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[Khris]

Completely useless until it does more then display the guide.

Good thing resources were used to work on this instead of something like Integration! lol

[hoglander]

no comment

[nanook105]

Originally Posted by Khris

Good thing resources were used to work on this instead of something like Integration! lol

Wow - how typical a comment for you - I couldn't agree more.........

[Draiko2]

so, I don't get it... why bring out couchville when it doesn't support your flagship product? *head explodes*

It's cool, love the design, but I'm in the "useless until it replaces snapstream.net" camp

and I thought google was the only company specializing in "pretty useless but cool" apps

Is this a big sign that BTV is going bye-bye? Argh... snapstream is just so... rrrgh! I don't get you guys!

[cfaslave]

Originally Posted by Draiko2

so, I don't get it... why bring out couchville when it doesn't support your flagship product? *head explodes*

It's cool, love the design, but I'm in the "useless until it replaces snapstream.net" camp

and I thought google was the only company specializing in "pretty useless but cool" apps

Based on what SS has said, they want to make it work with and eventually replace snapstream.net. I think the hopes are to make it work with other PVR's as well - much like the yahoo tv guide now works with tivo.

It's in its infancy right now so it might not be useful today, but if people like it better than the ss.net guide, I don't see why they wouldn't hook it up to BTV.

[cncb]

I don't get it either. Was this another item on the infamous "survey"? I don't remember customers clamoring for another online TV guide...

[ClamsTheCat]

Originally Posted by cncb

I don't get it either. Was this another item on the infamous "survey"? I don't remember customers clamoring for another online TV guide...

AthleticTrainer and GeorgeH were...and they are the standard goto guys for customer requests

[cfaslave]

I'm with everyone on these two points:
1. Couchville has to integrate with BTV to really be useful to us.
2. I wish SS would have focused their energies on BTV and BeyondMedia integration, QAM etc etc etc. First.

I was an early critic of Couchville (fka Columbus) on the beta forums, but it has quickly improved and I can see the potential of replacing the ss.net and even more potential if they can integrate it with the other pvr apps. In the meantime - SS Please move towards BTV - HTPC/Beyond Media integration features PLEASE

I posted some Couchville feature suggestions in the feature suggestions thread

[thundermax]

maybe all those Google AdSense items in couchville will help finance the BM integration project?

[splootch]

I like it it so far. Ironically, I've been using it more to find programming that I can only record on my Expressvu HD PVR (this unit only has guide data for the next 2 days at a time) . I'm looking forward to future integration with my BTV setup.

One thing I've noticed is in my Canadian lineup (Bell Expressvu - East) - HDNet is listed on 813 (should be 814) and A&E is listed on 814 (should be 813). The HDNet listings are also incorrect - they show the American line up, not the Canadian one. I was so excited to see an HD broadcast of Enterprise only to have my bubble burst when I discovered it wasn't airing on the Canadian HDNet.

[merrypig]

Originally Posted by cncb

I don't get it either. Was this another item on the infamous "survey"? I don't remember customers clamoring for another online TV guide...

I'm sure there are other reasons but notably it's a revenue source. SS doesn't get any opportunity for money from ads inside of btv. Becoming a name in epg online gets more ad revenue and simultaneously funds the data feed for BTV.

It's rather cute actually that by supporting other pvr applications they can get users of competitors software to fund BTV's existance indirectly

[DogWings]

I wonder how this project took priority over improving the existing product, or knocking out the integration thing. Yeah, I know... it's like a mantra on the forums.

Sometimes - often - I wonder what's going on at SnapStream headquarters.

And couchville doesn't seem to work in Firefox. Which makes it even more useless.

[rakeshagrawal]

Why did we work on Couchville? We wanted to build something different that would be useful to anyone... absolutely anyone. Not just to people like ourselves who are willing and able to crack open their PCs and install a TV tuner card, put a PC in their living rooms, etc. Does this mean we're abandoning Beyond TV and PC DVR? Absolutely not. Yes, we'll eventually integrate Couchville with Beyond TV and hopefully also with other DVRs, but our initial goal was to focus on a simple TV listings website, and we've hopefully accomplished that.

From a business standpoint, Couchville is largely an experiment. Will it generate a lot of advertising revenue? It's not clear whether it will or not at this point. More and more dollars are pouring into online advertising, so that's a good sign, but it's not clear whether that translates to a TV guide website like Couchville bringing in a lot of ad revenue. Also, you'll notice ads for Beyond TV in some places on the site. There's also some potential for a mass consumer product like Couchville being a sales vehicle for our PC DVR product. So marketing Beyond TV is another important business angle for Couchville as well, at least in the short-term.

[rakeshagrawal]

Originally Posted by DogWings

And couchville doesn't seem to work in Firefox. Which makes it even more useless.

Please, tell us more so we can try to troubleshoot this... While some of the folks working on Couchville started out using IE as their main browser, with the advent of Firebug (which is a phenomenally useful web development tool), everyone was eventually using Firefox. I use Firefox myself. What version of Firefox are you using?

[cfaslave]

Originally Posted by DogWings

And couchville doesn't seem to work in Firefox. Which makes it even more useless.

.....I've used Firefox on Couchville and it works just fine for me.

Originally Posted by rakeshagrawal

Yes, we'll eventually integrate Couchville with Beyond TV and hopefully also with other DVRs, but our initial goal was to focus on a simple TV listings website, and we've hopefully accomplished that.

I think this (integrate with BTV & other DVRS) is key to its success, but you know that already of course.

From a business standpoint, Couchville is largely an experiment. Will it generate a lot of advertising revenue? It's not clear whether it will or not at this point. More and more dollars are pouring into online advertising, so that's a good sign, but it's not clear whether that translates to a TV guide website like Couchville bringing in a lot of ad revenue. Also, you'll notice ads for Beyond TV in some places on the site. There's also some potential for a mass consumer product like Couchville being a sales vehicle for our PC DVR product. So marketing Beyond TV is another important business angle for Couchville as well, at least in the short-term.

I personally think it good that SS is looking outside the box. I was skeptical at first when I heard of the project, but I like the results so far. I think this could work out and really be a good thing for SS as well as for BeyondTV.