Which coming soon feature is most important to you ?

[riekl]

I am trying to get a sense of what feature is most important to people that does not currently exist, you can pick only one :)

[V_D_O]

DVB! DVB! DVB!

:D

[BrianNY]

Closed Caption..... please :D

[gjritter]

Close caption support would also be at the top of my list.

[mviamin]

Ability to group recodings by theme (or folders) to easy navigation when the list of recordings get pretty long : group all the kids stuff, all the action movies, etc... Optionally password protected or with some kind of permission control

[vogelap]

WebUI improvements.

[peter]

dvb support
dvd playback
...would be my requirements in the short term

[Sef]

None of the above...

UK Listings, Overscan support, and the ability to swap between the antenna and s-video inputs!

[jblust]

Please not picture/MP3 support.. I have other apps on my HTPC that do that perfectly well!

[sb327]

Dual Tuners would be nice.
Support for MJPEG CODEC.
Allow channel 0 select for sVideo in.
Support 720X480 Res for all menus.
MPEG2 Streaming.

-Thanks

[Terminal]

WEB UI and FSUI improvements are on the top of my list.

[riekl]

dang moderators modifying my poll ! =) Maybe i had 4 options listed for a reason :)

[Eric3a]

Hi all;

FSUI improvements: Navigation through folders for recordings, Genre listing/date listing, change recording quality from FSUI, etc...

Next: Add support for FSUI change of video source and integrate extra source listing in snapstream.net. to view / record shows on local cable (cable input) or dish network (s-video) smoothly.

Keep up the good work guys.
Eric

[Adrian]

UI First [Folders !!!]

Then UK Listings support.

Then Overscan support.

Then Pictures/Music integrated in.
________
drug tests (http://drugtestingkit.org)

[ptjulie]

UI Web enhancements please.

[IGx89]

-Support for whatever codec gives lossless quality and low cpu usage, for recompressing to WMV later
-Ability to dynamically stream WMV files at any specificed bitrate, so I can watch some of my 2mbps shows at 300kbps over the internet.

[Soundman]

Folders in the Video Library are critical. Must interact well with removable media (i.e. set a folder to the CD/DVD-Rom drive. All other things are a (distant) second.

Second: In FSUI for Program Guide, pick from a menu of folders where this recording should go instead of always using the default.

[CO_Coding_Cub]

Hey what about a crop-to-16:9 option in FSUI? Some of us do have widescreen TVs and would like to watch stuff like enterprise in proper aspect......

[erlend]

PVS 3.3 with Hauppauge PVR-250 works great!

Here is my wish list:

Stability:
-----------
PVS crashed on me today after 4-5 hours of continuous recording. (Sorry, no error report sent since DXDIAG.EXE caused BSOD).

Playback of DVDs:
-----------------------
Would be great if PVS could play DVDs (so I didn't need to buy an upgrade to PowerDVD every year).

Program Guide improvements
--------------------------------------
Search option: press "Ctrl-F" to search for a program title.

More info into a Program Guide page:
- Use more of the "window real estate" for the program info.
- Add option to set smaller font to get more program info into a page in the Program Guide.
- Etc.

Press "G" to go to a specific date in the EPG.

Press "I" to go to http://imdb.com/ (or similar) for the currently slected film/show. (This should also be available in the web based program guide).

Use icons in the Program Guide to denote the "category" a program belongs to, e.g. film/news/documentary etc.
_______________________________

Great program! Keep up the good work!

-Erlend

[Tim Reese]

My Wish List. (In no particular order)

1.) UI Improvements with the Video Library (perhaps a tree structure view)

2.) The ability to search for programs via Genre/Date and a hotkey search option.

3.) Mouse Support for main menu (I know it is being worked on)

4.) Snapstream.net to list TV listings out to 30 days instead of the current 12-13.

Other than that I have no complaints. PVS is awesome :D

[vogelap]

Originally posted by Tim Reese
2.) The ability to search for programs via Genre/Date
That's a GOOD one... Something I've wanted for a while, but have forgotten about! Excellent suggestion!

Other than that I have no complaints. PVS is awesome :D
I heartily agree!

[jasonrushton]

Add PPV movie data to the guide.

Customizable/macro-enabled serial IR interface. Would like to automate PPV purchase when recording from web guide. A sequence of commands (Power On, Channel #, Enter, Info, Enter, Enter) need to be sent to the DirecTV receiver.

Mouse support everywhere.

[viper5150]

1. DUAL TUNER SUPPORT.... I can't see anything that could be better than being able to watch TV while it's recording on another channel.

2. EPG reminders... Being able to set a reminder for a upcoming TV show, so you could watch another channel and it would remind you a minute or so before the show starts.

3. EPG.. During browsing in the EPG it would be nice to have the option to tune to a certain channel if you're looking a couple minutes ahead, for example it's 6:58 and you're looking through the 7:00 schedule.

4. Did I mention Dual tuner support?

5. Half screen guide... When you press up or down during Live TV viewing it browses the EPG. Would be nice to have a half-screen semi-transparent guide. Something like maybe three lines at a time instead of one channel at a time.

6. The EPG could probably stand to be compressed a little to 6 lines of programming instead of 5. Then again I have my resolution to 640x480. It might be different at 800x600.

7. Dual tuner.........

[Terminal]

Originally posted by erlend


Press "I" to go to http://imdb.com/ (or similar) for the currently slected film/show. (This should also be available in the web based program guide).


I wondered about this. They used to have this in the web guide prior to releasing 3.0, I believe. I have been meaning to ask why they took it out.

[MythosAZ]

My wishlist, also in no particular order.

Pre-configured native record-as settings for SVCD.
The ability to select a quality default when selecting a series for recording.
Adding "Watch this channel now" as an option when selecting shows in the future from the guide. [At 11:29, it's frustrating to change to shows that start at 11:30.]
Support for overlapping and 8:59 shows.
Ability to CONFIRM channel changes (surf with +/-, actually go to a channel with enter). [Some of us want to see what's on, but not actually change the channel.]
TV window on the listings page.

[libove]

Want:
- Mouse support. Definitely. Everywhere.
- Ability to re-encode using DivX Pro if on the system (And more generally simply to not conflict with DivX Pro if on the system)
- "Watch this channel now" when viewing a listing in the future
- In the Program Guide, an option to select whether the guide scrolls to keep the current selection always in the vertical center of the screen (As it works now), or instead to not scroll until the current selection reaches the top or bottom line in the scroll window. I find it disconcerting to have the screen scroll every time I click up/down.
- Maybe a more universal player ability, to be able to play other types of media files, including DVDs. However, as this may take a lot of work, I hesitate to make it a high priority. The reason I ask for this at all is that I love the PVS player interface - the forward / back / information &etc commands just work so nicely compared to (*shudder*) Windows Media Player's almost totally broken ability to do anything more than play/stop most files.

Cautions:
- TV preview window in Guide: It's a neat idea, but please be sure to give us the option to turn it on and off at will. In order for listings to be readable on my 27" non-HDTV I have to use the fairly large font option, and it would mean giving up a lot of screen real estate to have the video preview window.
- Support for things that MyHTPC does great already (Picture albums, MP3 collections). Perhaps just a configurable callout to e.g. MyHTPC, rather than spending much development effort on replicating the already nice clean function available in MyHTPC?

Thanks!

[DancesWithLysol]

The most important items for me are:

1. General stability.
2. Digital Tuner support (once they come in the market)
3. Dual tuner support.

No matter what features are included - stability is the most important item in the software. It needs to be dependable.

I really wish I could record programs that are only available using a cable set-top box with the same amount of effort required to view them from a analog cable TV.

... and recording more than one show at a time would be a very nice feature.

[MayanArch]

1.) Network Storage
2.) Network Encoding
3.) Edit out content before re-encoding.
4.) MP3 player
5.) DVD Player

[Tim Reese]

1.) The ability to change recording length "on the fly" (If the show you were going to record lasts longer than anticipated ie: the world series runs into Extra innings)

2.) Vary Video Recompression Reconstraints by day of the week. If you plan on being gone longer one or two days you can commit more time to recompressing video.

3.) Pad Recordings down to less than 1 minute. Preferrably down to 30 seconds.

[riekl]

Tim,

Why do you need / want option #3 ? There are a dozen freeware programs that will do this for you in the background. I am completely against SS spending any development time on a feature that can easily be reproduced at no cost. Time sync is part of the OS.

[MayanArch]

Originally posted by riekl
Tim,

Why do you need / want option #3 ? There are a dozen freeware programs that will do this for you in the background. I am completely against SS spending any development time on a feature that can easily be reproduced at no cost. Time sync is part of the OS.

You are right, but if you have SnapStream working in "Full Screen" mode on a TV set the management of Windows and other software becomes a problem because of the TV's resolution.

The more functionality SnapStream can bring into their screens the better.

I guess at some point in the future all TVs will have the resolution of a computer monitor, but that is still years away.

I am thinking this is the reason SnapStream went from their Internet Explorer interface to their TV friendly interface too.

You shouldnt have to go outside of the SnapStream interface to do something as simple as making sure your PC clock is using the same time as the Satellite or Cable stations.

[PaulyT]

Closed captions is at the top of my list, then implementing folders in FSUI, then allowing SS.net to do weekly or weekday shows at a specific time, then dual tuner.

[riekl]

Mayan,

But .. you dont have to .. You set up the clock sync when you setup the OS it is a one time thing :)

You have to install SS don't you ? You have to install all your drivers, service packs etc right ? Well while you are doing that spend 30s to install a atomic clock sync tool. It is not a tool that ever needs to be touched again, just start thinking of it as part of your OS setup.

I for one want to keep as many unnecessary features out of SS as possible and have them focus soley on the PVR/orginizational features of the product.

[MayanArch]

Originally posted by riekl
Mayan,

But .. you dont have to .. You set up the clock sync when you setup the OS it is a one time thing :)

You have to install SS don't you ? You have to install all your drivers, service packs etc right ? Well while you are doing that spend 30s to install a atomic clock sync tool. It is not a tool that ever needs to be touched again, just start thinking of it as part of your OS setup.

I for one want to keep as many unnecessary features out of SS as possible and have them focus soley on the PVR/orginizational features of the product.

True. Good advice.

I guess my comments apply more to other features that are spoken about....like the MP3 functionality. Trying to get MusicMatch to work with TV screen resolution is like groping in the dark.

