Multiple Users

[JuliusPB]

Is anyone running Beyond TV on a machine with multiple users?

Right now I have my main account which starts up BTV. However, I would like someone else to be able to log on to my computer with a different user name and watch TV.

Currently, I have BTV set up to launch for all users on startup. If I log out and another users logs in, it basically works. However, this involves BTV shutting down and relaunching for the other user. If this were to happen in the middle of a recording, I would lose part of the recording.

One option I thought would work would be simply to "Switch users" without logging off. Well, that keeps BTV running for the original user (and recording). It does not launch for the new user logging on... which isn't a problem... the problem is if the new user wants to watch TV, they cannot. BTV simple won't launch for another user if the recording engine is already running for an existing user.

The obvious neat solution to this problem is to run BTV as a service. I found a thread discussing that... however, it seemed to indicate that if you run BTV as a service, you cannot use it to watch TV (live or recorded).

So... simple problem. I have a computer that runs my entertainment system. I have an account I don't want just anyone to access. However, if guests come over, I want them to be able to log on to a different account and watch tv (live or recorded) and I don't want that messing up my recordings. This seems like a common set up to me. How does everyone else do this?

The simplest thing I could come up with is to have my computer always log on as "guest tv viewer" and I always use that account to watch tv, and switch to my own private account if I want to do something else... but I am hoping there is a more elegant solution that basically lets me stay logged in to my private account and only use the guest account for guests...

[tscales]

The only solution I found was to dedicate computers to BTV. Costly and inelegant, but.....

[StevenR]

If you run BTV as a service it is still possible to watch recordings and Live TV. To do this you just need to create a new shortcut to BTVD3DShell.exe (for BTV3, I think it is slightly different for BTV4) and include /networkclient:localhost at the end.
For example, the target would be something like this:
"C:\Program Files\SnapStream Media\Beyond TV 3\BTVD3DShell.exe" /networkclient:localhost
That makes it run like BTV Link and connect to the local BTV service.

[JuliusPB]

Hey, thanks a lot. That worked great. I can now leave BTV running on one user account and access it from a different account.

I will also set it up as a service so I won't have to log in at all to record tv.