Beyond Media Basic - how "basic" is it?

[Uglyduck]

I checked out the FireFly product tour. The Beyond Media Basic looks very similar to the screenshots of Beyond Media (full) posted elsewhere. Obviously, some features have been left out in the basic version. What features does it include or exclude?

[jkoon]

Well the main difference is beyond media basic is designed to let you use the remote with other apps. For example if you want to listen to music it fires up Winamp or media player and you can then use the firefly remote to control Winamp or media player. Beyond Media on the other hand will do all of the work itself, no launching of external apps.

[rakeshagrawal]

It's hard to say exactly what will be in Beyond Media (full) that isn't in Beyond Media Basic for Firefly -- since Beyond Media (full) isn't a shipping product yet and is still in development.

Basically, Beyond Media (full) will just be better, slicker and will have more features. Beyond Media Basic is just provided as a free front-end as a part of the Firefly package. As such, it's actually pretty good in terms of the capabilities that it offers.

It's also important to mention that Firefly works with a number of other front-ends... out of the box, it works with Microsoft's Media Center Edition, myHTPC and it can easily be configured to work with other front-ends.

[Jiffylush]

Rakesh,

Do you think we will be better off waiting to see if there are bundles with firefly and fullblown media, rather than picking up firefly now?

If so, any idea on when we might see it?

[rakeshagrawal]

First, its tough for me to give you an objective answer to your question. I'm in the business of selling lots of Firefly's. :)

With that disclaimer, some attempted objectivity.

I would say it's worth buying now.

I personally use Firefly and the included Beyond Media Basic software on my TV at home. It's a great front-end... it's responsive, I have shortcuts to other things that I use on my PC, I can control my system volume, browse my start menu, browse the file system. I also am using the default Beyond Media photos, videos and music apps, but those are all switchable so you could use any other apps for these things (depending on what you use for those various applications).

And as for the photos, music and videos apps that come with Beyond Media Basic, they work pretty well, but don't have all the bells and whistles that the full version of Beyond Media will sport. I'll try to get someone to post a more detailed list of what can and can't be done with Beyond Media Basic for Firefly so people know exactly what its capabilities are.

[Rhinolow]

You guys should strongly consider an upgrade option, so we can buy firefly now and have the option of upgrading to Beyond Media (Full) when it's available, at a discounted rate. That should help us frugal types get off our butts and start purchassing now.