add Show folder selection to that View Edit Details popup menu in a future release.
Thanks!
Bryan
March 26th, 2006 at 11:23 am
I’ll have to give this update a shot. I’ve been workign with the base 4.0 release for a while now because it was working and I didn’t to rock the boat.
March 26th, 2006 at 9:20 pm
My vote as well for the BM/BTV integration. Also would love to see the ability to configure BTV once installed completely from within the application, rather than some functions only available through a browser.
March 27th, 2006 at 7:58 am
BM/BTV integration is a must. I’m still sticking with BTV 3.7. Still no convincing reasons to upgrade to 4.x.
March 27th, 2006 at 12:39 pm
Does or will BTV4 support the Sony VGP-XL1B2 now that its available as a stand-alone unit?. http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=1455.
I can see DIYers incorporating it into their ultimate BTV4 based HTPC. I would rather not have to use WMC.
March 27th, 2006 at 1:05 pm
Good to see new features on top of fixed bugs (although I’m still having a sound issue with spdif!). I have to agree with the others tho… I’m still anxiously awaiting a bm/btv integration as mentioned in the past. Not only do i hardly ever use my BM, but it also still has some bugs. I think if BM was integreated with BTV, it will greatly increase the value of BTW and hopefully deserve the attention it needs in regards to bug fixes and updates.
March 27th, 2006 at 10:53 pm
Great update. The statistics is a great idea. This will give a real picture of what people are recording and watching. (for those participating anyways) The feature is turned on in my BTV.
I love any stat that is created by the TRUE public and not one that is created falsely by a company or network.
March 27th, 2006 at 11:41 pm
i’m hoping you guys get around to showsqueeze for hd streams in the next release
March 28th, 2006 at 12:46 pm
What’s the status of adding QAM cable support to BTV?
March 28th, 2006 at 7:28 pm
First, what is this BM/BTV integration many people have mentioned?
Second, I am still getting stability issues with my wife’s machine running an ATI 9700 AIW and BTV4.x. I update the video drivers and BTV whenever there is a new update and not since back in 3.5 has it been stable for us. Yes, we have done a clean install. Yes the AIW works just fine with its native software. Yes we have enough resources with a P4 2.4GHz and 1GB of RAM available. Still, a recording will crap out, then all subsequent recordings will work just fine.
When are we going to get at least a simply recording timer for FM Radio? There is a station here in Toronto that airs sweet remixes three times a day (all when I am on the road or at work) and I would like to listen to them at my leisure. All I need is a start and stop time for any station I pick (and multi-tuner support would be nice too as each MCE-500, as you know, has its own tuner).
Other than that, we really have enjoyed the software, service and support from Snapstream and are not sorry we paid for software even though some features are already in MCE on our box. We only use MCE to stream to our Xbox and Xbox-360 (when our nephew brings his). That would be a cool feature as well to add; streaming to those devices. Keep up the good work, the constant improvement and feature addition and we will keep on being loyal customers.
Peace.
March 28th, 2006 at 9:32 pm
I also would like to know what is the status of adding QAM HD cable support to BTV, when we can expect it?
March 29th, 2006 at 12:48 am
One thing that really needs to be fixed is Beyond TV stretches the middle of the screen all the way to the right and is basically displaying only the left half. I didn’t have this problem until I got Nvidia SLI. There is a way around it by going into settings, playback settings, and adjust display, but whenever my computer restarts, it reverts back and half my recorded shows are bad because of it
March 29th, 2006 at 5:12 am
BM/BTV integration means integration between Beyond TV and Beyond Media. Beyond Media is a unit that lets you watch your saved shows from BTV (as well as music, pictures, etc) on your television. As of yet, there is no direct link between the two.
March 29th, 2006 at 5:16 am
By the way, I am also waiting for such an integration. I am still using BTV 3.7.2 myself. I can’t justify upgrading until there is BM/BTV integration but I will be one of the first when it is available!
March 29th, 2006 at 2:40 pm
The guide updates are a lot faster now in the 4.2 version - I was looking through the Snapstream guide and wondered if there was any interest in adding a couple of features to the guide screen. Two features I’d be interested in seeing are:
* an option to highlight new episodes of series or premieres of other programs - maybe a different-colored cell for the new programs.
* a “channel browse” feature - Instead of just browsing by category, what if you could click on Discovery or ESPN or another channel in the left side of the screen and see a list of all the programs in the guide, maybe one screen for each day of programming (if it would fit.)
March 29th, 2006 at 3:43 pm
For QAM tuning, unfortunately, there are still no TV tuner cards that support it through BDA. We’re talking to a number of vendors but haven’t gotten any concrete timetables.
March 29th, 2006 at 4:24 pm
yes
March 29th, 2006 at 6:46 pm
What is BDA? and what about Fusion cards I can watch QMA through their interface.
