Beyond TV 4 announced, with OTA HDTV support
SnapStream have announced their next major rev will include support for HDTV recording and playback. This is pretty significant, as HDTV support in software PVR applications is still fairly new, with MythTV's HD playback in early stages. It sounds like Beyond TV will support at least four different HD tuner cards as well.
By all reports, Microsoft's Windows Media Center is holding off on support for (update: CableCARD, not OTA, which it already has) HDTV recording/playback until Longhorn is released next year, so for those running windows-based home theater PCs, BeyondTV may be the only choice for quite a while. so hopefully software PVR applications are soon to follow.
Microsoft keeps pushing back Cable HDTV, OTA HDTV has been supported for some time.
Posted by: Bryce | July 27, 2005 at 06:19 AM
Excuse me? Windows Media Center Edition 2005 has supported over-the-air HDTV since day one. The others are actually playing catch-up.
The missing piece of the puzzle, whoch no one has yet, is CableCard support. I've written about the details here:
http://www.edbott.com/weblog/archives/000800.html
Microsoft and all the other companies aren't "holding off" on anything. The hardware to decode HDTV over cable needs to exist first, and it needs to be approved by CableLabs.
Posted by: Ed Bott | July 27, 2005 at 06:24 AM
MCE2005 has had the same kind of HDTV support that Beyond TV is planning since it was released. Version 3 of SageTV, now in beta, will also support this kind of HDTV.
Posted by: Matt Welch | July 27, 2005 at 06:41 AM
What I like is part where a free upgrade is available for anyone "who purchases Beyond TV 3 starting today." Because according to UPS Package tracking, my SnapStream Media Center Suite will be arriving later today. Does anyone else have my kind of luck?
Posted by: Michael Pate | July 27, 2005 at 06:52 AM
heh, oops, you guys are right on the CableCARD stuff.
Posted by: Matt Haughey | July 27, 2005 at 08:41 AM
Michael, Don't worry, if you just bought it just e-mail our orders at snapstream.com address when Beyond TV 4 comes out and we'll take care of you. We're pretty accomodating in customer service on issues like this.
Rakesh
SnapStream
Posted by: Rakesh | July 27, 2005 at 09:18 AM
SageTV has recently released our latest V3 beta with OTA HDTV support which will be released in the coming weeks. For more information on supported cards, please see our website or user forums.
Posted by: Dan | August 02, 2005 at 08:20 PM
I've been using Beyond TV for a few years now and recently upgraded to 4.1 along with upgrading the hardware from a HTPC with an Athlon XP 2000 to an Athlon 64 3700. I've been recording the Winter Olympics HD OTA broadcasts, and it looks amazing on my 50-inch Samsung DLP. I'm saying goodbye to my cablebox after the end of this month.
Posted by: Charles | February 16, 2006 at 11:23 AM