another new product coming soon: Beyond Media

[Mr.X]

I recently made a complimentary mention of that product on J River's Media Center forum and had the paragraph in which I did so deleted without any type of notice. But that's another story...

Oh, don't I know it. (Don't get me started about J. River...)

[V_D_O]

SS has usually been quite good about competitors in the forums - there was once even a Cyberlink PR guy in here advertising PowerVCR!

[kanman]

Any chance that this new product will support multiple sound cards? The main reason that I am using J River is for that support as I have multiple zones setup around my house for audio (each sound card feeds a separate and independent zone)

Looks very interesting from the screen shots that have been provided.

Kevin

[rakeshagrawal]

to folks that haven't had their questions answered, we're assembling a pre-release FAQ on Beyond Media so keep your questions coming and look for answers some time in the next 1-2 weeks (I'll try to get them posted sooner!).

[draiko4]

I really hope Beyond TV's load time isn't incorporated when you select beyond tv from the Beyond media menu... then Beyond media becomes almost useless. Even though I love Snapstream, I have to be honest... I'm not going to pay for a pretty UI... that's idiotic, I don't think anyone would either

[Cayars]

Originally posted by rakeshagrawal
to folks that haven't had their questions answered, we're assembling a pre-release FAQ on Beyond Media so keep your questions coming and look for answers some time in the next 1-2 weeks (I'll try to get them posted sooner!).

Crazy idea here, how about answering the questions here on the forums as your assembling the FAQ? This way we start to get answers and also possibly more questions for you depending on the answers given for previous questions. You'll end up with a nice FAQ this way

Carlo

[rakeshagrawal]

http://myhtpc.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5242
interesting thread on the myhtpc forums

[wetdagger]

Originally posted by Cayars


Crazy idea here, how about answering the questions here on the forums as your assembling the FAQ? This way we start to get answers and also possibly more questions for you depending on the answers given for previous questions. You'll end up with a nice FAQ this way

Carlo

I kind of agree with this. The members on the forum are here for information and more involved interest in the product that the regular consumer is. An updated FAQ is excellent for the public who visit your site, but keeping the members of the forum on hold makes such a forum just a gossip community, not an informational community.

I'm not trying to discredit this forum in any way, I'm just trying to say that if there's something you can say right now that is fact and proven and that will be posted in the updated FAQ, then it should seem fine to tell them now. If some facts have not been proven, then I agree, wait until you are sure about those facts and post them later.

Thanks,
wd

[PVRMan2]

These new features are really great - and some of the suggestions that have been posted in the replies are great too - but right now, the single most important feature of beyond TV that is missing is its ability to recognize that I have gone into where it writes my .mpg files and made folders and moved all like programs into them. All Episodes of "Friends" went into a Friends folder - and so on. Folder Grouping is key. I love it on my Tivo!

[rkuo]

OK, let's start with a few things then.

Beyond Media is a Direct3D shell which supports advanced Direct3D animations and transition effects.

Beyond Media will feature a fully extensible framework. New screens and menu options can be added and Beyond Media can load custom modules/screens on startup or even dynamically compile new modules on startup. Modules are scripted/compiled using C# + .NET framework along with some classes provided by SnapStream.

[bluchez]

thanks.

Do you know if they are going to try and address BTV load time through BM?

[elneckio]

Can we have a recommended PC spec ?

(the mention of direct3d animations and transitions is scaring my old geforce2mx )

[wetdagger]

Originally posted by rkuo
OK, let's start with a few things then.

Beyond Media is a Direct3D shell which supports advanced Direct3D animations and transition effects.

Beyond Media will feature a fully extensible framework. New screens and menu options can be added and Beyond Media can load custom modules/screens on startup or even dynamically compile new modules on startup. Modules are scripted/compiled using C# + .NET framework along with some classes provided by SnapStream.

Thanks ruko for the information! This is a great start!

wd

[Mr.X]

Not to be rude, but I can't think of another way to say this...

I really hope that all available manpower is being allocated to sorting out what I and others consider major problems 3.4 before the BM project gets underway... The locking/freezing/stuttering/performance issues for which many people are patiently waiting for fixes (including me) are what I'm referring to.

[rakeshagrawal]

DVD player:

Does it come with a codec that can play DVDs?

It's most likely that Beyond Media will require a pre-existing DVD decoder on your system. The reasoning behind this is that most every system that comes with a DVD drive also comes with a software DVD player (ie a Cyberlink, Intervideo, Sonic, etc). Accordingly, in most cases, we think people already have a DVD decoder. For people that don't have a DVD decoder, we will probably point them somewhere where they can buy one (for example, http://www.microsoft.com/windows/win.../buypacks.aspx). There is also an outside chance that we will bundle a DVD decoder with Beyond Media, but we're leaning against it.

Music player

What media types does it support?

Beyond Media should handle a pretty wide range of music formats. The product isn't far enough along to say exactly what it will and will not support. If you have requests for us to support a specific format, let us know.

Album art?

Yes, we intend to support a number of models for album art -- including the "folder.jpg" model (which is used by Windows Media Player) as well as album art embedded in ID3 tags (which I believe is used by software like MusicMatch).

Ripping?

We are investigating this feature -- the first release of Beyond Media may support CD ripping from its full-screen interface.

Video player:

What will it be like?

The video player will feature a file browser similar to the one you see in the screenshots for the photos module. The actual player will be similar in its look and feel to the Beyond TV video player. It will handle playback of all the formats that Beyond TV supports right now (which is pretty much anything that Windows Player supports for playback on your particular box).

Integration with Beyond TV

Will Beyond Media integrate really well with Beyond TV? (fast loading, etc.)

YES. Part of the Beyond Media setup wizard will give you the option of automatically adding Beyond TV (if you have it installed) to the Beyond Media main menu. We are working on addressing the load time of Beyond TV so that jumping from one to the other is faster / easier.

General

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

Absolutely. There will be a very rich and simple system for building menus, views on the local file system (ie file browser with certain filters applied -- ie only view files with certain extensions, or certain type, etc.) and other things that will make Beyond Media everything you'll ever need in a 10-ft shell.

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

Yes, as rkuo mentioned in a previous post: Beyond Media will feature a fully extensible framework. New screens and menu options can be added and Beyond Media can load custom modules/screens on startup or even dynamically compile new modules on startup. Modules are scripted/compiled using C# + .NET framework along with some classes provided by SnapStream.

Pricing?

We haven't finalized the pricing for Beyond Media.

Will there be a trial version?

Yes, there will be a trial version.