SnapStream Blog

You may have read recently that iTunes is not going to have NBC programming starting with the fall season. This would be a disaster for all of us iPod/iPhone users if it weren’t for the Beyond TV 4.7 Beta that has the capacity to automatically transfer shows into iTunes compatible formats.

4.7 has a plugin that allows recompression to the h.264 format and an rss feed (aka podcast) that makes getting shows into iTunes automatic (which then can automatically sync recordings to your iPod video, iPhone or Apple TV).

Available today, we have a public beta of the upcoming 4.7 release that includes many other sweet new features as well. To download this release, you can join the beta program by signing up at http://beta.snapstream.com

Among the other features:

1. Drive pooling – Allows treating a group of disks as one recording folder
2. DVD burning from Beyond TV Link
3. Community Based Automatic Recordings – record the top shows as reported on http://www.snapstream.net/buzz.aspx
4. Virtual Firefly Nano and Remote Library - control Beyond TV from you iPhone or other web enabled device

Here’s the same list above, with much more detail after the break:

1. h.264/iTunes plugin – A plugin that allows recompression to the h.264 format and an rss feed that makes getting shows into iTunes automatic (which then can sync to your iPod video, iPhone or Apple TV). The plugin will be bundled for sale/trial with the DVD burning plugin. Any user that already bought the DVD burning plugin will get h.264 at no charge.

How do I use it, you ask?

• If you don’t already have the DVD burning plugin purchased, start the DVD Burning trial from the Viewscape’s settings screen.
• Now, go into the iTunes Integration Settings Screen.
• Turn the options on and let recordings happen. Of course, if you don’t want all recordings compressed, you can use “view and edit details” on a recording job to do just one series or choose an already recorded show from the library and manually squeeze it.
• From the computer on your network that has iTunes (this doesn’t have to be your HTPC), visit http://localhost:8129/SetupITunes.aspx (where localhost is your Beyond TV machine’s name).
• Use the options at the bottom of the page to setup an RSS feed, click Generate Link and then click to automatically subscribe iTunes to the feed.
• From iTunes, configure your podcast sync settings as you desire to send the shows down to your iPod, iPhone or Apple TV.

2. Drive pooling – Allows treating a group of disks as one recording folder.

• To use this feature, edit a video folder from the Web Admin and turn pooling on.
• Repeat for all of the folders you’d like to add.
• Then select the pool as your default recording folder.
• Beyond TV will now dispatch recordings to the drive with the most space free.

3. DVD burning from Beyond TV Link
Just like Beyond TV Server can burn DVDs, now Link can too. You’ll need a separate Link burning plugin for each Link client that you have.

4. Community Based Automatic Recordings – Record the top shows as reported on http://www.snapstream.net/buzz.aspx.

• If you like what the buzz page suggests, from the Viewscape, go to Setup Recordings.
• Click on Automatic Community Recordings and enable the feature.
• After the next guide data load on your machine, Beyond TV will download the top episodes.

5. Virtual Firefly Nano and Remote Library – control Beyond TV from your iPhone or other web enabled device
From your mobile device, visit http://SERVERNAME :8129/remote/ (where SERVERNAME is your Beyond TV machine’s name). It works very well with iPhones and Qs.
Click “remote library” at the bottom of the page and then select a show. It will play the show on your Beyond TV Server.

That’s about it for the big features. Of course, there are a ton of minor improvements and bug fixes throughout the product as well.

If you’re interested in trying out the release before the final version (and trust me, the iPhone showsqueezing is really that cool) then head over to http://beta.snapstream.com and sign up.

This entry was posted on Friday, August 31st, 2007 at 9:54 pm by zack and is filed under Beyond TV, General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.