Questions about specific BTV features - yes or no?

[Occam3]

OK, I'm a total n00b here. I just started learning about Beyond TV. Thanks in advance for any help.

The descriptions on the websites are good, but I've been unable to absolutely confirm some of the features I want. These features are very important to me. If anyone can clear these up for me I'll be very grateful.


1a. I want a feature where I can type in a keyword and have the PVR automatically record any show with that keyword in the title, regardless of time, date or channel. The search must be permanent and continue until I cancel it. I do not want to re-do the search every 2 weeks or whenever the electronic program guide updates itself - it must be fully automatic. Searching by title only is fine. Does Beyond TV support this feature?

1b. The above feature must work on Canadian broadcasting networks. Is this supported?

1c. How does this feature handle recording duplicate shows? (I don't care, I just want to know.)

1d. What's this feature called?


2. I want the ability to move the recorded MPEG-2 files directly from the PVR to an editing/storage machine. I do not want some "export" feature or have to go through a GUI to get at the recordings. I just want to automatically move new MPEG-2 files off the PVR. Does Beyond TV support this? Will it get hopelessly confused when recording files start to go "missing"?


I love the idea of the web interface because I want the PVR to sit in the basement with no keyboard or monitor. I will move the recordings to my alpha machine upstairs for editing, then to a slow donkey machine for transcoding to DivX. Finally they go to a file server for storage. I just need to know if Beyond TV supports these specific features.

Thanks!

occam3

[Seattlite]

1a. The current version of BTV 3.5.3 does not have the "record any show with *** in the title" feature you want. The closest it has is "Setup Recordings" >> "Search by Title" (meaning it must start with ***) or "Setup Recordings" >> "Search by Keyword" (meaning *** must be somewhere in the title).

Either way you search for a show, it will list the titles meeting that criteria and the channel they are on. Selecting a title/channel combo you then are presented with "Record All Episodes"; "Record All New Episodes"; or "View Upcoming Episodes" (and choose a specific episode).

1b. I'm sure Canadian is supported.

1c. It doesn't record an episode twice, even if played concurrently and even if each is labled new, or if you have record all episodes. It is smart enough to only record an episode once.

1d. The feature YOU want is not available... but every other answer I provided is true regarding my answer to question 1a.

2. The recordings are recorded as .mpg or .wmv files in the folder set up to record. Moving is simple drag and drop like all other Windows files. If you set up sharing and map network drives, you should be able to do everything you want.

[HomeyFour]

Guys, lets not start a flame war here. Mistakes were made, lets end the thread.

[nanook105]

Snapstream.net has a search function that will send you email based on searches for title, actor, description, but it doesn't automatically schedule.

Showsqueeze has a function to copy and delete when finished, which kinda gives you the auto move. I've never used it so I can't vouch for how it works.

[Occam3]

Thank you very much for the information. It is very helpful.

I am a bit puzzled. This is such a good product I fail to see why it wouldn't have an auto-scheduler. It's been promoted as a 'killer' TiVo/PVR feature for so long that I can't imagine no one has duplicated it.

It can't be that hard to do, can it? Or is it that TiVo has a patent on the idea and won't license it?

On the other hand, I've looked through the feature request thread as best I can (it's 12 pages) and I don't see anyone asking for it. I found only one post that even refers to it. Am I'm just weird?

Oops, now I see a reference to some feedback on revision 4.x that says it might have this feature. Does anyone know where this came from? I'm having real difficulty searching because I don't know what the preferred terminology for this feature is on this forum.

Thanks again.

[nanook105]

Originally Posted by Occam3

Thank you very much for the information. It is very helpful.

I am a bit puzzled. This is such a good product I fail to see why it wouldn't have an auto-scheduler. It's been promoted as a 'killer' TiVo/PVR feature for so long that I can't imagine no one has duplicated it.

It can't be that hard to do, can it? Or is it that TiVo has a patent on the idea and won't license it?

On the other hand, I've looked through the feature request thread as best I can (it's 12 pages) and I don't see anyone asking for it. I found only one post that even refers to it. Am I'm just weird?

Oops, now I see a reference to some feedback on revision 4.x that says it might have this feature. Does anyone know where this came from? I'm having real difficulty searching because I don't know what the preferred terminology for this feature is on this forum.

Thanks again.

I don't know that it would be that hard to do, but SS has a lot of major functionality on it's plate right now, so I doubt that they will get to this type of stuff. It would be nice if they could take a step back after the next major release and bundle a bunch of these types of things into a minor release.

