Questions about version 3.5

[Brad Isaac]

Hi all,

Hope this hasn't been asked before. I did try searching but couldn't find a thread directly covering these issues.

1. Will version 3.5 will it allow streaming of live TV? Since I replaced my card with the WinTV PVR 250, obviously streaming live tv isn't happening. It was a great option with the old Wintv card.

2. I keep hearing about the 3.5 beta that is out there. Is this an open beta? If not, how might one participate?

3. With the WinTV PVR 250 card, if I want to stream a show that is in MPEG2 format, must I first encode it to WMV using showsqueeze?

thanks!
Brad

[viguera]

The streaming issue is related to the file format. The PVR-250 quality is so good because it does hardware encoding, but the file is an MPG, which can't be streamed the way WMVs can. I don't know if that can ever be changed, but it's safe to say that streaming Live TV will not be possible unless you're using WMV in any version of BTV.

3.5 went into open beta last weekend. I think if you head out to betaprogram.snapstream.com you should be able to sign up for it.

The answer to your last question is the answer to your first question. I think some people have gotten around this by sharing/accessing the Live TV buffer file directly, etc, but I haven't messed with that myself.

[cmasters]

MPEG2 LAN viewing (not sure if it is real streaming yet) including LiveTV is or will be supported in 3.5.

[jkoon]

Just to be clear 3.5 will have a client version of btv that will allow you to watch live tv or your recordings (wmv or mpeg2) over your local network, but the web admin will have the same limitations as 3.4 with respect to streaming.

[viguera]

Originally Posted by jkoon

Just to be clear 3.5 will have a client version of btv that will allow you to watch live tv or your recordings (wmv or mpeg2) over your local network, but the web admin will have the same limitations as 3.4 with respect to streaming.

I forgot about that... but I think you'll need another key/license in order to use a 3.5 network client, correct? I admit I haven't been paying too much attention to the licensing side of things, since my BTV watching will be exclusively from one box connected to my TV...

[Eric3a]

Yes. I understand that the plan is to charge for the BTV client.
Seems perfectly fair to me considering the number of really great free upgrades we've had and the great FREE upcoming features in 3.5.

A separate program running on a separate machine seems like a fair thing that we'll have to pay or it (if we want it). As you say: we don't have to. Many are perfectly happy running BTV as is. But we'll have a great choice.
Eric

[Brad Isaac]

Thanks for the answers! So much to think about...