Demo?

[rtmoore4]

During your pre-release notifications, you mentioned that there would be a demo of this software. I do not see this listed, however. I want to either try the software before I buy it, (especially at the cost), or have a 30 day money back guarantee.

Also, I am not interested in the "auto record suggestions" Tivo-like functionality of the SageTV software, but I just have to have the Electronic Programming Guide (EPG) support, which does not come as part of the SageRecoder. Are there any plans to release a middle-tier product that meets this need?

Like most geeks I know, I have turned off my TiVo suggestions, as I know what I want to watch, and I don't need my TiVo recording a whole bunch of nonsense that I am never going to watch. If you don't plan on releasing a middle-tier product, is it at least possible to turn OFF the SageTV suggestions?

Can you please explain to me the value behind subscribing for your EPG? There are several EPG's available on the Internet that are completely free. Why couldn't I use one of those? What does your's offer (besides a steady revenue stream) that deserves to be paid for. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind paying for it if there is truly some value here, but honestly, I don't see it right now.

Thank you for listening to my thoughts, concerns, and questions.

Randle

[Omegadsl]

I don't work for Frey Technologies so please don't take my response as anything official. However, I have been using SageTV for a few months now so hopefully I can answer at least some of your questions.

During your pre-release notifications, you mentioned that there would be a demo of this software. I do not see this listed, however. I want to either try the software before I buy it, (especially at the cost), or have a 30 day money back guarantee.

-I am uncertain whether or not Frey stated there would be a demo of SageTV. Are you perhaps thinking of Sage Recorder? There is a 10 day free trial of that product available.

Can you please explain to me the value behind subscribing for your EPG? There are several EPG's available on the Internet that are completely free. Why couldn't I use one of those? What does your's offer (besides a steady revenue stream) that deserves to be paid for. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind paying for it if there is truly some value here, but honestly, I don't see it right now.

-As for the programming guide, I believe Frey has to pay for their listings to be updated so I think that's where the subscription cost comes from (at least in part). I think that since they pay for their listings, they can also make sure the listings are more accurate (since they are paying for it, they can complain to their provider for inaccuracies, etc.). Also, I believe they use the same provider as other well-known PVR products (possibly the same as Tivo but I may be wrong). I'm pretty certain that their competitors charge more for the same service so I think the cost is justified.

[EDIT] Also, their EPG is totally intergrated into the program so using a different one wouldn't be possible without redesigning the entire program.

Like most geeks I know, I have turned off my TiVo suggestions, as I know what I want to watch, and I don't need my TiVo recording a whole bunch of nonsense that I am never going to watch. If you don't plan on releasing a middle-tier product, is it at least possible to turn OFF the SageTV suggestions?

-Personally, I do not like to use the intelligent recording either, so I disable it.

I hope that helps answer at least some of your questions.

-Omegadsl

[dkardatzke]

Thanks for the response Omega, let me add a little more:

We do not currently have any plans to offer a Demo version and apologize if something was stated previously on our site. We hope that you will use this forum to ask specific questions regarding SageTV to help in your purchase decision. We do not offer a money back guarantee, but do provide you with a 14-day trial on the EPG data.

The reason we have to charge a fee for the EPG data is that we have to pay for it just like TiVo and ReplayTV. We all get our data from Zap2it and then fully integrate it into our PVR applications. Since we have integrated the EPG data we can provide you functionality like Favorites Recording, Search Capabilities, One-touch Recording, Parental Controls and Intelligent Recording all from the comfort of your couch. We made this decision so the user would not have to deal with a separate application. We also tried to make our fee as low as possible.

Intelligent Recording and Scheduling is easily disabled in our Setup options.

I hope that helps and feel free to ask anything else here in the forums or by contacting us via email.

Dan

[dkardatzke]

Ask and you shall receive...we now have a 10-day trial version of SageTV available for download at http://www.freytechnologies.com/stvdownload.html. To use the trial version with EPG data you must also sign up for the 14-day trial to the SageTV service.

Any questions, let us know.

Dan

[rtmoore4]

Fantastic! That is really great!

I have downloaded the SageRecorder demo software and have been trying that out for the last couple of hours. But now I'm going to download the SageTV demo instead, as that is the one I am really interested in.

Randle

[jmeeks]

That's great Dan.

It will give everyone a chance to truly experience how good SageTV is and once they're hooked they won't want to leave.

John