[jkoon]

Yea I know it was looked into before version 3 came out, but was a lower priority and was (as far as I know) scrapped for the time being. Perhaps it will be revisited at a later date, but I also am not sure how much of a real demand there is for that type of feature.

[mlbdude]

BTV can do it if they want to, no legal reason why not. The other commercial packages have this and they have never been sued . Its probably just a matter of priority.

[Cal]

1. No.
2. Yes, they are standard Mpeg files.

Regarding the auto recording.

I consider it the one of the big things missing from BTV myself. Its very important to me. So important that I use xmltv on a different computer once a week just so I can run some batch files on it that grep for various search terms. The email search thing that BTV provides is just not robust enough for me.

I'd love for BTV to automatically record things for me. My batch files are currently searching 84 various conditions.

Compare that to my Jobs list in BTV that only has 37 items in it. I love BTV and think its the best product out there but its missing this one big part that it needs.

I'm surprised your search didn't turn up much. I guess I need to make an official feature request. Not that my voice is any better then anyone elses but I've got some detailed ideas I'd like them to be aware of for when they do implement this stuff.

My other requests are slowmo and closed captions. (yes I know CC can be done on the PVR250 cards, I do it myself thanks to merrypigs instructions, but I'd like to see it built in)

[Occam3]

Nice to know I'm not on the lunatic fringe. Or, if I am, at least I'm not alone.

For me, "unattended" is the name of the game. Hell, I've even decided to wait for the Roomba Scheduler so my house can clean itself.


Since BeyondTV doesn't have everything I want I'm leaning towards SageTV. I have yet to find out for sure if it supports the functionality I want, but it seems like it might. I'll probably try out the demo to see.

It supports direct-to-DivX recording too, which would be a nice frill - assuming I wanted to pay 2.5x the money for each DivX-capable tuner. They're USB, so maybe I'll upgrade later.

[mlbdude]

For DivX hardware I assuming you are talking about the current model. I use that in BTV and SageTV and it is nice but not worth the $$$. I would wait till this is out:

http://www.plextor.com/english/products/TV100U.htm

Should be available for well under $100 once it hits places like Newegg.

[MickP]

Hi Occam,

There's an excellent alternative web guide by StephaneM that you can use to either send notifications of shows that might be of interest, or just set to record (though I haven't tried this yet). It's essential for those of us who live outside the US and use tvxml feeds for our recording info. I believe that recent versions can be also be used in with Snapstream programming data. Definitely worth checking out. More info can be found here.

Here's a pic of the filter creation screen:

file://www.daleks-of-god.net/btv/editfilter.jpg


Mick.

[Occam3]

mlbdude: I was talking about the price difference between the Plextor PX-TV402U USB DivX box and the Hauppage WinTV-PVR-150. I don't see any reason to use a Hauppage 250 or 350. I might go for the dual-tuner 500 to save a slot.

You've got me confused. I read that SageTV has direct-to-DivX recording with the Plextor 402U or ProVideo 358T. However, I don't see the PX-TV100U on the supported devices list.

Also, not only do I not see the PX-TV100U on the BeyondTV supported devices list, I don't see anything that says it has direct-to-DivX recording support at all. Are you saying BTV does, in fact, record in DivX?


Mick: Thanks for the info, the importer looks interesting.

As always, I'm not sure of the details because the documentation is not comprehensive. Does this utility support the automatic recording feature I've described above? Does it do it native, or do you have to run some kind of batch or macro on it?

Thanks!

[mlbdude]

Originally Posted by Occam3

You've got me confused. I read that SageTV has direct-to-DivX recording with the Plextor 402U or ProVideo 358T. However, I don't see the PX-TV100U on the supported devices list.

Also, not only do I not see the PX-TV100U on the BeyondTV supported devices list, I don't see anything that says it has direct-to-DivX recording support at all. Are you saying BTV does, in fact, record in DivX?

I currently use the 402U with both SageTV and BTV, however, BTV only sees it has an MPEG2 encoder. SageTV does let you hardware encode to DivX. The new PX-TV100U is not out yet but will be much cheapter than the 402U. It comes with a bundled copy of SageTV Lite so it should probably work with SageTV .

[Cal]

Originally Posted by Occam3

Nice to know I'm not on the lunatic fringe. Or, if I am, at least I'm not alone.

And proud of it.

I've also looked at the Roomba a few times. So far I've resisted. I'd have to pick stuff up off the floor if I bought that. That and I have a few rugs with fringes on them.

Originally Posted by MickP

There's an excellent alternative web guide by StephaneM that you can use to either send notifications of shows that might be of interest,

It can use the normal snapstream data? Is that true? I may have to have another look at that. I never looked at it before because I thought it was purely an xmltv thing.