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]

[orbital Posted Dec 4th 2008 12:30PM]

now, if they can only overlay the guide data on top of current show that's playing without it stopping playback like VMC is able to do. until they make this happen, Vista MC will earn the primary spot in the living room and BTV will remain in backup/overflow DVR duty, even with no QAM on VMC.

Still, QAM in BTV is great news and I'll be trying it this weekend.

[Tired Posted Dec 4th 2008 3:08PM]

Yawn. I bought BeyondTV years ago, on the promise of integration with BeyondMedia, as an alternative to XP MCE. Now, BeyondMedia hasn't been updated in forever, integration doesn't look any closer, and Vista Media Center slaughters it in almost every way (SmartSkip is the only real advantage for me, and that's not nearly enough to make me want to put up with all the drawbacks). Shame on you, Snapstream, for fooling me once, but you won't fool me this time.

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 5th 2008 5:02PM]

FYI, we've stopped selling Beyond Media and it's been no secret for at least the last two years that we weren't actively developing on the Beyond Media product. I had openly posted about this in our forums along with the reasons why. We've also gladly given refunds to people who explicitly bought Beyond Media on the promise of the combination of Beyond TV and Beyond Media.

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 4th 2008 5:12PM]

be even better if placeshifting actually worked just get an unkown error when you try to play something placeshifted... other than that i'm a huge fan of beyondtv been running for over 2 years with 2 tuners and no recording issues ever.

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 4th 2008 7:30PM]

another note i tried to placeshift on my laptop using my aircard and it told me my internet must be powered by hamsters

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 5th 2008 12:09PM]

"now, if they can only overlay the guide data on top of current show that's playing without it stopping playback like VMC is able to do. until they make this happen,"

BTV does this if you are in D3D mode as opposed to overlay.

I think BTV is superior in some ways. But once everything goes digital, BTV is done.

[orbital Posted Dec 5th 2008 2:59PM]

I mean the whole guide, not just the mini-guide for channel changing. I have missed this if it does and I have it in D3D.

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 5th 2008 4:58PM]

To get the full program guide transparently displayed over live TV in Beyond TV, press F7 while watching live TV or a recorded program.

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 8th 2008 1:01AM]

Hmmm, F7 swaps the playback with the guide, but the guide is not transparent over the show.
A transparency setting?

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 5th 2008 5:02PM]

For anyone with problems with placeshifting (or in general), we'd like to hear from you in support.
http://www.snapstream.com/support/Support.aspx

If you have Vista64 or XP64 and get the unknown error, we already have a build that fixes the problem.