SageTV acquired by Google

[mitchedo]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, I reckon that means I don't need to bother asking my question. ...or worrying about that third HD300 I need.

This really blows!

I can't blame the SageTV folks, though. It's gotta be hard to say not to all that buyout money. You takes your money, give your customers the high hard one, and retire to a sandy beach some place. I would probably do the same thing.

Looks like I invested my time and money in the wrong company. Should have just gone with Win7 Media Center.

Oh well. It isn't the first time I've thrown away hundreds of dollars and hours and hours of my time.

OTOH, Google did great things with Picasa. Somehow, SageTV seems more like them buying out the competition.

[najames]

I can't remember, do betas expire in 21 days like the regular version? If not I need to start working fast, get plugins, etc.

I have both but want a solution that lasts for more than 3 weeks.

I see a Ferrari 458 in Jeff's future! Yeah, some Google lawyer showed up with a brief case full of money, and now he is probably only worrying about either eating steak or cracked crab for lunch, probably traveling around the world a few times too. At least that's how it works in the movies.

As long as my Zap2it TV guides download I can run, if that stops, I'm toast.

[RonBoyd]

+1

[reggie14]

Originally Posted by ghost5

Speaking of the cloud. Google makes very few programs that you can download on to your computer. On my laptop right now there is Chrome and Earth. This will more than likely mean no google TV server software will be released.

Perhaps, but I don't see how Google's overall cloud strategy fits in with the SageTV purchase. It's not like Sage was really much of serious competitor to Google. If Google actually made GoogleTV half as good as SageTV, it would have crushed Sage in terms of sales figures.

So, I have to assume Google is interested in incorporating centralized DVR capabilities into GoogleTV. If not I don't understand why Google would buy Sage, since it seems like that's 90% of what they bring to the table.

You might be right- maybe we won't see downloadable software, but instead we'll see appliances. I'd actually see that as a good move, most likely. I don't particularly like dealing with all the components in my Sage server. If they can give me something reasonably priced that I can just plug in and use, I'd be thrilled.

But, of course, just because Google is likely interested in those features, doesn't actually mean we'll ever see a product. I think Google is too late to the party here. They would be at least one year away from releasing an updated GoogleTV, and by then we'll see more techies move away from cableTV and satellite, and we'll see cable companies release newer DVRs that don't suck so much. Purely a wild guess, but I don't think we'll see anything significant come out of Google from this deal. It seems like GoogleTV has a low chance of success, with a relatively low reward even if it does. It also doesn't really fit with Google's current cloud-based business model.

[APillowOfClouds]

I made a very large investment with Sage to get away from BeyondTV when they decided to focus on corporate video products and abandoned their users who had supported them extensively. Now, with a couple hundred dollars of Sage licenses, a whole family dependent on them and money already earmarked to upgrade to v7, I wake up on Father's Day to find out that I have been abandoned once again. No warning, no email, NOTHING. No download links left that seem to work. So I guess I had better to scrape all the old installs off of my network and preserve them and hope that I don't need any support.

Bravo.

Apparently the exe's are still available for download if you know the file name. Search the forums for the link format.

I would assume Sage and Google people are still monitoring these forums. Can we at least get a commitment that our EPG data will continue and we will be able to continue to download whatever current versions we have and get support on any hardware people have?

* merged *

[nwboater]

I am usually a very positive person, but this announcement has me almost crying. I keep looking for something really good in it and don't find it.

And what about the huge plugin developer community here? Most of them must be way more in shock than us basic users. I hope they will continue with addins such as Phoenix that I have been anxiously awaiting, but my hopes are not high.

Sadly,
Rod

[APillowOfClouds]

I can only hope no one has pulled the plug on the EPG servers or our systems may already be on life support...

[jptheripper]

My only guess is that this is google's attempt as a headstart against AppleTV.

Mixed feelings, but no gloom and doom. My install works great, and i look forward to it working great for years.

I do hope the developers (PLUCKY!!!! evil penguin, etc.. ) do contact google. Maybe here is some $$ that would definitely deserve as well.

[reggie14]

Originally Posted by jptheripper

My only guess is that this is google's attempt as a headstart against AppleTV.

How so? SageTV and AppleTV are completely different. Apple isn't going to provide DVR capabilities, and that's basically all Sage does.

