In the latest version of Beyond TV launched in late November 2008, version 4.9, without a lot of fanfare, we made it easy for Mac OS X users to watch recordings made in Beyond TV.

Here’s how:

1. Download VLC: First, download the open source and free VLC Player for the Mac.

2. Open the Beyond TV web interface: Open the Beyond TV web interface on your Mac.  Typically, you’ll do this by entering a URL like this:

http://<COMPUTER NAME>/

into your web browser (Firefox or Safari).  For example, if my PC running Beyond TV was named “BEYONDTV-PC”, I’d enter http://beyondtv-pc/ into my web browser.

From the Beyond TV web interface, get the list of recorded shows by choosing “Recorded Shows”.

3. Configure “Play” links in Beyond TV: The first time you enter “Recorded Shows”, you’ll see this window:

It will default to “ASX Remote Playlist” as long as you’re on a Mac – that’s the correct setting so click “OK”.

If you’ve made this setting before on your Mac, to change it again, scroll to the bottom of the page and choose “Change Play Options”:

…and then explicitly choose the “ASX Remote Playlist” option.

4. Choose the TV show: Now, choose the show you want to watch and click “Play” (under the “Options” menu):

Depending on your browser, you might see a message like this:

Just click “OK”…

5. And that’s it! VLC should grab the link and start playing back the show:

While VLC is playing back the show, you can seek around inside the file, fast-forward, rewind, etc.  And this should work with both standard definition MPEG-2 recordings as well as MPEG-2 transport streams that are created when you recorded clear QAM or over-the-air (OTA) digital TV (here’s a screenshot of a high-definition recording playing back on the Mac)

So all in all, it’s a pretty decent way to watch Beyond TV recordings on any Macs you might have around at home!

(And some additional notes:

• If you have “Security” turned on, you’ll need to go in and turn authentication “off” for file downloads.  Here’s a screenshot of the “File Downloads” option on the “Security Settings” screen.
• You can only playback completed recordings this way — this does not work with in-progress recordings (ie live TV).
• This should not only work with Beyond TV, but should also works with SnapStream’s Enterprise products — ie the SnapStream Server and the SnapStream Mini.
• This is something we haven’t tested that much and it’s NOT something we officially support, so your mileage may vary.)

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 20th, 2009 at 8:01 pm by Rakesh and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.