[riekl]

Have you looked at myhtpc ? (http://www.myhtpc.net)

I use it for all of my mp3's, dvd's, pictures and it integrates flawlessly with SS, there is a guide on how to do the integration on http://www.htpcnews.com

[MayanArch]

Originally posted by riekl
Have you looked at myhtpc ? (http://www.myhtpc.net)

I use it for all of my mp3's, dvd's, pictures and it integrates flawlessly with SS, there is a guide on how to do the integration on http://www.htpcnews.com

Excellent!! No, I had no idea it existed.

Merry Christmas to you too :) :D :) :D :)

[MayanArch]

Originally posted by riekl

I use it for all of my mp3's, dvd's, pictures and it integrates flawlessly with SS, there is a guide on how to do the integration on http://www.htpcnews.com

Where is this article?? Cant seem to find it in the news section.

Thanks for the help.

[riekl]

http://www.htpcnews.com/main.php?id=myhtpcsnap

Feel free to ask any questions, I have been helped by so many on these forums that it is good to be able to return the favor every now and then.

Myhtpc is very modular and very easy to use. For remote control i personally love using the one that came with my pvr250 since you can edit the irtuner.ini and what commands it executes. You can use girder to do the same thing with any other remote.

[taylormadearmy]

Would LOVE DVB!! - seems the sensible way to go - in the UK at least..

[dbrown2122]

I was looking at this web link, and wondering. Does snapstream
work with this company?

cool ad.......


http://banginghits.net/images/banginghits3.swf

[PaulyT]

Originally posted by riekl
you can pick only one :)

Well, that's not entirely fair, since option #3 covers *so* many different things, whereas others are single features. Obviously, more people are going to have things they want under #3, it's biased that way from the start... ;)

[eDiveBuddy]

Multiple Card Support

Command Line Option to Start in Video Library

Command Line Option to Start in EPG

Multiple Card Support

Ability to Remap Keys

Ability to Add time to beginning OR end of recording

Better Video Library UI

Multiple Card Support

Live TV in EPG

PiP - Multiple Card Support :)

Streaming Mpeg

A real Client

A Client for the Media MVP

Did I mention Multiple Card Support :)

[RobertH]

there are already command line options that will start in the video library, livetv, guide, and recordings. check the help file or search the KB (kb.snapstream.com) for command line and it will give you the command switches to do it.

[libove]

Someone requested a better video library UI, without specifics.

Okay, here are some thoughts:

* instead of a simply list, where it is necessary to select an item to get its details, how about a split in the display with the list on one "side" (in one area) and the details about the currently highlighted item on the other "side" (in the other area) - could be left/right or more likely for file name length top/bottom.

* I think someone else did suggest this already: folders / tree, not just one directory with one long file list

-Jay

[wharrad]

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE get dvb working, I would love that sooooo much I may send you flowers

[wormzer]

Is real 16:9 aspect ratio control on the radar? I would love to see

1) letterbox support (manual control is fine) for zooming into letterbox content. Nothing worse than seeing black bars on all 4 sides of letterbox content on a 16:9 display. I have to use zoomplayer to playback letterbox movies recorded from TurnerClassicMovies.

2) Proportional stretch display of 4:3 content on 16:9 display. The 16:9 "stretch" is really bad and I can't imagine anyone tollerating all the chubby people on the screen using this display mode.

[rkuo]

wormzer,

If you or anyone else interested in the 16:9 widescreen display support could please outline exactly as possible how you would like the support to exist, please post to this thread:

http://discuss2.snapstream.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=9676

I've asked a programmer here to deal with it since it seems easy enough for us to do, but we're not clear on exactly how users want to see that support exist.

[erave02]

How about an API to add functionality? (like letting me add Videolan integration for MPEG2 streaming, adding new configuration, and maybe B]changing the live tv view on the admin page, so I wont be able to see anything - since I use Hauppauge WinTV PVR USB2 - but I will be able to change channel[/B] )

Elad Rave
Verint Video Solutions
www.verint.com
www.loronix.com

[HailStorm]

Excuse me if this was posted, but I didn't see it.

How about taking snapshots? It is *Snap*Stream afterall. hehe That way if I see something that I want to remark to a friend about, all I have to do is hit key X and take a screenshot/capture of what was on TV.

[RobertH]

its called printscreen its on every keyboard and all your image editing software is built into every copy of windows (aka paintbrush)

[HailStorm]

Originally posted by RobertH
its called printscreen its on every keyboard and all your image editing software is built into every copy of windows (aka paintbrush)

awww, Robert. You aren't adverse to improvement right? It would be nice to have an integrated feature that wouldn't require me to printscreen, undo full screen on snapstream, open a third party program, then resize and save the file. Sometimes I just forgo the Snapstream software, say if I am watching MSNBC News Live, and just use Dscaler which has a single-key feature for saving screen captures in a pre-determined fashion. Very nice, very slick...low key and it works.

[libove]

I'd like to see adjustable timeouts for the cookie which the web interface to PVS places on a client system. The default timeout is fairly short, particularly when running the web interface on the same PC where PVS is installed.

Specifically, I'd like the ability for the administrator to set specific timeouts on a per-user basis, so that I can log in as one user from the console of the PVS machine with an infinite timeout, and as a different user if I'm accessing PVS from somewhere else.

Thanks!
-Jay

[clayfree]

HDTV CARD SUPPORT!

I have been looking at Sage because they are about to support HDTV cards. If one of these programs can wrap NTSC and digital TV into one PVR app then that's the one I'm going with.

Clay

[kelmk]

DVB support. That includes HD via DVB.

[kyeck]

I, too, would like to see a priority placed enhancing the UI. Most importantly, I would like to be able to categorize, sort, etc. my recordings. It would also be helpful if I could put restrictions on viewing certain recordings.

-Ken

[Ice]

closed captioning for the love of god

[koltz]

1. Integrated DVD Playback, should be easy since it already supports MPEG2 Playback.
2. UI Improvements, specifically Folders for recorded shows including password protection if needed.
2 1/2 (sorry missed one) DVD Ripping, I would love to store my DVD movies on the HD without using a third party util. Direct coding to DivX would be great.
3. Module Add-On Support, kind of like myHTPC, to allow people to add modules for say other applications directly in the program (Mame, WinDVD, etc.)
4. MPEG2 Hardware Decoding (PVR-350), would love to see this, but just bought a 250 off of eBay, so it will be a little while still.
5. Picture in Picture support (record one show while watching another)
6. Some way to have computer off and SS starting the computer when a show is scheduled.

should be happy after this :) I know the last one is a stretch, but one never knows.

Corey

[scarroll]

The ultimate improvment would be away for developers to exten the Full screen menuing system and an open API to control and access the aspects of SnapStream. I would love to include my own library of functionality for supporting DVD playback and my own exclusive anamorphic capabilities not to mention games or links into other functionality, leave snapstream to work out the tuner and HDTV issues. I'm not sure if snapstream has the resources to persue DVD, etc. But start by providing an API and extensibility and I'm sure if they don't, we/I will!

[ertman]

I threw up a "wishlist" page on the Wiki site, and put some initial ideas on there.

Please add to it!

http://www.snapstream.com/wiki/wiki/run.php?iRequest=wiki/ViewPage&iPage=WishList

[Gunterius]

Hi all,

For us Belgium users, it is still not possible to use the program guide, so we all have to do manual recordings from the web admin, which is not that handy when sitting in the couch, with an ATI remote.

If only a simple small screen can be added, so we can easily schedule a recording with the remote (as a standard VCR btw), then the system is completely open for everyone !

Thanks !

Gunterius

[RobertH]

you can use the following to import guide data from another source into snapstream:
http://www.snapstream.com/Community/Articles/xmltv/

[scarroll]

PLEASE include the ability to cycle through different screen sizes like ATI EZLook does on DVDs (but doesn't on recorded material). OR like WindowsXP does on DVDs AND recorded content (via the info menu on XP MCE 2004). This feature should be identical to XP MCE because some of us play back on wide wide screen plasma or 'not perfect' wide format displays. Take note of their simple to explain icon design too, better then ATI EZLook.

It would be easy to put in a stretch blit. So get to it! And make your product a real home thearter dersirable and compatible device with this simple feature.

[rkuo]

scarroll,

We added a 16:9 in 4:3 preset for widescreen format broadcasts for playback on widescreen displays and also moved all aspect ratios into an editable file so that you can add your own custom aspect ratio and cropping settings. This is in 3.4.

[Gunterius]

Thanks for your answer Robert !

Even though it says at the XMLTV site that Belgium will be added soon, this "soon" is already there for 8 months at least. Since I'm not a Perl programmer, I cannot complete it, so the grabbing is not possible, or another Belgium user should correct me if I'm wrong and show me how to do this.

This was the reason I asked for a simple VCR recording screen, for us "poor" non EPG users !

Hope the programmers have time to add this !

Kind regards,

Gunterius

[qumqats]

HDTV!

You start supporting a HDTV card and I'll be out the door to buy the card and maybe even another copy of SS or an pay for an upgrade to SS.

I can't wait to get into the HDTV world.

[psimon]

UK program listings and DVB support are a must!!!

[pretzelb]

I'm still trying the demo but being able to turn off the time shifting buffer on live tv would be at the top of the list. With the buffer on it's not worth viewing live tv, even on my rig with a pvr250.

[RobertH]

a 250 shows buffered video even in the wintv app, the encoder on the card takes about 10-15 seconds before it can deliver a "live" stream to the pc.

[pretzelb]

Really? That's odd because I don't see any "jerkiness" with wintv right now watching football but it's horrible with SS. I even toyed with the record settings and set them to 100% motion precision. I would think my amd 2000+, 1 gig ram, and pvr250 should handle live tv. I will have to look around for posts on "jerkiness" and see if I can debug this.

Originally posted by RobertH
a 250 shows buffered video even in the wintv app, the encoder on the card takes about 10-15 seconds before it can deliver a "live" stream to the pc.

[WillP]

I'm using an XP2000 with a PVR250 myself (only 256MB RAM though). I don't get any jerkiness, even watching football. Which decoder are you using? I use the nvidia decoder myself. As for recording quality, I'm using DVD Ready Hi-Res modified to use VBR (4Mb/s - 8Mb/s) and 25% motion precision. Watching LiveTV uses 10% to 15% cpu. I don't think your problem is the encoding of the video.

