SageTV Version 6.0 Public Beta is Available

[AndyS]

I'm getting a 403 trying to get the Linux Beta from http://download.sage.tv/linuxbeta/

Andy.

[rfutscher]

Originally Posted by rfutscher

The earlier versions of Sage were of no use to me because Sage was stuck in an analog world. I waited to buy Sage until it supported Digital reception. My problem is that it never worked correctly. Lots of wrong recordings for two reasons.

The first reason being the local PBS station broadcasts four sub channels (1, 3, 4, 5) during the day and two (1, 2) in the evening. Sage just can't handle this.

The second reason is that I receive stations from three markets. The last time I installed there were 20 channels/sub channels that did not have program guides. By jumping through hoops I got guides for some but not all..

Originally Posted by Narflex

This has specifically been fixed in V6. It now scans and finds all ATSC channels and can extract the EPG data from the streams when the channel provides it.

I just loaded v6 and the tuning problem has not been fix in V6. There are still guide issues also.

Channel 22.X broadcasts 22.1 and 22.2 at night. During the day they broadcast 22.1,22.3, 22.4, 22.5.
Channel 22.1 is a duplicate of the analog 22. Channel 22.1 is HD. Channels 22.3, 22.4 and 22.5 are SD.
Two channels, one SD and one HD, are broadcast at night.
Four SD channels are broadcast during the day.
I installed the upgrade to v 6. Scanned the channels during the day.
I received 22.1 OK.
Channel 22.2 was off the air and I got a no signal message.
Channel 22.3 received 22.3 for a second and then displayed 22.4.
Channel 22.4 received 22.5.
Channel 22.5 gave a no signal message.

Latter that day they switched to 2 channel operation.
22.1 was received OK.
All other channels gave a no signal message.

I rescanned the channels.
Several duplicate channels showed up. One had guide information and one didn't. I had to reset the duplicate channels to remove them.

I then checked channel 22.x. I received 22.1 and 22.2 OK.
As expected, all other channels gave a no signal message.

The next day they were back to four channel operation.
22.1 receptionm was OK.
22.2 received 22.3. Should have been no signal as it was off the air.
22.3 receiver 22.4.
22.4 received 22.5.
22.5 gave a no signal message.
Only 22.1 had the correct program listings, all others were off by one channel.

I have filled out another support form. I had to fill out several for version 4 before they figured out it was a real problem and they stopped blowing me off.

[gplasky]

You should try a clean install. I have some in some instances that remanants of a previous install sometimes hinders Sage from working properly. For instance, I did an upgrade and I had issues playing a ripped DVD on the MVP. I then uninstalled and deleted Sage and reinstalled clean. Tested MVP DVD playback and it worked flawlessly. Then I copied back in my wiz.bin for my favorites and recordings and it still continued to work. It may be worth the effort to try a clean install and test.

Gerry

[popechild]

Originally Posted by Kirby

I just converted a SD recording to MPEG4 just fine, but on every HD (MPEG2-TS) file I try, whether its from my Fusion card or my R5000 units, fails after about 2 seconds. Anyone had success converting MPEG2 HD files yet? Which profile did you use? I have tried all 4 MPEG4 variants and the high quality DVD long run or whatever its called.

I also am having trouble getting an HD file to convert. To be honest, this was the most exciting prospect for me, as I want to play back recorded tv to my other computers over the network, but none of them have enough horsepower to play back full HD. I get the same thing - FAILED after about 2 seconds. Anyone able to successfully convert an HD file?

[mikesm]

Any chance we could see support for http://www.silicondust.com/main/inde...od&productId=5 in the production Sage release? It would seem to be a good way of getting around the limitations of QAM tuner support in Windows, and drivers already exist for the Linux packages and soon for some of Sage's windows competitors.

I really like this approach. It gives you the advantages of a card (no IR emitters needed), but also some of the advantages of an STB (remotable locations, not limited by PCI slots, etc...).

It's a good price for this capability and seems pretty simple to integrate.

Thanks,
Mike

[Kirby]

Originally Posted by popechild

I also am having trouble getting an HD file to convert. To be honest, this was the most exciting prospect for me, as I want to play back recorded tv to my other computers over the network, but none of them have enough horsepower to play back full HD. I get the same thing - FAILED after about 2 seconds. Anyone able to successfully convert an HD file?

Mine started to convert out of the blue. I dont know how or why, but they convert now. But I havent spent much time with that feature, I was hoping for a more robust conversion process, like 2 pass, AVC.

[rickgillyon]

Originally Posted by Kirby

But I havent spent much time with that feature, I was hoping for a more robust conversion process, like 2 pass, AVC.

I convert every single recording, 1-pass 50%, automatically with AutoGK. I watch these while away from home. I also convert films 2-pass at 1.4GB, also with AutoGK, as required. When watching the films and the 1-pass conversions on my LCD TV, I can't really tell the difference...

I still do it that way, but the 1-pass 2-pass differences I'm not really convinced on. Maybe I'm just not too fussy...

[Kirby]

ok ok, I will settle for 1 pass, AVC encoding then. Get that in there, and I'll be happy! I used to convert all my TS files to 1280x720 xvid at a fixed 7000kbps bitrate, and they did quite well, but the whole process was time consuming, just to setup the encoding. I would probably do more of that encoding if I could simply, or even keep the resolution of the original but convert from MPEG2 to AVC H.264 with AC3.

