Snapstream has released a new beta version of BeyondTV, the company's PC-based personal video recording software. BeyondTV 4.8.2 includes a bunch of bug fixes, and a few new features that I've been looking for for a while:

• You can configure automatic Showsqueezing (WMV or DiVX compression) of HD, SD, or all videos
• Improved performance when recording overlapping shows. If one recording is scheduled to end at 10:02, and another begins at 9:58, the program with the highest priority will win.
• Set permissions for library folders (block your kids from watching Dora The Explorer as a prank -- or you know, programs they actually shouldn't be watching).

The feature I'm most excited about is integration of a Couchville-style program guide with the web admin. Snapstream launched Couchville to much fanfare last year and then shut it down a few months ago. The TV listing site is simple, easy to use, and apparently cost the company more money than it was worth to maintain. It's good to see Snapstream salvage the technology for use in its core product: BeyondTV.

Less than a year after launching the free TV listing web site Couchville, Snapstream plans to shut down the service. Snapstream founder Rakesh Agrawal writes in the Snapstream forums that "simply put, it doesn't make business sense for us to keep the site running." Of course, the site has no advertising and no other visible means of revenue generation, so that makes sense. But I'm not clear why Snapstream didn't try harder to monetize the site which was easily one of the best TV listing sites on the net.

Snapstream is the company behind the BeyondTV personal video recorder software for Windows. Agrawal says the company will continue to focus on development of BeyondTV and enterprise software. It is possible Couchville could reappear down the road as a web interface for BeyondTV users who want to schedule recordings over the internet. Snapstream currently lets users remotely schedule recordings using a simple TV listing service at Snapstream.net, but Couchville's interface is much cleaner and easier to use.

[via Brent Evans Geek Tonic]

Snapstream, the company behind BeyondTV, has launched a new product called Couchville. Odds are Couchville is the evolution of the secretive Columbus project Snapstream began beta testing last year.

So what is Couchville? Well, to put it simply, it's a TV guide. But it's a bit more than that. First, Snapstream has integrated BeyondTV Buzz. If you click the Buzz button, you'll see the top 15 programs recorded by BeyondTV users over the last week, as well as the top scheduled recordings for the next few days.

The other thing that sets Couchville apart from other TV listings sites like TVGuide.com or Zap2it is that it has a web 2.0, AJAX feel to it. Instead of clicking on a "next page" button to get more listings after a page refresh, you can click and drag the guide much like you would drag a map in Google Maps.