Snapstream - the maker of Beyond TV, one of the easiest to setup and use software-based PVR applications has released an update to it's BeyondTV (Like Tivo except for PC's) software for Windows.
Snapstream's focus for Beyond TV continues to be on ease of setup, ease of use and powerful PVR functionality. This version (free for existing BeyondTV customers) includes a few significant features including the following:
- Record by saved, keyword searches (like Tivo). This is a very nice upgrade that lets you save a searched keyword string and BeyondTV will record anything in the future that matches that keyword. Imagine you are a University of Missouri Fan and wanted to record anything related to MU basketball and football. For this you could save a keyword search of missouri basketball or missouri football and BeyondTV will record anything that matches going forward.
- Frame by frame playback - With this feature you can pause and then use the arrow keys to move forward frame-by-frame. This is a nice feature for sports and any other programming where you want to see an event in super-slow-motion.
- Warning Notifications by e-mail. BeyondTV will notify you by e-mail of various events such as recording conflicts or other errors related to BeyondTV. That way if your working beyond the prime-time show thats set to record, you'll know there is a problem and can fix it using BeyondTV's webadmin before the error or conflict occurs - even when you're not at home.
- Separate levels of access using user accounts. Beyond TV now lets you create user accounts with different levels of restricted privileges. All of the activities such as watching recordings, watching live TV, scheduling recordings, and changing settings can be access-controlled on a user-by-user basis. Control what and how much your kids (or spouse) is watching if you dare. NOTE: This feature breaks compatibility for all of the plugins - while most of the most popular plugins have been updated, there are still a few such as the MediaMVP playback skin that are not compatible with version 4.8.1)
- Sort your recorded shows library by name, original air date, or date recorded
- Speedier recording scheduler
To read more about the new version, check out the Snapstream Blog or Snapstream's website.