New! Beyond TV 4.9: Clear QAM + PlaceShifting
November 21st, 2008 at 8:40 pm by Melissa
Since our last Beyond TV release we’ve been working diligently on two major new features: Clear QAM support and place-shifting! And after spending many long Friday nights in the office preparing beta releases and sifting through bug reports early Monday morning we are ready to release Beyond TV 4.9.
Clear QAM Support: With version 4.9, Beyond TV adds Clear QAM support. This means that all of you cable users out there can now record any channels that are transmitted in unencrypted QAM in their native digital format. Most cable providers transmit the local networks in unencrypted QAM, at a minimum, and there are often more channels on top of that like ESPN HD, Discovery HD.
Before this, the only way to record TV shows in Beyond TV in their native digital and possibly HD format was using an over-the-air antenna and clear QAM now adds a way to record more channels digitally. Using clear QAM in Beyond TV requires you to use one of the clear QAM cards that we support. Briefly, we support most of the Hauppauge devices that support clear QAM, including the Hauppauge HVR-1600, the Hauppauge HVR-1800, the Hauppauge HVR-1950 and the Hauppauge HVR-950Q. And on top of that we support some ATI TV tuners, the HDHomeRun, and some Avermedia TV tuners.
Placeshifting: We have incorporated a video player in the web admin, allowing you to access and watch all your TV recordings via the web interface! This new feature adds unlimited possibilities to where and when you watch your TV recordings, whether it be in a hotel room while away on business, or just on a different computer in your home. Here’s a screenshot of placeshifting in action:
iPhone/iPod Touch 2.0 Firmware Bug Fixed: When Apple released version 2.0 of their iPhone and iPod Touch firmware, it introduced an audio/video sync issue for SnapStream recordings. The issue is fixed now in Beyond TV 4.9, thanks in part to our H.264 codec vendor MainConcept.
Beyond TV 4.9 also adds beta support for the Hauppauge HD-PVR (read the note at the bottom of this page for the caveats on using the Hauppauge HD PVR with Beyond TV).
And for an entire list of new features and bug fixes check out the release notes.
Along with these new features and updates we have decided to make what used to be the DVD Burning & H.264 “plug-in” a standard part of Beyond TV. So the price of Beyond TV, for any new purchases, is now $99 (Beyond TV was $69.99 and the plug-in used to be $29.99).
And if you already own Beyond TV and never purchased the DVD burning and H.264 plug-in, that’s fine — you can still upgrade to Beyond TV 4.9 without the plug-in. And you can still add the plug-in at any point in the future using the upgrade store.
So download Beyond TV 4.9, whether you’re an existing user upgrading or a new user looking to try it out!
Updated (11/22/2008, 12:28pm): clarified the combination of Beyond TV and the plug-in and elaborated on the new features in this version.
Updated (12/8/2008, 11am): added link to “footnotes” about the HD PVR and highlighted the iPhone/iPod Touch 2.0 firmware fix in Beyond TV 4.9.
November 21st, 2008 at 11:10 pm
Thank you!!!!! I’m downloading 4.9 now. Been waiting a while, but Christmas has still come early for me. Whoohoo!!
November 22nd, 2008 at 1:18 am
Thank you for fixing the iPhone & iPod touch firmware 2.x video/audio problem.
November 22nd, 2008 at 6:07 am
[...] For an entire list of new features and bug fixes check out the release notes. To download click here. via Snapstream Blog [...]
November 22nd, 2008 at 5:40 pm
Need help adjusting format for Placeshifting. I get the warning below.
“WARNING: The format of the file you’ve chosen requires real-time transcoding which can tax the server processor quite a bit. ”
I could not find any help to guide me through making required adjustments.
November 23rd, 2008 at 11:43 am
I wish the ITouch problem was completely fixed. Sync is on now but the aspect of the picture is incorrect
November 24th, 2008 at 12:32 pm
Eric,
That warning message is a stock warning message displayed whenever placeshifting requires real-time transcoding. This will always be the case for file formats other than WMV, since we use WMV streaming for placeshifting.
You can click through that warning and if everything works ok, then you’re good to go! If playback appears choppy or your machine grinds to a halt, then please contact customer support and they can run you through possible solutions.
November 24th, 2008 at 8:50 pm
I installed the new BTV4.9 and could not get it to funtion. I had backed up before the install and restored to the old relese. My system is a simple P4 2GHZ that I put together so long ago that I don’t remember the MB maker. Has anyone else had trouble. John K.
December 1st, 2008 at 9:10 am
I just spent 48 straight hours figuring out how to get a custom (QAM) lineup for my Silicon Dust tuners to work with BTV. THEN I discover Snapstream’s 4.9 upgrade will do that without a custom lookup table! Not complaining. Thanks Snapstream! My forehead is just hurting a little from smacking it on the monitor.
