Newbie questions about compatible video formats, showsqueeze, and QAM support

[schmoppa]

I am looking into various PVR platforms, and BTV is a front runner.

According to the BTV product description, DivX, Windows Media Video (WMV), and MPEG-2 formats are supported.

I am wondering whether BTV will play my collection of videos with assorted formats not included in the product description (AVI, xvid, TS, etc).

I know that you record in MPEG-2, and that you can use Showsqueeze to convert these recordings to divx, but I am wondering if I will be able to have a library of videos, not originally recorded with BTV, that BTV will be able to play. Or is Beyond Media the plugin that will allow playback of these different formats?

Assuming that BTV or Beyond Media support more than just MPEG-2, WMV, and Divx, would showsqueeze work with any other formats?

I have been skimming over these forums and have uncovered some sort of controversy with Beyond Media and the next version of BeyondTV, but I don't have a great understanding of how this would affect my potential purchase of BeyondTV and Beyond Media today. What do I need to know about this that would help me with my buying decision?

Finally, I have read (and commented on) some threads stating that QAM support with the HVR-1600 is not a certainty. My as-of-yet unspent 2 cents is that this is a very important feature, and I have seen other packages that explicitly support this.

Thanks!

[Khris]

BTV will recognize .avi, .wmv, .mpg, and .ts extensions.....that's it.

BTV will play your existing videos assuming they are in one of the formats I just mentioned. BM is limited to the same extensions.

BTV Showsqueeze will only convert to DivX or WMV.

Best advice I can give you is before buying BM, try some of the other Open Source options available for multimedia playback. I currently use MediaPortal and it is exponentially better than BM.

Can't comment on QAM as I don't use it.

[schmoppa]

Actually, for the showsqueeze question, I meant to ask if showsqueeze will compress a non mpeg-2 video to divx?

Does MediaPortal integrate with BTV at all? one thing I'd like to have is a fairly seamless experience between watching recorded TV and viewing my own home movies (or videos acquired elsewhere). Seamless integration with music and photos would be quite nice, but not as necessary.

Just how seamless is BM with BTV?

I'm very tempted by the free Firefly remote and free indoors HDTV bundle with BTV, but that deal ends tomorrow I believe, so I'd like to make a decision asap.

[Khris]

Showsqueeze will go from MPEG to DivX/WMV and from .TS to DivX/WMV.

MediaPortal does not directly integrate with BTV, but I have no problems running them together on the same computer.

BTV and BM is about as seamless as BTV and MediaPortal......in both cases you're using two different programs.

I've got two Firefly remotes and they both work as expected.

[schmoppa]

thanks for the info! From my research I was under the impression that BM was not quite up to snuff. The only thing I assumed it had going for it was that it would integrate well into BTV, as it is supposed to be a "plugin". Apparently not.

Are the Firefly remotes at least partially reprogrammable (universal), or is it the deal where Firefly transmits only to the RF receiver, which can then be converted to some sort of IR blaster with whatever appliance codes you have to control them that way?

[kandlg]

BTV will play XviD if you install the codec and the files have an avi extension. You can also convert BTV recordings to XviD with an add-on.

QAM support is available with the HDHomerun dual tuner, but it is not very good for live viewing due to a significant delay starting live TV. It works great for recording and viewing later (or while recording) and I don't watch live TV so the lag is not an issue. The HDHomerun is a network tuner so it can sit anywhere on your network. I'm not holding my breath on QAM support for the HVRs. The HDHomerun works better for me since I'm out of slots and my old analog tuners are working fine.

I use BM with BTV and it works fine with the exception of occaisional focus issues with BM (try to use the remote to switch to BM and it won't go to the top). When this happens it takes another button push on the remote to switch aps, a minor ding on the WAF. The DVD plug-in for BM is great. Music management is just OK - if you have a big library it is difficult to look for albums or artists quickly. That's all I use BM for.

The big Firefly is not IR and won't work with most universal remotes. The mini is IR, but is missing a few buttons in my opinion. I prefer the Streamzap remote with a Harmony. They seem to renew the free firefly deal on a regular basis, but if it is a big deal, don't risk missing it.