Will

[pretzelb]

Sounds like I need to do some tweaking. I'm not even sure what decoder I'm using ... I didn't know I could choose one. Great (sigh) more research. :rolleyes:

To go with this thread subject, maybe it would be nice to have a separate option for quality on live TV and one for recordings. For example, I want my default for TV show recordings to be top quality but maybe my live TV watching is a custom setting that I pick. Maybe there's a way to do this now and I'm too new to SS.

Originally posted by WillP
I'm using an XP2000 with a PVR250 myself (only 256MB RAM though). I don't get any jerkiness, even watching football. Which decoder are you using? I use the nvidia decoder myself. As for recording quality, I'm using DVD Ready Hi-Res modified to use VBR (4Mb/s - 8Mb/s) and 25% motion precision. Watching LiveTV uses 10% to 15% cpu. I don't think your problem is the encoding of the video.

Will

[STDestiny]

Just a thought (and I'm not sure if anyone has posted this before) but what about the abiulity to skin the GUI?

-Andrew

[WillP]

Sounds like I need to do some tweaking. I'm not even sure what decoder I'm using ... I didn't know I could choose one. Great (sigh) more research.
The built in mpeg2 decoder in PVS is not very good, to put it lightly. In case ya aren't aware, the decoder is what plays the video. If you have an nvidia card like me, the nvidia decoder (http://www.nvidia.com/page/nvdvd_downloadtrial.html) works very well. It is expensive though. If I were you I'd try the decoder that comes with the PVR-250 and see this thread (http://discuss2.snapstream.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=9889) for instructions / performance tweaks.

Here's some more info (http://www.snapstream.com/Community/Articles/decoders/) on using other (3rd party) decoders with PVS. Hope this helps.

Will

[ewalker]

Built in DVD player, built in FM tuner software (For supported cards), built in picture viewer. Ability to search Web TV listings by Genre. A remote control command to restore SS from the tray to Full screen mode. The ability to group TV shows by date, Name or Genre.

If these features are added, SS would rival XP Media Edition.

[pretzelb]

Just selecting the decoder from Hauppage appears to have it working much better!! I could probably get it better with more tweaking but I'm still experimenting.

Originally posted by WillP

The built in mpeg2 decoder in PVS is not very good, to put it lightly. In case ya aren't aware, the decoder is what plays the video. If you have an nvidia card like me, the nvidia decoder (http://www.nvidia.com/page/nvdvd_downloadtrial.html) works very well. It is expensive though. If I were you I'd try the decoder that comes with the PVR-250 and see this thread (http://discuss2.snapstream.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=9889) for instructions / performance tweaks.

Here's some more info (http://www.snapstream.com/Community/Articles/decoders/) on using other (3rd party) decoders with PVS. Hope this helps.

Will

[WillP]

Just selecting the decoder from Hauppage appears to have it working much better!!
Great!! Glad I could help.

Will

[jsolheim]

Why hasnt this been requested much?

Full hardware support for haup pvr 250 cards?

Also mouse support in the menus? how hard would that be?

[Eirikso]

Mouse support in the menus is on its way. The PVS 3.4 Beta that is out for testing has this functionallity.

Meaning: from PVS 3.4 you will have mouse support in the fullscreen interface.

For your question about hardware support in the PVR-250 i have answered this in another post.

_eirikso

[rander]

Closed Captioning ... please!

My wife has a hearing problem and trying to understand the mumbles that some of these actors utter is nearly impossible. It puts me on the hot seat trying to translate. Being on the hot seat is unnecessary since most cards handle CC but SS doesn't. Other than that, SS is great!

[Eirikso]

1. Overscan support in the fullscreen UI
2. Record of the timeshift buffer
3. DVD, Music, Pictures and full folder support in the recording browser
5. Multiple tuner support

And _if_ you make a picture module, please be the first company ever to make a HTPC picture browser that actually reads the EXIF-data and rotate the pictures accordingly.

(It is very irritating that the pictures that are automatically rotated by adding EXIF-information in my camera show up fine in Adobe Photoshop Album, but show up with wrong rotation in the picture modules in both myHTPC and ShowShifter)

_eirikso

[weberj]

You just listed all the features already available in SageTV....

[Eirikso]

Yepp. I love the fact that there actually is some real competition out there. Unfortunately the current version of Sage looks like crap and has a WAF below acceptance (Wife Acceptance Factor).

Another piece of software; ShowShifter also provides overscan support, picture, DVD, music and a limited "keep parts of the timeshift buffer" option.

And, I look forward to Sage 2.0. It is supposed to look better and be _very_ configurable.

Right now I am quite pleased with the functionallity, stability, quality and usability of SnapStream. It is by far the best looking and most smooth functioning PVR software I have tried. In combination with myHTPC it provides me with a very functional home multimedia centre.

In PVR software usability and looks are far more important than in any other software.

Still, I miss the functionallity I mention in my previous post. The questions are:

Will SnapStream implement this functionallity? Will Sage 2.0 provide a better user interface? If the answer to both questions are yes, I will be more than happy to test both when they are released.

Right now I stick with SnapStream and myHTPC even if I miss the functionallity I mention.

_eirikso

[Eirikso]

And, how could I forget? The most important feature request of them all:

I need _three_ default compression settings! One for view and timeshift, one for record and one for recompress.

I have set up my MPEG2-quality to 12 Mbps for view and timeshift because I want the highest possible quality while watching TV.

When I program a recording I do much better with a lower bitrate DVD-ready setting.

I can of course manually change the recording profile for each recording in the web gui, but that is time consuming and cumbersome.

I need:
-one default recording profile
-one default view/timeshift profile
-one default recompression profile.

_eirikso

PS. And, yes, I just requested a functionallity that already is supported in ShowShifter...

[awesomejt]

From a developer's point of view:
1. Make/improve third party module/plugin support. This will help with the requests to add in odd stuff like MP3 and DVD playback -- which really distracts from the primary focus of SnapStream. I really don't want to see SS get distracted with non-core features but allow for others to add in the features for those that want it.

SS.net improvements:
2. Synchronize the account with my local settings/recording schedule so I won't cause a schedule conflict from the SS.net listings.
3. Select record quality from the record now pop-up window. I like to record movies at a better quality than the local news report.
4. Improved websearch: make "advanced" search options so we can search by channel, time, topic or refine existing search (search within search). Perhaps add a simple query language to do ANDs, ORs, and NOTs.

SnapStream UI:
5. Improve preformance! Boy, switching between screens can be dog slow.
6. Better integration with PVR250/350 and other hardware cards -- use hardware during LiveTV. The software that comes with my PVR350 is still less taxing on my system for live TV.
7. Ditto with the mouse support. Lots of folks in Windows land find using the keyboard a bit cumbersome.
8. Quality profiles for functional use: default setting for recording, default setting for recording. Add ability to select quality setting when choosing to record something. I don't like navigating through the settings just to change that one setting.

Even in the current state, SnapStream is an excellent product. I'm glad I stuck it out with them. Any improvements from this point would just be gravy.

[Eirikso]

Agree on the "open up for plugin development"-feature.

I used ShowShifter before I switched to SnapStream. Much can be debated about the pros and cons, but one thing is for shure:

The development kit and support for user created plugins in ShowShifter is thruly excellent. People have made some really nice plugins for ShowShifter.

Stuff that the developers would (and should?) not focus on. Examples are:

- Module for arcade emulators
- Module for opening files in an external player (I.e. Zoom Player)
- Internet Radio Module
- Enhanced Photo Module

I think this kind of open approach is a very nice competetive edge compared to Windows MCE, a piece of software that I guess will be closed forever...

_eirikso

[Brett]

Originally posted by ertman
I threw up a "wishlist" page on the Wiki site, and put some initial ideas on there.

Please add to it!

http://www.snapstream.com/wiki/wiki/run.php?iRequest=wiki/ViewPage&iPage=WishList

This is a really good list, some great ideas.

-Brett

[NickHark]

UI

[eggman51]

Pretty sure it's all been said before .. but as someone researching / experimenting with this stuff:

1. More important to me to see time spent making seamless integration with myHTPC than on developing an MCE / myHTPC replacement

2. Along those lines, more important to see time devoted to becoming the absolute best, most stable, most usable, highest picture quality PVR / EPG too out there. Sage has some nice features: live streaming, plug ins and multiple tuners being the most important ones that leave me undecided on Snapstream vs. Sage.

3. Absolutely critical is stability .. my Motorola Set Top Box doesn't crash, so my HTPC can't either

4. Using TheaterTek with ffdshow illustrates to me just how much better a dedicated video processor plug in can be than the stock ones; would like to see plug in support so I can use ffdshow or dscaler

5. Live TV streaming client, ideally ActiveX / Java client so it can stay within the web client paradigm

6. Multiple Tuners

7. Although snapstream's UI seems pretty good aesthetically, I noticed quite a number if usability issues with it. A usable UI is critical for me (ok .. mostly for wife and kids).

Looking forward to future releases!

[CharWoman]

I don't use snapstream to watch live TV very often, so timeshifting etc. is not so important to me; i'm more concerned with playback, so recording quaility, portability to DVD/VCD, and closed captioning are higher on my list. i've gotten quite hooked on DVD subtitles and would love to have captions available on my own recordings. great for film dialog with heavy accents, and t.v. shows with flat sound or lots of atmospheric noise.

it does seem a better priority to add features that ~aren't~ readily available in other freeware/commonly bundled software packages. i don't expect snapstream to be one-stop shopping, just want it to be a top-notch PVR.

[SHS]

Hmmm ok so where the option for all above hehehehe

[kadewees]

I want dual tuners...mainly so I can use the AIW pro I have already to display on my TV and stream live TV, and then get a PVR250 to do my recordings with (or use both if 2 things are on at the same time :) )

[libove]

I had originally not wanted to ask SnapStream to spend much development effort on making BeyondTV (PVS 3.2 back then) able to play other formats ... but I realize now why this is needed:

If WiMP is running (even if it is paused or simply open with no file selected), BeyondTV cannot initialize the ATI AiW overlay to record a file, so recordings will not happen.

To avoid this, it seems that it may be required for BeyondTV to be able to play other formats, so that while something is playing, a scheduled recording can still occur.

-Jay

[MonsterHTPC]

Alot of the feedback I get is for UI improvements to include folders and other such library organizational features including the ability to sort by something other than the creation date, even if the option is selectable in the web interface. I know I myself find it harsh to search through 100 movies looking for a title and they are not in alphabetical order.

