Couch Potato… Version 2! (Open Beta)

Greetings! Well this is going to be an uncharacteristically short blurb of a news article for Ainer.org and I’m a little behind the curve on this one, but it’s certainly none too late to take a look and see what Couch Potato’s developer has been working on “behind the scenes” so to speak. You might have noticed some slowing of development around Couch Potato, and maybe even wondered if the project might be dying. Well, rest assured and cast those doubts aside, as Couch Potato Version 2 (V2) has become the priority and has been in fairly active development since around February of last year (2011).

Quickly though, for those of you who are not really clear on what I’m talking about here, Couch Potato is an application that serves a role similar to a standalone Digital or Personal Video Recorder (DVR/PVR). However, where a DVR or PVR will monitor a cable or satellite television connection for movies that you might like to record and watch at a later date, Couch Potato monitors the Internet. Also, whereas a DVR/PVR is generally going to be a separate, standalone device, Couch Potato is an application that can be run on just about any Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Fedora, or other GNU/Linux based personal computer. As such, Couch Potato is far more flexible than a “traditional” DVR/PVR setup.

Version 2 of Couch Potato isn’t quite ready to succeed its predecessor (Version 1 which, Ainer.org’s current guide is based on) but already it is showing neat signs of the functions to come. So far, it has the ability to scan existing local cinematic media and not just the ability to “fetch and forget” like the current version (V1) does. This isn’t yet a full Sick Beard like management functionality, but this does look to be the way Couch Potato V2 is heading (yay!)!

In general, Couch Potato V2 has an even nicer bit of polish in regards to the user interface (UI) (I like the nice blue and grey) and the settings and functionality are definitely not being neglected as they also seem to be being increased across the board. I will likely be running version 2 from here on out to test it fully, and with any luck the next update for my Couch Potato guide (for Ubuntu 12.04 LTS) will feature this new version of Couch Potato (even if it is still a bit rough around the edges).

For the time being, see the additional screen shots below to get an idea of what’s in the works for Couch Potato V2 and, if you’re brave and are willing to gracefully deal with bugs and troubleshooting, consider helping out Couch Potato’s developers by installing it and testing it out!