March 29th, 2006 at 6:51 pm
BDA and WDM are driver architectures. Most applications, including Beyond TV and MCE use BDA for digital tuning. So for Beyond TV to support QAM, we need a tuner card that supports QAM in BDA.
The Fusion card currently only supports QAM through their WDM drivers. It’s somewhat a proprietary solution that’s why they can support it in their software. It is not based on a standard model so it would be difficult for a third part application to add support.
March 29th, 2006 at 8:54 pm
Soham:
Ok, I sort of understand the QAM issues and why its difficult to implement. Why is SS so close lipped about BTV/BM integration. My suspicion is they do not have enough developers to move forward. Tell me I am wrong! Just a reasonable time table would do wonders for users like me that are waiting with no idea,when or if it will ever happen.
April 3rd, 2006 at 5:44 am
hi i have a plextor PX-TV402u and i life in Belguim with PAL format
Beyond TV doesn’t work if i use PAL only NTSC - M but the quality is very bad
with other programs my pvr works very well …
April 3rd, 2006 at 9:01 am
Did anyone else have a problem with Daylight Savings Time messing up the start/stop times of their scheduled recordings? All of my recordings were off by an hour. I had to reboot my machine to correct this. This sounds like a bug in the software that would affect everyone that doesn’t reboot their computers often.
April 3rd, 2006 at 9:04 am
I have to agree that DM/BTV must be integrated. I would also like for BTV’s start-up(loading) time to be decreased. It is way to slow and needs to be optimized. Many times I will run to my computer and try and start a recording during the commercial of a show that I am watching in my living room and I have to sit there and wait for the BTV program to load. The BM interface starts much faster, but I can’t see the show on the screen to confirm my settings.
April 3rd, 2006 at 9:05 am
In the BM interface, there needs to be a way to save your most common settings. For example, if I usually record 30 minute programs then I would like that to be the default time frame for a recording. If I usually record 1 hour shows then that should be able to be set as the default. It sounds minor, but I get annoyed doing the same things over and over. I usually record one hour shows and I am constantly changing the time from 30 minutes to one hour and I am worried that I may miss it and not record an entire show - which would really be frustrating.
April 3rd, 2006 at 9:05 am
I have also had problems with watching a show that has already started recording. For example, if I turn on BTV and try and tune in the channel that is being recorded, I have gotten a warning that if I try and watch tv, that my recording may be interupted. Well, if I want to watch the show that I am recording it should not be a problem. I also have time to change the channel to the correct channel before the tuner is changed. However, I have had my recording abruptly end. Anyone have any ideas. I am now scared to turn on BTV when I am recording. That is not a comfortable feeling.
April 3rd, 2006 at 2:21 pm
Where do I go ti up grade to 4.2? You list everything but that.
April 5th, 2006 at 3:13 pm
I am also interested in the BM/BTV integration and curios whether it will happen. I am more curious to understand why there has not been any new features development in BM since its relase in Dec 2004. From BM 1.0.0 to 1.1.1 the release notes show only minor/insignificatn fixes. It has been over an year, does this mean that BM will be discontinued?
April 5th, 2006 at 4:35 pm
thought I’d post a few replies for Don and Janet from above - you might want to check out the forums (under support at SS home page), forums get more responses then this blog.
for Don re startup - you might want to leave BTV running in the taskbar, it will do scheduled recordings without viewscape, plus it opens quickly from the taskbar icon.
for Don re default recording lengths - are you aware that you can pick shows in the guide, then just select record once, record all or record new? I’ve rarely used manually recordings that you are asking about, only use them for capturing from component sources.
for Don re watching recordings - try entering through the recorded shows menu - a running recording will be there and you can start watching it (I often start 20 minutes into one hour shows that want to see immediately, then skip commercials). If enter through live TV as you described, then BTV tries to tune the last channel viewed, inevitably different than recording underway, which is why you get the warning about channel change.
for Janet re upgrade 4.2 - it is under download at SS home page
http://www.snapstream.com/download/beyondtv/
April 11th, 2006 at 4:37 pm
Soham,
I really think Snapstream will have missed the marketplace and the need by not getting a Beyond Media 2.0 release out the door 2nd quarter 2006. From the tenor of your post, it seems unlikely we’ll see a new release within the next 6+ months. MCE is making big strides with the all in one approach and Meedio seems to have missed completely as it is it can be so cumbersome to set up the plugins. (By the way, I use Meedio as my front end, just ’cause you can make it do so much.) There is however an in-between point that Snapstream could fill with a new, feature rich Beyond Media release, but the clock is ticking. Don’t let Microsoft win this one!