No trouble with the upgrade from V4.82 but I haven’t run the setup wizard yet to check out the QAM scanner. Maybe on the next rainy weekend…
December 1st, 2008 at 1:48 pm
[...] Big news from the SnapStream camp. Beyond TV 4.9 – repackaged and priced at $99 – now includes Clear QAM support for recording unencrypted cable transmissions (including programming available in HD), a built-in Placeshifting web player (first glimpsed at in Sept.), and native H.264 video recording and DVD burning (both previously plug-ins available for $29.99). Full release notes after jump. Version 4.9 Release Notes | Build 6073 [...]
December 2nd, 2008 at 7:40 am
I installed BTV4.9 last night. It took over a half of an hour with my CPU @ 100% most of the time. I have a P4 2.4Ghz machine with 1.5GB of memory. I turned off antivirus and firewall and it still took this long. Then after the install the guide will not update. It keeps failing. I uninstalled it this morning and the same problem, it was taking over 20 mins with the CPU @ 100%. I had to leave it running to go to work. I will be dropping back to my previous version. There seems to be issues with this release!
December 3rd, 2008 at 12:57 am
I am trying to use DIVCO USB HD tuner and sem to get it intgrated with didigtal functiona. Any help woudl be appreciated….
December 3rd, 2008 at 8:00 am
A follow up to my posting above. The uninstall ran all day and was hung up. I noticed that regsvr32 was taking all of the CPU usage. I canceled the uninstall from task manager and ended the regsvr32 task. Fortunately my uninstall package was able to completely remove BTV4.9. I restarted my computer and reran the installation of BTV4.9 with administrator privileges and the install ran quickly and without problems. Guide update worked fine also. Maybe on a Vista machine you need to run the install with administrator privileges? Anyway all is well and I am enjoying the new release!
December 7th, 2008 at 3:00 pm
Why still no DVB-T supported tv cards???We need this in the rest of the world please. I noticed a bug about the channel lineup in the web interface?? In the channel lineup everything is perfect but when i want to bind a tv-card to a lineup the field is’t highlightet so I can’t change lineup??? When i press “edit lineup” here a emty lineup page is popping up???
December 7th, 2008 at 4:01 pm
I had the same problem, Jeff B. Fegsvr32 kept failing, and I’ve been having some quirky problems since the install, like programs jump to the end right in the middle of the program. Thinking of uninstalling and retrying.
December 8th, 2008 at 7:42 am
Beyond TV 4.9 also adds beta support for the Hauppauge HD-PVR (read the note at the bottom of this page for the caveats on using the Hauppauge HD PVR with Beyond TV).
So where is this note at the bottom of the page?
December 8th, 2008 at 9:25 am
Where are the caveats about Hauppauge HD PVR “at the bottom of this page”?
December 8th, 2008 at 11:48 am
The notes on the bottom of this page:
http://www.snapstream.com/Products/beyondtv/hdtv-setup-center.asp
(here they are copied/pasted:
* Beyond TV 4.9.0 introduces “beta” level support for the Hauppauge HD PVR. At release time, we are still experiencing issues with the device and playback of its files that prevent us from fully supporting it. The issues fall in three major categories:
1. Hardware reliability: Over weeks of testing, in-house data suggests the Hauppauge HD PVR hardware randomly will stall and require a reset. We are providing data to Hauppauge to assist with identifying and fixing the problem.
2. Video Playback: The Transport Stream h.264 video output by the Hauppauge HD PVR is a new file type that not all decoders correctly support. There are issues with seeking (like fast forward and skipping), resolution switching and channel changing. We suggest trying both the included SnapStream h.264 Video Decoder along with the ArcSoft decoder from Total Media Extreme, which is included on Hauppauge HD PVR device driver CD.
3. Video Post Processing: ShowSqueeze and SmartChapters will not run automatically against Hauppauge HD PVR created files in 4.9. Testing shows these files will almost certainly hang while processing. You may execute jobs manually through the Viewscape and Web admin. The SnapStream Knowledge base has an article that will allow you to turn automatic processing back on.)
December 11th, 2008 at 12:20 am
I believe that $30 dollars is too much for the DVD Burner plugin. $20 dollars is better, but still too much. The plug-in is still marked at $30 dollars for separate purchase, so people that already have BeyondTV don’t get to take advantage of this deal.
December 12th, 2008 at 10:10 am
The FusionHDTV5 USB Gold which you are clearing out claims to support Clear QAM up to 256. Odd that it’s not also supported by you.
December 28th, 2008 at 11:11 pm
1. Hardware reliability: Over weeks of testing, in-house data suggests the Hauppauge HD PVR hardware randomly will stall and require a reset. We are providing data to Hauppauge to assist with identifying and fixing the problem.
I get this same problem with the HVR-1800
January 10th, 2009 at 10:29 pm
Snapstream logo will not leave my screen for 4 minutes until AOL 9.0 Comes on. How can I remove it ? Please send me info on 4.9 so I Decide whether to purchase or not . Thanks, Casey (hcfountain@aol.com)