Went Back to 3.4 and I'm Lovin it

[ccarlin]

I feel bad since I was a beta tester and did like some of the changes to 3.5. But now that I am back on 3.4 I just don't see the reason (for me) to upgrade.

Now that I am back:
LiveTV - Over the web works smooth no jerky motion.
Web Interface - Much nicer looking and much, much faster.
Security - I can create users and limit their access again.

What I'll miss:
Folders - On the full screen interface
LiveTV - Didn't have to switch default source to view.
FSUI - Improved graphics

I don't have multiple sources to record from so I just didn't see a good reason to keep 3.5.

[ejdriscoll]

You forgot:
- Don't re-record epsiodes that have been recorded within last 30 days.

That and the "by series" view in the fsui is all I needed to make me commit.

[dragin33]

You forgot that _those bastards_ took our x10 away from us in the newer version.

[dlightle]

you forgot to add they took away support for the sliver hauppauge remote

I have a silver hauppauge remote and it's working fine still. Did you make sure to reinstall the Hauppauge IR software? And did you select it okay in setup? I've never had a problem with that portion. I'm just having a problem with picture quality.

[grillcheese]

I havent had all the trouble that many users have been having but reading all the negative posts surely cant be a good thing for existing or potential new customers. I am curious if there is anyone @snapstream actually taking note of all these legitimate complaints?

Again I'm actually a satisfied customer with only minor gripes (webadmin), but with all these other unsatisified users...I'm not sure about BTV anymore. What happened?

Did none of the Beta testers bring up any of these issues during the beta period?

[herronj]

I think it was rebuilt with the Link.$$$ program in mind. For me 3.5 is a big step backwards.

[ranjeetsodhi]

After trying to live with 3.5 for the last two weeks, I finally switched back to 3.4 and am loving it. No more freezes... no more firewall memory leak issues... no more lack of timeshifting... and to top it all - channel changes does'nt take a lifetime.

My assumption was that an incremental version was supposed to be better than a previous version... in this case the gains (additional tuner capabilities) are not worth the hassle of all the bugs and the lack of responsiveness.

[OptimusPrime]

Originally Posted by grillcheese

I havent had all the trouble that many users have been having but reading all the negative posts surely cant be a good thing for existing or potential new customers. I am curious if there is anyone @snapstream actually taking note of all these legitimate complaints?

Again I'm actually a satisfied customer with only minor gripes (webadmin), but with all these other unsatisified users...I'm not sure about BTV anymore. What happened?

Did none of the Beta testers bring up any of these issues during the beta period?

Probably the same people that like the old HUD over the new HUD? Whatever SnapStream does, someone is always going to complain.

Seriously, the complaints seem to be from a very vocal minority and if you scan some of the polls they run very heavily in 3.5's favor. So no, you're not alone. I was in the beta and the vast consensus was that it was ready to roll, which it clearly was. Run the product, enjoy the improvements.

[dtaylor]

I would love to "run the product (3.5), enjoy the improvements" as one user put it. However, since it takes about 15 seconds to display the Program Guide (even longer if I try to show the guide while watching live tv), it's hard to enjoy anything. In fact, just navigating between the menus is painfully slow (going from Main Menu to Setup Recordings for example, takes a noticable pause that didn't exist in 3.4).

And add to that the fact that the video quality is noticable worse (even though I'm using the same custom video setting as with 3.4), and the enjoyment factor drops further.

I don't know if the video quality problem is SS, or if it is due to the fact that I had to download new Hauppage drivers before it would let me install 3.5. But at the end of the day, 3.5 is much worse. It is not a "vocal minority" either. I opened a support ticket, and the auto email response specifically mentioned "the extremely high volume of trouble tickets opened since 3.5 release", or something along those lines.

SS could do a lot to appease us by just admitting the problem and committing to work on a solution for the short term.

[gamerguy76]

Thank god I am not the only one with problems concerning version 3.5. Seems some have similar problems. It is a lot slower than 3.4. For some reason it runs at 80% cpu even when its not recording or encoding any wmv files. I love the new features, but performance is much more important to me, so I switched back to 3.4 until they can patch 3.5 to make it work better. And if your wondering here are my specs:

P4 3.2ghz , 1gig ram, geforce 6800, pvr250. This is a dedicated machine for BTV.

[Pilk]

As a new user to BTV I download and purchased BTV 3.4 -- and fell in love with it. When I saw the features in 3.5 I could hardly wait...the biggest problem for me is all the fuctions that SS either took out or changed between the two releases, esp in the webadmin.

From the 5 weeks or so being a BTV user and seeing the praises of 3.4 and going through the release for 3.5 --- I would say over 65% of users are disappointed in the 3.5 release of those I say at least half have reverted back to 3.4 -- I did.

HOW DID 3.5 GET THROUGH BETA??????? It's like SS just had 5 testers or something???? That or they did not listen AT ALL to their beta people.

I know the Dev's worked hard on 3.5 -- and you guys can totally salvage everything, just listen to what all the users are saying and make the changes. From the posts I have read on the forums everyone seems to have complaints about the exact same issues.

After getting into BTV I recommended a few friends that want to play with the DVR idea to mess around with 3.4 -- right now I am telling them to hold off until SS fixes their product.

[nanook105]

From SP - i would not count the polls, since many voted more then once.

I am not sure how you could possibly make this statement. Are you saying that there is a bug in the way that the polls keep track of who voted ? Have you figured out a way to vote twice ?

but I doub't it is a very vocal minortiy - i would say at least 60% had problems
with 3.5.

You started all of the polls, and not a single one backs up any of your statements. How are you calculating 60 % ?

However, since it takes about 15 seconds to display the Program Guide (even longer if I try to show the guide while watching live tv), it's hard to enjoy anything. In fact, just navigating between the menus is painfully slow (going from Main Menu to Setup Recordings for example, takes a noticable pause that didn't exist in 3.4).

I don't see this at all. (in the FSI or in Web Admin). In overlay, the display of the guide is instant. In 3D, it is a little slower, but certainly not 15 - 20 seconds. Is your observation for Web Admin or the FSI ?

[gamerguy76]

nanook15:

Are you noticing the high cpu usage even when BTV 3.5 is not recording anything or not encoding? Do you notice it processing when its supposed to be on idle? For me it runs at 80% or above cpu usage all the time. I know its not my system cause it works fine now with 3.4, and I don't have a slouch for a system. Do you remeber what options you selected during install? Maybe we can find out whats goin on here with different systems. Why do some ppl have performance problems and others seem to have none.

[nanook105]

nanook15:
Are you noticing the high cpu usage even when BTV 3.5 is not recording anything or not encoding? Do you notice it processing when its supposed to be on idle?

No, I don't notice any spikes (except when the guide updater is running). However, I will spend some time this evening testing different functions and CPU utilization to make sure that it isn't happening.

[ccarlin]

I feel bad about starting this post :<

Basically I really liked 3.5 and didn't mind the changes in look and feel and didn't have any real performance issues, it was simply a matter of two or three features that didn't make it into the new version.

While the web admin is noticeably faster and nicer in 3.4 I expect once the masses get to play around with the code this will be addressed as well as security, once that is done I probably will go back to 3.5. Especially if I can figure out how to get the web live tv to run smooth in 3.5 (I never tried any fixes for that as it was not a big deal).