46 MAXIMUMPC OCTOBER 2006
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WHAT ABOUT NEXT-GEN
DISC FORMATS?Now that Blu-ray and HD-DVD
drives are on the market, you’re
probably wondering why we didn’t
include one or the other in our con-
fi guration. We left the technology
out for a number of reasons, most
importantly because we’re just not
impressed with the quality of mov-
ies at this early stage.
We examined several mov-
ies—including The Fifth Element,
Terminator 2, and Serenity—and
were profoundly disappointed
with the image quality. It doesn’t
really matter whether the problem
stems from a sloppy transfer, the
use of a bad fi lm print, or whatev-
er other excuse the studios might
come up with. When we’re paying
three-to-10 times more for a next-
gen optical drive over a tried-and-
true DVD drive, our expectations
run high. If this is the best they
can do, we think both technolo-
gies are doomed.
Besides, there’s as much
room for two high-defi nition disc
formats today as there was for two
videocassette standards back in the
1980s. But we did hedge our bets by
using the HDCP-equipped version of
MSI’s GeForce 7600 GT videocard.
If six months down the road we
decide we want either technology,
we can swap out the drive with-
out having to bear the additional
expense of a new videocard.
The copy-protection story
in relation to next-gen optical
drives has evolved during the past
several months, but the situation
has fi nally coalesced. Here’s the
bottom line: If you want to watch
high-defi nition content from either
Blu-ray or HD-DVD on a digital
display, both your videocard and
your display must support HDCP.
If you’re using a digital TV manu-
factured within the last few years,
there’s a good chance the set has
HDCP. If you’re using a digital com-
puter monitor, your chances are
much slimmer.
If your TV doesn’t have HDCP
but does have component analog
inputs, you’re set. If your digital
computer monitor has neither,
you’re screwed.WHAT ABOUT NEXT-GEN
DISC FORMATS?
If you don’t want other automatic events to disrupt Beyond TV’s
PVR functions, you should program these events to occur when
you know you won’t be recording television content.
The most common automatic events are Windows updates,
antivirus and spyware-defi nition updates, and hard-disk back-
up sessions. If you’ve turned on automatic Windows updates
in Windows Security Center, you can easily change the time
it’s set to download those updates, or you can reconfi gure the
program so that it won’t download anything without checking
with you, fi rst.
To change Windows updates settings, open XP’s Control
Panel and choose Security Center. You can immediately see here
whether Automatic Updates has been enabled—it will either be
on or off. Next, click Automatic Updates at the bottom of this win-
dow. If you want to follow Microsoft’s recommendation and have
Windows download updates automatically (assuming you have
a persistent Internet connection, of course), click the radio but-
ton labeled Automatic. Choose a day of the week—or every day—from the drop-down menu and enter a time. You’ll most
likely want to pick a time in the early morning hours, when you’re confi dent the machine won’t otherwise be in use.
But because you just might see a program you want to record at some odd hour, a better solution would be to have
Windows inform you that an update is available, but allow you the option of downloading and installing it. If that’s your
preference, choose the option labeled “Notify me, but don’t automatically download or install them.” This will ensure that
none of your software updates interrupts Beyond TV in the middle of a recording session.
Because there are many different antivirus, anti-spyware, and backup programs on the market, we won’t
attempt to cover every variation here. Check the “settings” or “options” menu in your software to schedule down-
loads at a specific time.10 SET UP WINDOWS’ AUTO EVENTS
11 CONFIGURE BEYOND TV’S 10-FOOT INTERFACE
If your home-theater PC is to be dedicated to that
purpose, you might want to configure the machine
so that Beyond TV’s 10-foot user interface—
ViewScape— automatically launches each time you
start your rig.
If you don’t, your HTPC will still look like a PC
every time you power it up. When we’re finished, your
PC will boot directly to the Beyond TV PVR interface.
If you find you don’t like this arrangement, you can
always change it back so Beyond TV starts up in the
background.
Right-click the Beyond TV icon in the Windows
taskbar and choose Advanced Settings to launch the
program’s browser-based configuration menu. Click
Advanced Settings (it’s near the top the page, just
below the Configure headline), and then choose the
menu item Miscellaneous Settings (it’s the last one, at
the bottom of the page). Locate the menu item Default Beyond TV Interface and select Start Beyond TV ViewScape
from the drop-down menu. Click the Save Changes button.
Using your browser’s page-back button, navigate back to Beyond TV’s Configure menu. Now select the menu
item labeled ViewScape Settings. Locate Default Starting Screen and choose Home Screen from the drop-down
menu. While you’re here, you might want to disable the Exit ViewScape Option. This will prevent someone from
inadvertently turning off the 10-foot user interface. You should also reduce the resolution of your desktop to the
maximum resolution of your TV.
And here’s one last tip, which you’ll need to set up outside of Beyond TV. If you’re running antivirus or anti-
spyware software, you’ll achieve better Beyond TV performance if you disable them from scanning the folder
where your recorded videos are stored. Do the same for the folder containing Beyond TV’s application data; spe-
cifically, C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\SnapStream\BeyondTV.Because Windows’ Automatic Update
feature might interrupt your recordings, you
should consider setting it up so that it in-
forms you when updates are available, but
doesn’t automatically download them.If you want Beyond TV’s 10-foot interface to
launch automatically when you start your PC,
choose this option within Miscellaneous Settings.