DVD player:
Does it come with a codec that can play DVDs?
It's most likely that Beyond Media will require a pre-existing DVD decoder on your system. The reasoning behind this is that most every system that comes with a DVD drive also comes with a software DVD player (ie a Cyberlink, Intervideo, Sonic, etc). Accordingly, in most cases, we think people already have a DVD decoder. For people that don't have a DVD decoder, we will probably point them somewhere where they can buy one (for example,
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/win.../buypacks.aspx). There is also an outside chance that we will bundle a DVD decoder with Beyond Media, but we're leaning against it.
Music player
What media types does it support?
Beyond Media should handle a pretty wide range of music formats. The product isn't far enough along to say exactly what it will and will not support. If you have requests for us to support a specific format, let us know.
Album art?
Yes, we intend to support a number of models for album art -- including the "folder.jpg" model (which is used by Windows Media Player) as well as album art embedded in ID3 tags (which I believe is used by software like MusicMatch).
Ripping?
We are investigating this feature -- the first release of Beyond Media may support CD ripping from its full-screen interface.
Video player:
What will it be like?
The video player will feature a file browser similar to the one you see in the screenshots for the photos module. The actual player will be similar in its look and feel to the Beyond TV video player. It will handle playback of all the formats that Beyond TV supports right now (which is pretty much anything that Windows Player supports for playback on your particular box).
Integration with Beyond TV
Will Beyond Media integrate really well with Beyond TV? (fast loading, etc.)
YES. Part of the Beyond Media setup wizard will give you the option of automatically adding Beyond TV (if you have it installed) to the Beyond Media main menu. We are working on addressing the load time of Beyond TV so that jumping from one to the other is faster / easier.
General
Does Beyond Media allow the user to add or remove menu items?
Absolutely. There will be a very rich and simple system for building menus, views on the local file system (ie file browser with certain filters applied -- ie only view files with certain extensions, or certain type, etc.) and other things that will make Beyond Media everything you'll ever need in a 10-ft shell.
Will there be/is there a plug-in architecture to allow users to create modules that can be added?
Yes, as rkuo mentioned in a previous post: Beyond Media will feature a fully extensible framework. New screens and menu options can be added and Beyond Media can load custom modules/screens on startup or even dynamically compile new modules on startup. Modules are scripted/compiled using C# + .NET framework along with some classes provided by SnapStream.
Pricing?
We haven't finalized the pricing for Beyond Media.
Will there be a trial version?
Yes, there will be a trial version.