[slowpoke]

Originally Posted by svalmorri

Also I second a request that has been already made by dozens of people so far: is there any plan to implement MD-API support into the DVB-S core? I'm sure it would make it the best HTPC program ever and most of us would be more then happy to pay double the fee. If there is no plan what about implementing some sort of core support and make it happen as an external STVi?

Thanks!

I agree - MD-API support would really add to SageTV. Whether its internal support or an external STVi. There is a wealth of MD-API plug-ins and MD-API programmers that could add to the DVB-S maturity of SageTV.

Thanks for the new version - looking forward to installing it!

[henk99]

Hi,

Since installing the v6 version, i have lost my favorites. They are still present in the 'manage favorites' menu, but they don't show up in the 'upcoming recordings' when i am absolutely sure that they should show.
At first i thought it had to do with the sagemc stv, but i have ruled that out now with the help of the guys there.
They don't only not show up, they don't get recorded period. Anyone else seen this, or knows a solution?

Henk

[AndyS]

Originally Posted by AndyS

I'm getting a 403 trying to get the Linux Beta from http://download.sage.tv/linuxbeta/

This is still not working.

Andy.

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by henk99

Since installing the v6 version, i have lost my favorites. They are still present in the 'manage favorites' menu, but they don't show up in the 'upcoming recordings' when i am absolutely sure that they should show.

By any chance, are you affected by this: No Scheduled Recordings: StephaneM's XMLTV importer with v6 beta?

- Andy

[rickgillyon]

Originally Posted by AndyS

[Linux Download] This is still not working.

Have you reported this directly to Sage? I assume they would want to know!

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by AndyS

This is still not working.

That link is meant to be used as part of the Linux installation process, not that you go to that link directly to download some files. It is used instead of the download.sage.tv/linuxweb/ part of the address.

- Andy

[TwistedMelon]

Originally Posted by ikarus79m

Now I know that most of you are using Windows, so I'm not sure how many of your are familiar with FrontRow in OSX, but I think they have a great approach of how to navigate through your media files there.

Front Row is an abomination of interface design. It's a terrible media browser and very poor interface for video and music playback. Front Row is basically the iPod interface full screen. It's terrible and you'll see that Apple is doing a HUGE revamp in Leopard (as well as their "iTV" product).

SageTV has had a pretty convoluted interface from the start and things have gotten better in some areas and worse in others. The biggest issue unfortunately is inconsistency and trying to cram too much stuff into single pop-ups.

TiVo had a stellar interface with very intuitive navigation and even they had some huge stumbling blocks over the past few years. If anyone were gong to look at other products for inspiration however, TiVo is still the go-to design.

MCE is simply not elegant, Front Row is simply unusable. At least Sage is usable with a little practice. My girlfriend uses it without much problem. She doesn't use all the bells and whistles and has no idea how to configure it, but she uses it to watch recordings, live TV, set recordings and check scheduling.

If there's better support (custoomizing) of MCE remotes in version 6 I think this sounds like a very worthwhile upgrade. I'm already looking forward to the transcoding ability. Scheduled/auto transcoding would be nice, but I'll settle for manual for now.

Bruno

[ikarus79m]

Hey Bruno,

that was actually a quite nice analyzis and I agree. Front Row isn't perfect yet, but it's at least elegant. I think the Tivo Interface is nice as well. I wish I'd know how to use Studio.... ;-)

[henk99]

Originally Posted by Opus4

By any chance, are you affected by this: No Scheduled Recordings: StephaneM's XMLTV importer with v6 beta?

- Andy

Yep, apears to be it. I didn't see the thread as i was searching for 'favorites'. I didn't make a link to the XMLTV importer.

Thanks for clearing that up.

Henk

[mayamaniac]

Originally Posted by TwistedMelon

TiVo had a stellar interface with very intuitive navigation and even they had some huge stumbling blocks over the past few years. If anyone were gong to look at other products for inspiration however, TiVo is still the go-to design.

Bruno

SageTV just lacks the fancy looping background animations of Tivo. In terms of navigation, SageTV did copied Tivo functions, which is using Left arrow to go back previous menu, and right Arrow to go to further into the menu or next screen. The iPod navigation is similar also. I wouldn't consider the Tivo interface to be perfect either, but they were the first in the PVR/DVR business and people adopted its interface as the standard. SageTV does take a week or so of getting used to, but with a good remote, its quite functional interface. It does need a professional touch in terms of graphic elements though.

[srothwell]

Jeff,

How does the following work?

9. EPG Data from ATSC capture devices is integrated into SageTV (i.e. DTV subchannel data)

I bought a cool little HDTV receive, the On-Air HDTV GT.... a USB-powered portable ATSC receiver.

I was sitting in the airport waiting for a flight, with no internet connection (short of being held-up by T-Mobile for $9.99), plugged it in and nothing came into the EPG. Am I doing something wrong?

Stacy

[AndyS]

Originally Posted by Opus4

That link is meant to be used as part of the Linux installation process, not that you go to that link directly to download some files. It is used instead of the download.sage.tv/linuxweb/ part of the address.

- Andy

Ahh - gotcha. Thanks for the clarification. I thought they'd released a Beta ISO.

Andy.