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Beyond TV posts

Filed under: Fun, Video, Features, Windows, Commercial

SnapStream Beyond TV 4.0 Review

Product Description

SnapStream's Beyond TV product is a Windows-based Personal Video Recorder (PVR) similar to TiVo or Microsoft's Media Center PC television functionality. It allows you to take any Windows PC (that meets the hardware requirements) and use it to pause and rewind live television, as well as schedule shows to be recorded based on a number of different schedules.

The Beyond TV moniker was applied to SnapStream's offering back when they transitioned from version 2 to version 3 of what was then simply known as SnapStream Personal Video Recorder. The Beyond TV branding allowed SnapStream to branch out into other areas, such as Beyond Media (photos, music and home video management), Beyond TV Link (watching shows from remote computers), and even into hardware with their Firefly brand of remote controls. For the purposes of this review, we'll be sticking to Beyond TV 4.0, which was released late in 2005.

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Filed under: Fun, Video, Windows, Commercial, Shareware

Beyond TV 4.0

I’ve been a SnapStream customer since before their product was called Beyond TV, and rarely have I gone through an upgrade to such a complicated and historically finicky piece of software that was as painless as the upgrade to version 4.0 was this time around. It made me not mind that I had to pay for the upgrade. Beyond TV is a Windows-based PVR (Personal Video Recorder) software package that allows you to turn a PC into a souped up Tivo. If you have the inclination to take a relatively modest PC - mine runs on a 4 year old AMD Duron 700 machine running at 900 MHz with 512 MB of RAM - and swap out a few parts, you can have yourself a PVR that gives you complete control of your shows.

Among Beyond TV’s best features include the fact that it records all video in the relatively ubiquitous MPEG 2 format, with no encryption or other impediments to moving it around. It can also transcode video to smaller formats like Microsoft’s Windows Media or now DivX, which makes the video that much more portable. You can get video off of your Tivo, but I guarantee it isn’t nearly as easy.

While there are still odd hiccups in Beyond TV 4.0, it’s a must-upgrade for any current Beyond TV users, and well worth downloading the trial version for anyone considering making their own PVR.

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