Playing old recordings

[markthemapper]

Is there a way to play recordings within Beyond TV that where recorded from a different source? Prior to buying Beyond TV, I recorded a bunch of shows using a different app and would like to play back these files wihin Beyond.

Any help would be appreciated.

Mark

[nanook105]

As long as they are in a format that BTV recognizes, you should just be able to copy them into a folder that BTV already "knows", or add the folder that they are in via Settings/Video Folders in Web Admin

[Rich A]

Is there a way to play recordings within Beyond TV that where recorded from a different source? Prior to buying Beyond TV, I recorded a bunch of shows using a different app and would like to play back these files wihin Beyond.

Any help would be appreciated.

Mark

I've moved Mpeg-2 video from my ReplayTV, across the LAN into the common SnapStream video folder. They show up fine in the listing and they play just fine as well. I've also edited both native BTV mpegs to cut out commercials as well as the ReplayTV mpegs and put them in the HTPC. Sometimes it's just easier to sit down in the home theater and have everything I want to view in one GUI (BTV).

I mostly only do this when there is a scheduling conflic or two shows playing at the same time (and I want to record both) One on the HTPC, and the other on the ReplayTV. In that case I move the off HTPC show to the HTPC so I can view them all on the BTV GUI.

Otherwise when at various other TVs in the house, I access the individual devices from the whole house distributed A/V.

Of course BTV version 3.5 (hopefully with multiple tuner support) will eliminate the ReplayTV.

[ruel]

I have BeyondTV recognizing my directory for SageTV, my Divx video directory, and another video editing directory that I have. You'll have to go into the web admin for BeyondTV, go into Configure and then into Video Folders to set up something like that to recognize where your other videos are located. I use BeyondTV all the time to watch the other non-BeyondTV video files. So there's like a combination of WMV files, DivX (AVI) files, and MPEG2 files in there. Although for the SageTV files, all the words are scrunched up together where there are no spaces inbetween the words in the filenames of the SageTV files. Also, if you have a bunch of recordings in BeyondTV, you'll have to scroll down through all of those to get to your other videos if you have like multi-directories recognized by BeyondTV. If you have only two directories recognized by BeyondTV (one for your BeyondTV recordings and another for you other recordings) then you can press the UP arrow on your remote to get to the other files while using the DOWN arrow to go through your BeyondTV recordings. But everything is all in that one long list that you can go through in a circular manner over and over if you want.

I'm curious to see how BeyondTV 3.5 handles the list of recordings like if you can put them all in alphabetical order instead of the chronological order and directory order they are in.

ruel

[cwg]

I've moved Mpeg-2 video from my ReplayTV, across the LAN into the common SnapStream video folder. They show up fine in the listing and they play just fine as well. I've also edited both native BTV mpegs to cut out commercials as well as the ReplayTV mpegs and put them in the HTPC. Sometimes it's just easier to sit down in the home theater and have everything I want to view in one GUI (BTV).

I mostly only do this when there is a scheduling conflic or two shows playing at the same time (and I want to record both) One on the HTPC, and the other on the ReplayTV. In that case I move the off HTPC show to the HTPC so I can view them all on the BTV GUI.

Otherwise when at various other TVs in the house, I access the individual devices from the whole house distributed A/V.

Of course BTV version 3.5 (hopefully with multiple tuner support) will eliminate the ReplayTV.


In your dreams.. There is no way a general purpose pc is going to beat a replaytv unit in verstility, there pretty well designed. I know I'm trying to come up with the perfect pvr and I haven't yet..

Requirements
somewhat compact
good streaming ability
high disk capacity
go picture quality
energy efficient

Just to name a few

[Eric3a]

Requirements
somewhat compact
PCs can be compact, though that's a really unimportant point for me.

good streaming ability
3.5 server/client architecture.

high disk capacity
??? PCs can have about as much HD space as you can afford. Some people on these boards have terrabytes.

go picture quality
??? Again. You may need/want a top PC with hardware encoding, top notch 3D video card, but pic qualitycan be scrumptious.

energy efficient
This one always cracks me up.
Don't get me wrong it's not a bad idea.... But as a country we are the pits about energy consumption, and I can't escape the feeling that an energy efficient appliance like that is a way to get a good conscience, not a real answer to our energy gluttony. No personnal attack intended, just a general observation. I amde the point elsewhere: Commute 2 hours with an SUV everyday, but have a BTV energy efficient PC (!)

It was interesting that of your requirements none including the ones I would have expected:
Wife acceptance factor
Ease of use
Stability
Interface
Speed from boot-up
Low maintenance

Snapstream must be doing something right!
Eric

[cwg]

PCs can be compact, though that's a really unimportant point for me.


3.5 server/client architecture.


??? PCs can have about as much HD space as you can afford. Some people on these boards have terrabytes.


??? Again. You may need/want a top PC with hardware encoding, top notch 3D video card, but pic qualitycan be scrumptious.


This one always cracks me up.
Don't get me wrong it's not a bad idea.... But as a country we are the pits about energy consumption, and I can't escape the feeling that an energy efficient appliance like that is a way to get a good conscience, not a real answer to our energy gluttony. No personnal attack intended, just a general observation. I amde the point elsewhere: Commute 2 hours with an SUV everyday, but have a BTV energy efficient PC (!)

It was interesting that of your requirements none including the ones I would have expected:
Wife acceptance factor
Ease of use
Stability
Interface
Speed from boot-up
Low maintenance

Snapstream must be doing something right!
Eric

By energy efficient I mean in terms of my electric bill, there's also the sleep factor, I fully loaded pc is quite a bit nosier than a replaytv.

[Eric3a]

Yeah, regular PCs are still way too noisy. I think some manufacturers are getting it and know we don't want to have jet turbines in our living rooms. Meanwhile there are plenty of kits out there to silence your computer of course. When I had to change my video card fan I got a "silent" one, and it's now barely audible. One day I'll sort out the CPU fan. No biggie because my computer is in another room.

My point is still the same about energy efficiency/electric bill: As a country our average house is now 2300 square feet up from 1700 only a few years ago.... How much more energy does it take to live in a larger house?! Then we save a bit with energy efficient toaster.
I fully understand and admire your wish to have an energy efficient setup. Just putting it in some perspective.
I think energywise, as a country we are penny wise, dollar short.

Eric

[Rich A]

"in my dreams" ??

I'm living those dreams and have been for almost a year. My Home Theater PC has been running 24/7 for almost that amount of time. And I KNOW just a little bit about the ReplayTV. I not only own THREE of them but was one of ReplayTV's original beta testers. I started with their first manufactured unit .. a 10 GB model.

I'll take my BTV HTPC over any of the REplayTV's in a New York Minute. My HTPC is QUIETER than the newest ReplayTV. More functional, takes up less space and is more reliable. The EPG data is better, easier to see on my 84 inch home theater, and frankly the quality just blows away the ReplayTV which is stuck at 6 Mb/s.

I could go on for a few more pages. I think you are incorrectly thinking about someone who just added the PVR capability to an existing PC. I'm running a true PC-based PVR .. that was built expressly to replace the three ReplayTV's I have.

And it does it quite nicely thank you at more than half the cost.