Can SageTV do what I want?

[DoubleTap]

Hello everyone,

I've looked around the forums, but haven't found definitive answers for my questions. I have 2 TiVO units and I have had 2 different cable company supplied PVRs. Between those I've discovered the features I want and none of them have them all. Here is what I am looking for, can SageTV deliver?


1) Ability to have a custom channel list without having to select it every time you view the channel guide?

2) Say you are recording two shows (or three with a 2 tuner setup) and you have (assuming SageTV has this) it set to only record NEW shows. One show conflicts with the others and cannot be recorded at its first instance, but that same episode is scheduled to appear later in the week. Will it record the second instance of that show when it was unable to record the first instance.

3) You have it set to only record new shows, but most cable shows are listed (at least in my cable providers PVR listing) as NEW for every instance that first week. Is SageTV smart enough to record only the first instance of that show?

4) An easy way to view and reconcile conflicting records.

Thank you all in advance. I am really looking forward to building a PC based PVR.

DoubleTap

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by DoubleTap

1) Ability to have a custom channel list without having to select it every time you view the channel guide?

You can enable only the channels you want to see and/or there is a customization for favorite channels lists -- see the customizations forum.

2) Say you are recording two shows (or three with a 2 tuner setup) and you have (assuming SageTV has this) it set to only record NEW shows. One show conflicts with the others and cannot be recorded at its first instance, but that same episode is scheduled to appear later in the week. Will it record the second instance of that show when it was unable to record the first instance.

3) You have it set to only record new shows, but most cable shows are listed (at least in my cable providers PVR listing) as NEW for every instance that first week. Is SageTV smart enough to record only the first instance of that show?

It can handle that -- see this FAQ & the ones after it: Does SageTV know enough to record a show only once? I see that one of my favorites is scheduled to air 3 times this week -- How many of those will be recorded?.

4) An easy way to view and reconcile conflicting records.

There is a conflict management system. The PDF manual can be downloaded if you don't already have SageTV installed -- the Recording Conflicts menus are covered around p. 72 or so.

- Andy

[Slipshod]

Originally Posted by DoubleTap

Hello everyone,

I've looked around the forums, but haven't found definitive answers for my questions. I have 2 TiVO units and I have had 2 different cable company supplied PVRs. Between those I've discovered the features I want and none of them have them all. Here is what I am looking for, can SageTV deliver?

1. Maybe, but needs some investigation. There's a user plugin for favorite channel lists (it's not in the default GUI), but I don't know if it remembers the default list displayed. I don't watch enough live TV, and I don't have enough channels (Dish HD-Absolute) that it really matters for me.

2. Yes it does, though it's startling sometimes if it's a show you were really anticipating and it's not there when you expected it.

3. Yes it does, and it seems to do it pretty reliably. There's still a few channels with crappy guide data (Smithsonian for instance), so it's not perfect. Sage's functionality works perfectly, the only problems are if the guide data doesn't have unique show IDs.

4. I think it's pretty easy, but this tends to be subjective thing. There's an Icon at the top of the screen to let you know you have an unresolved conflict in the next few days, a resolved conflict, or no conflicts. You can then go to a menu that shows the recording schedule and see which recording has a conflict. Selecting that recording lets you see what your options are, and in the SageMC interface the options are very clear and easy to understand. "Record X instead of Y this time", "Always record X instead of Y", etc...

Cheers,
Tash