Stability is an always :)

[Brett]

Originally posted by libove
If WiMP is running (even if it is paused or simply open with no file selected), BeyondTV cannot initialize the ATI AiW overlay to record a file, so recordings will not happen.

*cough* in Snapstreams defense thats ATI's fault not BTVs :)

-Brett

[ReplayTVGuy]

Make it easier to:

1. Delete future shows to be recorded.

2. Better control when conflicts occur. I'd like to guarantee that specific shows are recorded when conflicts occur.

3. Add what Replay TV calls 'themes'. Rather than selecting a show to record by a specific channel and time, allow me to record any occurance of a show regardless of the time and channel that it may be on. This is something ReplayTV does pretty well.
Addendum: In a reply from kadewees Yes, this is already implemented. What I meant to say but did not is the ability to limit the 'themes' a bit. The problem is when you have multiple "record all episodes" or "record all new episodes" and there are multiple shows that conflict. There is no method to control which one is more important to the user. A simple rating scale from 1-10 being added to the selection choice would be a easy and simply start to a solution. There are better ways but.... I'll let others discuss that.

4. What ReplayTV doesn't handle well is when mutiple "theme based recordings" conflict. It would be nice if SnapStream would allow some type of priority to be set. Just a simple value from 1-10 would be better than nothing, but a better approach to prioritizing maybe something like a two tier approach.

There would be something similar to the following where the user can select the order of precedence by moving the choices up or down the list.

In the event of conflicts,
Ranking
___ New shows come first
___ Priority ( user can select a value from 1 to 10 for a recording.

5. When selecting a show to record, allow me to select individual recording specifications for that show. Rather than having one configuration for all shows, let me specific each one specifically or use the default recording setting.

6. Allow me to specific a specifc folder to put the recorded video in when recording, not only when recompressing.
Addendum: This can be done. See my new #12 below..

7. Have the software change the priorities on the process threads so that compression is a lower system priority than recording and recording to have 'above normal' processing. This would help out when the system starts to get close to pegging 100% CPU usage.

Addendum: Recompression at 'night' is a bit silly if my recordings are at night. As conflicts occur I use the morning hours to capture shows that I missed.
Second tuner would be great but would I be willing to shell out more money? I don't know.

8. Update your on-line help. It is a bit out of date with regards to recompression as it doesn't mention DIVX. Also, there is nothing on streaming video server.

9. Forget the mp3/pictures for now. You have the best PC based product that I've seen in the 4 years that I've been trying.

10. The program guide is a bit to large vertically and horizontally and requires scrolling. I've tried changing the (I forget exactly) the fonts and icon sizes. I'm using Internet Exploder with a resolution ( I think) of 1024x7.. This is a bit annoying but minimized when I tell the guide to list all channels.

11. And the killer for those of us that have that have a computer that can't record and recompress at the same time because of CPU usage.... I have a second computer (much slower) that is too slow to capture video. I've networked the two together so that capture is done on PC 1 and recorded to a network drive on PC 2. No if only PC 2 could be scheduled to recompress video when a show finished recording.. This is just a nice pipe dream.

Addedum: SCROLLING SUCKS!!!
Snapstream is best viewed at 1200x1000 ( or so). I don't set my laptop this small as the eye strain is a bit too much so I'm constant,ly scrolling. I see now that I missed a few options because of scrolling.

Second, the usage of "+/-" signs to expand and contract information is always a sign of poor user interface. If you are going to design an interface this way you should allow the user to set a default configuration to always expand or never. By doing so you reduce the user's chance of over looking key aspects,.

Third, the organization of the interface is okay but it won't rank as anything more. The structure is a bit loose and I find myself bouncing like Winnie the Pooh's tiger from screen to screen.

[-LD]

while there are a number of features i think are important, to make it a product that appeals to the masses you absolutely need multi-tuner support...if you don't have it, what's the point of the product? i can get a dual tuner Tivo, dual tuner cable box DVR, dual tuner other PVR software (TVPlguin, Sage)

to me, the beauty and defining factors of a truly good PVR are the ability to pause and rewind live tv and the ability to do that while recording a second show

[kadewees]

1) Agreed...it would be nice to be able to cancel certain instances of a show, rather than having to cancel the entire recording setup. It would seem this could be easily done by allowing you to right click a recording in the "upcoming recordings" listing and delete that instance.

2) I assume they are working on this, seeing as many complaints as I have seen. I think a priority system would work well too.

3) You can already do this. In fact, this drives me crazy, since if I try to record all instances of the simpsons, I get 3-5 recordings per day, when really all I want is the Sunday night recording, even if it is a rerun. I know I can set this manually but then I lose the program information. I would like to see this fixed eventually but it's low priority compared to other things.

4) See #2.

5) You can already do this as well. You have to do it manually, yes, but I see no way around this other than adding a whole lot of extra (read: bloated) functionality to snapstream.net

6) This can be done through the web interface as well.

7) I don't know what the priorities are, but at least they allow you to do recompression when your computer is not busy. I don't really have enough information to comment on this one, other than yeah, it would be nice to know 100% that an immediate recompression job isn't going to slow down my system to the point it can't record cleanly. It may already be this way--I always recompress at night so I don't know.

8) They might be able to get some volunteers to do this in return for free hardware or something, that way the staff can keep working on features and stability.

9) Agreed. When I want to see pics on TV I use winXP's picture viewer. And I use rhapsody so mp3 support wouldn't help me. Continue to focus on TV.

10) I don't use the program guide on the TV, so I have no comment (I don't use btv for live tv except over the network/internet)

11) I believe this can already be done, just not automatically. If you are accessing a common folder with two different installations of btv you should be able to manipulate those files manually, including recompression, with either computer.

Whew! I wrote a lot! I think that qualifies as my $.03! That's a whole extra penny from me to you :)

[APCyberax]

I'd like to see.
Folder support for videos.
DVD playback.
MP3 Suport with album art.
UK LISTINGS SuPoRT :D
recording of the buffer.
Suuport for CD/DVD Burning to keep shows you like :)

[Brett]

Originally posted by APCyberax
I'd like to see.
Folder support for videos.
DVD playback.
MP3 Suport with album art.
UK LISTINGS SuPoRT :D
recording of the buffer.
Suuport for CD/DVD Burning to keep shows you like :)
UK Listings are available with XMLTV, CD/DVD burning is already supported (you have to enable the archive command and uses a 3rd party burner automatically), Not sure what was meant by the recording of the buffer. Folder Support is already planned, and DVD & MP3 support has been announced with Beyond Media.

-Brett :p

[amgmamgma]

I think that when people on these forums say 'recording the buffer', they mean saving the LiveTV buffer as a Recorded Show.

[vogelap]

Originally posted by awesomejt
3. Select record quality from the record now pop-up window. I like to record movies at a better quality than the local news report.
Oh! I like that idea!

[cjcormack]

I would like to see:
- Better X10 remote support, I feel that my remote could be put to better use. In particular when BeyondTV is running in the background it would be nice if I had use of the mouse and arrows. It's also annoying that the mouse functions of the remote aren't available in the FSUI as this would be useful for using the functions that aren't supported on the UI.

- When displaying info on the current program during playback (watching recorded video/LiveTV) it would be nice to be able to scroll up and down through the program info if it is too big for the display.

and of course DVB support and UK TV listings a must :D.

[PsyberS]

One of the few things I really wish was in BTV was reminders. The ability to select in the on-screen guides to set a reminder so I can be on any channel and at the time a show I wanted to see starts it reminds me and asks if I want to switch to that channel.

Or even to setup favorite programs and if that program comes on the air while I am on another channel it'll inform me. So I can setup the Simpsons as a favorite and if I'm watching another channel and the simpsons comes onto Fox it'll pop up a box informing me of this and asking if I wanted to switch.

Also, I found some images for the Hauppauge PVR250/350 remote, those should be incorporated into BTV.

Link to thread with those images (http://discuss2.snapstream.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=11635&highlight=irremote.ini)

[infinite]

DVB support. I wouldn't mind waiting for other features, but in a poor reception area in Australia, DVB is the only way. :(

[OzWiz]

The ability to customize the UI, especially for the program guide is key. This is viewed on all sizes of screens (I myself use both a 27" and a 110").

[cjones]

Channel 0 for S-video would be cool (unless it already does it). I just installed it today.

[Edgarmoon]

I like the idea of folders to organize movies, but more of a media center so I can import movies I recorded from other software, and then be able to organize the list by keyword.

Another thing, I use Directv and an antenna for local channels. I would like to be able to assign channels (not just recordings, but permanently assign a set of channels) to either Antenna or satelite based on channel range or number (range preferred, less work). This way, if I choose a channel to either view or record, it automatically switches between s connector sattelite to coax antenna depending on the channel number. With this I don't need dual tuners or guides.

Another feature would be to be able to set memory buffer to be available after changing channels or turning off live tv, ATI does this, and it in effect records everything you watch so that you can later review it. The buffer size is set so when you get to the end, it starts erasing the first portion, then you can export it to a saved file if you like.

[dequire]

Originally posted by Eric3a
Hi all;

FSUI improvements: Navigation through folders for recordings, Genre listing/date listing, change recording quality from FSUI, etc...

Next: Add support for FSUI change of video source and integrate extra source listing in snapstream.net. to view / record shows on local cable (cable input) or dish network (s-video) smoothly.

Keep up the good work guys.
Eric

The Cable to Sat/Air input swiching from live TV UI and also from recording UI is paramount. The next release must have this for BeyondTV to stay viable. Please!!

[Chunk_Drywall]

I'd like the ability to switch between windowed and full-screen modes without having to exit one and enter the other; you miss a little of what you're watching...:(

[cjcormack]

Originally posted by Chunk_Drywall
I'd like the ability to switch between windowed and full-screen modes without having to exit one and enter the other; you miss a little of what you're watching...:(

You can! In windowed mode, press alt+enter.

[Edgarmoon]

quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Originally posted by Chunk_Drywall
I'd like the ability to switch between windowed and full-screen modes without having to exit one and enter the other; you miss a little of what you're watching...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



You can! In windowed mode, press alt+enter.


But can you switch from fullscreen mode to windowed that way?

[Chunk_Drywall]

Originally posted by cjcormack


You can! In windowed mode, press alt+enter.

