Beyonwiz T3

Started by Paul55, March 14, 2014, 05:25:55 PM

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raymondjpg

Quote from: Paul55 on April 20, 2014, 01:58:07 PMYou don't need to be a subscriber to access the IceTV EPG data over the web...
How does that work?

Quote from: bodogbodog on April 21, 2014, 08:50:23 AMdo they exist outside of the IceTV environment?
FTA epg, or some "other" epg service. Hence my interest in accessing the IceTV EPG data without a subscription!
Beyonwiz T2, Beyonwiz U4, IceBox BYO with Hauppauge WinTV-dualHD (x2), Hauppauge WinTV-quadHD

Paul55

#31
Quote from: raymondjpg on April 21, 2014, 09:22:08 AM
Quote from: Paul55 on April 20, 2014, 01:58:07 PMYou don't need to be a subscriber to access the IceTV EPG data over the web...

How does that work?

Go to icetv.com.au and select the TV GUIDE button. You will need to choose your area and from there it's pretty obvious. AFAIK you can only view the data - saving it to another device requires a subscription.

raymondjpg

Quote from: Paul55 on April 21, 2014, 09:56:08 AMGo to icetv.com.au and select the TV GUIDE button. You will need to choose your area and from there it's pretty obvious. AFAIK you can only view the data - saving it to another device requires a subscription.
I see what you mean. I thought (perhaps incorrectly) that BikeMike meant something like a subscription to XML data only, not Interactive. Certainly the TV Guide page would be useful for someone maybe wishing to manually modify a scheduled recording or two.
Beyonwiz T2, Beyonwiz U4, IceBox BYO with Hauppauge WinTV-dualHD (x2), Hauppauge WinTV-quadHD

prl

As far as I'm concerned, the Auto Timer capability on the T3 is no match for IceTV, especially IceTV's handling of repeats. It is possible to set up a T3 Auto Timer with an exclusion on the string RPT in the program short description, but that tagging is not nearly enough to compete with IceTV's (occasionally fallible) repeat marking. In particular, the T3 has no repeat marking in the EPG for any ABC or SBS programs.
Peter
Beyonwiz T4 in-use
Beyonwiz T2, T3, T4, U4 & V2 for testing

Dave at IceTV

Quote from: prl on April 21, 2014, 11:43:13 AM
As far as I'm concerned, the Auto Timer capability on the T3 is no match for IceTV, especially IceTV's handling of repeats. It is possible to set up a T3 Auto Timer with an exclusion on the string RPT in the program short description, but that tagging is not nearly enough to compete with IceTV's (occasionally fallible) repeat marking. In particular, the T3 has no repeat marking in the EPG for any ABC or SBS programs.
Exactly. Any built-in series recording in a PVR is only as good as the EPG data that the PVR uses to determine if a show is part of a series or is a repeat. Most PVRs with built-in series recording don't provide a choice to exclude or include repeats. Last time I checked the FTA EPG on a PVR, only 2 of the major city TV networks had repeat flags and only on some of their channels. And the TV networks still like to change the title of their shows during the season which causes a PVR using it's own series recording system to miss recording the episodes with changed titles.
cheers

Dave
Customer Service

oster

Quote from: Heinz on April 11, 2014, 08:19:55 PM
"There are now three options for Beyonwiz fans...""
Hmm, well actually there is a fourth, offload our old Beyonwiz units, updgrade to the T3 and cease IceTV subscription.

This is a disapointing. As a long term IceTV subscriber, I'd like to continue to use it but with the advances in free EPG since I began subscribing, It is actually a pretty expensive way to get a repeat flag. I think the benefits of the T3 outwiegh the loss of that function.

Vortical

Saw this posted on the beyonwiz forum that was received from ice tv in the last couple of days, looks like there is a glimmer of hope yet for ice tv integration on the T3.

