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.

Here’s a photograph of the Hauppauge HD PVR prototype board itself — everyone had to be careful to ground themselves before handling it.

Here’s another pic of the HD PVR all wired up to a digital source via component video cables (those are the blue, green and red cables).

This one shows the HD PVR in action — the red light means Beyond TV is busy making a recording off this thing when the photograph was taken.

The final product — some good ‘ol baseball recorded on the Hauppauge HD PVR in Beyond TV

A close-up of the same frame (I took it without a flash, holding the camera in my hand, so there might be a slight blur)

For those that are new to building their own PC DVR, the HDHomeRun is a great TV tuner if you want to use Beyond TV to record the unencrypted channels on your digital cable feed. Our original (and now slightly outdated) how-to on using Beyond TV and the HDHomeRun can be found here.

So head over to the SnapStream Store and get yourself a Beyond TV and Hauppauge HVR-1600 bundle (my recommendation because the HVR-1600 a) is a dual tuner TV card — you can record both one analog channel and one over-the-air digital channel at the same time, b) includes an IR blaster with code library, so you if you want to record from your digital cable or satellite signal, it’ll tune your set-top box, and c) has a hardwareMPEG-2 encoder, so the heavy lifting of encoding the analog signal is handled by the TV card and not by your computer’s CPU). And then use Adam’s trusty guide to get the TV tuner card installed. As Adam writes in the article:

Sound scary? Be not afraid. Installing hardware in your computer is not as difficult as it may seem. In fact, installing a PCI card is a relatively simple and painless process.

(And in case you’re reading this Adam: you should try the latest version of Beyond TV… we think you’ll like it.)

What would you do with a free $671.88 each year?

You could get a new Quad Core cpu or a PS3 (not to mention a Wii AND Xbox 360) or go on a cruise or do like me and buy a new Canon Rebel XT DSLR. Sounds good, right? So where oh where did I find my free Benjamins?

Simple, I got rid of my cable tv.

A couple of years ago, after another rate hike and a bad customer service experience, I took the plunge and canceled my cable. I was just fed up. It took about two weeks before I got over missing my Food TV, but the withdrawal was truly minimal. Looking back on that decision, I’m very happy I made it.

In fact, I’ve come up with 10 good reasons I heart my over-the-air antenna.

1. No equipment to break
The antenna in my attic is a large hunk of metal. In 30 years, it will still be the same large hunk of metal. Short of something dropping on it (which would probably affect my whole house too as this means my roof is collapsing), it’s not going to spontaneously bend or break. Say that for your cable company box or DVR.

2. Never have to call customer service
I realize that monopolies are traditionally the best at customer service, but for some reason I never felt like a truly valued customer when I would call to discuss a technical matter. Usually, I would be blamed for not knowing how to operate my equipment or be told that the lines inside of my house must have spontaneously frayed (which would be expensive for them to fix if that was the case). My antenna’s customer service line is me. “Are you pointed in the right direction?” “Yes” “Ok, thanks”

3. Most of the programming is in HD
When I turned on this season of Hell’s Kitchen and saw it was in HD, I wouldn’t have been more surprised if I woke up with my head stapled to the carpet. (I wonder who gets that reference) Most everything is in HD. Local news, reality shows, in-car cameras from Nascar…. everything. And with Beyond TV hooked to my plasma, it looks freakin awesome.

4. It’s free
This is one of the few things in life that are truely free.

4.5 The price doesn’t go up
A corollary to #4, the price of free doesn’t go up faster than inflation. How is it that my cable was $30 seven years ago and has now doubled? That’s not just inflation. And seriously, I realize there is “more” content now, but is there still anything good to watch on cable?

5. Subchannels are cool and are starting to get good programming
For a while, it was just three copies of the local radar, but now it’s starting to get good. The ABC affiliate here actually has a pretty good 24 hour newsish channel. I look forward to seeing how much good content actually gets put on the subchannels in the next couple of years.

6. My dvr is better than any rentable DVR
I have yet to find a cable company DVR that’s really worth it, in my opinion. Not to slam the competition or anything, but have they actually used their boxes? As a long-time PC DVR user, I know what’s available and the cable company’s DVRs are not even close.

