Beyond TV - Software for your DVR
So you’ve got your video card, sound card, and DVD drive picked out and now it’s time to get to the brains of your homemade Tivo. This means picking the software that will record TV shows. The first program I’ll discuss is Snapstream Media’s Beyond TV.
Price
Beyond TV is a commercial solution, but you can try it for free for a month. I personally bought my copy on eBay (with a remote) for only $50. I use BTV (as it’s abbreviated) because it has proven more reliable for me than Mediaportal’s TV recorder. While I’d love to use only free solutions, BTV simply works too well! I need to know that my shows will be there when I get home.
Why I Use BTV
- BTV is very reliable, never misses a recording
- Very professional, polished appearance
- Automatically compresses files (to save disc space)
- Detects commercials so you can skip right over them!
- Schedule recordings over the internet!
Limitations
BTV only handles television and will not play DVDs, manage TV series, organize music, or display your pictures. For this reason I use BTV in conjunction with a free program called Mediaportal. Snapstream makes a program called Beyond Media that handles DVD, music, pictures, etc but from reading the Snapstream forums, it seems that this program isn’t being worked on anymore. I’ll stick with Mediaportal.
Remotes
Snapstream makes two remote controls for BTV: the Firefly and the Firefly Mini. My copy of BTV came with the Firefly Mini. This is a very simple remote, designed simply to control BTV. Eventually I plan on upgrading my remote, but for now I can live with the mini. Using a program called LM Keymap, it is possible to get around the Mini’s limitations. Look for a future article about this.
Conclusion
Beyond TV is a great way to get television onto your computer. It is simple and requires no fiddling. Although I’d love to use only free, open source software, BTV simply works too well. I recommend it for your HTPC.