IT seems awfully quiet in the beta department... until now

[Fuzzy]

I thought I had seen something to that effect before, but didn't bring it up because I couldn't remember the specifics. This is also something that could be done by SiliconDust directly in the HDHomeRun software, as it already has the capability to dynamically allocate tuners to clients. However, the scheduling/conflict resolutoin issues you discussed would still rear it's head, and THAT is the part that I was suggesting would be the tricky part. Personally, I think the scheduling/conflict management is Sage's strongest asset, and messig with that IS a risky endeavor.

[MCE-Refugee]

Originally Posted by mpogr

Speaking of network encoders and virtual tuners, this is exactly what my plugin, DVBE4SAGE, does. It acts as a network encoder and presents number of virtual tuners, which is usually greater than the number of the physical ones, to Sage. This way recording of multiple programs from the same transponder using a single physical tuner is achieved.

Fantastic! That is exactly what I have been looking for. I shall test this out as soon as I have the time. I do have a lot of tuners that I could potentially use. Four Firewire (2xFireDTV-S & 2xFireDTV-S2) plus five or six Technotrend & Hauppauge PCI DVB-S cards. I also have four Pinnacle 7010i PCIe Dual DVB-T / DVB-S tuners but unfortunately I don't believe that these are supported by SageTV even though they work very well in Windows Media Center.

To be honest for my personal use the ability to view/record more channels than tuners is more of an interesting technical challenge than of any practical use as I very rarely find that I require more than two simultaneous recordings even with just two DVB-S2 tuners in my current SageTV server.

[wayner]

And quiet it remains...

[SprDtyF350]

This reminds me of how things went over on the Beyond TV board. No more betas, no more support, pretty soon no more Beyond TV..

Sure hope something fun to play with comes soon..

[reggie14]

I'm not concerned. We know they're working on v7, and we've seen STV updates and beta firmwares in the last 6 months.

I'm hoping to see some screenshots/mockups of the new interface soon. It would be nice to have some sort of opportunity to provide feedback on the new UI design before it's set too firmly.

[Stuntman]

Originally Posted by reggie14

I'm not concerned. We know they're working on v7

Do you know that? I see less and less involvement from all the fine folk at SageTV here on the boards.. I see mention of a version 7, but no mockup, demonstration or any evidence there is such a thing.. I see mention that hardware is still available.. I see nothing that shows they are still in the game the way they were.. so yeah, I'm a bit worried.. to the point I won't buy any more sage products until I see some forward movement by the company..

But maybe I'm being paranoid.. I like to take chances with smaller companies that put out superior products.. like Ooma for my VOIP.. but when they start getting quiet, I start getting worried.. I've been burned here before, as have, I imagine, many that troll this board.

I truly hope I'm wrong and V.7 is awesome!!

[wayner]

Originally Posted by Stuntman

I've been burned here before, as have, I imagine, many that troll this board.

Me too - remember Meedio?

[Opus4]

There was a beta firmware for the HD200 put out for the HD200 on Jan 18, an STV update was put out in Dec, and you want to start a rumor that SageTV isn't doing anything any more?

- Andy

[flavius]

Originally Posted by reggie14

I'm not concerned. We know they're working on v7, and we've seen STV updates and beta firmwares in the last 6 months.

I'm hoping to see some screenshots/mockups of the new interface soon. It would be nice to have some sort of opportunity to provide feedback on the new UI design before it's set too firmly.

That could be the reason they want it to be finished before the veil is lifted.

[reggie14]

Originally Posted by Opus4

There was a beta firmware for the HD200 put out for the HD200 on Jan 18, an STV update was put out in Dec, and you want to start a rumor that SageTV isn't doing anything any more?

To be fair, that's not what Stuntman or wayner said.

It's been almost 200 days since v6.6 was released. That's not terribly long for some pieces of software out there, but it is a long time to go without an update to SageTV (historically). To help put that into a little perspective, the last version of BeyondTV was released on June 8th, about a month before SageTV v6.6. Yes, there have been some (apparently) minor updates in the form of STV and extender firmware betas/releases, but when comparing that to SageTV's previous track record on software updates you can't possibly be surprised that people have started to express concerns.

As I said, I'm not concerned about future development of SageTV, in the near-term at least. But I probably would have been if they hadn't made some semi-public comments about Sage v7 (in combination with the updates that have been provided). With a company like this, I don't think we'd see some sudden announcement about development ceasing. I think we'd see updates in the sole form of bug fixes for quite a while first. There's probably a decent argument that that wouldn't be a horrible thing anyway, but try telling that to some of BeyondTV's previously-loyal customers that have since came over to the other side.

[rtengvad]

I got this message from support some time ago:

"This is now fixed for V7. Thanks.

The problem was an extraneous audio track in the transport stream that
doesn't have the same timeline as the tracks that are actually played.

