The Interface
The Beyond TV interface (see figure 1) is attractive and functional. On-screen displays are easy to read and provide just the right amount of feedback without interfering with the display. The SnapStream forums have pointers to some skins that you can apply to BeyondTV. These skins change the graphics that are used for user-interface elements in BeyondTV. I was unable to find anything resembling the complex themes you can apply to SageTV (reviewed previously), but there seemed to be a large pool of talented graphic designers sprucing up the BeyondTV interface for those not pleased with the out-of-the-box experience.
Figure 1 - The BeyondTV Interface
The home screen in Beyond TV presents you with all of the top-level options necessary to watch television, set up a recording, watch shows that you've recorded, and configure your Beyond TV experience. It also provides a link to the SnapStream.Net Guide (see figure 2) where you can find out what's on and select television to record. The number of columns and rows in the guide is configurable and the font size will change appropriately based upon how much information there is to display.
Figure 2 - The SnapStream.Net Guide
It's quite easy to locate the shows that are currently airing due to the amber, vertical bar in the SnapStream.Net Guide indicating the current time. Shows that are currently scheduled for recording are marked with a red dot as shown in figure 2. Scrolling throught the guide is made easy using the scroll wheel on your mouse, arrows in the interface (not shown in figure 2), or a remote control.
When you select a show in the SnapStream.Net guide, a description of the program appears at the bottom of the screen. When a movie is selected, SnapStream.Net doesn't include any rating information. That can be a good thing or a bad thing. While it's nice to know if a movie is rated highly, I've missed watching a great movie more than once because of a two-star rating from an unknown reviewer. Still, I'd like to have the option of seeing a rating on movie events.
Note that there is no IMDB integration in Beyond TV. If you want more information on a particular show or actor, you'll need to switch over to your browser and look it up there. That may not sound like a big deal, but if you are trying to create a media center experience, it might be. Having IMDB as a part of the interface allows you to look up information from your easy chair using your remote control. If that kind of thing isn't your cup of tea, you obviously won't miss it.
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