SnapStream Blog

We want to remind you that on June 12, 2009 all full-power broadcast television stations in the United States will no longer be broadcasting on analog airwaves and will begin broadcasting only in digital. (More info at www.dtv.gov)

With that said, if you are currently using an analog antenna you have a couple of alternatives to keep your Beyond TV working.

1) Continue using your antenna to record, but you will now be recording over-the-air digital TV. You will need a digital converter box and an USB-Uirt IR Blaster in order to use your existing analog tuner. (Here’s a step-by-step article on setting up a digital converter box with Beyond TV.)

2) Switch from using an antenna to something like cable or satellite in Beyond TV. (Additional accessories may be required depending on the service you purchase.)

3) Purchase and install an HD TV tuner card.

If you have any questions please visit the SnapStream forum thread, Beyond TV and the Digital Transition.

Soham sent me a message earlier this month that read “This, you’ve got to see.” When I took a look, I saw what he was talking about. See for yourself:

So I immediately wrote to Ken to learn more. More on Ken’s setup:

My name is Ken and I’ve been a video game addict since my dad introduced me to the cocktail table version of Pong back in the mid-70’s. Growing up in the 80’s, I think I spent more time in arcades than I did in school! Sad, but true. I’ve always wanted to have my own “arcade.” Finally, after 30 years, I have achieved my dream.

With my wife’s permission :0) I converted our single-car garage into our game room. I incorporated as many aspects of home entertainment as I could fit in; coin-op arcade units, pinball, console video games, PC/LAN gaming, and a home theater system which incorporates BeyondTV 3 (of course).

The game room was designed to blend the old 80’s arcade aesthetic with modern style and comfort. The entire room is painted in a deep midnight blue, reminiscent of Tron’s world. The room also features UV reactive carpet and hand-cut classic arcade graphics on the walls. From the beginning, I really wanted the Space Invaders, Ms. Pac-Man and Galaxian graphics to *pop* and appear to be floating in space under black light. On the other walls, I have framed arcade marquees for Spy Hunter, Joust, Stargate, Space Duel, Hydro Thunder and others.

The game room took almost three years to complete. We added an access door to the interior of the house; custom wiring for power, sound, cable TV, LAN and lighting. We also added sound deadening material to the garage door, attic insulation, and the unsightly A/C unit affectionately known as “R2-D2,” which is underneath the projection screen.

BTW, thanks for making such a great product, and without the monthly fees and locked content! My wife and I love it so much, I recently purchased BeyondTV 4 as I’m building another HTPC soon.

See the whole SnapStream Game Room set on flickr.

For a long time now, we’ve been showcasing our user’s Beyond TV-powered living rooms in our digital living room showcase. Today, I have two more setups to share.

Brent’s living room is described in detail on his blog. His server has an impressive 6 tuners in it, a combination of internal and external devices as well as both standard definition and high-definition tuners. Brent’s also using the HDHomeRun with Fonceur’s BTV Exterminator Plug-in and with this combo, he’s able to record unencrypted QAM. Read more about Brent’s setup over on his blog.

And then there is Peter’s Beyond TV setup, meticulously documented in text and in pictures. Peter’s quest to find an alternative way of getting high-def TV (because he was “never happy with the level of content control or quality of service” that satellite or digital cable delivered) lead him to Beyond TV. Read more and enjoy some photographs of Peter’s setup below:

Bart Decanne, who lives outside of Austin in the Texas Hill Country, has quite the SnapStream setup at his home. He has Beyond TV setup in his living room and Beyond TV Link running in two other rooms of the house. Some pictures below:

Bart’s Living Room

The master bedroom

Bart’s Home Office

Thanks for sharing your system with us Bart. And if anyone else out there would like to share your Beyond TV setup with us, just e-mail us at marketing@snapstream.com.

Guest blog posting by Seth Miller (draven in the forums)

After years of yearning to bring the true theater experience home, I have finally succeeded. My home now boasts a theater that will engulf you in the movie experience, tower over you with special not meant for mere television and bring a library of over 175 movies no more than the push of a button away, a jukebox of movies from TV and DVD. This theater was built on a limited budget, but boasts all the features that I’ve been dreaming of since I first heard someone say, “home theater�.

Home theater, we’ve heard the term thrown around for years by every electronics store chain and every television manufacturer in the business, and they’ve applied it to every piece of equipment that could show a picture. But what does it mean? Are we talking about a 13� TV stuck in the corner of a living room, or are we talking about actually bringing the theater experience home? For me, I wanted a full blown theater in my home, and I think I’ve finally succeeded.

Years ago, the only way we could watch our favorite movies was to go buy some over-priced popcorn at our local cinema and pay an arm and a leg for a ticket in. Then came the VCR. This technological marvel opened up possibilities like we had never seen before. We could rent movies from the local Quick Stop for half of a theater ticket, and enjoy the movies in the comfort of our own living room. Sure, we all had to crowd around the TV and watch a cropped version of the original, but it was at home, and that made a difference. Later, DVDs brought us crisper images and the original widescreen format on a medium that we didn’t have to rewind. And surround sound systems brought us one step closer to the theater experience, but was it ever really the same as being in the theater?

