Where would YOU put Sage's improvement priorities?

[valnar]

I put in for Cablecard support. Without it, I fear we'll hit a brick wall soon where I can do nothing but watch pre-ripped videos on my Sage server. Everything else is fluff compared to that (IMO).

[wrems]

Originally Posted by valnar

I put in for Cablecard support. Without it, I fear we'll hit a brick wall soon where I can do nothing but watch pre-ripped videos on my Sage server. Everything else is fluff compared to that (IMO).

Yep! My sentiments exactly. Or, maybe Sage can develop their own HDPVR? Network attached would be sweet, but I'd settle for USB too.

[reggie14]

Originally Posted by wrems

Or, maybe Sage can develop their own HDPVR?

I understand the desire for CableCard support, but why should Sage develop their own HD-PVR? What's wrong with Hauppauge's?

I'd love to see CableCard support too, but I doubt its realistic. I doubt they have the money for licensing and certification. Maybe certification can be relaxed, as the FCC has suggested, but I still wonder about licensing fees.

[ccsmoke]

I voted for better plug-in manager. I really missed this feature on a modded xbox running xbmc. The ability to rate, give a short description (broken ,use with x.x version, no longer supported) and the ability to install/uninstall plugins with a touch of a button. I think most of the things on the poll can be solved by plugins.

[wrems]

Originally Posted by reggie14

I understand the desire for CableCard support, but why should Sage develop their own HD-PVR? What's wrong with Hauppauge's?

I'd love to see CableCard support too, but I doubt its realistic. I doubt they have the money for licensing and certification. Maybe certification can be relaxed, as the FCC has suggested, but I still wonder about licensing fees.

Competition mostly.

[Yalbik]

Originally Posted by Deacon Crusher

Make Sage multi-user and parent friendly.

Recorded series should be tagged by different users and won't auto delete until all users have set watched.

Log in as me and I see one tailored UI/setup, login as someone else and see different setup.

Parents or Admin should be able to not just restrict but actually hide content from other users.

Thanks

+1 Yes! That would fix my #1 frustration with Sage right now. I don't want to scroll through my kids cartoons and my wife's shows just to pick out the 2-3 shows per week that I actually watch.

As well, I want an easy way to manage my recordings/favorites so my 9 year old doesn't constantly have to ask "Am I allowed to watch [insert inappropriate title here]?"

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by Yalbik

+1 Yes! That would fix my #1 frustration with Sage right now. I don't want to scroll through my kids cartoons and my wife's shows just to pick out the 2-3 shows per week that I actually watch.

As well, I want an easy way to manage my recordings/favorites so my 9 year old doesn't constantly have to ask "Am I allowed to watch [insert inappropriate title here]?"

I've had great success splitting my malore recordings screen into two views. one is Kids, the other is adults. the kids one is filtered to the children category, with the adult filtered to NOT children. Especially important, sine I think 75% of my hard drive space is filled with playouse disney, nick jr, and pbskids...

[MeInMaui]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

Judging from the responses so far, it seems flashy is perfectly fine for most. Considering the ferver over the ortus and phoenix stv's, and their focus on fanart and such throughout, it seems the 'not really for function' graphics are all the vogue.

Hmmm. I'm not exactly sure how to take this.

And I would definitely not call Phoenix flashy. Attractive yes, but not flashy.

Aloha,
Mike

[Fuzzy]

I think I already clarified how I see flashy.. flashy is basically attractiveness, that doens't necessarily directly relate to usability. It's not a bad thing by any stretch.

[ranger]

Improve the library performance. It gets pretty slow as the library grows and I add on items like TV Explorer. A flashy interface won't be of much use if the library functions are too slow.

Updated interface. Flashy AND more functions. I want it all

Firewire / cablecard support - Pay somebody to write firewire drivers for Windows7!!! That could draw a few customers since there aren't any viable options for Win7.

I have this idea about the interface that I think everyone will hate. Instead of re-designing the UI from scratch, write a SAGE TV plugin for XBMC. I mean the guide, TV recording, and all of it.

[stevech]

Top priority here: Not flashy, glitzy UI, but make it intuitive for the non-geek user. Turn off all the left-margin icon stuff never used except by accident and then causing havoc.

K-I-S-S.

[medwynd]

Originally Posted by valnar

Without it, I fear we'll hit a brick wall soon where I can do nothing but watch pre-ripped videos on my Sage server.

That's all I use sage for :P

[Yalbik]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

I've had great success splitting my malore recordings screen into two views. one is Kids, the other is adults. the kids one is filtered to the children category, with the adult filtered to NOT children. Especially important, sine I think 75% of my hard drive space is filled with playouse disney, nick jr, and pbskids...