[SteveD]

NextPVR (GBPVR) supports client PC, the HDPVR, serial tuneing on directv. I have found at least that much out. How hard it will be to configure everything is another question. It is in no way as easy to configure as sagetv from some of the configuration pages I have seen.

[SomeWhatLost]

while I tend to think this is very bad thing, I will wait and see what happens, mostly cause sage + extenders is the only all in one solution I actually like (or exists?) at the moment...

but more importantly, I thought there was some requirement that these sort of acquisitions were announced by rapping monkeys? but all we get is the boring message on the website?
like what Woot! did when they got acquired by Amazon...

[mightyt]

What the heck !!! I ordered the HD Theather 300 on the 14th ... Am I hosed?

This is not good ... Forget all the free / inexpensive upgrades ... It's Sunday Bloody Sunday!!

[jptheripper]

Originally Posted by reggie14

How so? SageTV and AppleTV are completely different. Apple isn't going to provide DVR capabilities, and that's basically all Sage does.

Just from a box under the tv for content 1000foot view. If you combine the sage extenders with google apps

If you take google tv and try to throw sage underneath

[nwboater]

So it will be interesting to see how long it takes Google to get on here and do some damage control.

The longer they take the more concerned I'm going to be!

Rod

[jorton]

A little more from the optimistic side , although my opinions could be all wrong,

"By teaming up with Google, we believe our ideas will reach an even larger audience of users worldwide on many different products, platforms and services."

"We look forward to joining Google"

"Full speed ahead!"

I am sceptical like the rest (my first recollection was Meedio and Yahoo), but none of the above sounds like Sagetv is being set aside or bought out and done. More like they are getting some support and resources from Google. Why would they make comments like "Full speed ahead" or why would Jeff would post a hundred smilies when asked on his feelings if there wasn't something positive going to come from this. If they just sold it for the $ then why would the bother with the announcement and the emails to customers, they could have just posted a one liner and quietly slipped away to their new mansions on the French Riviera

Believe me, I do understand the feeling that "oh sh!t" those thousands of dollars I spent on tuners/HD STBs, servers and clients are all going to be wasted, but I have gotten 7 years of an experience that we could have never gotten from the cable companies up here in Canada. Shaw Cable has just started to roll out a similar product (http://www.shaw.ca/Gateway/) to what Comcast just announced and I could easily move my TV portion of Sagetv back to some thing like that if things go south but I'm not ready to give up on Sagetv until it's been announced and it's official. I think that I'll continue to give Sagetv the benefit of the doubt and read the best from their announcement until they say otherwise.

I did find it a bit odd that Beta 7.1.9 RC came out 4 days ago only about a week after 7.1.8 when there were some long delays between prior releases. So I'll take that as they wanted to get out a stable RC version for our benefit before things slowed during the transition to Google .

As for the website going down, did it really go "down" or is it under some Google switchover???

EDIT: Also curious why Brent (Geektonic) hasn't posted anything about his interview with someone from Google last night? He tweeted about it but still nothing??? Would have thought he'd been writing/posting about it once it was over, may his NDA still in effect??? Or he just didn't find out anything....

Happy Father's Day!
Jeremy

[Flash69]

I feel the same way as everyone else in this thread. I was about to purchase my 4th extender and now I can't. I have been using Sage for over 3 years.

I think we might be screwed...

I also help off updating to version 7 because I have a mostly stable system and was not ready to get back into the betas. Kicking myself now!!!

[PiX64]

Yeah I'm with Jeremy on this.

For all those acting like jeff and team just abandoned us for their pocket books I say shame on you. Jeff and team have been great to us over the years, and have always delivered outstanding things.

I think it only fair to continue to support jeff and sage,and trust that we are truly going to new, exciting places.

Sure I could be wrong and jeff could have just sold out but my gut tells no he wouldn't so that.

Let's just wait and see, and in the mean time stop band
mouthing jeff and team.

[brainbone]

Originally Posted by PiX64

Let's just wait and see, and in the mean time stop band
mouthing jeff and team.

Maybe I missed it, but I haven't seen any explicit derogatory comments directed at the SageTV team, just the worries of concerned users.

[Flash69]

I agree!!!

[PiX64]

There are several making jokes about fcars an mansions and such.

Whatever, I'm just saying let's give the benefit of the doubt because we all took a leap and are in this together. I think that we will be pleasantly surprised.


If I'm wrong, we can all make a pact to move to a new solution and take it to new heights :-)