7. Don’t have to use a cable box to get all of the channels
I could go on a long rant here, but suffice it to say, if the cable company really wants my business, they’ll find a way to let me use cablecard through my choice of software on my choice of PC.

8. There is enough programming to keep me behind in my viewing
Once I got over the initial shock of not being able to record from one billion channels at once, I found that local broadcast has a ton of shows. With a DVR in the mix, I record a combination of news, daytime, primetime and public broadcast tv. All together, I’m way behind on my viewing and not lacking in stuff to watch.

9. The signals are not recompressed
The cable company seems to add a touch of compression when sending down the HD programming. This really annoys me. The signal from my antenna is received exactly as the broadcaster intended me to see.

10. Never have to wait for the cable guy
I can do my installation at 2am on a weekend night and nothing can stop me (short of falling off the roof). Also, it really doesn’t take a genius to hook up an antenna. Most houses can just reuse the wiring already in the walls to push the signal through. The entirety of an antenna setup is an antenna and a long piece of cable, hard to mess that up, even if you don’t rock the technical setup thing.

So do I suggest you give it a shot? Absolutely!
It’s as easy as not watching cable for two weeks to see if you can bear it. If you can, call the cable company, ax your service and then take yourself out to Red Lobster in celebration of your newfound funds. If it turns out that there are still a couple of shows you can’t miss, maybe you can find a way to get your fix via iTunes or one of the other online video services available. Even if you have to pay a little per show, it probably doesn’t add up to $60 a month.

For people interested in having Beyond TV receive over the air HD, there is a whole run down on our hdtv setup center.

With the HDHomeRun network tuner and a cable TV connection (no set-top box required) you can record free unencrypted (clear) QAM HDTV in Beyond TV. The digital signal comes through a standard coax cable feed, originating from your cable company. Most cable providers today will at least push a standard and hi-def version of the major networks (e.g. ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX) as clear QAM channels.

Note: in order to use the HDHomeRun you need to subscribe to regular cable (e.g. Time Warner or Comcast) and, because the HDHomeRun works over a network connection, you must have a wired (at least 100 Mbps recommended) home network.

Read more about setting up the HDHomeRun with Beyond TV in this how-to blog article.

Last month, we quietly released a version of Beyond TV (4.6.1) that supports Silicon Dust’s HDHomerun Digital QAM dual tuning device. What does this mean to you?? If you are up to a little setup, it means you no longer have to rely on an over-the-air ATSC signal—instead, you are able to directly tune non-encrypted (Clear) QAM channels from over your coax cable. No more unpredictable thunderstorms interfering with your recording of LOST or Heroes!

Shortly after we released version 4.6.1, I became intrigued with the idea of setting up the HDHomerun with my Beyond TV box at home. My motivation stemmed mostly from times when I came home to find that my HD recordings would cut off halfway through a show or were garbled at points during playback. As many existing over-the-air users may be able to attest to, dropping and unreliability of over-the-air signals can be a bit annoying. My other contributing motivation was to see if I could set it up myself—a non-technical person who works in sales/marketing for SnapStream.

Note: Over-the-air HD or Clear QAM tuning devices can be added on to Beyond TV at any time. Because of the complexity of setting up Clear QAM, I would recommend to users that you start out by setting up Beyond TV with analog or digital cable before trying to set it up with Clear QAM.

So I was ready to get rolling on the setup of the HDHomerun! My enthusiasm could hardly be contained—then I looked at a tutorial on how to set the HDHomerun up with Beyond TV. I was deflated at the thought of going through the several pages of required setup—could it really be this complicated to set up? I was determined to get an answer to my question, so I proceeded.

WHAT IS CLEAR QAM?

Before we get started– a little information on what QAM actually is. In layman’s terms, QAM is digital cable without a set-top-box. More specifically, Clear QAM is unencrypted digital cable without a set-top-box.

