Black Boxes: SnapStream Media Personal Video Station

by John Davis
Winter 2002/Spring 2003

COMPANY: SnapStream Media
CONTACT: (713) 644-6240
WEB SITE: www.snapstream.com
PRICE: $50 without tuner card; $90 with Hauppauge WinTV GO-PCI

SnapStream Media's personal video station (PVS) allows your computer to act as a recorder, and additionally, stream recorded programs to other PCs on your network or over the Internet.

You've surely heard of personal video recorders: devices connected to TiVo or ReplayTV services that use hard drives to record and view programs in a variety of ways. Since PVRs are essentially specialized computers, it is no surprise that someone came out with a product that allows your general-purpose computer to perform this specialized task.

Getting Started is a Snap
SnapStream offers two PVS versions: software-only for folks who already have a TV-tuner card or a video-capture card, and a version that includes the Hauppauge WinTV GO-PCI (which we tested.)

We installed SnapStream on our test system. The software installed quickly and easily. We set up a user name and two passwords. One password was for logging on to a SnapStream server and the other was for logging on to SnapStream's users-only reference Web site.

Where Do You Want Your TV to Go Today?
There are four basic SnapStream activity screens: Watch, Record, Network and Configure.

We configured first. Most of the default settings laid out for us were adequate. The basic software configuration took us five minutes for the single capture device and about fifteen minutes to configure the unit for multiple devices.

We next visited the Record screen. It displayed a list of recordings we had scheduled and allowed editing, deleting and defining of new programs to record. There is also a Record Now! button, for when shows sneak up on you. We defined a program to record by clicking New Recording, picking a channel, setting start and end times, setting the qualtiy and naming the program. Sure enough, SnapStream tuned in and happily recorded our test program on cue.

Unlike TiVo and ReplayTV boxes, SnapStream does not provide the ability to pause or rewind live TV.

Watching the Results
After the show was recorded to our hard drive, we simply clicked the Watch screen, and dove right into the cases confronting People's Court's Doug Llewellen and Judge Ed Koch. The program successfully played back on our computer with very good image quality. We then connected the composite video-out from our test computer to our television. On the bigger screen artifacting was apparent. Watching from a distance of 10-feet, the image was clearly not broadcast quality. It was akin to watching a program recorded on VHS at less than standard play.

We also tried a "near-DVD" quality test recording, which overpowered our test computer (even though it had more than SnapStream's minimum system requirements). To obtain near-DVD quality you would need a separate hard drive or SCSI RAID devoted to capture. Choosing a quality setting between VHS and near-DVD, our system had no problems. The audio at this in-between setting was indistinguishable from actual broadcast audio.

One of SnapStream's features is its ability to stream recorded programs to other machines, so we accessed another computer, via the Network screen. We pointed our browser to the computer with SnapStream, and were able to view our recordings.

Next, we called a friend, who accessed the SnapStream machine via the Internet. We were both connected over 56k dial-ups, and after a bit of tweaking, we made a recording at the 56k Modem setting. It displayed in a small (160x120) box with slow frame rate and was heavily artifacted. Fine for sending clips of home video, but not for television to television transfer for show sharing.

Snap it Up
For $50, your computer can become your personal television time-shifting slave, recording all sorts of programming for later viewing, even remote viewing. Tools like SnapStream are taking a smart step forward.

SMART SPECS