What is wrong with SageTV

[SundanceTV]

SageTV looks like the perfect media software, so far it looks far better than what I am now using (BTV). It can't be perfect so I would like to hear some of the short comings and dislikes people have before I pluck down my 100 bucks.

Tell me what it doesn't do, doesn't do well or things you just don't like about it. Please if you love it and don't have any short comings to offer please hold your excitement . I have been hearing how great it is and it does look like a great program but I need to know the stuff it won't do as well.

Thanks,

Steve

[mayamaniac]

There's a bunch of threads from people who switched from BTV to SageTV, go through those threads, the answers are there.

http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=30386
http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=26990
http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=29582
http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=30022
http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=29311
http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=29555
http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=28732
http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=27868
http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=26766

There, I already did half the work for you.

Also there's this guy name Khristopher who now hates snapstream with a passion, he will be more than happy to answer all your questions and help you make the switch.

[davephan]

Steve,

After you research more, there's a 15-day free trial for the Windows version, although 15 days is a very short time to try it.

You can take a disk image of your boot drive with disk imaging software. Then install the trial software. Then if you don't like it, you can restore your boot drive back.

If you don't have disk imaging software (Ghost, Acronis, etc) now, then you should buy it so you have a way to recover your computer without painfully rebuilding it from scratch.


Dave

[jaminben]

Originally Posted by davephan

Steve,

After you research more, there's a 15-day free trial for the Windows version, although 15 days is a very short time to try it.
Dave

The trial has been extended to 21 days now.

[meep]

Guys

The OP asked for Sage shortcomings, not reasons to change from other solutions.

While I like Sage a lot, I have a few things I'm not so happy with;

-Impossibly complex import of UK satellite listings (shouldn't this be a core function of PVR software, not a series of hacks and reliance on third party services?????)

-Very poor UI , particularly in media browsing & playback (PVR is acceptable)

-Lacks decent content download services, ppv etc.

Peter

[Brent]

Shortcomings compared to Beyond TV (These are my opinion only of course)

• More difficult to set everything up
• Commercial Skipping isn't built in to the base install - requires add-on
• Moving Recording files around isn't as easy as moving from folder to folder. You can't simply add a video file to your recording folder to get it added to your SageTV recordings (although it will add it to videos that way).
• Webadmin isn't built in to the base install - requires add-on.
• Webadmin doesn't have the ability to change SageTV settings like you can in BTV (although it can do a LOT more than BTV webadmin can)
• The standard UI isn't my favorite (although you can easily add the SageMC replacement UI and you'll be very happy)
• There's no George on the forums to entertain us [inside snapstream joke] (although there is a huge community of SageTV users always ready to help out)

Things it doesn't do: It doesn't tune encrypted QAM (pay channels, other encrypted HD channels, PPV) unless you go with the R5000 mod which is very expensive and not perfect. Then again without a pre-configured VistaMediaCenter box with CableCard built-in, neither does the competition. I do think the soon-to-be-released Hauppauge HD-PVR will likely correct this problem for SageTV and the other HTPC software makers for that matter.

I know you didn't ask for reasons to go to SageTV, I'll let you read through the links posted above for most of that, but here are the main advantages for me:

• Very Customizable - I have the menu looking and working the way I want it to. I've added a Netflix plugin to watch netflix watch-now movies/shows and trailers, I have my movie and music collection all organized and accessible from any of my SageTV devices (including my laptop from the road), I can edit and cut commercials on recorded shows with my remote control from the couch and I can transcode and/or burn shows and videos (movies) right from my couch as well.
• Integrated HTPC functionality beyond PVR (Movies, Music, Photos etc)
• Placeshifter allows me to access SageTV remotely with same interface I use at home
• MediaMVP works as an SD extender very well. Works exactly like your main SageTV PC does and doesn't require any tinkering or hacking
• HD Extender is excellent. It just works, it's quiet and still customizable.
• The community is very large and includes a good number of folks coding new add-ons as well as keeping those add-ons current.
• Updates to SageTV happen quite often - much faster turnaround of beta cycles - no competition with other priorities.

SageTV has a lot of capabilities and I'm extremely happy with it. No regrets for switching from BTV to SageTV.

[btrcp2000]

i am formerly btv as well, semi-happily using sage (more stable than btv, but still issues). I would throw out compression to different file types as a shortcoming with sage. not that it can't be done with sage, but it seemed easier with btv, and I believe it has a built in ability to encode straight to an iphone and others. sage can do it too, but I think it is a customization, meaning that you might get some unintended consequences. disclaimer: i am a huge novice with file compression, could be 100% wrong about all this, but it might be something for you to investigate if compression matters to you. I only needed it when I wanted to cram a bunch of kids shows from sage onto an archos media player for vacation two weeks ago, wasn't easy, but it worked out okay. Similar thought for dvd burning.

