MaximumPC passes SageTV over...again

[chughes]

I just received the annual MaximumPC HTPC issue, and once more they passed over SageTV as the software choice, without even a mention. They wrote reviews of MCE, MythTV and BeyondTV. They went with BeyondTV! I was appalled. Honestly, I think the graphical interface was the biggest selling point for them. As far as I'm concerned, Sage absolutely kills BTV in functionality, customizability and support.

MaximumPC is somewhat fixated on gaming and overclocking, so they make a few component choices that are a little sketchy for HTPC use, but the fact that they didn't even consider Sage kinda bugs me.

[Jason]

Originally Posted by chughes

...the fact that they didn't even consider Sage kinda bugs me.

I picked up this issue myself due to the big "Build you own Media Center PC" on the front cover...

I was shoocked as hell as well! Considering the functionality that Sage has vs BTV (Placeshifter/Extender/Dual Platform/etc) I was surprised they did not even mention Sage!

I would have to agree... it's the 'eye candy' factor! It has to be...

Come on guys! Send in a response letter... just make sure it is not 'sour grapes' sounding!

-Jason

[asager]

They have a feedback forum for that issue at...

http://maximumpc.com/forums/viewtopi...57e3f66f472462

[mikesm]

Their choices are interesting. They did a middlin' test of MythTV, but they are clearly a windows oriented group. You have to pick MCE - it defines the field. Myth is the leader in the unix space. BeyondTV has quite a following, and has pretty decent music support. Sage has a ton more functionality, but requires a fair amount of work to do what the others do. Note that plugins in MCE and in BeyondTv seems to take a lot less effort to integrate and configure. Sage has the edge in PVR functionality but it takes a lot of work to get there.

Personally, I think SageMC should be the default skin, and comskip, dvd archive support, and a bunch of other stuff needs to be able to be added a lot more easily than it works today.

I'm not sure that's possible with the java base Sage uses, but as an example, it was trivial to add My Movies 2 to MCE. No hassles, great GUI, super easy to use. You need to assemble the pieces yourself in Sage, and it's not nearly as easy to configure.

People here do it all the time, but the mass market isn't going to go there. It's like the Unix vs Windows desktop wars. Linux with KDE can get you really close to Windows, but it takes a lot of work to get it there.

Thanks,
Mike

[Deadbolt]

Originally Posted by mikesm

Their choices are interesting. They did a middlin' test of MythTV, but they are clearly a windows oriented group. You have to pick MCE - it defines the field. Myth is the leader in the unix space. BeyondTV has quite a following, and has pretty decent music support. Sage has a ton more functionality, but requires a fair amount of work to do what the others do. Note that plugins in MCE and in BeyondTv seems to take a lot less effort to integrate and configure. Sage has the edge in PVR functionality but it takes a lot of work to get there.

Personally, I think SageMC should be the default skin, and comskip, dvd archive support, and a bunch of other stuff needs to be able to be added a lot more easily than it works today.

I'm not sure that's possible with the java base Sage uses, but as an example, it was trivial to add My Movies 2 to MCE. No hassles, great GUI, super easy to use. You need to assemble the pieces yourself in Sage, and it's not nearly as easy to configure.

People here do it all the time, but the mass market isn't going to go there. It's like the Unix vs Windows desktop wars. Linux with KDE can get you really close to Windows, but it takes a lot of work to get it there.

Thanks,
Mike

I agree...sometime I get jealous of all the MCE plugins... http://thegreenbutton.com/forums/thread/20347.aspx

[SHS]

I hate say this but BeyondTV it self DOSEN'T HAVE music support only Beyond Media or Firefly (Beyond Media Basic) dose.
Beside that I HATE MaximumPC I like them when they use be called boot by Imagine Media

[nox71]

I agree in part qith MikeSM, as a SageTV user since their debut i decide this summer to give MCE2005 a try and believe me except for DVB-S support it's quite a bit above Sage. I mean by that the stability, i never got to restart MCE since i am using it can't say the same for Sage wich i often have to restart, in MCE the menu are smooter to navigate in Sage it's often slow to navigate, the OSD in MCE is wonderful even if i was using SageMC with Sage i must admit that it.s far from the original MCE, with MCE with my local language wich is french everything is in french not the same with Sage i just had to translate the whole STV myself to get it in french (contacted Sage support but did'nt get useful help from them), one thing i was looking for a long time is the movie details info in Sage (got it in english only and very complicated to configure) wich just work like a charm in MCE with the My Movies plugin in 100% french too. Even the weather plugin in MCe is better that the one in Sage. For now i will stick with MCE because it's more my kind of Htpc software i am looking for except for the extender support wich is a little poor at the moment (xbox 360 of linksys) but at the end for now i got stability which is a very important WAF !!!!

[stevech]

is EPG (US) free with MCE?

SageTV here is stable. I just record Std Def analog cable. Nothing more.
Menus are fast enough. My main complaint is that Sage is not interested in making their menus jargon-free and common-sense organized.

[GTwannabe]

Originally Posted by stevech

is EPG (US) free with MCE?

SageTV here is stable. I just record Std Def analog cable. Nothing more.
Menus are fast enough. My main complaint is that Sage is not interested in making their menus jargon-free and common-sense organized.

I agree... Sage needs to sit down and plan out the organization of the GUI. Too often do they add a cool new feature, then throw it someplace and foget why they put it there (STV Media Center anyone?)

They should have included SageTV though. It's nowhere near as difficult as building a dedicated Linux MythTV box.

[mikesm]

Originally Posted by stevech

is EPG (US) free with MCE?

SageTV here is stable. I just record Std Def analog cable. Nothing more.
Menus are fast enough. My main complaint is that Sage is not interested in making their menus jargon-free and common-sense organized.

Yes, the EPG is free. And MCE is actually quite stable in general. Sage can get unstable in a hurry if you try and add a lot of plugins to it. Plugin integration in Sage is way more dicey than in MCE. Just look at what you have to do to get a my movies 2 like interface. All of this editting of files by hand makes it easy to make a mistake that takes a long time to fix.

It's not just that the SageMC interface is better than the default one, it's all the other functionality that's built into SageMC needs to be available in the base configuration. At least then you wouldn't have to spend hours trying to configure it in and make it all work.

Thanks,
Mike

[Polypro]

DL.TV mentions Sage every now and again, as do the HT Guys podcast. I actually bought Sage based on a MaximumPC HTPC "Special Issue" they did about a year ago.

P