In more technical terms, Clear QAM can be described as an unencrypted video signal that is sent through standard coax cable from cable providers in a digital format. Most cable providers today will at least push a standard and hi-def version of the major networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX) through their coax lines to customers. I say at least because oftentimes, additional Clear QAM channels are made available by the cable companies. Though Clear QAM is not quite cable card support, it is a step in the right direction.

BACKGROUND

A little info on my setup to set the scene… I live in Houston-proper, about 10 minutes from downtown. My cable connection is Comcast (formerly Time Warner in the Houston market) and I have 2 analog tuners and 2 ATSC tuners connected to my Beyond TV box.

The following are required to use the HDHomerun with Beyond TV:

• Home network
• Beyond TV 4.6.1 or higher
• Silicon Dust HDHomerun device
• Coax cable connection

The setup that I followed when setting the HDHomerun up can be found on our forums, authored by Jason, our head Beyond TV developer. I’ve combed through Jason’s post and restructured his setup into a more layman’s terms setup below (for people like me).

Jason’s HDHomerun Setup: http://forums.snapstream.com/vb/showthread.php?t=38859

SETUP PROCESS

The high-level explanation to get the HDHomerun to work with Beyond TV is to scan through the QAM channels available on your coax cable, determine which ones are not encrypted, and finally map the unencrypted channels that are found to an existing SnapStream.net lineup so you are able to get program guide data for your QAM channels.

A detailed setup process is as follows:

1- Plug the HDHomerun into the wall, connect both of the tuners up to a coax cable, and finally plug a network cable from your home network into the back of the unit.

When you plug the HDHomerun into your network, make sure you see the green network light (as seen in the figure above). This light indicates a successful connection to the network.

2a- Download the HDHomerun setup program. [NOTE: do not download the latest driver on SiliconDust's website. Download the driver directly from this article.]

2b- Upgrade to the latest version of Beyond TV (4.6.1). (Download here).

2c- Download and unzip the HDHomerun channel mapper utility.

3- Run the HDHomerun setup program (downloaded above in step 2a).

Note: When running through the setup wizard, you may be asked to install .NET version 2.0 and a video viewing client called VLC. If you do not have these prerequisites, the wizard will automatically download and install these for you.

4- After completion of the HDHomerun setup wizard, the next step is to scan your cable for available QAM channels. To do this, click:

– Start –> Run –> type in ‘command’ (brings up a command prompt)
– In the command prompt, navigate to: ‘C:\Program Files\Silicondust\HDHomeRun’
– From the command prompt, type:

‘hdhomerun_config FFFFFFFF scan /tuner0 channels.txt’ and press enter (see figure below).

After pressing enter, a scan will occur that searches for QAM channels and saves the results to a file called channels.txt. This text file is saved in your HDHomerun directory and is used when you later map your channels. This scan could take up to 10 minutes, so be patient!

5- After the scan has completed, unzip the Channel mapping utility into the same folder as your HDHomerun software: \Program Files\SiliconDust\HDHomerun. Now launch the executable file HDHRQamMapper.exe.

Channel Mapping Utility: HDHRQamMapper.exe screenshot

6- Click on the “Import�? button on the top right of the utility. This will allow you to import the channels.txt file that was just created after your scan. After the channels.txt file is imported, a list of every channel will populate the list. The next step is to figure out which channels in this list are unencrypted, and for the ones that are not, what channels they actually are.

7- To do this navigate to “C:\Program Files\Silicondust\HDHomeRun�? and launch the hdhomerun_config_gui.exe application.

hdhomerun_config_gui.exe screenshot

8- In the “Channel�? dropdown box, select “qam�?. Next, type in the respective channel number to the right of the “Channel�? drop-down box (as shown in figure below), and then select the appropriate subchannel in the “Program�? drop-down list. Finally, click on “Launch VLC�?. This will launch a playback window that plays back live content for the channel that you have just told the device to tune to.

9- As you go through each of the channels in the HDHRQamMapper utility, you are able to mark a channel as active, as well as give it a Major/Minor and Physical channel name. Finally, you are able to give it a friendly name or callsign (see figure below).