SageTV Support Team
SageTV, LLC"

So for sure v7 is on its way. Soon hopefully!

Rasmus

[Crunch]

I have also been wondering! Not so much about the update, but why no comment on what's happening and a time frame.

So much so that the other day I did a search on the last posts by those that seem to be in the know and was a bit concerned nothing has been said or indicated that new version was x number of days or months away.

I have held off buying my next Home Theater for new TV on kids landing.

I have been looking at what else I could move to if Sage is taking the slow road due to all the changes that seem to be coming up re how or TV content maybe delivered.
I start to get paranoid when I read things like my cable company maybe going to encrypt everything. I think well 'they' (Sagetv) must know something I don't and are waiting it out! Do Sagetv see the writting on the wall and this is all we are going to get...

My mother in-law just went to direct TV and I read where her DVR should be able to handle Playon. Will have a play with it next time I am up there.

So for some of us 'light' users (I only run our SageTv for basic cable(free to air channels basically) it wouldn't take much to jump ship if we feel sage might be hanging back because of upcoming changes to the way we receive our TV. (I see it might be different for those who have dvd files and all sorts of other media and tv inputs streaming throughout the house.)
So until I see an official update or the software on site then I will hold back on buying HD200, I do that because Sage did do very regular updates before now.
My current syatem is a stable as it has ever been over the last 3 years. I am happy to sit and stay with SageTv as I wait to see who will make the first move, my cable company or SageTV.

My paranoid 10 cents worth. See its 5am and I am up worring so much about this, I couldn't sleep
.

[Chriscic]

Sage has a great history of supporting and updating their product. They's also not a big company, so it's not even remotely surprising that getting v7 to beta would take awhile. Heck, how long does it take even MS between major software updates?

Also, I assume there is going to be some cost for v7, so Sage has financial incentive to get it out eventually. I'm pretty sure they want to make money.

I'm not even remotely concerned. V7 "will get here when it gets here.'

[wayner]

Originally Posted by Chriscic

Sage has a great history of supporting and updating their product. They's also not a big company, so it's not even remotely surprising that getting v7 to beta would take awhile. Heck, how long does it take even MS between major software updates?

Don't use MS as an example - since MC is part of their OS they seem to be pretty much locked into the OS cycle - although TV Pack 2008 was an exception to this. One of the things that I liked about Sage, as opposed to Microsoft, is that they would put out frequent updates to keep on top of the trends - MS doesn't seem to care about that. For example, I believe Sage supported the HDHR long before MS did, and MS still doesn't support the HD-PVR. MS also doesn't support MKV files or BR rips.

Maybe it is just a case of there not being any new functionality required and Sage 6.6 is stable enough that it doesn't need any updates. But I got very used to new betas out on a very frequent basis.

[Lucas]

If one is paranoid enough, then they should carefully review all tidbits and publicly released info (beta firmware release notes, stvs etc), reports by users etc. I think the answer is there.

SageTV has always kept things under the wraps until ready to move.

Everyone is aware that SageTV 7 is coming and just by the fact that it is V7 and not 6.7 there are conclusions to be made.

I, for one, am not worried at all. I 've seen this wait before (v5 to v6) and it was worth it.

[Fuzzy]

Personally, Sage 6.6 does pretty much everything i can envision wanting, so I'm not really sure there's much to DO in Ver 7. I know I'm a pretty happy customer right now.

[wayner]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

Personally, Sage 6.6 does pretty much everything i can envision wanting, so I'm not really sure there's much to DO in Ver 7. I know I'm a pretty happy customer right now.

Well I do believe that Windows 7 is not officially supported - there is one thing that they can do. I am pretty happy with my Sage setup but that is partially due to all of the addons. The obvious place that needs improvement is the UI.

But why not have an officially supported Sage Web Admin tool?

[Fuzzy]

well, sort of, because there isn't MUCH need for it. The current web tool is very effective, all that they REALLY should do is to improve the import system (some sort of auto-import/config with dependancy checks and retrieval). This would be a decently sized project on its own, and would require the plugins to all be configured to take advantage of it.

[setherd]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

Personally, Sage 6.6 does pretty much everything i can envision wanting, so I'm not really sure there's much to DO in Ver 7. I know I'm a pretty happy customer right now.

how about play an audio CD?

Very rarely do I play a CD, but every once in a while I need to (usually someone brings one over) and then I have to minimize sagetv open up a different media player etc.

[Fuzzy]

Been a LONG time since I've needed it, but something I've done in the past is actually set WMP to auto-rip music CD's on insert, and have it always running in the background. It does a good enough job of detecting and downloading the metadata, that it's pretty much a hands-off endeavor. Then it can be played back from the media library. Still, as said, I don't remember the last time i've done this.. or even touched an audio cd... I suppose they should support cassettes as well.. ;-)