Firefly

Was: $49.99
Is: $29.99

Firefly Mini

Was: $29.99
Is: $17.99

Enter the coupon code: boxee when checking out for free shipping. Sale ends October 27th and starts RIGHT………..wait for it ………..NOW.

So, when Hulu announced they were releasing their own desktop application I was pretty excited. After downloading the desktop application, and playing around with it I thought to myself, “You know what would be really amazing? A remote control!” You know to give me the relaxing watching TV feeling. Having Beyond TV setup at home I decided to see if maybe my FireFly Mini Remote could fill this role. And guess what? It did! Victory is mine! Now off to test the capabilities of the FireFly Mini Remote with Hulu. As far as functionality, I really just need to navigate the surprisingly simple Hulu interface. It only requires Up, Down, Left, Right, Enter and Back.

Test: Using the arrows I cruise on over to Burn Notice (Scrolling. Check.). I click OK and choose the latest episode. Click OK again and it starts playing (Able to play. Check). My phone rings and I hit OK again (It pauses. Check.). What did he just say? Hold the left arrow down to backtrack. (It rewinds/forwards. Check.) In the end, being able to use the FireFly Mini Remote with my Hulu Desktop Application is useful and amazing!

Buy Now – $29.99

Download the Hulu Desktop application

Well, I have the answer for you.

Using a SnapStream TV Server, I recorded all of the broadcast networks over their analog signal overnight 6/12/09.
I then found each of the cutoffs and clipped them out into one video.
You’ll see some that were signed off kindly, some static and some that just didn’t get it right.

Read more about it on our TV Searcher blog (that’s our blog dedicated to our Enterprise business).

City of Austin’s City Hall building

Here’s an overview of the City of Austin’s story… (read more)

• Stratatech automates TV recording and analysis with SnapStream (February 25, 2009): an in-depth look at how Stratatech is using SnapStream to monitor and analyze television
• SnapStream gets namecheck’ed at Republican tech event (February 18, 2009): In an article on Slate.com, Christopher Beam mentioned that SnapStream got a nice shout-out at the Republican Party’s Tech Summit
• VHS is memorialized… in craft. (February 11, 2009): a collection of photographs showing cool and unusual uses for old VHS tapes
• Industry Spotlight: Using TV to Enhance Curriculum in K-12 Schools (January 29, 2009): how K-12 schools are using SnapStream servers to bring TV into the classroom
• SnapStream TV Search in Action: Plane Crash in the Hudson (January 22, 2009): how quickly could you publish a story on a plane crash?
• Chatting With FreshDV’s Matt Jeppsen About How “The Soup” and Others Are Using SnapStream (January 6, 2009): Rakesh talks with Matt about how different industries – including entertainment programs like “The Soup” – are using SnapStream TV search servers
• The era of VHS tapes and VCRs is ending (December 26, 2008): Rakesh shows off a collection of photographs of lots of old VHS tapes, VCRs, and finally, some more tapes
• Searching television for breaking news (December 5, 2008): Rakesh talks with Matt about how different industries – including entertainment programs like “The Soup” – are using SnapStream TV search servers

* If you’re wondering what SnapStream Enterprise is, it’s our TV search technology. Like Beyond TV, it lets you record television. But unlike Beyond TV, SnapStream Enterprise also allows you to search inside those TV shows to locate mentions of whatever you might be looking for on television… a celebrity, a political candidate, a topic you’re writing about, your government, a country, a person, etc. And it’s delivered on turn-key pre-configured hardware (the SnapStream Mini and the SnapStream Server).

We simply takes the data that we received from Tribune and we pass it down to Beyond TV users.  So for your line-up to get fixed, we need to let Tribune know about your problem so they fix it in their data feed.

While we’re working as fast as we can to take discrepancy reports and pass them to Tribune, the fastest way to get Tribune to fix your line-up is to contact them yourselves.  Per the instructions on Zap2It.com, you can submit a channel line-up discrepancy report to Tribune by emailing them the following information at feedback@zap2it.com:

Please fill-in the “Subject:” line as “Lineup Discrepancy,” and include the following information or your request will not be processed:

• Cable System Name (please copy exactly from our list of providers)
• Specific Description of Problem (channels missing or incorrect, program data incorrect, date/time of specific occurrence, etc.)
• Provider Phone Number
• Provider Service (cable, satellite)
• Apartment or Hotel Complex Name (if applicable)
• City
• State or Province (and country if outside of the United States)
• Zip or Postal Code

While I don’t recommend it, as a quickfix you could create a custom line-up using the same technique used for the HDHomeRun to customize an existing line-up and re-arrange the channels yourself.  But if you do this, you’ll lose the ability for Beyond TV to automatically update your program guide in the future.  You can find more information about customizing your line-up in this thread on the SnapStream forums.

Mentioned in the article is rolling your own DVR using a TV tuner card and 3rd party software (like our Beyond TV).

They also mention using iTunes, Airport Express and an iPhone or iPod Touch [link] to achieve “whole home audio” akin to what you get from a Sonos. This setup is a big hit at my house — now my family can listen to any of our music in the backyard (apologies to my neighbors).

Check out the Lifehacker article for more solid ideas.