Note: The ‘physical’ channel name should be a unique number between 2-69. The combination of the major and minor numbers make up the channel that will appear in the SnapStream.net guide (Example– Major channel: 72, Minor channel: 1 = 1721 in SnapStream.net program guide). Additionally, the first half of the virtual channel should be a number between 1-99.

10- After you have marked which channels you wish to access with Beyond TV, click on “Save�? in the HDHRQamMapper utility. This will create a new file named “C:\hdhomerun_bda.remap�?.

11- We’re almost there… stay with me!

12- Navigate to: http://www.snapstream.net/configure/CustomLineupWizard.aspx in a web browser.

13- The next step is to import an existing SnapStream.net channel lineup that includes the QAM channels that you plan to tune to. We will remap the channel numbers in this preexisting SnapStream lineup to correspond to the channels that you just created with the HDHRQamMapper utility. Click on “Import Lineup�? (make sure to keep the lineup type as “Digital�? in the drop-down list).

14- Go through the channel lineup wizard, eventually selecting a channel lineup that includes all of the channels that you wish to tune via QAM (in my case, I select Cable –> Comcast Houston Digital –> Premium Tier).

Click on finish at the end of the import process. Next, check the channels that you will tune via QAM. In my example, I have checked 6 channels (see figure below).

After checking the channels that you wish to tune, click on “Import�? at the bottom of this screen.

15- Open your ‘C:\hdhomerun_bda.remap’ file in any standard text editor.

According to the hdhomerun_bda.remap file, populate the Physical Channel, Major Channel and Minor Channel in the “Import Wizard�? screen (as seen above). Once you have populated each of the channels in the SnapStream.net configuration list, click on Save and Exit.

We have created our mapped custom lineup. Next we will add the HDHomerun tuners to Beyond TV by going through the setup wizard.

16- After you have upgraded to Beyond TV 4.6.1 (as instructed to do in step 2b), make sure Beyond TV is completely shut down, and click on: Start –> Programs –> SnapStream Media –> Beyond TV –> Beyond TV Setup Wizard. Click “Next�? in the setup wizard until you get to the “Video Source�? screen.

Highlight “Add a New Source�? and click “Next�?.

17- Select “Antenna (Digital), click “Next�?.

18- Select either of the “Silicondust HDHomeRun Tuner 1010…..�? from the drop-down list and choose “Next�?.

19- On the next screen choose, “Select and existing lineup�? and press “Next�?.

20- Select the lineup that you just created in the SnapStream.net import wizard, which will be named “Custom Lineup�? if you did not rename it, and press “Next�?.

21- Select “stop autoscan�? and check the checkboxes for each of the channels that you wish to include. Press “Next�?

22- Step through the rest of the setup wizard and finally, launch Beyond TV. From the SnapStream.net Program Guide within Beyond TV, press the ‘U’ key, which will force a guide update. Doing a guide update will import the new channel information associated to the QAM channels into the program guide.

23- That’s it! Enjoy your new QAM channels.

CONCLUSION

With a little overhead, it is possible to enjoy unencrypted QAM using Silicon Dust’s HDHomerun with Beyond TV. My nights of uncertainty on whether an HD recording has successfully completed are over! My initial question of, “can it really be this complicated to set up?” has been answered. Although complex, the principle on which setup is based on is straight-forward. If you would like a solid and reliable HD recording solution, the HDHomerun is, in my opinion, a good option.

Here is the problem: you have a DVR/HTPC hooked up to your TV downstairs, but you have other televisions in your house you wish to use to access the HTPC. How do you distribute the Audio/Video signal to these other television sets?

One solution to this problem is using the Crossbar MediaCaster, which was kindly provided to me for review by SnapStream Media.

The basic idea of this hardware is that you are creating a “private access channel” AKA Avcast® entertainment network, which is provided content from any device that outputs an RCA signal.

