Do You Want DVD Burning Functionality?

[evilpenguin]

Originally Posted by GKusnick

Here's a bit of irony for you:

Haha

[mayamaniac]

I think the built-in DVD Burning feature will surely come sooner or later to SageTV. The competition, BeyondTV 4.5, has already got one.

More info here:
http://www.snapstream.com/products/beyondtv/faq-dvd.asp

They got a video clip demo here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ws3spzmN8nA

They support multiple file formats including Divx, and WMV, all can be converted to MPeg2. And they even have an auto recompression tool to degrade the videos so that they all fit on a single DVD. Plus they use their smartskips (built-in comskip) as chapter points on the DVD, making it easy to skip commercials, no need to edit them out before hand.

Thats another thing is commercial skip support, BeyondTV has it built-in for years now. I know there are third party plugins for SageTV, but having one built-in is always nicer.

[evilpenguin]

Originally Posted by mayamaniac

I think the built-in DVD Burning feature will surely come sooner or later to SageTV. The competition, BeyondTV 4.5, has already got one.

More info here:
http://www.snapstream.com/products/beyondtv/faq-dvd.asp

They got a video clip demo here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ws3spzmN8nA

They support multiple file formats including Divx, and WMV, all can be converted to MPeg2. And they even have an auto recompression tool to degrade the videos so that they all fit on a single DVD. Plus they use their smartskips (built-in comskip) as chapter points on the DVD, making it easy to skip commercials, no need to edit them out before hand.

Thats another thing is commercial skip support, BeyondTV has it built-in for years now. I know there are third party plugins for SageTV, but having one built-in is always nicer.

Remember that snapstream's plug-in is $40 dollars extra; I'm fairly sure they just licensed software from Roxio and gave it a front end.

On a side note, its my new mission in life to duplicate those menu's using only GPL'ed software

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by mayamaniac

Thats another thing is commercial skip support, BeyondTV has it built-in for years now. I know there are third party plugins for SageTV, but having one built-in is always nicer.

But you can't get it to automatically skip. You have to press a button on the remote to skip the commercial. They call theirs "Smart Skip". Sage has "Smarter Skip."

Gerry

[mayamaniac]

The point is to have it built-in into SageTV and not as a separate plugin. I didn't say that SageTV's version can't be better. I think most would agree that comskip is a very important feature and should be included as part of the package. I love comskip, but got tire of installing and setting it up on multiple computers, so I'm not using it anymore. The same reason I don't use other custom STVs and just stick to the default one. Plugins are great for features that not everybody needs, but for something like comskip, I just think it should be included in SageTV.

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by mayamaniac

The point is to have it built-in into SageTV and not as a separate plugin. I didn't say that SageTV's version can't be better. I think most would agree that comskip is a very important feature and should be included as part of the package. I love comskip, but got tire of installing and setting it up on multiple computers, so I'm not using it anymore. The same reason I don't use other custom STVs and just stick to the default one. Plugins are great for features that not everybody needs, but for something like comskip, I just think it should be included in SageTV.

I see your point. But the DVD burning option IS a plugin for Beyond TV. The only difference is they charge money for theirs. The automatic commercial not being in the core is probably Sage's way of skirting around the whole commercial skipping fiasco that was the downfall of Replay TV's hardware. Replay was successfully sued and prevented from implementing their automatic commercial skip on their hardware a long time ago. I have comskip running on the server and other than upgrading it to the latest version haven't had to do anything but let it run. Using COmskip Monitor now and it's a breeze. Maybe installation and support needs to be easier but being a plugin isn't a bad thing. Look at Winamp.

Gerry

[doc]

DVD burning might be handy but I've haven't needed it yet, I don't really record enough to worry about it.

What I couldn't live without though is neilm's webserver. It's the main interface that I use with sage whether it be at work, on the road or at home.

Without it, I probably wouldn't have bought Sage as the abilty to schedule and monitor while away is paramount to me.

As much as I use placeshifter, it'll never replace the functions and ease of use of the web server.

[Goodspike]

Originally Posted by mayamaniac

Thats another thing is commercial skip support, BeyondTV has it built-in for years now. I know there are third party plugins for SageTV, but having one built-in is always nicer.

I think the folks at Replay had a similar analysis, before they got sued out of existence.