SnapStream: Innovating and Pushing Ahead

[Jason Dunn]

If you haven't heard of SnapStream, you should pay attention - they're a company to watch. I first heard of SnapStream when I met their CEO at a trade show back in 2001 - he was very enthusiastic about their product because it had the ability to take the recorded TV shows and convert them to Pocket PC-friendly formats. At the time, I have to admit that I didn't really care that much - the concept didn't appeal to me. I had tried putting a TV tuner in my PC before, and the whole "watching TV on your computer" and it was more of a distraction than anything else. I didn't really give the product a chance though, and right now I'm kicking myself for not doing so. The past couple of weeks I've really been looking closely at SnapStream's offerings and strategy - and I'm impressed.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/thumb_btv_full_screen_smartskip2.jpg" /><br /><br />I have to admire SnapStream's play here - one of the primary complaints from people who are interested in Windows Media Center Edition is that they have to buy a new PC. Most people can't justify a $2000 computer in order to get the MCE extperience. Microsoft did that for a reason - they want a controlled, baseline environment to build a stable experience for users. But what about us geeks who want to do things OUR way? That's where SnapStream comes in - they have BeyondTV, which is a PVR software product that allows you to do all of the video portions of what MCE offers, and a whole lot more. The server interface is nothing short of awesome - you can log into your PC remotely and stream content to a Pocket PC over WiFi or even GPRS! For all it's power, SnapStream still has a friendly interface that non-techies can use. But BeyondTV is really focused on the PVR aspects, while MCE has audio and photo capabilities.<br /><br />Take combine that killer BeyondTV interface and functionality with their <a href="http://www.snapstream.com/products/firefly/">new FireFly PC Remote</a>, add on <a href="http://www.snapstream.com/products/firefly/Firefly_BMB.asp">Beyond Media Basic</a>...and you have a complete end to end product that gives you MCE on your own hardware, and your own terms.<br /><br />I think SnapStream can stay healthy and ahead of Microsoft in this area by continuing to innovate. You want to see cutting edge? How about being able to program your BeyondTV to record a TV show <a href="http://www.snapstream.com/images/screenshots/net_wap.jpg">using a WAP-enabled mobile phone.</a> My pulse quickened just thinking about this - there has been more than one occasion where I've wanted to record a TV show but haven't been home to set things up. Now that I'm using a ReplayTV, things have gotten better in terms of not missing shows, but SnapStream's approach takes it to the next level. And they have a transcoding function called ShowSqueeze where the MPEG2 recordings are converted to WMV9 format - slick.<br /><br />Remember that silent <a href="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/articles.php?action=expand,4956">Shuttle ST62K</a> that I said would make a good Media Center-type computer? Well, I'm going to ask the nice folks at SnapStream if I can take their products for a spin and see if they're as great as I think they are. ;-)

[fgarcia10]

I must say, that I really like BeyondTv and I can't wait untill they release version 3.5. They promise to be a really good upgrade. :D

[JR]

Do you happen to know if the 3.5 upgrade is free? I've been considering this, but may wait until the new version is out before I pull the trigger.

[Zack Mahdavi]

I've read that in order to stream live TV, you must have a software-encoding TV tuner. However, Snapstream seems to recommend the hardware-based Hauppage PVR-250.

I have a 2.4Ghz P4 with HT technology. Does it really matter if I go ahead and buy one of the cheaper TV tuners, or should I stick with the hardware-based ones?

Also, which tuners do you all use?

[fgarcia10]

Do you happen to know if the 3.5 upgrade is free? I've been considering this, but may wait until the new version is out before I pull the trigger.

The upgrade will be free according to customer support. You can download a trial version, if you haven't, to see if you like it.

[fgarcia10]

I've read that in order to stream live TV, you must have a software-encoding TV tuner. However, Snapstream seems to recommend the hardware-based Hauppage PVR-250.

I have a 2.4Ghz P4 with HT technology. Does it really matter if I go ahead and buy one of the cheaper TV tuners, or should I stick with the hardware-based ones?

Also, which tuners do you all use?

I have and AMD 2500XP and 1GB of ram memory, I tried a cheap tv tuner first with not onboard encoding, and then I suitched to the PVR-250 and it did made a very noticiable difference in my system. You can always tryand return the card, that is what I did.

[dgage]

I highly recommend for everyone to also check out SageTV (www.sage.tv). I looked at SageTV, BeyondTV, and MythTV(Linux) and decided on SageTV. There were three things that sold me on SageTV.

1) SageTV can have multiple tuners. I have 3 PVR-250s in my computer.
2) Stable. I tried BeyondTV first when I only had one tuner but it wasn't that stable. I have had SageTV on my computer, including the various betas for version 2 for over 5 months and it hasn't crashed once. I have had 3 tuners for over 3 months with no issues.
3) BeyondTV beta testers complained in the BeyondTV newsgroups that version 3.4 should not have been released as it wasn't stable. That convinced me that the company cared less about its product and more about money.

If you haven't looked at SageTV, you owe it to yourself. It really is quite good and 2.0 should be out soon as they just released Release Candidate 3.

David

[wesk]

I've been using Beyond TV for a while. (Currently @ version 3.4) It works great for me and the family. I built a Micro ATX PC for the DVR. It's a little bigger than a Shuttle box, but offered more expansion slots.
Now if I can keep my son from filling up the hard drive when I'm traveling out of town. :D

PVR specs:

Inwin Blue Micro ATX mini tower case
Chaintech 7NIF2 Motherboard
AMD XP 2600+
512MB Ram
160GB hard drive
Hauppauge PVR 250
Windows XP SP1
Beyond TV 3.4

Wes

[that_kid]

I've been using beyond TV since version 1 and it's come along very nicely. I haven't had anyproblems with my snapstream box. I currently have a hardware and software card installed and I'm going to add two more hardware cards once version 3.5 is released. I can say is that snapstream has been nice and stable on my system.

[Magellan]

I am beta testing BTV 3.5 and it has multiple tuner support, and is very stable. I tried SageTV and it doesn't have near the features BTV has, not even in the same class really, and it crashed every 2 days or so. My BTV box runs 24/7 with no problems. Every show records when it is supposed to. Also, I recommend getting a Hauppauge Win TV-PVR250 card for the tuner. I am using that along with an ATI AIW Radeon 9700 and the recording and live TV quality is noticeably better with the Hauppauge card.