In the box:

• 1 x CableCaster – Establishes the Avcast entertainment network
• 1 x MediaCaster – Provides the content for the Avcast network
• 1 x IRcaster – sends IR signal over the Avcast network
• 1 x IRdetector – receives IR signal
• 1 x Notch filter – filters a channel range to allow Avcast network to utilize a channel
• 2 x Coax Cable – to connect MediaCaster/CableCaster to coax network
• 1 x RCA Cable set – to connect HTPC to MediaCaster

The setup of the system is rather complicated and requires that you both have access to, and know the setup of your home coax system which is already built into the majority of homes constructed in the past 30 years. If you have cable television, then you most likely have this internal network already set up.

Step 1:

Locate where the cable comes into your house. You need to intercept it where it splits off to go into separate ends of the house.

The CableCaster unit plugs in here. Also you will need A/C power. There is a plug for input – the input cable from your cable provider. Also in between the cable provider and the CableCaster goes the Notch Filter. This device blocks a channel range, so that the CableCaster can broadcast on this channel.

Step 2:

The MediaCaster is then plugged into your cable network near or at your HTPC. You will need to have access to the coax network in your home if you don’t already have this near your HTPC. You will also need A/C power.

Step 3:

Plug your Audio/Video device (in this case, a DVR running SnapStream BeyondTV). This means you will need to output the video and audio in RCA format – so make sure you have the necessary cables/converters to do this.

Step 4 (optional):

At the remote end, connect the IR Caster and IR Receiver to the coax network. This will allow you to use an IR remote control in a remote location relative to the IR receiver. The signal will be broadcast over the Avcast network to the MediaCaster unit.

In my case, I used the BTC Wireless Remote and Firefly remote, which were both able to reach to my upstairs room and control my PC.

Now that everything is set up, you can see my remote TV with my HTPC desktop running!

I must admit, it was very cool to be operating my HTPC from another room while seeing the content broadcast over a CATV channel. This signal is now available from anywhere in my house – allowing me to enjoy my recorded content over any cable-equipped television set.

There are two drawbacks or flaws to using this system.

- First, the HTPC must output in 1.33:1 ratio format whereas I had it set up to output to my HDTV in widescreen format (16:9). I had to make sure my aspect ratio stayed in Standard format.

- Secondly, the notch filter also seemed to filter out content which it should not be filtering. Specifically, my Motorola set top box became useless. On Demand stopped working, as well as HDTV signal quality dropped dramatically – causes dropouts in signal.

These drawbacks really limit how you are able to use this system. In my case, my wife really relies on the OnDemand service from Comcast – so this is a deal breaker for me. If your cable TV provider is not Comcast, then you might not have this same problem. Also the system is fairly complicated to set up, so it is for advanced users only.

Final verdict:

Recommended
Recommended to those with advanced knowledge of cable/HTPC workings and specific requirements

Bug Fixes

– Recordings failing due to, “Could not attach to graph” error are no longer failing.
– Setup wizard now detects sound devices for software encode TV tuner cards.
– TV format settings now correctly being saved as NTSC or PAL in the Web Admin.
– AVerMedia M780 PCI express TV tuner now capable of using both of its onboard tuners simultaneously.
– Serial tuning satellite and set-top-boxes on COM ports higher than 9 can now be done.
– Meta-data no longer lost when copying video files.
– Manual recordings no longer being ended prematurely when the Beyond TV recording scheduler is rebuilt.
– Manual recordings made within the Beyond TV GUI are now being scheduled on the correct channel in cases where duplicate channels exist in a person’s lineup.

Improvements

– Library monitoring and performance improved.
– HDHomeRun (ATSC and QAM support) now supported.
– Serial tuning for DirecTV D11 Model 500 now supported.

The most significant feature in this release is support for unencrypted QAM… What is unencrypted QAM and what does it mean that Beyond TV supports it now?

I’ll elaborate in another blog posting, but in short, it means you can watch and record some of the channels on your cable connection in their pure digital form and, depending on the channel and programming, in high-definition as well. Getting this working does require some specific hardware and to get everything setup, but if this survey is any indication, this won’t deter many of you. Enjoy!

Existing Beyond TV 4 users: Get your free update to Beyond TV 4.6.1

For everyone else, download the free 21-day trial

(and if you’ve tried Beyond TV or the DVD Burning Plug-in before, you’ll get a new 21-day trial period with Beyond TV 4.6.1)