April 11th, 2006 at 6:43 pm
I’m eagerly looking forward to the long promised BTV/BM integration as well. The program has been kept alive by all of the volunteer plugin writers out there which have really added a lot of good features. As one who doesn’t program in any modern langauge, I can’t really appreciate the difficulty of tighter integration between the two programs. Just tying the two main menu screens into one would be a start.
April 11th, 2006 at 7:12 pm
Guys,
All looks good well done again. All your international subscribers would love an update on the timing for DVB?
Damien
April 12th, 2006 at 8:24 am
i understand the difficulty of the merging of the two products. can’t y’all at least dedicate 1 programmer(full or part time) to fix the remaining bugs in the current iteration of bm. merging the two is nice but the improving the usability of the current bm will go a long way to having a full feature package.
April 14th, 2006 at 3:28 pm
Damien,
Unfortunately, DVB support is currently on the back burner. I know that it’s extremely important to you and many other international users, but I would say that full integration is currently higher on the priority stack.
Soham
April 22nd, 2006 at 12:31 am
Fantastic
April 22nd, 2006 at 8:24 am
QUOTE: “Unfortunately, DVB support is currently on the back burner. I know that it’s extremely important to you and many other international users, but I would say that full integration is currently higher on the priority stack.”
You’re right, DVB support is *extremely* important to us. This is why I haven’t upgraded to BTV4. I’m afraid I’m going to get more and more frustrated every time I see another spam e-mail from you touting the latest and greatest *crucial* feature, such as “customisable EPG grid” and “DivX support”. I don’t see these improvements as sufficient reason to upgrade. I’m much more inclined to ditch BTV altogether and go with one of the numerous free applications that support the hardware that I need.
April 24th, 2006 at 10:28 am
I haven’t tried the update yet but I really think they should include a single BTV Link license with BTV. I’d like to see that included in an update, but I’m probably being overcritical and excessively cheap? Who knows.
May 16th, 2006 at 11:36 am
Somehow Soham’s comment got zapped so I’m reposting it here:
# Soham Says:
April 7th, 2006 at 2:10 pm
Thanks Hazen for coming through with several answers for other users.
Let me address the BTV/BM integration question…
First of all, integrating the products is not just a matter of writing Beyond TV screens into the Beyond Media interface. There’s a lot of architectural work that has to be done to make Beyond Media able to support the Beyond TV screens and workflows. So it’s a much bigger task than what it seems on the surface.
Dave, you asked if we have enough developers. Well, I think that every software company has too few developers to accomplish everything that it wants to do. SnapStream is definitely no exception to that. We’re also hiring, so if you know any good developers, please send them our way.
We have a lot of different features and directions that we want to pursue, and there are also a lot of features that our customers want. We’re also considering our long-term strategy as a company. So we’re constantly trying to balance all of that out. We have some priorities that help guide our decisions. Our special sauce is TV. So development that improves the TV experience will take precedence. We believe that TV should be fun and just work. Our surveys consistently tell us that the most important thing to users is stability. So we do not let feature development run out of control without allocating development time and releases to cleanup code, improve user experiences, and fix bugs. That doesn’t always give us the marketing splash that we would like, but I think that our users appreciate it.
So that’s a long setup to an answer. Basically, we have done significant work on integrating Beyond TV and Beyond Media, and developers are continuing to work on it. However, we are still assessing where it falls into our release roadmap. So I cannot say when it will be coming out. We’re listening to your opinions from the blog, the forums, and the surveys, and we will use that to inform our decisions as we map out our strategy. That may not be the answer that you are looking for, but it’s an honest one.
May 21st, 2006 at 11:24 pm
Thanks Rakesh!
Soham,
I am glad that you answered back honestly, It has been a long time since I have heard a meaningfull response back from BTV.
Let me start by saying I have used SS for many, many years. and although the software does get under my skin at times, when it works it works great.
Although, I think you may underestimate your current customers as well as future ones. Many of us do understand the complexities of development in regards to BM/BTV, but its hard for us to deal with the issues when nobody is there to give us honest answers. With many of my issues, I have been forced to troubleshoot the .NET coding and debuging to get it working, this is after numerous e-mail sent without any responses.
I am glad you released 4.2, and I look foward to many more releases, but please invest some time / effort into customer support. Let us know that your glad we purchased software from SS.
May 26th, 2006 at 10:10 pm
I would like to record shows like O’Reilly Factor and Glenn Beck that air more than once a day and are flagged as repeats even for new episodes.
When I schedule it to record, I need an option that says “record at this time slot only”. Brighthouse Cable’s DVR does this, and I am surprised that BTV does not
May 27th, 2006 at 3:22 pm
I’ve misplaced my product registration codes for beyond media and beyond tv. Could you please e-mail them to me.
Thank You.
September 8th, 2006 at 1:41 pm
BTV is smart enough to save you from yourself and not record crap like Glenn Beckand the Factor. If you like that garbage, then you are an ignorant fool!