- What video file
formats does Beyond TV support?
Beyond TV can record live TV in the
default MPEG-2 (.MPG) format, DivX format or Windows
Media (.WMV)
format. If you purchase the optional DVD Burning & H.264
Plug-in, Beyond TV will also support H.264 format.
Your TV tuner card can limit what formats
you can record directly to -- for example, most MPEG-2
hardware encode cards can only record directly to the MPEG-2
format (which isn't a bad thing -- these are the most popular
type of cards among our customers). By the same token,
some of Plextor ConvertX TV cards support recording to
both the DivX format and to the MPEG-2 format.
Finally, if you have a TV card without
any hardware encoding, you can pick to record directly
to MPEG-2, Windows Media or DivX (though this will increase
your CPU requirements).
Regardless of what format you record
to, you can always use ShowSqueeze to convert recordings
to other formats (either to save disk space or to make
shows portable).
- How much hard
drive space do I need?
The size of a recording depends upon the
file format, its length and the Beyond TV quality profile
selected for making the recording.
Use the charts below to determine how much
your system can record.
For digital cable, satellite, regular
cable and analog antenna
MPEG-2 format ("Good" quality
level):
| Hard Drive Space |
Recording Time |
| 10 GB |
5 hours |
| 20 GB |
11 hours |
| 40 GB |
22 hours |
| 80 GB |
44 hours |
| 120 GB |
66 hours |
Windows Media Format ("Good" quality
level):
| Hard Drive Space |
Recording Time |
| 10 GB |
7 hours |
| 20 GB |
12 hours |
| 40 GB |
27 hours |
| 80 GB |
53 hours |
| 120 GB |
80 hours |
DivX Format (Home Theater (High) quality
level):
| Hard Drive Space |
Recording Time |
| 10 GB |
15 hours |
| 20 GB |
31 hours |
| 40 GB |
62 hours |
| 80 GB |
123 hours |
| 120 GB |
185 hours |
For over-the-air digital / HDTV
| Hard Drive Space |
Recording Time |
| 10 GB |
1 hour |
| 40 GB |
4 hours |
| 80 GB |
9 hours |
| 120 GB |
13 hours |
| 240 GB |
27 hours |
- Can I burn my Beyond TV recordings
to DVD?
Yes. With Beyond TV 4's DVD
Burning & H.264 Plug-in, you can seamlessly record
TV shows with Beyond TV and then burn them to video or
data
DVDs. Learn more in the DVD Burning &
H.264 section of
the FAQ.
- How does ShowSqueeze™ work?
ShowSqueeze™ is how Beyond TV converts a recording
from one format and size to another. ShowSqueeze™ allows
you to save disk space and make your shows more portable.
Beyond TV 4 allows you to ShowSqueeze™ Windows
Media files (.wmv), MPEG-2 files (.mpg), MPEG-2 Transport
Streams (.ts)
and DivX files (.avi) to the Windows
Media format or DivX (.avi). Additionally, with the optional DVD
Burning & H.264 Plug-in, you are
able to ShowSqueeze™ your
recordings to H.264 format.
ShowSqueeze™ can be setup as a system-wide setting
or it can be configured to only run on certain recording
jobs. ShowSqueeze™ can also be configured to run
during off-peak hours, which you can specify, or it can
be configured to run as soon as a recording is made.
- How does SmartSkip™ work?
Beyond TV’s SmartSkip™ feature detects where
commercials and other breaks are located in a recorded
show. Then when you play back your recording, you can
jump between the different segments with the simple press
of
a button.
SmartSkip™ runs as a post-process job, after your
recordings are made. Like ShowSqueeze™, SmartSkip™ can
be configured to run immediately after recordings are made
or during off-peak hours. Depending on the power of your
PC's processor, SmartSkip™ might take 1 hour to
run on a 1 hour show, or it might take only 30 minutes.
And when you burn DVDs of your favorite shows with the DVD
Burning & H.264 Plug-in, SmartSkip™ chapters
get created on your DVD as well.
- Can I change video quality settings?
(recording bit-rate, resolution, and other parameters)
Yes, recording quality is highly customizable in Beyond
TV, but only for analog capture. The "Recording Preferences" section
of the "Configure" screen in the Web Admin
interface provides access to these settings. This is
extensively
documented in the Beyond
TV Help File.
- How can I use Beyond TV on a
television in my living room?
As mentioned above, Beyond TV works great in the living
room. There are a number of ways you can do use Beyond
TV in the living room.
You can build or buy a home theater PC (HTPC), put it
in your living room with your other home entertainement
components, and connect it directly to your television.
To do this, you would need a video card that includes TV-OUT
connection.
You can also connect an inexpensive digital media adapter
(such as Hauppauge's MediaMVP) to your living room television
and use it to share TV shows recorded in Beyond TV over
your home network. Because Beyond TV uses standard MPEG-2
to record TV shows, this works pretty well. MediaMVP users
should also see the posting on our blog about the MediaMVP
Beyond TV Interface.
- How does Beyond
TV’s remote recording feature work?
With Beyond TV's SnapStream.Net service, you can schedule
recordings while you are away from home. You can schedule
remote recordings from an PC web browser at http://www.snapstream.net/ and
on any mobile device with web access at http://mobile.snapstream.net/.
Remote recordings are retrieved by Beyond TV every thirty
minutes by default.
- When will guide data for my
country be supported by Beyond TV?
Beyond TV currently includes an integrated program guide
for the United States and Canada, through the SnapStream.Net
service.
With tvtv, a web-based electronic program guide geared
toward European countries, SnapStream's Beyond TV includes
support for Germany, Austria, Switzerland, UK, France,
Italy, Spain, Netherlands.
There is also third party support for something called
XMLTV. With 3rd
party XMLTV support, you can get integrated (as opposed
to web-based) EPG support for many different countries
around the world.
- How does tvtv work with Beyond
TV?
Our electronic program guide and tvtv’s are similar
in function. When you run the setup wizard for Beyond TV,
and enter your home country, Beyond TV will ask if you
want to use tvtv. You must then register with tvtv on their
website. Then, you can schedule recordings on the tvtv
website. Beyond TV pulls your recording requests from tvtv
and executes them as if you were using Beyond TV’s
own program guide.
- How many days of TV listings
do I get in the U.S. and Canada?
You receive data for the upcoming 14 days.
- I want to record straight to
DivX. How fast a processor do I need?
Based on internal testing, the minimum requirement for
DivX software encode is a 2.4 GHz P4 processor. With that
processor it's possible to record and playback DivX Portable
(Medium). Anything above that quality level may max out
the CPU and cause dropped frames or sluggish PC performance.
Prescott processors, however, can encode up to our highest
quality, DivX Home Theater (Highest), without any problems.
The slowest Prescott that we have tested this on is a 2.8
GHz HT model.
