So what is StreamSnip Anyway?

[Joey Bugeyes]

I see that I have an option for StreamSnip, and I see people talk about it sometimes. But I haven't a clue as to what it is?

Anyone?

Thanks,
Joey Bugeyes from Nutley

[jebbbz]

Digital TV transmissions can consist of one or more programs each listed and broadcast on a sub-channel. Look at your EPG for digital stations. In Beyond TV's numbering scheme you may see something like 1031, 1032, 1051, 1052, 1053, etc. The middle two digits are the channel number and the last channel is the sub-channel. (The "1" at the beginning groups all the digital channels together.) A station may broadcast on one or more sub-channels at the same time with the data multiplexed into a single transport stream. All BTV does is write the transport stream directly to your hard drive even if you are only interested in one of the sub-channels. Streamsnip goes to work after the show is finished and strips out the unwanted sub-channels, saving disk space.

Here, for example, the PBS affiliate broadcasts a high-def program on sub-channel 1, a different program in standard def on sub 2, music on sub 3, and stills with voice-over on sub 4. The transport stream carries all these at the same time and BTV writes them all to my hard drive at about 8.5 gigs per hour. If I picked the program on sub 2 to record Streamsnip will delete the data for the other sub-cahnnels and give me back six or seven gigs of storage space. If I recorded the high-def channel Streamsnip would remove a lot less data and I might only save a gig or two.

If you watch a recording before running Streamsnip you can actually switch to the other sub-channels using (I think) the "[" and "]" keys, even though you thought you were recording only a single program.

[Joey Bugeyes]

Jebbbz,

Thanks for the clear and detailed explanation. I don't have digital so its a non-issue for me.

Thanks again!
Joe