QuoteThank you for contacting IceTV Customer Support
There is an excellent chance that IceTV will be available on the Beyonwiz T3, though it isn't a done deal just yet.
Best Regards,
Dave
IceTV Service

netless

As a satisfied long time ICE / Beyonwiz DP-P2 user I am very keen to update to the Beyonwiz T3. Like quite a few other out there I appear to be being forced to choose with one of these two firms. ICE has a smooth EPG scheduling system & Beyonwiz make excellent hardware. I would urge both side to come to an agreement, for their customers sake, on supporting the T3. At the end of the day I will probably opt for good hardware - but I feel the current stand off is a loose - loose for both ICE & Beyonwiz  >:(

Joffa

#38
I came to this thread out of a bit of frustration - finding it from a google bash of how others are finding the T3 from a usability perspective.

Have had a DP-S1 since I got to Aus in 2009. I bought it since I'd just moved from the US & the beyonwiz was one of the only STB's I could find on the market that could drive my US NTSC TV.

The needs for that has gone now since I've got an Aus TV, and whereas the DP-S1 still works great for TV,  it's DVD player is slowly dying (I guess from a bad power supply issue).

I had no idea what IceTV was when I bought the box but when I found out it was like the PVRs I was used to back in the US I was delighted & have used it every day, as has my wife, who is not technically minded but has coped just fine with the simple IceTV GUI.

Since I've now also got an Aus Blueray in my rack, I have no real need for the STB to have a DVD on board, so I decided to upgrade the Beyonwiz & retire the DP-S1 down to the media room so I can get TV down there as well as just movies. Since I've been very happy with Beyonwiz & especially the ease of recording, I stayed with the brand & just bought a T3.

After the usual set-up, I dived in & looked around for where to enter my IceTV settings, not knowing there wouldn't be any. I know I may be ignorant, but I always thought that IceTV & Beyonwiz were joined at the hip. They seemed so tightly integrated on the DP-S1 that I actually thought that IceTV & Beyonwiz were the same product!

Had I known the T3 had no IceTV before I purchased, I think I would have reconsidered (as of right now).

My reason for this is that the first impressions of T3 guide / record GUI is horrible. Any GUI change can take a while to adjust, but coming from the purely intuitive options of IceTV on the DP-S1, I was pretty horrified to find that any time I pressed record, or tried to change a channel after pausing previously, I was presented with long lists of options about exactly how I wanted the box to interpret my request. To be clear, my wife doesn't understand what terms like timeshift mean (I'm not sure she even knows it's a real word actually!), and lists of questions nearly 2 pages long every time she pressed a button did not go down well at all. I also seem to have lost series record / remote record etc. Perhaps I'll find them eventually, but it looks like I'll have to learn some pretty complex menus first.

I know a lot of people like detailed options, but a lot of people just want it to work too. Net point in my case is that I'm going away with work for a week tomorrow & have had to downgrade the living room back to the DP-S1 again otherwise I'll face becoming an offshore helpdesk from an annoyed wife who has no idea what the box is asking her to do whilst she's busy missing her favourite program.

Can't IceTV become an optional plug in for the T3 so that people like me who want simple functionality can choose to buy/install & use it? That way everyone wins. Beyonwiz get to offer a more detailed EPG GUI for those who want that, users can choose to stick with IceTV if they prefer their way of navigating, Beyonwiz don't have to pay IceTV since only users who want it will pay for it, IceTV get a great (open source based) platform to distribute their product / reach customers on etc. Beyonwiz could even charge IceTV a 'dating agent' fee for any new customers they send through which IceTV could pass through to the end user within their subscription fee (which if the product is good enough, people would be happy to pay).

Apple have been doing this for years.

Any thoughts?

Joffa

PS - the T3 also seems to be zooming my image slightly & I'll loosing info from the left right of the screen - even on their guide. I've tried every setting possible & can't find out how to fix this (even though I've only spent an hour and gotten through 10% of their options in the set-up screens so far!)

BikeMike

Quote from: Joffa on May 25, 2014, 10:45:23 PM
Beyonwiz don't have to pay IceTV....  Beyonwiz could even charge IceTV....

