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The Daily Show and Colbert Report changing video capture tech for the switch to HDTV
That switch to HD for The Daily Show and Colbert Report has more results than just a sharper image of their star hosts, but also the problem of capturing HD versions of the news clips presented for skewering daily. To achieve the goal of archiving more than 30 HDTV channels daily, the show is upgrading from the bank of TiVos it previously relied on to SnapStream Server, the business option from the guys behind BeyondTV. No word on exactly how it's pulling in the channels, Dave Zatz suggests ClearQAM, Happauge's HD PVR or component capture cards as possibilities, but it looks like a couple of years of development have reduced starter costs from $6,000 to $2,000, just in case your YouTube clip show needs a little more oomph.
Beyond TV 4.9 officially released, packs in placeshifting, h.264, ClearQAM for $99
Dumping the beta tag, Snapstream's officially rolled out the placeshifting, Clear QAM-compatible singing and dancing Beyond TV 4.9, rolling previously optional $29.99 h.264 and DVD burning plugins into the standard package, upping the pricetag for new users from $69 to $99 (upgraders who never bought the plugins and don't want them can still hop in for the old price). If watching place shifted TV via web browser isn't interesting enough by itself, Snapstream threw in beta support for the Hauppage HD-PVR, new Web admin features and more. Enough to convince you to upgrade, or dive into the build it yourself DVR market for the first time?[Via eHomeUpgrade]
BeyondTV 4.9 Beta adds placeshifting to the DIY DVR formula
Windows Media Center alternative BeyondTV is actually taking advantage of Microsoft's Silverlight technology for its latest feature, placeshifting recorded TV, Slingbox-style. Download Squad mentions the 4.9 beta release allows users to log in remotely via a webpage, view a list of stored programs, and select them for real-time transcoding and streaming. That's not all BeyondTV's added since we last checked in on version 4.3 -- real-time ShowSqueeze, the aforementioned Web Admin access and more make this worth a look. BeyondTV is $70, but there's a free trial if you've just got to start slinging HDTV around the neighborhood, or the world, right now.[Via Download Squad]
GB-PVR called "first" on the Hauppauge HD PVR over a month ago
Lots of HTPC fans have been salivating over the promise of the Hauppauge HD PVR. That pesky "analog hole" looks like it might be the best solution for our imperfect tech world. Without integrated Windows MCE support yet, the race is on to deliver some PVR software that's step above the bundled apps. SageTV has already tantalized us with advance info on the hardware, so you know support in its product is coming soon. Now we see that SnapStream has a prototype unit in its mitts, so you can assume it's cooking in everything needed for Beyond TV. But neither of them is going to be first to deliver -- that honor goes to GB-PVR, which did a wayback machine number on us and built support in to its 1.2.9 release back on March 9th. Nice 0-day hardware support! Turns out the poor developer is just "too busy with other stuff" and doesn't have HD content to really show this off right now, though (they're located in New Zealand).UPDATE: The developer himself wants to clarify the motivation behind his quote: because he's in New Zealand, which uses DVB-T for free OTA HD, he personally doesn't have a need for the HD PVR. He thinks the HD PVR will be huge in N. America, though. Thanks for the clarification and the hard work, Graeme!Read - Hauppauge HD PVR on the SnapStream benchRead - GB-PVR announced support for HD PVR in March
Your PSP can be a remote control
What do you get when you add Sony's LocationFree with BeyondTV, a PSP and a dash of inginuity? The ability to watch TV on your PSP! Since Sony unveiled the LocationFree application, PSP hacks like these have been fairly commonplace. From the annals of LocationFree FAQs, we wanted to resurface this particular video that we missed the first time around. The research this fella completed in order to get his remote working on the PSP certainly piqued our interest and warrants another look. The Tonight Show video looks pretty darn sharp, with nary a hint of lag. I do believe, this calls for watching TV poolside. [Via digg]
Ever want to stream HD to your neighbour's house?
The only thing we like better than watching HD is watching HD while streaming it wirelessly. In this quest we have streamed it to our Xbox360 and via 802.11G from our HDHomeRun, but the guys over at the SnapStream Blog has one up'ed us and are streaming HD 6 houses away! They are using off the shelf antennas and a router that can be picked up anywhere. They were able to achieve 28Mbps maximum throughput which is more than enough to stream HD between their Snapstream BeyondTV DVRs.
SnapStream's Beyond TV 4.3 now with ShowSqueeze
It never fails when Microsoft releases a product it is seldom the best, but since it is so readily available *Read Free* it's easy to forget about the competition. Whether you are Citrix, PC-Anywhere or Snapstream, you have differentiate yourself by including some great features the Microsoft fans will have to wait for the next big release to get. The DIY DVR market isn't any different and Beyond TV has just raised the ante with 4.3. This is a great release for HD fans, it not only doesn't requires an NTSC tuner, but now it includs some additional HDTV specific features that you won't find in MCE. The biggest new feature for HD fans is ShowSqueeze, you might be thinking that squeezing your shows is a bad thing, but hard drive space can be expensive. An accompanying feature called StreamSnip will strip away unwanted sub channels, you know that weather map and ShowSqueeze will automatically compress the shows with the latest CODECs to help you save space without sacrificing PQ. Beyond TV 4.3 now supports DivX 6.1 as well as the latest ATI Theater 650 chipset, which is the first to include a hardware encoded NTSC tuner and ATSC tuner on one chip.Look forward to a full review, since SnapStream was nice enough to send us a copy for the HD Beat labs.
WatchHDTV: freeware for recording high-def
There are plenty of alternatives to Windows Media Center for recording high-def signals on a PC, but there's always room for one more, right? WatchHDTV just popped up on our radar as a three program suite that supports the ATI HDTV Wonder, DIVCO FusionHDTV, and AverMedia A180 high-def cards. From the limited information on the WatchHDTV site, this is more of a "hands on" type of application as opposed to commercial software such as SnapStream's BeyondTV 4. C'mon, who hasn't gotten their hands dirty under the the hood? We've got some other review units and software in the queue, so we won't get to this for a bit; give us a shout if you've used this or decide to take the plunge. (via The F-Stop Blues)
BeyondTV 4 review @ eHomeUpgrade
eHomeUpgrade took a look at the latest version of the software, this time featuring HDTV suppport, and seem to be very impressed. The ability to recognize multiple tuners, DVR functions, and OTA HDTV support weigh heavily in BeyondTV's favor, it can even compress shows using DivX, unlike Windows Media Center's built in software.Anyone thinking about building a HTPC should definitely take a look at this review, it's a powerful bit of software that should work well for anyone wanting to watch HDTV on their PC.