Windows 7 and Beyond TV Compatability

[djphatjive]

Originally Posted by drsmort

As several of our SnapStream Forum members have indicated the current 4.92 version of Beyond TV does work with Windows 7 - RC.

Works great on My Windows 7. I have some stuttering but I think its because of my new computer build and driver issues bot windows 7.

I am about to leave snapstream anyway because of lack of product information. I have been waiting for some info about the next version and there is nothing. They haven't said a word about it. Thats what is really bugging me.

[WedgeBob]

Just better hope Windows 7 has better Blu-ray support than Vista does, especially since most most television broadcast is in HD, and having BD-RE support does help to maintain that format for playback on other devices like a PS3.
I mean, at least now a good Blu-ray burner is south of the $200 price tag, so burning an HD broadcast should be something that BTV should start supporting, should Win 7's MCE not be able to do so.

[vidiot1985]

For me, it's not so much the cost of the burner, but the media.

At maybe $3 to $4 per disc of 25GB media (BD-R, good for ~4 hours of MPEG2 QAM or ATSC HD TV, I don't know how much H.264) in bulk, that's $120 for 1TB of storage. If I wanted to keep an extra 1TB of HD shows, I'd probably rather spend $80 for another 1TB internal hard drive, or maybe $120 for an external 1TB drive.

Or rather than $200 for a BD writer and $120 for media, I might get something like the iomega ScreenPlay Pro HD ($200 at amazon for 1TB) or Western Digital TV HD ($100 plus whatever for an external drive to go with it).

[loudog3114]

I am having some SERIOUS issues with win7 x64 ultimate. I get CONSTANT issues with not being able to access my wintv-hvr-950q. Generally unplugging and plugging in the usb works to fix... but pretty useless none the less as I dont know its not working until its already failed to record a show...

[tscales]

Why not try x86? x64 isn't supported anyway.

[loudog3114]

Originally Posted by tscales

Why not try x86? x64 isn't supported anyway.

Why not try windows 95? I'm not going backwards in technology (or performance)... processors and os' are going x64, snapstream should maybe hop on board, its not disappearing.

[RiderFan]

x64 is not an upgrade from x86. You are not going to see a difference in almost any programs as almost all programs are still 32 bit.

If you are one of those guys that feel 64 bit must be twice as good as 32 bit, great, then have at it, but be prepared for unsupported hardware and software.

[tscales]

Agreed. You're running a beta operating system in a clearly unsupported version.

It is what it is.

[DancesWithLysol]

Originally Posted by tscales

Agreed. You're running a beta operating system in a clearly unsupported version.

It is what it is.

I don't think Windows 7 RTM qualifies as "beta" anymore.

x64 is not an upgrade from x86. You are not going to see a difference in almost any programs as almost all programs are still 32 bit.

If you are one of those guys that feel 64 bit must be twice as good as 32 bit, great, then have at it, but be prepared for unsupported hardware and software.

I think a more important point is that major OEMs now ship the majority of their systems with Vista x64, and will probably transition in two weeks to Win7 x64, not Win7 x86. Users who receive one of these x64 systems may want to install BTV and take it for a spin, but asking them to install the x86 version of their OS (and potentially lose the use of some of their RAM) would be unpalatable for these users.

I've been running Vista and Win7 x64 on my desktop for almost three years now, and the number of hardware (and software) x64 comparability problems are vanishingly small, especially compared to what it was like in early 2007. In this way, Beyond TV is the exception in that it doesn't "just work" in x64. Unless Snapstream has lost interest in gaining new customers this is an area that demands their attention, and I think we can all agree it would be nice if the issues were resolved.

I really like Beyond TV. I wish it was getting more attention from Snapstream. I hope that they are secretly working on a major release of the product that will address all these issues.

This is at a time when the whole HTPC market may be getting a boost from the addition of CableCard tuners that can be added to custom-built HTPCs, which will surely invigorate the whole HTPC market. Because of this, I think this market is about to have a growth spurt, and I hope Snapstream will be there for it.

[TomXP411]

64 bit support is pretty much a requirement in today's market. Vista x64 has been out for 3 years now, and BTV still doesn't properly support that. October will mark the second operating system that includes native 64 bit support, and yet we're told we can't upgrade our media PC's because Snapstream can't keep up.

I'm going to move forward, with or without Snapstream's help. If they want my continued business, I'll give it to them, but only if they give me a reason to stay. The only thing BTV does for me that WMC can't is ShowSqueeze... and I don't even use that any more.

As it is, with no announcements, no betas, and no x64 support, what reason are they giving us to stick with this product? As far as I can tell, they've abandoned the home market completely.

[JessicaD]

Loudog3114,
Microsoft does have an official Windows 7 Support Forum located here socialdottechnetdotmicrosoftdotcom/Forums/en-US/category/w7itpro/(Replace the "dot" with a period ".") . It is supported by product specialists as well as engineers and support teams. You may want to also check the threads available there for additional assistance and feedback.
Jessica
Microsoft Windows Client Team

[SiliconJoe]

I upgraded my Windows XP computer this weekend to Windows 7 Home Premium 32-bit. I first backed up all my important data including the shows recorded in the SnapStream directory. I also backed up the BeyondTV configuration, which is oddly placed in the about dialog box. You won't find it in the ViewScape or administrator window.

The upgrade to Windows 7 went well. Re-installed BeyondTV, it automatically pulled in several updates for other components needed. Pasting in the serial number key hit a snag, for some reason when pasted in, the 1st character was dropped from every field. That was fixed and the installation moved along smoothly.

Once the installer completed I restored the configuration from the backup file made earlier and everything was back the way it was. I copied my shows back into the SnapStream directory and they appeared in the ViewScape. The program works perfectly in Windows 7, records and plays back fine, just the way it did in XP.

Another feature that seems to work better now is sleep and wakeup. Windows 7 by default will put the computer to sleep after 30 minutes of inactivity. In the past my XP configuration would come out of sleep and something wasn't quite right. Either the video display was messed up or the wireless USB mouse and keyboard were dead to the world. I bascially gave up on having the computer go to sleep in XP, I just left the system on all the time.

With Windows 7 the system will wakeup to record a show scheduled in BeyondTV and then go back to sleep if there's no activity. So far the system works as it should, the computer is in the same state on wakeup, no problems with the video or keyboard/mouse. They all work fine and everything recorded also.

[opilion]

I installed Windows 7 32-bit this weekend and re-installed BTV 4.9.2. My Hauppauge HVR 1250 and 1600s were automatically recognized by Windows 7 and subsequent updates were available in Windows Update. KWORLD even had updated drivers for the UB435Q. BTV installed smoothly, but when I went to restore my backed-up settings, the restore failed. After re-tweaking every setting and recreating all of my scheduled jobs, evrything is humming again. Video is perfecly smooth with no stuttering issues. I noticed the Microsoft MPEG2 decoder in Windows 7 works - I had problems with this decoder in Vista. I'm not sure, however if it offers any advantage.

Anyhow - everything works great and I am happy again.

[vidiot1985]

It's good to see that things are going well for folks with Win7.

Is UAC security stuff still in issue with Win7 and BTV? On my Vista system with BTV Link, whenever the secure desktop comes up to ask me something, the Link playback goes nuts and maybe comes back to normal if I wait around long enough, but I usually end up killing it and restarting.

Or am I the only BTV user who hasn't turned off secure desktop on a Vista machine?

[HomeyFour]

Originally Posted by vidiot1985

Or am I the only BTV user who hasn't turned off secure desktop on a Vista machine?

UAC is the first thing that I disable whenever I install Vista or 7!