Well it appears that IceTV have the opposite opinion! They want some sort of "acceptable commercial terms" from Beyonwiz before they will allow our T3's access to the service we pay for.

prl

Quote from: Joffa on May 25, 2014, 10:45:23 PM
I came to this thread out of a bit of frustration - finding it from a google bash of how others are finding the T3 from a usability perspective.
You'd probably be better off posting about the T3 on the Beyonwiz forum.

Quote from: Joffa on May 25, 2014, 10:45:23 PM
Can't IceTV become an optional plug in for the T3 so that people like me who want simple functionality can choose to buy/install & use it? That way everyone wins. Beyonwiz get to offer a more detailed EPG GUI for those who want that, users can choose to stick with IceTV if they prefer their way of navigating, Beyonwiz don't have to pay IceTV since only users who want it will pay for it, IceTV get a great (open source based) platform to distribute their product / reach customers on etc. Beyonwiz could even charge IceTV a 'dating agent' fee for any new customers they send through which IceTV could pass through to the end user within their subscription fee (which if the product is good enough, people would be happy to pay).
Beyonwiz can only have IceTV on a PVR if they license it from IceTV. Until they come to an agreement about that, there's no IceTV on the T3, builtin or plugin. The rest is whatever Beyonwiz and IceTV work out between themselves, and I doubt that they'll tell us.

Quote from: Joffa on May 25, 2014, 10:45:23 PMPS - the T3 also seems to be zooming my image slightly & I'll loosing info from the left right of the screen - even on their guide. I've tried every setting possible & can't find out how to fix this (even though I've only spent an hour and gotten through 10% of their options in the set-up screens so far!)
It's the TV overscanning. If you can adjust overscan on the TV, set it to have no overscan.

If the TV doesn't allow you to do that (mine doesn't), you can get the T3 to adjust the amount of space that it uses for its GUI. There are detailed instructions about how to do this on the Beyonwiz forum. As I said, you'll probably do better with things like this by posting there.
Peter
Beyonwiz T4 in-use
Beyonwiz T2, T3, T4, U4 & V2 for testing

prl

Quote from: BikeMike on May 26, 2014, 08:20:01 AM
Quote from: Joffa on May 25, 2014, 10:45:23 PM
Beyonwiz don't have to pay IceTV....  Beyonwiz could even charge IceTV....

Well it appears that IceTV have the opposite opinion! They want some sort of "acceptable commercial terms" from Beyonwiz before they will allow our T3's access to the service we pay for.
As I said in my previous post, Beyonwiz needs to license IceTV in order to have it on a new product. They need to come to an agreement on that, and of course it would need to be on "acceptable commercial terms" to both, because otherwise an agreement is unlikely.
Peter
Beyonwiz T4 in-use
Beyonwiz T2, T3, T4, U4 & V2 for testing

Joffa

The point I was making about charges is that 'acceptable commercial terms' can take many shapes & sizes in today's markets. A big upfront fee from Beyonwiz puts all the risk on them. If IceTV is a big enough draw to help them sell more product, then 'phew', it was worth it. If not, they loose.
On the other hand, if IceTV believe enough in their product, then T3 users will lap it up & they'll still make money.
Without some kind of arrangement no one wins & even though a big upfront from Beyonwiz may not be a mutually acceptable solution, some money has to be better than no money?
Fee for service is a common concept, as are other creative financing vehicles such as performance related payments (ie: lower up front, then staged payments based on #users adopting IceTV on the T3 platform), per user payments, pass through to the end user (ie: increases subscription) etc...
I'm just not sure I see solution thinking vs problem identification here.
Anyway, perhaps I'll just leave the T3 in the basement until someone fixes the problem to a user friendly enough level where it can be brought up to the living room.
Thanks for the comments on the over scanning btw. I'll give that a go over the weekend.
Cheers
Jof

prl

And the point I was making is that there's no public information about what the terms are that are being discussed between Beyonwiz and IceTV.
Peter
Beyonwiz T4 in-use
Beyonwiz T2, T3, T4, U4 & V2 for testing

Paul55

It may not even be a matter of 'payment'. Could be something like 'who is going to pay to develop the capability?'
This too is just a guess from a stack of possibilities - we just don't know.