SageTV acquired by Google

[rickgillyon]

Originally Posted by hoep

shutting down the store (and the email makes me think it's not just a rebranding issue) isn't different - why should they miss the revenues of the sales within the next couple of weeks (i think they could sell a lot of licenses/hd 300s) - if they would not have to think about the consequences of doing so?

SageTV is now owned by Google. Seems to me they have to stop entering into all the contracts of sale as SageTV, until the details are worked out with Google. I wouldn't expect any different. Remember buying stuff, agreeing to the terms and conditions of SageTV LLC? Don't see any problems with that now?

[hoep]

Originally Posted by rickgillyon

SageTV is now owned by Google. Seems to me they have to stop entering into all the contracts of sale as SageTV, until the details are worked out with Google. I wouldn't expect any different. Remember buying stuff, agreeing to the terms and conditions of SageTV LLC? Don't see any problems with that now?

Google owns SageTV when the transaction is completed.. i would doubt that this has already happened (e.g. company registers..). Would be interesting to know if it's a share deal or an asset deal (i would think there aren't so much assets to sell) so it could be a share deal.

when it's a share deal than there should be not difficulties in selling under the above mentioned conditions, as google would be the legal follower of SageTV

the bad story is - if it's an asset deal - then they buy only the assets (e.g. source, some hardware..) and give the people contracts - most probably SageTV will be deleted from the company register, and that's it.. and then i would stop selling under the terms and conditions of sageTV LLC

[logsvp]

Jeff posted:

... and while we don't have anything specific to announce at this time, we encourage interested developers to email sagetv-dev@google.com

This seems to me that Jeff is reaching out to the developer community and in some way wanting to get them on board with the new endeavour - have any developers emailed and got a reply?

Of course "interested developers" may already be under a NDA - I guess we could spot this if developers drop out of the discussions on this thread

[rickgillyon]

Originally Posted by logsvp

Of course "interested developers" may already be under a NDA - I guess we could spot this if developers drop out of the discussions on this thread

So THAT's where nielm has been the last couple of years...

[curtvm]

First time I saw a GoogleTV box demoed in a store, I thought of two things- these will not be on display for more than 6 months since no one will want them as they are now, and in order to get anywhere they need to serve the primary function of a tv. I did think Google would buy SageTV at that time (but is still a little surprising, as me thinking it doesn't make it happen). They have the linux oem thing and use Java so it seemed like they would be the natural 'target'.

Google wants eyeballs, and tv's are an untapped source of eyeballs for them. But no one wants to turn their tv into a browser (GoogleTV1.0)- we have computers that do that for us. We want to watch (and record) tv shows with our tv's (from our own source ota/cable/sat). In my opinion, anyone wanting the tv 'space' better handle the primary job of the tv, otherwise the eyeballs will not be there. I also think content from the 'cloud' is not the answer either (for the majority of tv owners), unless/until it can replace our current sources- and I don't see how that happens any time soon.

We can all imagine many scenarios unfolding, but I think the only way Google gets anywhere, is if they get Sage-powered-GoogleTV inside the tv. The Google boxes (which I imagine being both server and client capable) would be the equivalent to hdtv converter boxes (needed until there are no more analog-only tv's left, and in this case when there are no more tv's that don't have Sage-powered-GoogleTV inside). The tv has the tuner/input/signal already, so it seems the natural place to record it. I would assume once a manufacturer or two start putting in spgtv (sage-powered-googletv), they will all have to do it- or be left out. Imagine every tv in the home capable of being both a sage server and client, all tv tuners/inputs used as needed, hard drives plugged into any/all tv's and used as needed, etc. (I'm getting carried away).

(I'm sure the legal side of all this is the hard part)

I will keep using my SageTV setup (server,hd200,r5000,hdhomerun) until something better comes along (hopefully sage-powered-whatever), or I am forced to change. I can't imagine it will take much to keep the activation server and program guide going for at least a few years, so I think we will have plenty of time to sort things out (maybe that's wishful thinking).

[emotionnotion]

See here:

http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/18/s...top-google-tv/

Download links for 7.1.9 still working; so downloading just in case.

Devastated; do not think this is good news for the functionality we know and love; I left TIVO and WMC and now Sage may well be next.

Maybe we could setup another SageTV API/Developer site to keep the older systems running.....

[hoep]

Originally Posted by emotionnotion

See here:


Download links for 7.1.9 still working; so downloading just in case.

reading your signature - you are already running 7.1.12 ?

[Fountainhead]

Originally Posted by matterofrecord

Google are not a search giant they are an internet advertising based company. That is how they make their money.

Google wants people on the net because they make their money from net based ads.
Almost everything google has released so far is related to getting people to use the net more...

-snip-

This leaves no place for sage we have come to know and love. The shop is being closed because they have no intention on continuing sage in it's current form.

Edited for space, but I think matterofrecord's entire post is dead on. Anyone hope for a continued or improved SageTV is going to be disappointed. It's done. I believe that the best we can hope for is keeping our existing setups going, assuming continued program guides and operational keys.

Google will use the technology for some consumer set top box or integrated TV solution for cloud-based, DRM'd material. The wild west is no more.

[planetc]

Kind of sick feeling in my stomach, pleased for the guys at Sage, it's obviously a good thing for them, but concerned about the future.
Sage has become part of my family's daily lives over the last 7 years or so, I shall be sad if that comes to an end. OMG, I can't believe my eyes are filling up over my Media solution, silly bugger!!

