another new product coming soon: Beyond Media

[wildbeast]

When can I buy it? When? When?

[astensgaard]

will the dvd / media onscreen interface look like the one in btv3 ?
or is this product something totally different ?

[pretzelb]

Interesting. Looking forward to giving it a try.

[tysonkam]

Yes, yes, yes, YES!!

This is what I want! The excellent interface of Beyond TV extended to other media!

I want it.

[grillcheese]

I'm curious if you be able to select which players to use for the different media (dvd playback, music playback). Also a easier way to burn and rip would be a huge plus - currently having to exit one program and start up another is a bit of a pain, especially trying to navigate to file folders. Looks good...

Last, will there be ability to add menu items, such as internet radio, mame...weather..etc?

[elneckio]

This looks real nice and can't wait to see a trial version BUT ...

I currently use myhtpc with btv being loaded from a menu item, the most annoying thing about this setup is the time it takes for btv to loadup from being in the system tray. i.e. not seamless integration.

When used with the new Media application will the appearance of BTV be any quicker ? i.e. if you have a licence for both products do you get one exe residing in memory at lightning speed.

If it isn't then I don't see any great advantage of choosing this over the existing htpc media browsers.

[Cayars]

edited: after editing a previous message I deleted it and added it back to the end of the thread.

I'm kind of suprised the inteface doesn't look more like BTV. Right now it looks very much like myHTPC.

Since there isn't more information on this could you answer a few questions about Behond Media?

In the Beyond TV section:
Is there going to be better integration with BTV then say using myHTPC as a front-end interface? (elaborated in next question)

When you choose Beyond TV from the Beyond Media menu will it load right up or will it have the 30 sec to 2 minute wait that we presently have when opening the BTV interface from the take bar?

In the music section:
Does BM come with a codec that can play DVDs or do we need to already have one installed on our systems?

If it comes with one could you tell us which one it comes with?

In the music section:
What are the steps needed to get your music on line?

Do you have to rip them outside of this product or does the product do this for you?

What media types does it support?

Does it automatically go out to the INet and get the cover art or is this a manual step?

In the Videos Section:
What media types does it support?

Does it support any of the transcoding or smart chapter functionality that BTV does (generating these).

If no to the above, does it support smart chapters for playback?

Does it use the same "player" the BTV does or is it different?

If different then the "player" in BTV, can you tell us how it's different (feature set)?

General Questions:
Does Beyond Media allow the user to add or remove menu items?

Will there be/is there a plug-in architecture to allow users to create modules that can be added?

Any rough estimates of price on this yet?

Any rough estimate of beta on this yet?

What does Beyond Media have that myHTPC doesn't or more specifically why I might want to replace myHTPC with BM on my system?

Lots of question I know!

Thanks,
Carlo

[debennett2]

What about launching external applications? Being able to customize the interface (i.e. what is on it and what is not)? Customizable "submenu"? Will BTV be made to look and feel like part of this? If it can't do any of these things, you'll want to reconsider your roadmap.

I think this might be a sad attempt to take myHTPC's market myself. It really depends on how much SS listens to beta testers...

[grillcheese]

Bueller?

Bueller?

Bueller?

Anyone?

[mcowger]

Holy COW! Its exactly what I want. How can I give my money to you?

[debennett2]

Just so those who are impressed are aware, myHTPC2 will be able to do all that this can do and much more.

[-LD]

myHTPC can pretty much do all this right now

mcowger, send me $25 via paypal and i'll email you a copy of myHTPC so you can do all this...same goes for anyone else

[crush157]

Will this be on a client machine, i.e. MediaMVP or connected DVD player?

[cmasters]

I guess I will hold final judgment until it is released, but I would find it hard to imagine that a product like this can survive when there are so many free alternatives out there. It will be interesting to see how well it integrates into BTV. That would probably be its killer feature.

[rex]

I was about to e-mail you guys at Snapstream to suggest you add this functionality. Yes, there are already other free solutions out there, but if the UI design and attention to detail of Beyond Media is anything near the superb quality of BeyondTV then this alone will be worth the cost.

My 2c:

1. Merge BeyondTV with Beyond Media. I don't want to buy two products.
2. Make the interface pluggable so that we can add interfaces to other types of devices/media.

Keep up the outstanding work!