What did you find confusing about SageTV?

[Opus4]

I'm in the process of updating the SageTV manual for some of the newer features and was wondering what isn't clear to new users so that such things might be covered.

And, while a manual may already cover the details, we all know that not everyone reads an entire manual before getting started. (What fun would that be!?) If you've used the latest beta, you may have noticed the new Help menu, where I would like to offer simple usage tips. This area might be a good place to offer short blurbs of things for new users to keep in mind w/o having to read some huge document.

So...

Do you remember what you found confusing about SageTV usage when you first started using it?

Are there things (shortcuts, capabilities, etc.) that you wish you had known about sooner?

I would like to find out such things so that they can be made clearer to new users in the future.

Please remember: this isn't a feature request topic, though -- this curiosity is about people's understanding of SageTV, not what everyone would like to see added. The manual can't cover new features until they are in the program.
Edit: Requests for new features will be moved out of this thread.

Also note that while I may not reply to every comment, I am obviously on the forum frequently, so I will read anything posted here.

Thanks for any comments!

- Andy

[domc]

A better explanation for a "newbie" about what the features are in the
Setup >> Detail Setup>> Video/Audio.

What they do? What's the best settings? How come some features are not available (dscaler)? What's the best settings for TV verse Computer monitor, etc?

I still don't know what some of those are for after 5 months of using sagetv.

[B00ne]

There are several things:

When I am in live tv mode and enter the main menu how do I get out of it - Escape doesnt work - right now I got again to the live tv menu choose the show I am watching again and choose watch now again [Edit: Use the Back command if the previous screen was 'playback', or use the Left arrow on the Main Menu.]

when I accidentally schedule a manual recording I still havent figured out how to cancel it again. So I have to wait until the manual recording is finished and then delete it. [Edit: Use the Record command again & choose Cancel this Recording.]

Why are the methods of choosing/changing the directories in library import different from the video dirs? Both are a bit cumbersome

the toggle fullscreen option should be in the main menu

I am new to sage

[amac]

Another confusing one is:
How does one cancel an on-going recording of a favorite? Sometimes, I decide I want to record a show at a different time so I try to cancel the on-going recording. It's not immediately obvious. Hitting the stop button doesn't work. What I do is set the show to Watched, wait for the recording to stop, then reset it to Not Watched. [Edit: There isn't really an easy way to stop a currently recording Fav. You can do what was said here, or just start a new recording that overrides the current one. The fav should reschedule itself for later.]

[Opus4]

Maybe I'll add comments sometimes by editing posts, as above.

- Andy

[mayamaniac]

There are some design flaws in SageTV. For some reason, the mouse back button is about 5 pixels wide on top left corner and then the Sage logo button next to it is about 10 times wider. Can't they make the logo button a bit less wide and make the mouse back button bigger?

And yes, another complaint is there's no STOP THIS RECORDING NOW! button. I mean lets face it, on any device that has a record function, there's always a STOP button that does.. gues what.. stops the recording IMMEDIATELY. What I do to workaround is go into the fav that is currently recording, set it to manual recording, then go into Recording Options, then and only then you see a Cancel Recording option.

But for Andy, I don't think there's anything wrong with the current manual, I think you did a great job. The problem is in getting people to actual READ IT in the first place. I think SageTV should make video installation guides that cover the essential steps in setting up and configuring SageTV, hardware and software wise. Along with the manual, that should be enough to get people through the technical hoops.

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by mayamaniac

The problem is in getting people to actual READ IT in the first place.

Why do you think I was talking about usage tips in the new Help menu, instead of having to read a 250+ page manual to find interesting, but buried, tidbits?

- Andy

[mayamaniac]

Originally Posted by Opus4

Why do you think I was talking about usage tips in the new Help menu, instead of having to read a 250+ page manual to find interesting, but buried, tidbits?

- Andy

eerrr.. I don't know. Please don't hurt me, Mr Andy.

[domc]

Easier way to record a "portion" of a show. It should be "hit record button" then "hit stop button".

[Lucas]

Using SageTV in Europe, the most time consuming and confusing task in setting up SageTV initially given the fact that I had to rely on XMLTV EPG data, was for OTA analog TV to change the UHF frequencies in Windows so that I could remap the EPGData within SageTV to the appropriate channel number.

And as other already stated, a task that took nearly 3 months to achieve was setting up the correct Video Card driver parameters and SageTV Video decoding params so that I had good picture quality.

ie the fact that it is best to have a resolution like 720x480(576 for PAL) and for ATI cards one needs to enable 'Video Mode' for a sharp picture took me quite a while to tune.

There is also no satisfactory explanation as to what DXVA settings one should use.

[lovingHDTV]

It would be nice to have a description of how to setup Sage Audio to use the spdif output when using the included AC3Filter. Currently I have to open windows media player, go the properties area and set it there. I should be able to do this in Sage.

[steingra]

I will try to remember all those little things that I *wished* I knew about when I first started using sagetv last november. I did see the new Help menu options, and I really think thats a great idea. It helps explain things that you might have forgot about, or just arent sure about because you dont use it all the time.

I will update this when I can think of the issues I encountered to slow down my absorption of the SagetV software.

Thanks for asking!

[IVB]

I thought the V4 manual was awesome.

[klunde]

I must agree with Lucas, as an european user the most confusing part of starting up with SageTV was to figure out how to get the EPG going. Secondly this also relates to the confusing parts of configuring lineups and channels.

[roxy99]

Definately online context sensitive help bubles is the way to go. Personally, I don't see why the manual has to be so many pages.

[amac]

Originally Posted by roxy99

Definately online context sensitive help bubles is the way to go. Personally, I don't see why the manual has to be so many pages.

Funny, I thought the manual could go into more depth in some sections. I hate the sections that describe a setting with words like "Use the default unless you are experiencing problems".

It's just conceivable that one of the reasons for which I might read the manual is because I'm experiencing problems. I kind of expect the manual to tell me what the settings actually do, what the values for a setting mean, and the impact of changing it. Otherwise I always have to resort to the forums and pollute the forums with questions that take up everyone's time.

If for a given setting, I should only be using the default, then don't expose it as a user configurable property. The DXVA MPEG Mode section of the manual comes to mind as a perfect example of this.

Just my 2 cents.

[roxy99]

What did you find confusing about SageTV?

Can you beef up the how to configure xmltv program guide stuff?
Also, can you cover the usb-uirt configuration and remote training as well as where to put the usb-uirt driver and how to set SageTV so that it can control your digital STB.

Too much info is in the forums but not in the guide. Would have saved me a lot of forum research and questions.

[lotus298]

One thing that really confused me was calibrating the colors the first time. My picture looked horrible until I got it just right. Calibration was a painful trial-and-error process (for me, at least).

I would love to see some sort of guide describing the correct way to do this. Even better would be a sage tool that guides the user through the process.

[Wakecrash]

The most confusing to me was matching one of my 3 PVR cards, to the comm port and audio/video ports of the STB. Is thier a way for Sage to tell which PVR card is in a particular slot.

Next confusing thing, it would be nice to see the client licence a particular client is using. So if you have to wipe your OS, you can check out the other clients and know which one not to use when reinstalling.

[stevech]

The on screen displays are illogically organized.

The authors assume the new user knows many acronyms.