V6 New Features?

[joe123]

I am currently on SageTV V5. Where the heck can I find what new features are available now for V6? In particular, I am interested if it has build in commercial skip?

EDIT: Never mind: Here it is: http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=22116

EDIT2: I still don't see what's new as fas as commercial skip which is mentioned somewhere else. Anyone know?

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by joe123

I am currently on SageTV V5. Where the heck can I find what new features are available now for V6? In particular, I am interested if it has build in commercial skip?

EDIT: Never mind: Here it is: http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=22116

EDIT2: I still don't see what's new as fas as commercial skip which is mentioned somewhere else. Anyone know?

There's nothing new for commercial skip. It's either Showanalyzer or comskip. You can use Dirmon2 or Comskip Monitor to run them automatically. Works on SD or HD.


Gerry

[joe123]

Originally Posted by gplasky

There's nothing new for commercial skip. It's either Showanalyzer or comskip. You can use Dirmon2 or Comskip Monitor to run them automatically. Works on SD or HD.

Gerry

Ok. I am confused by the wording on this link: http://www.sagetv.com/stvfeatures.html?sageSub=tv

It says and I quote "Skip through commercials in the blink of an eye." Are they talking about the simple fast forwarding x seconds? That is not neccesarily skipping through commercials but rather jumping x seconds which may or may or may not land you right in the middle of other commercials. I was thinking of skipping more in the literal sense.

[Patilan]

Originally Posted by joe123

Are they talking about the simple fast forwarding x seconds?

Yes.

[Wheemer]

That's kind of misleading...

[joe123]

Originally Posted by Wheemer

That's kind of misleading...

Yes! I really don't like that kind of mis-leading claim. I hope SageTV will re-word it.

Fast forwarding is not the same as Skipping and you are certaintly NOT skipping commercials.

[Opus4]

What is misleading? What comment do you think would sum up the feature better? This isn't a 'new' feature listing -- as far as I know, that comment has been there since before the commercial skipping customizations were created. The only thing that might be confusing is that now the comskip customizations can automate the process. The feature list doesn't say it is done automatically.

Using FF or especially FF2, you are skipping and not seeing whole sections of video, while when viewing live TV that isn't recorded (the old-fashioned way), you will be seeing the commercials in their entirety. So, SageTV certainly does allow you to skip through the commercials -- and even when done manually, it does the job much better than the VCRs I used to use, though one had what they termed "commercial skip" mode where it would FF X number of seconds when you pressed certain number buttons.

Smooth FF on the MVP still shows the commercials, just like a VCR, but you don't have to use smooth FF.

- Andy

[Wheemer]

regardless of how you go about explaining it, a new user who reads it, and has heard of PVR software that can really skip commercials, they are gonna think that's what sage does right out of the box.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by Opus4

What is misleading? What comment do you think would sum up the feature better? This isn't a 'new' feature listing -- as far as I know, that comment has been there since before the commercial skipping customizations were created.

Yeah, hasn't the website said the same thing since V1.

[cnknudson]

Originally Posted by Wheemer

regardless of how you go about explaining it, a new user who reads it, and has heard of PVR software that can really skip commercials, they are gonna think that's what sage does right out of the box.

Yeah...and when people are evaluating Sage TV vs Beyond TV there is a big difference, since BTV allows activation of the feature quite easily, as intimated by the above post.

Although Sage TV allows a great deal of cusomization, I can say that once BTV gets their act together with their DVD burning feature they will have a truly "idiot proof" interface that appeals to the masses (read: MCE & perhaps Vista).

I own a Tivo series 1 box that has been hacked to the nth degree and everyone else in the household has come to 'expect' hacked features by default. I have not experimented with PVR via PC since my ATI AIW circa 1998; STV & BTV have come a long way since then, but for the layman I will offer that the 'average' person wants a boxed solution and the STV web site seems to indicate that STV offers commercial skipping as a canned solution.

I will stick to STV as it offers many benefits over BTV for the 'enthusiast,' but I humbly suggest that BTV offers the simplicity that most users' mothers are looking for.

CNK

[Wheemer]

I've used both and I ultimately chose SageTV. Beyond TVs commercial skipping is garbage anyways.

The best solution for commercial skipping lies in 3rd party apps like Show Analyzer and Comskip. It takes less than 10 mins to setup very reliable comskipping in SageTV.