SnapStream Beyond TV 3: Television Without Limits

by SNAP

Product Features

• Media server that changes PC into a TV/DVR combo
• Pause live TV; use instant replay; skip forward or back
• Program guide; search for shows by title
• Skip commercials or parts of TV shows in one click
• Shrink files and replay them on portable devices

Product Details

Product Manual [4.99mb PDF]

• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00022I1FC
• Item model number: BTV3-RETAIL
• Date first available at Amazon.com: June 14, 2004
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #15,790 in Software (See Top 100 in Software)
  • #46 in Software > Home & Hobbies > Movies & Television
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Beyond TV 3 brings powerful PC television recording within everyone's reach. No more video tapes or VCR timers to fumble around with -- stream it live to any PC device in your home, across an 802.11b or Ethernet network. Watch, pause, rewind and record your favorite TV shows on your PC using Beyond TV's simple and easy-to-use ViewScape interface. No subscription fee is required; scroll through local listings, change channels and set up new recordings with the integrated program guide.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

45 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Almost Perfect DVR program! Better than TiVO and no fees!, November 16, 2004

By 

nVeeGreen (SCW, AZ) - See all my reviews

This review is from: SnapStream Beyond TV 3: Television Without Limits (CD-ROM)

Beyond TV 3 is a great DVR program. I use this program to pause and record Live TV and all the cool things that TiVO does without the monthly fees. Plus, at the Snapstream website, you can download updates to the software for free and if you want, you can download Beta versions of Beyond TV and experiment with it. The current release supports more than 1 TV tuner cards and 2 are enabled for free so you can record a show and watch a different one at the same time.

Remote recording is great and I can schedule any recording that I want from any internet connected computer. Even better, I can stream Live TV and my recorded shows to just about any internet connected computer. Snapstream provides the TV / Program guide for free and is integrated nicely. The listings update automatically and you can search for programs well into the next week. Superfast setup to record an entire season of General Hospital or The Amazing Race.

After just a few short weeks, you will have hours upon hours of shows recorded and you will be a true TV junkie. With a 250 GB hard drive, at the highest quality setting, I can record about 80 hours of MPEG-2 quality TV. Play with the quality settings and I can record more than 300 hours in very good quality. Do you know how many shows that is?

You can also ShowSqueeze a recorded show which is Beyond TV's ability to compress a large file (3 GB 1 hour show) to a smaller (1 GB 1 hour show) without losing quality. SmartSkip goes through your recorded shows and marks where the commercials are so you can skip through them easily. VERY HANDY!

Even though my wife and I simply refer to it as TiVO, it's not and is wayyyyyy better. Give it a try. It works flawlessly with my DirecTV satellite system. Good support by Snapstream and has good user forums and knowledge bases.

Buy it. Bond with your TV.

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Product - once you get it installed!, March 26, 2005

By 

Jon Higby (Austin, Texas USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: SnapStream Beyond TV 3: Television Without Limits (CD-ROM)

Although it seemed to install OK, I couldn't get it to record for my life. I uninstalled and reinstalled twice. After lots of fooling around with the configuration I finally was able to record!

This thing is absolutely great. One of the first things you come to appreciate is the free online TV guide. With the guide I can find my show easily and then tell it to record all new episodes. It then skips old episodes and will even follow the show when it moves from one night to another (i.e. goes from Wednesday night @ 7pm to Thursday @ 8pm). Try that with your VCR!

Recordings can take up a ton of disk space - about 2.4 gig per hour. Beyond TV has an option where it will shrink the disk space required after the show completes. You can tell it to do the shrinking during non prime-time so it doesn't interfere with your usual work. Net effect is about 1/4 of the space is needed (.7 gig versus 2.4 gig) and I can't detect any quality difference!

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Easy & Convenient Recording, October 9, 2005

By 

Andy C. Szul - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: SnapStream Beyond TV 3: Television Without Limits (CD-ROM)

Beyond TV offers software that easily and conveniently records your favorite TV and cable shows.

Several features make this software a keeper. The programming guide updates automtically, allowing the user to pick any programs for recording. A built-in search function assists when looking for that favoite show. In addition, when you're away from home, Beyond TV and your computer will record exactly what you programmed.

Just make sure you're not using RealPlayer or Window Media when Beyond TV is recording. In some cases, we've found, the Beyond TV software stops recording.

Overall, an A+++. Finally, perhaps the best feature, you can skip commercials.