Sigh.

I get this response so often...

Maybe it's just me, but I don't want some third party deciding what my kid can and cannot watch. The "Children's" category just doesn't work for me...it restricts things that I feel my kids are able to handle, and allows some things I feel are inappropriate.

As well, this still gives me no mechanism to split out my recordings vs. my wife's.

If the favorites (or any reasonable mechanism) allowed me to easily tag things, build show views based on tags, and apply password to views based on tags...this would solve my problems.

[Yalbik]

Oh, and the other thing I want:

Open up the darned DB already so I don't have to rely on some proprietary homegrown database format!



I hate the fact that the best I can do is back up my wiz.bin and hope that if it does become corrupt, that I notice within my 7 days of backups. It also annoys me that I have no way to optimize the database, clear out old or unwanted data, or generally tune it like I can with 90% of the applications I deal with at work.

I have no way to bulk delete the stuff I no longer want to keep. I have no way to search the db using my own custom queries, and no way to migrate my data to / from a different platform.

I know there have been some claims that Sage can't open up the wiz.bin as they are restricted by content providers.

Sorry, but I call BS. There is no reason the couldn't use a standard DB platform, and encrypt the restricted content. Is it really a huge privacy issue to the content providers that "The Simpsons" airs at 9 pm on Sundays?


Ok, done ranting now. Time for sleep

[GKusnick]

Originally Posted by Yalbik

I have no way to bulk delete the stuff I no longer want to keep. I have no way to search the db using my own custom queries, and no way to migrate my data to / from a different platform.

Sorry, but I have to call BS on this. True, the DB format is proprietary, and I'm not particularly defending that design choice, but to say there's no way to do any of that stuff you want to do is just not accurate. There's a documented API for accessing virtually all of the data in Wiz.bin, and the Downloads section is full of third-party tools that import and export data to other formats, run custom queries, perform bulk operations, and so on. If they can do it, so can you.

[fac13]

DVB radio.
A "Stop Recording" button just like they used to have on VCRs; telling lies about already having watched something is not intuitive and is also very naughty

[scoful]

It's interesting that in 1997 somebody had this figured out but I still haven't seen it implemented.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92qbRSf_sjs

While the technology depicted is pretty primitive the concept is there.

I'd like to see Favorites and Record options that are marked for an individual.

On the recordings screen there would be a group marked 'Bob' or whoever in the listings - and if 'Bob's' profile is that his recordings are private, a pin is required to browse that folder.

This prevents the 7 year old from asking "Mommy - what's Talk Sex with Sue Johanssen" or "Can I Watch Busty Cops 2?"

It also provides simple organization. I like to watch a few shows nobody else in my house wants to watch. My wife likes to watch a TON of show nobody else wants to watch. It would make it easier to find the shows I want to watch or everybody wants to watch.

My desire for convenience has now been vented - now my comment on survival:
SageTV needs to be able to use CableCard to survive. Even if that's by using the MediaCenter API to create a Network Encoder to utilize it.

[macsupergeek]

1. remove pause/hiccup when livetv goes past time slot ie baseball game
2. cablecard access, but i guess we need some good tuners first that one from ATI/AMD stinks on ice.
3. PIP I have 5 tuners they can all record at the same time, so why can't the UI put up all 5 tuners in their own windows and then let me bring one to the front like 4 windows on the right and then a big on on the left -- go right with your d-pad select the 3rd window and it swaps -- c'mon how cool would that be?? The HD-200 has to have enough power to do that.

silly me -- I haven't checked in awhile so I did a search right after I posted -- I want, I want, I want ---gimme, gimme, please --- http://hd.engadget.com/2010/03/13/ce...lable-for-pre/ AND http://hd.engadget.com/2010/04/14/hd...-signup-is-on/ --- never heard of ceton, but its my understanding that HDHomerun makes quality products and since Sage already supports their product, maybe there is hope.

[DFranch]

I worry that without cablecard support Sage will become useless as channels migrate to digital. I won't switch from Sage as long as I can record my locals in clear QAM and I can still tune analog cable channels like TNT, USA, FX etc. Time Warner in my area has already started migrating channels (fortunately so far only channels nobody watches). Once they take away the good cable channels with shows I like (The Closer, Breaking Bad, Rescue Me, Warehouse 13 etc.), I'll have no choice but to abandon Sage. Plus I'd really like to record those shows in HD.

[dfitz43]

Totally agree with native cablecard support. Analog cable is obviously fading fast, and I would love to record all the cable HD that I currently don't have access to.

I'll be among the first to pick up the Ceton card when it comes available and test out the WMC network encoder thing, but native support would be fabulous, and I think, keep Sage viable for a great while longer.

cheers,
Dave