Well, don't I feel stupid now...

Thanks for the tip. My trial for BTV just ran out, so I guess I'll have to buy it now...:)

[lectro]

My vote is for Dual Tuners, but I imagine there would be a lot of work involved in adding support since there will be new functionality, such as watching live tv while recording.

Closed captioning seems like (and I'm just guessing) it should be an easy task, since it's already supported by even basic tv tuner cards, and I'm sure there are a lot of people who feel this program is useless without it, so I definately would expect to see it in a future release and I wouldn't be at all unhappy if it appeared before dual tuner support.

Also, rather than dual tuner support, I'd like to see 'multiple' tuner support. If somebody wants to install 5 tuner cards and a raid array, let them. It'd be great to never have to worry about scheduling conlicts.

[V_D_O]

In 3.5:
Dual tuner support... check
Multiple tuner support... check
Closed captioning... no idea

Although, better than 5 PCI tuner cards would be a number of USB2 devices, BTW. I believe Cayars has a quite ridiculous number of these.

[Cayars]

Running on competators software, I've had 8 PVRs running at the same time.

Welcome to "Carlo's On-Demand Movies". :)

I'm stoked and can't wait for 3.5!

[Eric3a]

I'm stoked and can't wait for 3.5!
That way you'll be able to add a few tuners...:D
Eric

[Michael Harris]

Full support, hardware encode and decode, for the WinTV PVR-350.

[V_D_O]

The overlay support in 3.5 seems to be going in the direction you want.

[Michael Harris]

One more thing I would love to see. A proper user's manual.

As far as I can tell, and please tell me if I am wrong, the only documentation is the "help file". A properly written manual will go a long way to giving users the information they need, save time, and save SS from having to provide tech support to answer basic questions. There is a lot of info on your product out there but it needs to be consolidated. I know writting a good manual is a chore and can be expensive but its worth the investment. Just provide a .pdf file.

[dasirrine]

Can't you already do this in reverse, by going to live TV and then bringing up the guide? Why would we need the programmers to make this possible in reverse too? Seems like a waste of valuable brain /programming time.

[archie]

have you looked at the guide (http://www.snapstream.com/Download/pdf/users_guide3_4.pdf)?

hope that helps,

archie

[Michael Harris]

have you looked at the guide?

Silly me for thinking that "Documentation" in the Support section means that's where all the documentation is.

Thanks for the link.

[jim_r]

Adjustable font size so I can see more channels and more hours at once without scrolling.

[richt]

:confused: Support for more tuner cards such as ATI eHome Wonder. Snapstream has put very little effort into bringing support for new cards to production. There are a lot of hardware encoder options BESIDES the PVR-250.
:D UI Improvements - Folders, sorting, etc.
:cool: Network Client

[danejasper]

High Definition recording and playback.

-Dane

[Jessie]

How about a setup option that lets you choose what your watching the live TV on i.e. monitor or TV, so that it can change the registry settings for you. I’ve gone through and changed all of the settings one by one and still have the ticker problem until I change from the Intervideo codec to the default but now the color is off. And I have applied both registry edits to turn on the hardware part of that codec. The Ndvd codec is no longer available for sale/demo/download.





Biostar iDEQ200n NVIDIA nForce2 IGP + MCP-T Chipset, Xp2100+, 2x512MB Mushkin Pc2100 Dual channel enabled. 120 Wd 7200 Se. Nvidia 5200 Ultra /w svideo out, WinTv Pvr250

[cd_mackenzie]

This doesn't seem to be a voting option, but what I would really like to see is ways for the RECORDER to be aple to support multiple hard drives. I know if you have XP Pro there are ways to support this, but if you have XP Home or other you are SOL. The way I would foresee this is, when setting up multiple folders, you should be able to select an option that says "allow the recorder to record new shows in this folder" or something like that. When the main folder/drive fills up, the recorder would check the other folders before for space before it started deleting shows.

Also want: ATI E-HOME WONDER support.

[wharrad]

DVB!

It'd be fanstatic to have native DVB support

[lectro]

Everything transparent over live tv or playback

Not just the guide - the home screen, recording set up, everything.

Several times now there's been a commercial for some show we want to record so we have to exit to go search for the show, set up the recording, etc., then go back to what was on.

This isn't such a big deal for recorded shows (esp. since most of those commercials get skipped) but for live TV it would be nice to not miss part of the show when the commercials are over.

And I don't like using pause, because if there is a show scheduled to record after the show I'm pausing, the last few minutes of the show I'm watching get lost in limbo when BTV changes the channel.

And what's going on with that window that asks if I want to let it change the channel to record a scheduled show, but then deletes the job when I click yes? Is this a bug? When there's a recording that's about to start, I feel pressured to make a decision quickly and decisively - I can't risk missing the first 30 seconds of some show because I had to read something carefully. Instead of yes and no, the buttons should say "Change Channel" and "Cancel Recording" or something equally straightforward. Not a whole bunch of text. Nobody likes reading a whole bunch of text. I'll bet you're not reading this post anymore for exactly that reason.

Oh, and it would be nice if my BTV could wash dishes.

[Eric3a]

Everything transparent is something that I have wondered about for a while. It would indeed be nice to have access to the whole FSUI WHILE playing a recording or viewing Live TV.

I've never mentionned it as I see that as a low priority improvement. Still would be nice though.
Eric

[ViRGE]

AVI encoding support would be nice. There are times I'd just like to capture to Huffyuv.

[sadale_1270]

Dual tuners. Absolutely.

[gmetroca]

My wife can't understand what they are saying so she can only watch shows with closed caption. This means we either stay with TiVo or the ATI Software (even though I prefer my Hauppauge PVR-350 with Beyond TV).

[abby-normal]

I would like to see the ability to backup all my settings, and my reccording preferances. The ability for the recorder to find the 'next avalable store location with space' before erasing my recorded shows. I would also like to see btv set up a data base on my HD of the shows I have recorded so it doesn't record the same show episode the day after I just deleted that episode. Mostly though I want to be able to back up my settings and show list, and I mean a one click back up not routing around on my system to find the xml files then exporting them.

[cmasters]

Everything transparent is something that I have wondered about for a while. It would indeed be nice to have access to the whole FSUI WHILE playing a recording or viewing Live TV.

I've never mentionned it as I see that as a low priority improvement. Still would be nice though.
Eric

Everything transparent seems like a good idea but it gets annoying after a bit. I think it comes down to you are in the menu to do something so your attention is off the show and you end up missing part of it.

[tfox2069]

At first I thought, "None of the above", since now that the entire family is using Beyond TV we need a freaking terrabyte of hard disk space and I can't get one that size from Best Buy...YET. 200GB is just not enough!

But that's not really Snapstream's problem, so I thought at LEAST some way to organize all this stuff would be great, so I voted for the UI improvements.

Oh, and while you're at it, either 4 more hours in the day OR something to do away with the need for sleep would be nice so I can watch everything we record. Who knew there was this much good TV?!

Maybe I have a problem...is there a BTV Anonymous group? "Hi, I'm Tom and I'm a BTV addict." OK, everyone together now, "HI TOM".

[chazz]

How about a guide that works properly!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[tobor]

I would not mind a "prime time" button on the program guide. It would have to be able to be configured, some places it starts at 7 others at 8. For me at least that is where 90% of the programs I record are on.

[dane_62]

If I have to choose on improvement it would be the ablity to add folders in the recorded programs section. On that same Idea I thought it would be cool if when you choose to record something there would be an advanced option you could select that would specify wich folder to record it to. You could also link folder specific record settings to each folder. so for movies I can have it recorded in DVD quality and save it to my movies folder. For tv I can have it record a lower quality.


Other requests.
A warning or confirm of some kind when you've entered a request to change channels and you're behind live tv. I can't count how many times I've paused tv to do something came back and before I caught up to live tv accedntly changed channels and lost a chunck of my show.

Colsed captioning would be nice

also I think tying in the setttings and changes that can be made in webadmin into the fullscreen and windowed interface is important.

[Eric3a]

Folders are coming in 3.5
You can already create new folders and store recordings in them if you want (through web admin / video folders, then individual recording / view detail).

A number of us have been asking for no reset of the buffer on channel change. that would solve your pause Live TV problems. Hopefully this feature will happen at some point.

Eric

[tfox2069]

I like the guide...mostly. Since the thread has started, a couple of wishes:

1. When live viewing and pulling up the guide it usually disappears within a few seconds DESPITE the fact that I'm scrolling from channel 49 to channel 4 to see what's on...VERY irritating. I would expect that while activity is ongoing the transparent guide would stay active. ARGH!

2. When viewing the guide (either while live viewing or in the Guide section of the software) you should be able to type in or select a date to view instead of holding down the arrow button until a week from next Tuesday appears. My wife HATES that and considers it a major flaw (although, as I point out to her, BTV has a 99% recording record as opposed to ATI's 60% record before and I consider THAT a major flaw...we differ).

[dane_62]

Folders are coming in 3.5
You can already create new folders and store recordings in them if you want (through web admin / video folders, then individual recording / view detail).

Eric
Yes I've seen that option but that still lists all the shows in one list under recorded shows in the full screen interface so that feature is only helpfull if there's a need to displace some of the videos you're storing to another directory ( like differnt hardrives)

I'm talking about an IU improvment that helps orgnize your recorded shows IE: keep my show seperate from mine when displayed under recorded shows.

[Eric3a]

The good news is that "Folder view" in already in the FSUI for 3.5.
I suspect it'll be a while before 3.5 is out but I also suspect it;ll be worth the wait.
Eric

[rkuo]

2. When viewing the guide (either while live viewing or in the Guide section of the software) you should be able to type in or select a date to view instead of holding down the arrow button until a week from next Tuesday appears. My wife HATES that and considers it a major flaw (although, as I point out to her, BTV has a 99% recording record as opposed to ATI's 60% record before and I consider THAT a major flaw...we differ).Use the 7 second back or 30 second forward to skip in 6 hour increments in the guide. You can get to the desired time in a matter of seconds.

[Monkey Boy]

I'm not sure if this has been brought up yet, as I am kind of new, but I would love to see support for ffdshow as the decoder, sort of like sage.