Best thing about sage: never have issues with my mvps, which I never could get working with btv. hd extender is another story, but it is still in its infancy and i expect it will be solid at some point.

[GKusnick]

Originally Posted by Brent

• Webadmin isn't built in to the base install - requires add-on.
• Webadmin doesn't have the ability to change SageTV settings like you can in BTV (although it can do a LOT more than BTV webadmin can)

To be fair, Sage does allow full remote administration through Placeshifter, which is an extra-cost item, but fully supported by Sage (not a third-party add-on). Placeshifter isn't web-based, but it is portable; you can carry a working Placeshifter installation (including Java) on a USB stick and run it from any Windows computer.

My suggestion to the OP would be to say a bit more about how you intend to use Sage so we can target our advice better. For instance, if you don't have a massive collection of ripped DVDs, then complaints about how Sage handles such collections aren't especially relevant to your case. (My own pet peeves about Sage revolve primarily around Studio and are much too esoteric to interest a newbie.)

[Brent]

Originally Posted by GKusnick

To be fair, Sage does allow full remote administration through Placeshifter, which is an extra-cost item, but fully supported by Sage (not a third-party add-on). Placeshifter isn't web-based, but it is portable; you can carry a working Placeshifter installation (including Java) on a USB stick and run it from any Windows computer.

Great point. I should have pointed that out in my comments, but as you say it's difficult to respond when we don't know how the OP will want to use SageTV - especially given the fact that SageTV is more than just the basic SageTV program....

Greg,
I'm interested in some of your comments though how do you mean a very-large collection isn't handled well? I ask because I have a rather large collection of video and music on my SageTV server so it's a curiosity more than anything else.

And while the OP might not be interested, I'm even curious of your issues with Studio since I'm trying to self-teach myself in Studio at the moment

[GKusnick]

Originally Posted by Brent

Greg,
I'm interested in some of your comments though how do you mean a very-large collection isn't handled well? I ask because I have a rather large collection of video and music on my SageTV server so it's a curiosity more than anything else.

And while the OP might not be interested, I'm even curious of your issues with Studio since I'm trying to self-teach myself in Studio at the moment

I'm not a DVD packrat and have no specific complaints on that score. I was just using that as an example.

My complaints about Studio are well documented in the Studio forum.

[sainswor99]

Originally Posted by SundanceTV

SageTV looks like the perfect media software, so far it looks far better than what I am now using (BTV). It can't be perfect so I would like to hear some of the short comings and dislikes people have before I pluck down my 100 bucks.

Tell me what it doesn't do, doesn't do well or things you just don't like about it. Please if you love it and don't have any short comings to offer please hold your excitement . I have been hearing how great it is and it does look like a great program but I need to know the stuff it won't do as well.

Thanks,

Steve

Perhaps a better way to frame this would be to ask what features drove you to buy Sage, and now don't seem all that important. Kind of like buying a house with an unfinished basement; you buy it because it has potential, but you may never actually get around to finishing it out.

For me, I left BeyondTV to come to Sage for a) integration of the media center functionality, and b) official support for the media extenders. However, now that I've been using Sage for over a year, I really don't use the media functionality as much as I thought I would. (I do, however, use the media extenders a lot).

Also, Placeshifter is a nice product, but Orb works for Sage just as well; in fact, with Orb and nielm's webserver, you can get the same functionality for watching and managing recorded TV (just not the same GUI). ORb also seems to do a slightly better job of managing compression. However, if you're looking for an easy way to watch TV from afar, Placeshifter wins every time.

What I love about Sage is the Intelligent Recording (which is quirky, but works for the most part), the reliability, and the user support.

I'm not sorry I made the switch; I do believe that SageTV is the best PVR software on the market at this time. However, the reasons I bought it, and the reasons I enjoy it now are very different.

Stu

[CollinR]

Ex-BTVer here too and there is jack that can be done with BTV that cannot be done with Sage. Sage is far more configurable and it's limitations are few and far between.

Not to mention of the 3 issues I have had in that past they have 100% fixed in the next few months beta. Few pump out betas and releases at the rate Sage does.

This atop anyone who wants to be a beta tester can be and Sage includes an integrated development suite. (Studio, which IMHO is different from the SageTV product.)

Also Sage isn't dependent on MS in the slightest, you can have Linux or Mac too.