[schmoppa]

thanks for the info. The HDHomerun looks like a cool device, but I don't think I'm interested in that. Bummer on the perceived futility in hoping for Snapstream to support QAM for the HVRs, because QAM is now supported by the card itself.

As for the remote with BTV and BM, when you describe the loss of focus, are you saying that you can assign a button to switch to a specific task running on the computer (kind of like instant alt-tab)? If so, how many such tasks could you assign?

So, you use two remotes, the Streamzap and a Harmony?

I want to get going with my project, so I figure I need to order soon anyway.

[jimz06]

I'm currently using BTV with Mediaportal. You can create a separate link in the Mediaportal user interface to launch BTV but I felt the integration was cleaner by simply launching MP or BTV depending on what I wanted to do.

My Firefly rapidly became obsolete when I began to integrate my home theater components which used IR remotes. I went to a Streamzap and fortified it with the LM KeyMap software (info on the Firefly forum) which integrated well with my Harmony remote to control all my components including the MP, BTV, and Theatertek software running on my HTPC.

[Cacophony]

I use MediaPortal with BeyondTV. I had been using BTV with BM initially. I found BTV to be excellent - especially the Showsqueeze feature. I found BM to be severely lacking. When I discoved MediaPortal I loved everything about it except it's TV functionality.

I now run both pretty seemlessly. I have a plugin that allows me to have a "Beyond TV" choice right in the main menu of Media Portal and I played around and made the skins match so they look like they are supposed to work together. I found a small app that allows me to map all my firefly buttons to keyboard shortcuts and enought of the shortcuts of MediaPortal and BTV are close enough to make it quite workable.

As for the QAM thing... that is something that starting to tick me off.... I love BTV - it's functionality is much better than anything else i have tried, but whats the point if I missing out on some available HD channels... Now I might be moving on ... it's easier for me to sacrifice some functionality for content than content for functionality. Is it really that difficult for SnapStream to add QAM support? Shouldn't this have been addressed in an update by now?

[myktek]

clear qam is supported through an advanced setup process with SiliconDust's HDHomerun in BTV 4.6.1

[schmoppa]

Originally Posted by Cacophony

I now run both pretty seemlessly. I have a plugin that allows me to have a "Beyond TV" choice right in the main menu of Media Portal and I played around and made the skins match so they look like they are supposed to work together. I found a small app that allows me to map all my firefly buttons to keyboard shortcuts and enought of the shortcuts of MediaPortal and BTV are close enough to make it quite workable.

As for the QAM thing... that is something that starting to tick me off.... I love BTV - it's functionality is much better than anything else i have tried, but whats the point if I missing out on some available HD channels... Now I might be moving on ... it's easier for me to sacrifice some functionality for content than content for functionality. Is it really that difficult for SnapStream to add QAM support? Shouldn't this have been addressed in an update by now?

Cool! what plugin are you using?

Yes, I am annoyed about the QAM thing, though I just bought my HVR-1600 this week, so I have only myself to blame if hoping the Snapstream team comes through with an update to the software doesn't pan out.

I really just don't want to get HDHomerun, and I don't understand why the Snapstream team favors fully supporting this manufacturer's hardware while neglecting the Hauppauge 1600 they sell on their own site, and which now supports QAM.

I hope that the situation with QAM support for the 1600 is that it is something they are working on but can't comment publicly about until they release it...

[Fonceur]

Originally Posted by schmoppa

I don't understand why the Snapstream team favors fully supporting this manufacturer's hardware while neglecting the Hauppauge 1600 they sell on their own site, and which now supports QAM.

Because they would have to start from scratch, while the HDHomeRun's manufacturer did most of the work with their enhanced BDA driver, so SnapStream mostly had to adapt the custom lineup creation part...

[schmoppa]

Fair enough.

[jimz06]

Originally Posted by schmoppa

Cool! what plugin are you using?

The Multishortcut plugin allows you to create new links in the interface to other applications. Due a search in the Mediaportal forums.

[schmoppa]

Hi jimz06, I found the plugin, but am having trouble getting the plugin to work with BTV.

I can't figure out what path to use for the exefile entry (see my post here). Could you please help me?

Thanks!