SnapStream Blog

We continue highlighting cool Beyond Media downloads, enabled by Beyond Media and the Beyond Media SDK…

Sports are a big thing here at SnapStream. It doesn’t really matter what sport it is, we’ll find a way to talk about it, argue about it, make predictions, and determine who knows more. From cricket to curling to football to our personal sports concoction, “Beyond Wiffle”, that we play everyday in the park across the street, we take our sports seriously.

That’s why when I saw “NHL Scores” it really hit home. It is perfect for the times when you just have to know the score, right now. If I’m on the couch here’s my situation: it takes too long to bring up scores on my phone, SportsCenter won’t cycle around to the game I’m interested in for another 30 minutes, and I really need to know who won last night in the playoffs. Now I have another option, and with a few clicks of my remote I have my answer.

Daily scores

Summary by team

I know many people are probably thinking, “It’s just the NHL, who cares?” (sorry to those of you that are actually hockey fans ) Geoff Stewart, who wrote this plug-in, was nice enough to also give away the source code for NHL Scores. This means someone with a bit of time could create a plugin for NBA, MLB, or NFL scores with a minimal amount of work. I know nearly everyone around the office would love these possible expansions, and I’m sure that holds true for a significant chunk of all Beyond Media users.

Learn More
Download Now

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Other Beyond Media downloads that we’ve highlighted:

• Netflix on your TV

Comment spam was getting out of control here on our blog so last weekend we installed Akismet for Wordpress. The screenshot below should give you some idea of just how happy we are now (and just how bad comment spam is):

Thanks to Matt and others at Automattic for this great service! The SnapStream Blog is much better because of it.

This article appeared in USA Today last week about how TV show blogs are becoming a popular way to attract fans and promote TV shows. I think this is pretty cool (”wow, content creators talking directly with their viewers!”) so I added a little blogroll with links to blogs for popular TV shows (see the right-hand side of the blog). Is there a popular TV show that has a blog that you like? Post it in the comments and I’ll add it to the blogroll. (My favorite? Definitely Dwight’s blog.)

Two of the best parts of Beyond Media are its flexibility and its extensibility. The Beyond Media SDK has enabled the SnapStream developer community to add many new features including new ways to control Beyond Media, checking your email, and getting the latest theater listings. Head on over to the Beyond Media Downloads section to see everything the users have contributed that’s been built off the SDK. Over the next few weeks we are going to be highlighting some of the best user created plugins which utilize the flexibility and extensibility of Beyond Media to deliver new features to all Beyond Media users.

The first Beyond Media plugin I’d like to highlight is the Netflix plugin created by Craid Baldwin. I’m not currently a Netflix subscriber, but everyone I’ve spoken with has raved about how much easier this plugin makes their life. It gives you access to your Netflix queue right on your TV. As soon as you finish watching your latest batch of DVDs you can take your remote and start searching for what you would like Netflix to send you next. Everything from just seeing what’s in your Netflix queue to getting recommendations and making changes to what Netflix is going to send you can now be accessed via remote control.

The Netflix plugin start screen

The Netflix plugin queue screen

The user benefits aside, the Netflix plugin is special for another pair of reasons. It features a well organized 10 foot friendly interfance, and it is a solid example of a plugin that exposes features which other plugins can use. The “Send to Netflix� option in the “Movie Showtimes� plugin (link) is provided by the Netflix plugin. This is a nice example of even user created addons keeping with the Beyond Media extensibility spirit.

Learn More about the Netflix Plugin by cncb

Download the Netflix Plugin by cncb (requires Beyond Media)

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(if you are interested in creating Beyond Media plugins, check out http://code.snapstream.com for tutorials and other development information. When you’re finished, submit your plugin to http://www.snapstream.com/ssdn/submit.aspx and it will get published for the community to see and download.

nVidia launched their DualTV MCE card this week. We haven’t seen new tuner products from nVidia in while, so it’s great to see them back in the game.

SnapStream worked closely with nVidia during their development, so Beyond TV 4.2 already has support built right in! Thanks to nVidia, Beyond TV users now have one more choice when choosing dual tuner cards. Go ahead and give it a try and tell us what you think!

Here is the nVidia product page, and Chris Lanier seems to have posted the nVidia press release.