[Mark Blackham]

UI changes - btr folder and file management and editing

Format support - divx etc / DVB

[Xiadix]

I'm not sure if this has been brought up yet, as I am kind of new, but I would love to see support for ffdshow as the decoder, sort of like sage.

ffdshow does work in BTV. SEE HERE (http://forums.snapstream.com/vb/showthread.php?t=15283)

I tested and got it to work on mine box, but it didn't have the horsepower to keep up. I guess that is what I get for going with a Pundit. I may upgrade soon and use the Pundit for my desktop.

KevG

[cmasters]

ffdshow does work in BTV. SEE HERE (http://forums.snapstream.com/vb/showthread.php?t=15283)

I tested and got it to work on mine box, but it didn't have the horsepower to keep up. I guess that is what I get for going with a Pundit. I may upgrade soon and use the Pundit for my desktop.

KevG

ffdshow with Divx or Xvid does not count because ffdshow is substituting itself as the decoder. There is not an application out there that this method won't work with.

What we need is a way to get it to work with MPEG2.

[donnieSoprano]

this is much less important than most, if not all, that's been mentioned already, but

i'd like to see support for adding icons to channels. i'd like to look at the program guide and see the channel's icon sitting there.

hopefully, SS won't have to do this and the plug-in ability in 3.5 will give us the ability to develop this on our own.

ds

[no1hedberg]

Integrated DVD Recording!!!!!!!!!!!

[Edgarmoon]

I would appreciate a small tweak that assigns keyboard shortcuts to web admin, full screen and windowed. This way I can program these into my remote as well as my PDA to control my computer over wifi

[rbpett]

Support for my TV-out on my Happauge 350. PERIOD.

[ynnek888]

no playback hitches, like what 3.4 has when a background recording finishes

[MonsterHTPC]

This thread is getting long and this probably won't get seen, BUT:

Secondary displays.

TheaterTek has a pull down menu that lets you choose which display you wish the player to display on. I would love to see this as I have seen and forsee an increasing interest in multiple displays. Most setups you want your primary display to be the touchscreen/LCD Flatpanel on the coffee table etc and the secondary to the be big screen where movies/games/TV is viewed at. Currently I am forced to setup the big screen as the primary display as BTV usually works better on it. Unless this has changed of course and I am just going nuts :D

[dougrun]

I'd like a feature that fixes corrupted recordings where the index doesn't work.

[JoeDornan]

yeah this probably won't get seen this far into the thread, but for what it's worth, my top picks would be:

- dual tuners
- dvb card support

Cheers,
-JD

[Tricky]

DVB Support!!!

[SuperG]

Ability to enable Trimension DNM with WinDVD6 decoder.

[whyde]

Secondary displays.

...Currently I am forced to setup the big screen as the primary display as BTV usually works better on it. Unless this has changed of course and I am just going nuts :D

Please, PLEASE, PLEASE add support for running fullscreen on a secondary display!

My HTPC has more than enough horsepower to allow watching BTV and doing other things at the same time, and if BTV is forced to use the primary display, then it makes the PC unusable for other purposes because the taskbar and all new windows open on the primary display, and must be dragged into the secondary display.

Like the above poster said, I have an LCD display on the coffee table, and want to use BTV on the television. I'm seriously considering alternatives with proper dual-head support.

After that, it's GUI improvements, folder support, and usability improvements second.
Specific nits I've got to pick with the interface:


Can't easily change a show from "only new episodes" to "always record" and back.
Want to record "all episodes" only in the SAME DAY/TIME as the currently highlighted program guide entry, like a smart VCR.
Better "built-in" quality choices, without needing to customize them.

[rotylee]

I find it distressing :confused: that the developers are not here Interacting with the people crying for DVB support.

i think alot of companies put these forums up just to make beleive people have a say or just to reduce their support costs.

makes me want to ask for refund
the future my fellow lemmings is free

http://mytheatre.phpbbhost.info/portal.php

http://www.progdvb.com/

http://www.linuxtv.org/download/dvb/CARDS

[greiner]

I am still waiting for Web Services. I want to be able to schedule recordings vi other programs and WS are my ticket. They say it will be available in 3.5. Still waiting.

[danwoodfi]

dual chanel is great Idea and preview in guide good.

How about PIP?

I just got a DVR sysyem with Charter Communication and adding PIP to there system was great..!
Dan:eek:

[reefkeeper]

Folders to hold specific shows or movies (kids, action, etc), an alphabetical sort instead of a date sort for titles, a title search function and a split screen with title on one side and description on the other.

[Junior]

I am most interested in dual tuners.

I do not have a HTPC as of yet but, I do plan on building one. I am curently researching what is needed for the best setup. I have directv and cable and would like to be able to record from both sources, not necessarily at the same time.

I see alot of people asking for folders. Though I am not familiar with the structure BTV uses for recorded shows I have used both TIVO and Ultimate TV for directv recording. The Ultimate TV has by far the better interface. Tivo just lists recorded show by date. This makes finding recordings difficult. The Ultimate TV groups shows in folders by the show name making it much easier to find what your looking for. This would be my second choice.

[Reno]

Is it going to be possible to have different quality levels for the different tuners? I'm going to be running one hardware and one software card, and on best settings it drops quite a few frames with the software card. I'd really like to be able to set the hardware card to best, and the software card to something more reasonable for it.

[matt_nz]

Please, PLEASE, PLEASE add support for running fullscreen on a secondary display!

My HTPC has more than enough horsepower to allow watching BTV and doing other things at the same time, and if BTV is forced to use the primary display, then it makes the PC unusable for other purposes because the taskbar and all new windows open on the primary display, and must be dragged into the secondary display.


I have the same problem with my setup and what I do is this:

(1) set the TV to be the primary display
(2) load up the BTV fullscreen interface
(3) change the PC monitor back to being the primary display after the fullscreen interface is loaded (being careful not to do this while playing any video, as this crashes my machine)

<>
Then I can continue to use my PC as normal while BTV displays on the TV.


There is a utility called UltraMon (http://www.realtimesoft.com/ultramon/) which allows you to switch primary displays easily via a hot key combination. You'll need to download "Switch Primary.vbs" from the addons page if you want to use it like this.

[EnochLight]

Please, PLEASE, PLEASE add support for running fullscreen on a secondary display!

My HTPC has more than enough horsepower to allow watching BTV and doing other things at the same time, and if BTV is forced to use the primary display, then it makes the PC unusable for other purposes because the taskbar and all new windows open on the primary display, and must be dragged into the secondary display.

Like the above poster said, I have an LCD display on the coffee table, and want to use BTV on the television. I'm seriously considering alternatives with proper dual-head support.

After that, it's GUI improvements, folder support, and usability improvements second.
Specific nits I've got to pick with the interface:


Can't easily change a show from "only new episodes" to "always record" and back.
Want to record "all episodes" only in the SAME DAY/TIME as the currently highlighted program guide entry, like a smart VCR.
Better "built-in" quality choices, without needing to customize them.


BeyondTV uses Microsoft's DirectX for its GUI; that's what allows the nifty animation of the overlays while watching LiveTV. Unfortunately, Microsoft's DirectX API does not allow hardware accelleration on multiple monitors in this manner, thus, our problem is related to limitations in DirectX and Snapstream's need to use DirectX for BeyondTV's screen overlay animation. :(

I'll be real surprised if 3.5 allows LiveTV to run on a seconday monitor, unless they enable some sort of "non-DirectX-mode" or something.. ?

Cheers,

EnochLight

[MonsterHTPC]

I would love to see BTV in the future have the ability to record video over USB and Firewire. This would IMHO set them far above the rest and but them better in line for the future. I am sure its not as easy as it sounds, but here are a few reasons.

Firewire:
Firewire ports activated on alot of STB's will be able to deliver HD TV streams and might be possible to use this as a PVR. Imagine how cheaply you could do a pvr when all you need is to connect a firewire cable from the PC to the STB. No worries about PCI bus bandwidth, or if it would become an issue. Just a really easy plug and play system.

USB:
With items like This Hardware DivX Encoder by Plextor (http://www.plextor.com/english/products/ConvertX2.htm) you can easily run your S-Vid out on the cable box to this little beauty and then into the USB port on the PC. This would save you from having a honking system for DivX encoding, Solve DivX licensing issues, Bypass needed code to do DivX compression via software mode, not to mention its not much more than a PVR250 on its own.

Also the only thing I really really wish for in BTV is ffdshow settings over liveTV. They work great and the improvement is outstanding over encoded images, but liveTV doesn't get these benefits. A device like this would allow for ffdshow style applications with no additional coding recquired by BTV.

If I understand correctly BTV's target market this plug and play style functionality might work very well.

/Shruggs . . . just some ideas.

[MonsterHTPC]

hehehe cool. Got ffdshow working with LiveTv in BTV. Will update my config post later tonight with a quick how to.

As for the STB idea. Stuff sorta like that is in the works, especially with 3.5 coming out, and beyond media, and support for half height tuner cards this will put a roughly $600 dollar BTV box within reach.

[paulgates]

EPG for us UK users that is easy as pie and not a nightmare excesise!

;)

[paulgates]

How about a SHARPNESS slider bar as the picture, even on D1 MPEG2 DVD is FAR to blurred. Apparantly SageTV does this already.

[ullrichr]

I agree DVB!!!! Myth is doing it. :D

[dequire]

dual chanel is great Idea and preview in guide good.

How about PIP?

I just got a DVR sysyem with Charter Communication and adding PIP to there system was great..!
Dan:eek:

I second that motion! Multiple tuners MUST have pip. I'll post a feature request on the next beta release...unless the moderators post that this is already acknowleged...

[galtigor]

Forget the mp3/dvd/picture stuff.. theres other software that does it better. Concentrate on delivering the best PVR experience. If you don't your software will be diluted with features that are "just about good enough". This is the main problem I have with Sage today. I've disabled all of the extra stuff it does because I have software that does it better.

[dequire]

I totally disagree with that post. HTPC's need max integration into a total frontend right outta the box. For a retail purchased product, any other vision would be suicide.

What if MS didn't publish Office, because at the time there were MUCH better (WP, etc.) suites out there. But because of integration and marketing, they ran WP off of the planet!!

If SS gets BM right, they will rule the home PVR industry, period. I do agree that Medio Essentials kicks BM's rear six ways to Sunday, but BM is beta, and Meedio doesn't have a TV module yet (undergoing a total re-write @_@)! BM will get there, no doubt. Alot depends on the user community to write plugins, which is Meedio's strength right now. You'll always be able to disable functions you don't want, or use a program other than the 'default'. That's all you can ask for...

