New! Beyond TV 4.9: Clear QAM + PlaceShifting

It never hurts to add a few major features to your HTPC software, however adding a couple of major HD tuning features is even better :). 

The first one, though somewhat less important these days, is support for Clear QAM tuning that allows the end-user to tune and record channels that are transmitted in unencrypted QAM.  John had a chance to look at the QAM setup in BTV and found it to be "brilliantly easy". I have no frame of reference here as have only dabbled in it from time to time.

Historically, BTV has had one of the best web interfaces in the market and they have managed to improve upon it by add a placeshifting video client that utilizes Microsoft’s Silverlight technology.

Finally, they have add "beta" support for the HD PVR. This release is a pretty major update to BeyondTV and brings with it a host of features that should be part of the HTPC world.

With the tech upgrade comes some change in their pricing. BeyondTV will now cost $99, up from the previous $70, but now includes the DVD burning plugin and H.264 plugin.

Click the read more link at the bottom for the release notes.

Click this link for the blog post from Snapstream.

Build 6073 | November 21, 2008

New Features

– QAM support
– Placeshifting
– Tech support upload through Web Admin
– Add recording-level setting for "max days" expiration
– StreamSnip on the fly for ATSC and QAM recordings
– Add option to tag recordings automatically with the name of user who scheduled them
– Create a new MPEG-2 transport stream demux
– Improved support for Hauppauge HD PVR
– Support Hauppauge HVR-2250

Bug Fixes

– ShowSqueeze from HD/QAM to iPod Classic/Nano no longer fails
– H.264 iTunes conversions no longer have audio/video sync on iPod Touch and iPhone 2.X firmware

Improvements

– The DVD Burning & H.264 Plug-In is now buit-in by default to Beyond TV and Beyond TV Link
– Add "send ENTER / OK / SELECT before channel change" option to IR blaster tuning
– Improved recorded shows section in the Web Admin
– Add Replace Showsqueeze (the oppisite of replace originals) to Recorded Shows views
– Various small useful tweaks to information displayed in the Web Admin
– Improved SmartChapter accuracy
– Improved SSL support in the Web Admin
– Faster Scheduler Startup
– Faster Library startup