Today I can proudly boast that I have found, or rather created, the true home theater. That’s right, a theater at home, not a TV masquerading as the famed silver screen, but an honest to goodness theater. “How?� you ask. Well here is the low-down.
(more…)

So it’s late at night and I’m browsing a bunch of different HTPC related forums. I post a bunch over on the htpcnews forums on SnapStream (while mentally flogging myself for not being more active there in the past couple of months… doh!). I head over to byopvr and I see a familiar avatar… it’s Will Ferrell! Hey, I know him, it’s btvfreak!

I see btvfreak’s posts on our forums all the time, but I guess I never took the time to actually click on the links in his sig. Tonight I did and I was extremely impressed with his Beyond TV setup… and how thoroughly he’s documented all the details on his blog.

Let’s take a tour:

We start by checking out btvfreak’s Beyond TV server, with what looks like 3 HDTV TV tuners and 3 analog TV tuners. Not bad.

Then, we move on to his living room and bedroom setups. Both are outfitted with quiet, attractive looking HTPC cases running Beyond TV Link.

Finally, checkout btvfreak’s home theater setup, complete with 46″ TV, an HTPC running Beyond TV Link and Beyond Media and a good ‘ol xbox.

Wow.

MrLefty1 submitted to us via Flickr his very high end home theater room for our digital living room showcase. I must say, the SnapStream product suite is moving up in the world. It’s getting to hang out in very posh home theater rooms like MrLefty1’s. His living room is SWEET!! Custom built shelves, fire place and ooh…are those leather couches MrLefty1?

In addition to the living room itself, I also posted a photo and listed the components of the PC in his basement that powers this living room in our showcase. It’s pretty impressive and I think worth sharing.

BTW - This is an ongoing project for us so it’s still not too late to submit your photos.

Since the beginning of June, we have, including this one, featured six different SnapStream powered digital living rooms. It’s been such a pleasure to see the different HTPC home entertainments centers that our users have put together. We think that it’s great that so many of you have turned our vision of a PC-centric entertainment hub into a reality by setting it up in your own homes and fitting it into your lifestyles.

I’ve enjoyed seeing how all of you have managed to fit your HTPCs so nicely into each of your living rooms, completely taking away the ‘techie’ look away from these systems. It’s hard to even tell which one of the set-top boxes in the current feature, submitted to us by Peter Mier, is actually the HTPC.

I really like the clean lines of Peter’s system. Peter – you’re going to be thrilled when we launch Beyond TV 4 later this year. You’ll get to record and playback HD shows with Beyond TV on that nice Samsung HDTV you’ve got. What bothers me most with entertainment centers are the wires and cords involved. Looks like you’ve somehow managed to get that taken care of in this setup.

Hey folks – keep sending these photos, because WE LOVE ‘EM!

Digital Living Room SIX (8/29/05)
Submitted by Peter Mier

A list of your hardware components

• Samsung HLP5085W 50â€? DLP HDTV
• Compaq Evo D510 SFF - 2.4GHz/400GB Hard Drive/PVR-500 Dual Tuner/DVD-RW/Creative Audigy USB/Belkin Pre-N Wireless
• Sony DVP-S7700 DVD Player
• Sony STR-DE685 5.1 Surround AV Receiver
• B&W DM602 Series 3 Front Monitors
• Sony Playstation 2
• Motorola DCT-6200 w/ IEEE 1394 Out
• Microsoft Remote Keyboard for Windows XP Media Center Edition
• Logitech Harmony 880 Advanced Universal Remote

A list of your SnapStream components

• Snapstream Beyond TV 3.7
• Snapstream Beyond TV Link (in bedroom and study – not pictured… yet)
• Snapstream Beyond Media Extender (I WISH!!!)

It’s time to showcase another SnapStream Digital Living Room. This one was submitted to us by Jason C., Cisbmet1 on Flickr.

He has a big screen TV with his entertainment components stacked neatly beside it in a glass case. He uses Beyond TV 3 as his DVR software.

Check out his living room and what Jason has to say on our website. Don’t forget to also take a look at his server room, equipped with six PCs!

Help us keep the Digital Living Room Showcase going by submitting your digital living room photos to us.

Digital Living Room FIVE(8/15/05)
Submitted via Flickr by: Jason Carroll

“My living room has component grade HTPC, X3 XBOX, Omnifi wireless car and home system, SnapStream Beyond TV 3. Awesome system.”

Components

In his server room…

• 6 PCs
• Video Security system
• 3.75Ghz
  gaming machine with 2 terrabytes of space, 4 gig ram
• XT850 video card
• 3.5ghz Business computer, Linux FTP server, Windows advance
  power server 2003 machine
• Windows 2000 advance server machine
• State of the
  art in computer hardware
• XPS 17inch widescreen laptop
• Over 125K in computer
  equip

Here it is again…another installment of the SnapStream Digital Living Room.

This time, we have a SnapStream-powered ‘family’ entertainment center. Optikhog didn’t mention the specs on the boy in the photo, but I must say, he’s tres cute. Where can we get one of those?

All joking aside, we chose this living room not only on the cuteness factor, but also on the way that it pleases both functionally and aesthetically. It is a PC-entertainment powerhouse that’s tucked neatly inside an armoire. Sigh…what more can one ask for?

As always, this is an ongoing project, so you can continue to submit your digital living room. Can’t wait to see the new setups when Beyond TV 4 hits the stores, well, the SnapStream Online Store.