Friendly, powerful, addicting to use, despite minor rough edges
Written: Jan 29 '04 (Updated Aug 25 '05)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Hardware compression, intuitive user interface, only a few bugs, a joy to use.
Cons: Can't record formats beside MPEG2. Somewhat complicated to set up.
The Bottom Line: This product combines performance, friendliness, and innovative features better than any other PVR system I've tried. Though it isn't perfect, it's close, and will change the way you watch TV.
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| tcchou71's Full Review: Beyond TV 3 and Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-250 Kit (PCI) ... |
Updated 8-25-2005.
I am now using Beyond TV version 3.7.4, and it has been over a year since I wrote my original review, which was for a much earlier version. Overall almost all of my original criticisms of this program have been fixed, and so I have revised much of the text below. It's very nice to see how well they've addressed the early problems, which related to video quality and high CPU usage. I believe that one reason they are so responsive may be the extensive and active discussion forums they provide, which help to find bugs and test fixes.
Snapstream recommends using a graphics card that is fully DirectX9 compatible, as explained here:
http://snapstream.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/snapstream.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=21
For what it's worth, my 8xAGP nVidia card worked very well with Beyond TV, while my other computer with on-board 82845 Intel graphics worked less well, showing much higher CPU utilization.
Beyond TV supports multiple TV tuners, but I only have one, so can't comment on the multiple tuner options.
I use SnapStream's Beyond TV software (version 3.4) with the WinTV PVR250. Of the many combinations of PVR software and hardware I tried, this pair gave me the best combination of quality, reliability, and ease of use. I bought these products so I could say goodbye to my VCR and fussing with VHS tapes, and I'm happy to say it's done all that and more, albeit with some rough spots.
Before finding the Hauppauge, I tried 4 other TV tuner cards: the ATI TV Wonder VE, ATI Radeon 9000, Pinnacle PCTV, and Hauppauge WinTV Theater. I also tried 3 other software products: ShowShifter, SageTV, and the Hauppauge WinTV TV/scheduler software bundled with the PVR250 card. I tried almost every possible combination of card and software. The PVR market is still young, and so every product, including the pair reviewed here, had some difficulties. But overall, the combination of the PVR250 and Beyond TV was by far the most reliable, user-friendly, and powerful.
The software and hardware both installed relatively easily, with the only difficulty being that I needed to update the drivers for the AC97 sound system on my motherboard. I also had to install the hardware drivers/remote control software BEFORE installing SnapStream's program, otherwise the remote control was not recognized. After that, everything worked correctly, which is unusual for PVR products in my experience.
I'm reviewing these products on an Athlon 3000+ computer with 1GB RAM running Windows 2000.
First the good things:
1. The PVR250 does the MPEG2 compression in hardware, giving near-DVD quality recordings with very low CPU usage. I.e. the computer is free to do other tasks, even while recording shows. For more details on this card, please see the extensive PVR250 review that I wrote elsewhere on this site - this review will focus mainly on the SnapStream software.
2. The SnapStream Beyond TV3 software (version 3.4) has the most intuitive and reliable interface of all the PVR programs I tried. The interface is uncluttered, yet contains all the things that most users need. For more advanced tweaks, there is a web-like interface that can be called up, which has many more options. Overall, the product has a pleasantly crisp look and feel, whereas most competing PVR products are still slightly unstable. I've used it for over a year and it rarely crashes outright, whereas many competing products would lock up or freeze occasionally. The program guide (grid with TV listings) integrates effortlessly with the recorder - you can click on any show, then select whether to record just that episode, all episodes, or all episodes excluding reruns.
3. SnapStream has a lot of handy features, several of which are quite innovative and not found on any other software that I know of. The program guide can be viewed as a transparent grid over the TV video, allowing you to watch an ongoing show while you browse other shows. This is very handy. The TV viewing window gives you a lot of information on demand, including the name and description of what you are currently watching. This is handy when surfing channels. You can automatically "pad" recordings to start a specified amount (e.g. 1 minute) early and end late, making sure the entire program gets recorded. After a show is recorded, the program can analyze it for probable commercial times - this unique feature makes it easier to fast-forward through ads.
4. If your computer has a steady internet connection, you can schedule recordings remotely - this is very cool!!! I.e. I can be at work, and remotely tell the computer to record some show that evening.
5. Although the PVR250 hardware only records to MPEG2 format, Beyond TV has a handy feature that recompresses files to windows media format after they are recorded. You can schedule the recompressions to occur in the background virtually unnoticed. The files typically get 3-4 times smaller, without noticeable loss of quality.
I have seen friends use TiVo, and it appears that this pair of products beats TiVo because: (1) there is no subscription fee for TV listings, (2) the features are better, (3) it is easy to write your recorded files to a CD or DVD (4) it is cheaper, assuming you already have a moderately fast computer. If I were TiVo, I would be frightened for the survival of my entire business model.
Now for the cons:
1. The volume buttons on my Hauppauge remote don't control the volume. To change the volume remotely, you have to use the yellow and blue buttons, which aren't labeled. The blue one increases volume, and the yellow one decreases it. This is very strange, but easy enough to get used to.
2. The "show-squeezer" feature, which recompresses video after it is recorded, occasionally fails completely. When this happens, it will make a very small windows media file that contains no video or audio. If you set Beyond TV to delete the original file after recompression, you will lose your entire TV show. Hence, I have to set the program to retain both the original and recompressed shows, and I delete the original only after checking if the recompressed file is OK. Somewhat annoying, but I can live with this.
3. Close captions are still not implemented. In the discussion forums, several users have discovered a way to enable captioning, but it is complicated and requires registry changes. The average user won't want to go through all that.
4. This program can wake up the computer from standby and/or hibernation mode when a recording occurs. This ought to be very handy, as it lets you turn off the computer but still make recordings. Unfortunately, recordings that occur right after the computer wakes up sometimes lack audio. Soemtimes it works, sometimes not. I can't figure out the pattern, and hence, I find myself unable to rely on this otherwise wonderful feature. If I want a recording to occur while I'm at work, I just turn on the computer before I leave the apartment.
Despite its limitations, this package is still very useful. I use it every day, and no longer use either my TV or VCR. The few rough edges point to the fact that computer-based PVRs are in their infancy. None of the PVR software/hardware products I tried worked completely smoothly, but this product came closer than the others, and was the most intuitive and fun to use.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
tcchou71
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Member: Elephant Seal
Location: Baltimore, MD
Reviews written: 53
Trusted by: 3 members
About Me:
I'm a behavioral neuroscientist/psychologist. The giant animal in the photo is an elephant seal.
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