Tivo and Beyond TV Comparison

If you are perplexed and can not decide which avenue to follow then a little comparison between esteemed TiVo unit and SnapStream’s counterpart beyond TV can help you out of catch 22.

Computer specifications

Beyond TV is essentially a software and is required to be installed on Windows XP based computer and the minimum system requirement to run the software seamlessly are at least 700 megahertz processor coupled with equally powerful 256 MB RAM, directx9.0 or higher, supported video cards and multiple TV tuner cards( incase if you are interested in more channels). Now your computer is ready to make a link with your television, feed the tuner card with desired signals from analogue cable or tune the Set Top Box.

TiVo requires computer for its home media option feature and the minimum specification are far less than Beyond TV. TiVo series 2 DVRs are coupled with the Windows XP, 2000, ME or 98 operating systems and the minimum system requirement is 233 megahertz processor, 128 MB RAM, directx9.0, network adapters and free TiVo desktop software. Unlike beyond TV, TiVo is Mac compatible.

Shows Squeeze Feature

ShowSqueeze feature of Beyond TV allows you to compress the TV program into Window media video (WMV) or DivX (AVI) format at the cost of picture quality and comprise over your computer speed and most likely system crashes and same is true for the TiVo units which offer a variable rate of disk frugality.

Best Quality = 7.65Mb/s
High Quality = 4.77Mb/s
Medium Quality = .62Mb/s
Basic Quality = 2.24Mb/s

But the picture quality suffers least as compare to Beyond TV and also there are no reverberations of compression on computer performance.

HDTV And Dolby Support

You can enjoy the pleasure of Dolby 5.1 surround and high definition picture quality by using Beyond TV software; you can browse the SnapStream EPG and can easily search the HDTV channels.

The existing hardware do not support Dolby digital 5.1 surround but 32 KHz stereo at all recording qualities and Dolby ProLogic encodings remain intact while using TiVo boxes.

Program Search Option

Although beyond TV offers almost similar type of EPG and lets the users to search according to title, genre, and actor or directors but the list of shows is hidden by default and to reveal the list you must go through web admin tools and also the feature of “Show All” is not available and manual recording is yet another problem.

Parental Control

Beyond TV failed to provide parental control to its user and it’s a major hurdle in its popularity among responsible parents. Contrary to beyond TV, TiVo provides parental control by setting an automated lock incase you forget to lock the TiVo box.

Subscription charges

Beyond TV is a single time deal with no monthly charges but you definitely owes monthly charges of Set Top Box. TiVo is subscription based service with monthly charges and flexible plans of subscriptions.

Conclusion

If you don’t mind extra power charges and you don’t suspect the reliability of computer as a PVR, provided the ShowSqueeze feature and streaming capability with a subscription free custom made DVR then dictating a computer to the task is a reasonable option.