[Driven]

5.1 Recording and LiveTV. !!!

[walts81]

I would like to be able to specify each tuner to record to a certain folder. That way if I'm recording 2 things at once, one tuner can be recording to one HDD, and the other tuner recording to the other HDD. So it wouldn't be too taxing on the HDD.

- Josh

[devwild]

There is absolutely no doubt here for me. Browser support for the web admin console, firefox for starters. I'm tired of not being able to manage snapstream from my mac without using remote desktop (which then breaks snapstream if it's running).

[flavius]

How about using VNC (www.realvnc.com, for example)? This will not break BTV.

[devwild]

You miss the point, remote desktop is 1) far better than vnc 2) this is running on windows server 2003, so I'm not connecting the console, which shouldn't break the console session of BTV but does due to some controversial design choices (which I don't entirely disagree with, it's just annoying, and yes, I know 2003 isn't a supported OS).

BTW, if you are using VNC, I highly recommend TightVNC. That's my flavor of choice.

Anyway, after I posted this I found elsewhere in the forum that 3.5 will work with most browsers including firefox. Thank you very much Snapstream, you do an awesome job of listenning to your customers.

Now make a version of BTV Link for OSX so I can use it on my G5, and I will jump for joy. :D

dev*

[flavius]

I guess, you didn't read my posting. Or you did not understand it.

[devwild]

Thank you, but I understood it fine, please do not be curt. I was simply stating that I understand the option of VNC, but that I choose not to use it due to the nature of my setup. In fact I actually use both for different purposes. It really isn't a big deal at all, and to each their own. The primary purpose of my response was to correct myself in that I found the answer to my "feature request" already.

[Bilar Crais]

I would like to see a real time, capture to DVD engine in a future build.

[rogersoles]

Perhaps putting _all_ of the configuration in one place (inside the program) rather than splitting it between the GUI and WebAdmin...

Listing what cards and USB devices support multiple tuner wouldn't be half bad either...

[lectro]

DIVX DIVX DIVX DIVX DIVX!!!!

Why is it so difficult to include a plugin that uses the DIVX codec I've already downloaded for free? Windows media takes forever and makes the soundtrack sound like RealAudio does over a 28.8 modem, and I HATE having shows deleted because the mpegs are taking up too much space.

Until there is a plugin available (and by plugin I mean a painless, drag and drop solution that integrates into the full screen interface- not a scripting hack) I see no reason to upgrade to 3.5. :brickwall

[gmetroca]

Closed Captions so my deaf wife can enjoy Beyond TV too.

[nurbz]

UK listings!!!

[bob01]

x4 / x8 /x16 / x32 / x64 fast forward and rewind

x0.125 / x0.25 /x0.5 slow motion (forward and reverse)

relative jumps (like <some number> min e.g. 5 min) forward and back

The creative labs DVCR did a great job implementing those features - would be nice to have that sort of control here.

- Rob

[dtaylor]

Divx encoding would be a dream. I understand the licensing issues with the native DiVX encoder that used to come bundled with BTV. However, for those of us who already have a DiVX encoder installed (Dr. Divx is my favorite), why not allow ShowSqueeze to take advantage of existing DiVX encoders.

With DVD players now being able to play DiVX (many new ones support this), I can see MPG2 going bye-bye real soon. WMV is nice and small, but DIVX is definately the direction things are going.

The AutoGK option in another post is a nice attempt at a solution, but there are just too many pieces, to many opportunities for things to go wrong. Since BTV already has a nice interface for setting up showsqeeze schedules, why not extend it to allow it to use third part DiVX encoders.

I know there is a standard API for the DiVX codec, because other programs I use (including autoGK) is able to detect my Dr.DiVX encoder and use it.

DiVX files can easily be 1/3rd the size of MPG's with no visible quality loss. This makes it possible to really store a lot more video and makes BTV viable as a "video library" machine rather than just a "recording machine" to store stuff until you can get around to either watching it and deleting it, or buring to DVD.

[soyarma]

Terminal Services works like a dream now with 3.5 btw

[lrk2]

I will add my voice to the DivX chorus. I really would like DivX back - espcially the ability to use my installed DivX Pro codec's features and multipass. WMV just takes too long and I'm not very happy with its quality either!

[dtaylor]

I wonder if SS will tell us what their "official" position is on allowing ShowSqueeze to DiVX using a codec that we ALREADY have installed. I understand they got rid of DiVX support due to licensing issues with distributing the codec. But if we already have a licenses copy of the codec ourselves, couldn't BTV just use it?

Anyone from SnapStream???

[gmetroca]

1) It would be good if you could switch repeating recordings between "Record New Episodes" and "Record All Episodes".
This should be available in:
Setup Recordings/Recording Settings and Priorities/View and edit details

2) Should be able to skip chapters even while fast forwarding. Often the chapters are wrong and you can't tell before you press chapter skip. If you could start fast forwarding first and see that there are chapter bars, then you could press chapter skip and start playing.

[angular]

x0.125 / x0.25 /x0.5 slow motion (forward and reverse)



I second the slow motion idea. Great for sports and doing your own instant replays.

1) It would be good if you could switch repeating recordings between "Record New Episodes" and "Record All Episodes".
This should be available in:
Setup Recordings/Recording Settings and Priorities/View and edit details


Yes, I've been annoyed that this option does not exist. I had to delete and recreate the recording to switch from all new to all.

[hengy]

I'd like the guide to display a list of movies available by genre. Of course the ultimate would also be a "tivo like" recording of shows it thinks you would like.

[dequire]

You can do this through snapstream.net - Although it would be cool through the internal guide as well.

[QTips]

DVB -C :thumbsup:

[SteveG]

"Recording the buffer"

If that means - while you are watching 'Live TV', you decide you want to save the show you have/are watching as a new recording - then yeah, that would be great.

On the same note, I hate when I'm forced to stop watching 'Live TV' so a scheduled recording can start when I still have 5 or so minutes in the buffer left. Shouldn't I be able to watch what's left in the buffer before switching?

[darren_e]

Definitely UI features.

It's a little annoying when you are recording a show. While watching the show being recorded- once the recording ends, the player automatically jumps out of the show you are watching.

Not that big of a deal, but it's a quirk.

[werb]

view series by date aried!!! There must be a way to watch your recorded shows in order.

[neo75903]

I have multiple tuners and very often recording more then 1 program at the same time. It would be handy if the list with "what is recording now" can display ALL running recordings.
The list of sheduled recording does not show which show is currently recording, which can be seen in viewscape by the red dot.

And a better support for FireFox browser would be nice.

edit: Scheduled exit/quit, so i can exit BTV nice and clean before the system starts a forced shutdown.

[raydb]

Closed Captioning PLEASE

[Deuce911]

I have multiple tuners and very often recording more then 1 program at the same time. It would be handy if the list with "what is recording now" can display ALL running recordings.
The list of sheduled recording does not show which show is currently recording, which can be seen in viewscape by the red dot.

And a better support for FireFox browser would be nice.

edit: Scheduled exit/quit, so i can exit BTV nice and clean before the system starts a forced shutdown.
I wrote a Add-on Program that does just that, I just uploaded an updated v1.2 version of the program at the following link.
http://forums.snapstream.com/vb/showthread.php?t=21030

thanks
Mike

[regisphilbin]

Closed Captioning

[dequire]

PIP for multiple tuners

[teflon]

Easier setup of shows to record:
The most important thing to me would be a way to tell snapstream to record a particular show and which channels to prefer, rather than finding the channels with the shows I want and adding multiple recordings.

The gotcha is that the channel exclusion list would need to be easier to get to (not through webui only) and be listened to during scheduling. Channel "precendence" would be useful. If you say for example that your HD channels have a higher priority than your movie channels have a higher priority regular channels have a higher priority than analog channels.

Given that, one could say "Record (all|new) Stargate Atlantis Episodes" (on any channel).

Faster with big libraries of shows:
Oh, I'd like it if recording browser was much much faster on big libraries. I have 350gb of recordings (@ 2gb/hr - mpeg2). (200 recordings?)

Network storage:
And I'd like it if I could have recordings go to a samba server! This really really would be nice.

Multiple recordable folders:
I't'd be even better if I could specify more than one folder to receive recordings... Use this then this then this. That way I could tell the PVR to use all space on all big hard drives on my network at home until they're all full. :)

Firefly Help button:
And I'd like it if the Firefly help button brought up the remote's help in Beyond TV, not the Firefly help.

Themes:
Oh, and I'd like different themes! Blue is getting boring.

Plugins:
And I'd like to be able to edit my channel lineup/build a custom one (this could be done at Snapstream.Net only). This I'd really really like.

HDTV is something I know my friends are always asking about. I don't care about it.

Plugin modules would be nice so we can add features to snapstream... But that's just dreaming.

Okay, enough :)

[vikramtn]

The ability to customize the UI, especially for the program guide is key. This is viewed on all sizes of screens (I myself use both a 27" and a 110").
Is there any confirmation from the team regarding the customization features of the Guide, UI, layout, etc???

:rolleyes: Viki

[mhains]

Closed Captioning
i second that, NOT BECAUSE I'M HARD OF HEARING but because it's very useful when an actor mumbles a line.

There's a registry hack posted here somewhere to turn on the CC on a Hauppauge WinTV PVR250 card, but I don't know if BTV would even record that stream.

[gmetroca]

Closed Captioning with the following features:

You can turn the captions on or off when playing back (hence Closed captions as apposed to always on Open captions).
No extra transcoding for CC. You can watch it right after you record it.
CC while watching live TV.
Another feature:
When a recorded show is highlighted, leave it highlighted. For example, I'll be watching a show and then have to stop. So I back out to where the show is highlighed in the recorded shows. When I return later the highlight has gone all the way to the top.

[merrypig]

with the exception of dynamic on/off control; you have those CC options if you use a pvr250 or similar capture card. waiting for my 500 to see if it's still supported. should be...

[ccarlin]

You can do CC with a PVR-250 while watching live TV? How?

[merrypig]

First,set a registry setting that tells the pvr250 to capture closed caption data.
Make sure that you have installed wintv2k or installed the sagharbor.reg registry keys to configure a special dvd stream format (for the pvr250 hardware).
Reboot the computer
Set up your profile in btv to record to a DVD Stream not program stream.
You should now get recordings with embedded closed captions

To display them; you will need to choose a mpeg2 decoder that supports the caption stream; and uses the right line21 decoder supplied with direct show. For me, that means using cyberlink video sp decoder (powerdvd v4 or v5 works) and the overlay display mode.