[will]

First off, congratulations to Sage on the deal!

While I'm pretty worried we won't see any new versions of SageTV my biggest concern is that won't be able to purchase any new HD300s. I don't think SageTV would be what it is today if it wasn't for its amazing extender/server model.

Considering how much this community has supported Sage over the years I really hope they open the store up (at least temporarily) to allow us to order a few extra HD300s and licenses. I know they won't make major money off of this, especially since they have "Google money" now, but this would be a very significant gesture to the community.

[lfilomeno]

Originally Posted by dszp

If that was Google's intent, I'm afraid it would be much more likely for things to continue "business as usual" until the transition was made more smoothly. Even takeovers often result in smoother shutdowns, for example when Apple bought Lala.com, and they had a grace period. A total shutdown of everything but the forums (although leaving the forums up is...interesting) doesn't seem to bode well to me. But I hope I'm wrong!

An this is what I am affraid of. If our SageTv will become a Google product down the road, maybe a lot of things will change for us SageTV users. As a long time SageTV user, once I read that Google has bought Sage, a cloud of uncertainty loomed over my head right away. I really enjoyed SageTv adn it's support. My familiy is used to SageTV and it's functionality. It will be sad to see this great product leave. I was not a fan of buying an Xbox as an extender but if SageTV becomes a different product all together, then MCE might become a choice.

[Bagal]

Like everyone else, I'm apprehensive about what the future holds and disappointed that I probably won't be able to buy any more HD300's (if you're in the UK and looking to offload your HD300's, by all means get in touch ), however I'm very happy with my current setup and see no reason why that's going to change in the foreseeable future.

As for speculation on what Google plans, I think they've realised that no one wants search etc. on the TV itself, however many people use either a tablet, netbook or laptop while watching TV, so I think they'll create a combined solution mixing some sort of hardware, such as a set-top-box, and software that you can then use to interact with what you're watching and Sage gives them the ability to control the whole eco-system rather than sitting in the middle like the current GTV device does.

[Fountainhead]

Originally Posted by will

Considering how much this community has supported Sage over the years I really hope they open the store up (at least temporarily) to allow us to order a few extra HD300s and licenses. I know they won't make major money off of this, especially since they have "Google money" now, but this would be a very significant gesture to the community.

I seriously doubt that they'd be allowed to do this. The sudden and unannounced shuttering of the store should tell you everything that you need to know. Google has executed Sage and will use the remains for some other vision, and the last thing they'd want is for any kind of continued Sage distribution into the marketplace. This is no longer up to the original Sage owners and developers.

[will]

Originally Posted by Fountainhead

The sudden and unannounced shuttering of the store should tell you everything that you need to know. Google has executed Sage and will use the remains for some other vision, and the last thing they'd want is for any kind of continued Sage distribution into the marketplace. This is no longer up to the original Sage owners and developers.

I guess going forward we may be faced with having to build our own "extenders." Does anyone have any experience using atom based PCs with NVIDIA ION GPUs as a SageTV Client?

[photon]

Everything except the forum seems to be gone. No store. No way to buy any sage TV products.

[davephan]

Originally Posted by d2tw4all

I was a longtime MythTV user who went over to Sage because of the awesome standalone extenders. Going from MythTV to sage only required me to buy the software and extenders and I retired the PC based MythTV frontends that I had been using. Myth is a ROYAL BITCH to get working, but once it works it's absolutely bulletproof. There are definitely features of Myth that I miss in Sage, but if the world collapses and a year or two from now I feel the need to move away from the SageTV that I have set up now, I'll just have to consider what Google has done with SageTV, or move back to MythTV, or look into alternatives at that time. No need to go crazy at this point, we have no idea what the future holds. Ultimately I think this could be a good thing for us but time will tell. Jeff to me seems way way too happy for this to be a bad thing for us, I'm sure he'd be happy walking way with big cases of cash, but I just don't see him going on the record the way he has showing how pleased he is, so to me there must be something good brewing, let's just all be optimistic, and worst case scenario we move on to the next DVR solution out there.
Tom

I checked the MythTV web site briefly and discovered that the don't have a forum! They use e-mail lists instead. This seems like a extremely poor way to communicate and develop the software. At least they are not using surface mail for everything, but e-mail does not allow the community to share ideas and solutions. The lack of the MythTV forum and only available on Linux is naturally going to stunt any possible MythTV growth and development. Although I do have a spare computer I could try installing MythTV, but I'll probably have more trouble than you did, or may not be successful at all. The Linux SageTV version was not easy to install without help from the SageTV forum. Linux people tend to not document things well and they assume everyone knows everything.

Dave

[lfilomeno]

Hopefully it is not gone. As the day progresses, we should have more info about the Google purchase of SageTV and it's future. In the meantime, I will be back to teh drawing board to see what alternate solution I can came up with.

[Torkild]

WD TV Live Plus use the same chipset af HD300
Sigma Designs SMP8654

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=320

Might get it to work it some one knows how to load sagetv firmware on it.

WD TV Live Plus has netflix, so lets keep that

[Flybye]

I read a few times a big concern would be these forums going away.

Anyone up to the task of creating a Sage forum to fall back on?

[Fountainhead]

Originally Posted by davephan

Linux people tend to not document things well and they assume everyone knows everything.

I believe that this is known as the "Linux Test," the idea being that if you can't figure it out on your own then you have no business running Linux. Which of course is why my forays into the world of Linux are always very brief.