It may be possible to use windvd's codec (intervideo?) and 3d accelerated mode but I've not tested it successfully.

SInce the captions are embedded in the mpeg file, they move with the file and will survive some mpeg2 editors (ones that don't strip out userdata packets). Zoomplayer is also able to play the video and show the captions with a custom mpeg playback graph.

The trick, is finding the right registry key. it has moved around with various pvr250 driver releases, and is in a different place for 150/500/new 250 drivers...

The key is InsertCCinDVD ... I'll try and dig out the full path .

if you PM me your email - I have a pdf that talks about the setup but it is seriously dated and missing some steps (the mpeg2 format reg key basically).

[Edgarmoon]

Ok, I scanned registry and could not find that key. So, I installed the latest wintv2k from teh Haupauge site, still no key. So, I started wintv2000, went through all the setups I could find. (Hey, didn't reboot first time, reboot this time). Still nothing, is it there or do we have to insert it. Is this covered in your pdf file (I have that)? Is it in the decoder or encoder function?

[Edgarmoon]

OK, after looking at your pdf again, I assume I have to insert that dword. I inserted InsertCCInDVD (exact case) set to 1 in HKEY_LOCAL-MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Globespa n\Parameters\ivac15\Driver

Again, this is with the latest Hauppauge decoder and wintv2000 (downloaded today), and I have the cyberlink decoded v5 that came with beyond media. Switched to cyberlink decoder and overlay, nothing in livetv. Rebooted, still nothing in btv. I am in dvd stream recording. What am I doing wrong?

[merrypig]

yes. it doesn't exist by default. (for the search I meant to scan the binaries to see where the program looks for it.. hence why it's tricky ;)

I'm busy atm, but when I'm back in an hour or two I'll sit down and try and give you some better info.

Let me know what driver version your using tho?

[ccarlin]

Tried following all of the directions and well nothing happened. I have version 22170 of the drivers for the PVR-250. I created the registry flag and followed all other steps, including rebooting a couple of extra times. Can't get CC on the screen.

I also took an MPEG that I recorded moved it to another machine and tried to play it back with another application (ATI's media player) with closed captions turned on and nothing. This leads me to believe I am not getting the captions recorded into the MPEG.

I do not have a copy of CyberLink PowerDVD, however I have the ATI CyberLink decoder but that won't help if they aren't recorded in the stream anyway.

Also when I check the properties of the driver it shows 22168 intead of 22170 which is what I installed (from a clean machine ie no previous versions).

[Edgarmoon]

I installed pvr250_22.inf and pvr250_22_22292.exe, as well as hcwsmd04_21154.exe for the decoder. These were clean install. Wintv was wintv2k_46_22278.exe. I have cyberlink decoder from beyond media which includes powerdvd 5, and of course beyondtv 3.5.1.

Ok, I assume InsertCCInDVD in the location I placed would insert the CC in the mpg file, but my question is do we also have to change the registry so that the cyberlink decoder reads cc's by default? The cyberlink decoder is in my registry with beyond media, so I can find that, just don't know what to do with it.

[merrypig]

No, the only thing you need to do for playback (which escaped me yesterday but was in the pdf) is to set
"TryCC" to a value of 1 in the btv settings.xml file. (in your c:\documents & settings\all users\application data\snapstream media\.... directory.

[merrypig]

Actually, one way to check if you have captions in the mpg file; try my mpg2srt program.

It's rather crude but it will spit out srt/sub files from the mpg that contain the subtitles. If it doesn't produce anything it didn't get captured into the mpeg file.

Just run it with your mpg filename as an argument and it should do the job.

[ccarlin]

Well at least I know I am capturing them correctly. The file produced what looks like the correct text. However it doesn't seem like the ATI-CyberLink decoder to play them back. I will try all 5? that I have, basically the stock ones and the ATI, with both overlay and 3D, if none work I will see if I can scrounge up a copy of the cyberlink powerdvd version (I know I have a few CDs of it lying around somewhere).

[Edgarmoon]

Ok, I am recording the CC's according to your program, I set the tryCC to 1 and restarted Btv, overlay, cyberlink decoder, still no CC's, do I need a complete computer reboot? Anything else I'm missing?

[ccarlin]

I'm lost too, just installed the trial version of the cyberlink power dvd (6.0) and followed the instructions and nothing.

[WardXmodem]

Features I'd like to see:
- limit program guide to subscribed channels. (I only do 2-99, but get all the high numbered in program guide, etc).
- Hey, I must really like it! I can't think of anything else! (well, I'd love to EDIT the recordings, heh.

[Edgarmoon]

Ward, you can limit the program guide either at Snapstream.net (before you run setup, this is the easiest, and you can always rerun setup to assign your new program guide) or you can edit them manually in webadmin (hide the channels you don't want).

To edit the recordings, most people use videoredo, it reads the smartchapter data if you open a project and change the file type to chapter, xlm.

[elizard]

I would like a straight-forward, no BS, burning Beyond TV's output (mpeg 2) to a standard dvd. I'm really disappointed that I have to spend this much extra time trying to find the least time-consuming way to watch programs on my dvd player - I wanted to use this software as a VCR replacement. Well, it's not there yet if I can't just burn and watch on a stand alone player. An old tape only needs you to hit 'play.'

Make this feature a part of Beyond TV and you will have genuinely created a digital vcr.
-E.

[Deuce911]

I would like a straight-forward, no BS, burning Beyond TV's output (mpeg 2) to a standard dvd. I'm really disappointed that I have to spend this much extra time trying to find the least time-consuming way to watch programs on my dvd player - I wanted to use this software as a VCR replacement. Well, it's not there yet if I can't just burn and watch on a stand alone player. An old tape only needs you to hit 'play.'

Make this feature a part of Beyond TV and you will have genuinely created a digital vcr.
-E.Use DVD Movie Factory 2 and it takes about 10-15 mins and I have a DVD that plays on my standalone DVD player and you don't have to hit play. You do have to record at DVD Best.

No BS

Mike

[Edgarmoon]

Most people watch from their htpc and only burn to dvd for archiving. Most dvd bruners and software also support real time burning onto dvd, but it eats up some DVD space and is usually lower quality. It sounds like what you want is the ability to record shows from btv directly to a dvd disk instead of a hard drive, but only 1 in 50 users would ever do that. Most of us just want it on our hd and then will edit commercials, set chapter points and titles etc before burning on a dvd.

[CoJaBo]

Recording a show from buffer after it has started(or even ended if your buffer is large enough)! Fix major bugs.

[brianmac]

UI improvements, especially in the program guide. I'd also like to see more data displayed on each screen.

[toyotaboy]

* Better commercial detection (somtimes it doesn't detect right and I end up skipping a chunk of show and have to go back.. good thing I don't have auto-edit feature installed)

* closed captioning

* One feature I would LOVE that doesn't seem to be on any PVR software. sometimes I do searching for keywords to see if my favorite band or actor is going to be on a talk show. It'd be really nice if beyond tv could either automatically search for keywords and record them for me, or possibly do a search once a week, show a list of shows that match my searches, and ask me which ones I want to record.. that would rock!

* I'd also like support for HDTV (not necessarily higher resolution, but widescreen 16:9 aspect ratio recording). I would sign up for the HDTV box from comcast, but what's the point if I can't record it that way?

[terbos]

I would really like support for both the analog and digital sides of my ATI HDTV Wonder card.

Terry

[mikem]

DVB! DVB! DVB!

:D
Thats what I'm after. As long as I can get the tv I'm not bothered about the interactive features or teletext for the DVB, just the ability to watch / record tv through a DVB-T card here in the UK.

[simpona]

Improved editing of timed recordings. If selecting something from the schedule to record, and time overlaps by a minute or so, it won't let you resolve the conflict by modifying the time of the record. You CAN do a manual record, but then it doesn't show up in the schedule as a scheduled recording, AND, manual record doesn't maintain the summary of the recording...

[dstoflet]

1. Something like Recording Profiles. Where I can setup a few profiles and each profile allows:

a) its own video folder
b) quality
c) show squeeze settings
Then when I want to record a show I select a recording profile that uses those settings
2. TV window in the EPG
3. PIP

[MazzoTech]

is there ever going to be a coming soon release lol.

[crm]

It would be nice to schedule a show from the Guide and have the option to add a certian amount of time to that recording. Would be very helpful when recording sports where games or tournaments might run overtime.


Also, slow motion.

[Xiadix]

It would be nice to schedule a show from the Guide and have the option to add a certian amount of time to that recording. Would be very helpful when recording sports where games or tournaments might run overtime...

You can do that already.

From BTV itself:
Go into Recording Settings and Priorities
Select the show you want to add padding to
Go to View and edit details
Change the Stop the recording to a time you feel comfortable with.

KevG

[crm]

Thanks. I'll try that.

[heiner]

- no new features
- good performance
- best video and audio quality
- live tv / timeshifting more userfreindly and quicker

take someone who is not a computer freak (for example: my woman) and let him execute this software. then you know, what is important.

heiner

[ticklemeozmo]

take someone who is not a computer freak (for example: my woman) and let him execute this software.
(emphasis mine)

Sorry for the troll, this was too good to resisT.. like playing Duck Hunt with the light gun right at the TV :)

[Kraidii]

Mpeg4, H.264 Codecs. PX-M402U Support.

[spdorsey]

I am VERY interested in seeing Beyond TV's web front end expanded to look more like that of MythTV's (i.e. a comprehensive table/ layering system which works with an SQL database to display a TV guide and show data). I'd be willing to work with you all to design and create it. It would be well worth the effort.

By the way - I second any and all efforts to include Quicktime functionality. It is a vastly superior format to Windows Media and Real.

-----------------------Steve

[Ahnteis]

Better movie searching. I tried the SageTV demo while I was evaluating BeyondTV and it had much better movie search options. In the end, BeyondTV had more of the things I wanted, but SageTV still wins on the movies side.

[Seattlite]

This Poll was started in Sept 2003, and most if not all those features have been realized in current releases, or software options.

Could you post a new poll ... of course with the added benefit to us of getting a glimpse of some of the new features you are working on.. or that are at least on the table???
:)