SageTV acquired by Google

[tvmaster2]

Originally Posted by wayner

Not only should we be backing up this forum, if possible, we should likely also be likely for a new home for these forums in case things don't work out so well. I imagine that there will be a new Google-Sage forum but who knows if it will have restrictions on discussions and certain types of activities.

It is also possible that we may have to hack things in the future to allow Sage to continue to work and some of these types of things may not be appreciated by Google.

x2 - how do we do this?

[Eckwell]

Congratulations.

[jm9843]

This is fantastic news. I've been a big proponent of SageTV adopting Android for future iterations of its extender hardware and developing an official Android client. The later would run on Google TV devices with the upcoming Honeycomb update with Android Market (i.e. apps) and tablets. The argument being that Sage could leverage the open environment of Android (and its Java underpinnings) to focus on their strong suits while the Android ecosystem takes care of where they've been lacking (the web, search, Netflix, Hulu, licensed rentals, etc). The idea that Sage would get huge exposure on embedded devices (tv, blu-ray, stb, avr) while possibly gaining access to protected content (cable card, satellite, AllVid) was just icing. Make no mistake, Google TV will be a success. Android 1.0 (released Sept '08) didn't take over the world in 7 months either.

The acquisition, however, changes the calculus and makes the possibilities even greater. I'm hoping for everything outlined above with Google making the Sage back-end available for free while also maintaining compatibility with existing extenders. If you're an existing user, nothing changes. If you were a new customer coming to Sage, pick up a v. 2 Google TV device and save money on licensing the software. They may not take that approach but I think it'd be ideal for new/existing customers.

My objective opinion is that Sage would have faded into irrelevance within the next few years without a buyout; it's just the way the technology is headed. Being a huge fan of both Sage and Android, this is the best possible scenario I could have hoped for.

[Torkild]

Originally Posted by tvmaster2

I have a WD Plus, and while the interface is clugey at best, it does playback all my Sage recordings.

But it is NOT an ekstender......

[tvmaster2]

an analogy: while U2 sells out tours and Britney's ticket sales stall, Britney sells far more albums than does U2, at least currently.
U2 fans are the "geeks", the faithfull supporters who never waver, much like Sage users. We are in the minority, but can always be counted on.
Britney's fans are "units" that are marketed to - sold to, targeted as it were. Much like what Google does with advertising.
That being said, how long can U2 keep touring for?

[tvmaster2]

Originally Posted by Torkild

But it is NOT an ekstender......

nor is it from Ikea

[sandor]

so now it is time to panic due to the time and money invested into Sage. I have been nervous since the seeming drop of Macintosh support, and now i cannot even get the needed hardware extenders.

=/

Originally Posted by lfilomeno

no one knows whats going to happen for sure. I just hope that the SageTV CEO make some announcement during teh course fo teh week that will clear the smoke for a very large Sage community.

agree completely.

[polen]

Originally Posted by jm9843

This is fantastic news. I've been a big proponent of SageTV adopting Android for future iterations of its extender hardware and developing an official Android client.

What he said!! This is great news!!! I was planing to buy a new TV with internet apps, like the VIZIO TV, and also a new HD300 to replace my HD100. Now I'm taking a hugh look at GoogleTV and looking at buying a Sony with GoogleTV enbedded and just keep using the HD100.

GoogleTV is our new extender and our future.

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by tvmaster2

an analogy: while U2 sells out tours and Britney's ticket sales stall, Britney sells far more albums than does U2, at least currently.
U2 fans are the "geeks", the faithfull supporters who never waver, much like Sage users. We are in the minority, but can always be counted on.
Britney's fans are "units" that are marketed to - sold to, targeted as it were. Much like what Google does with advertising.
That being said, how long can U2 keep touring for?

Even after the kids, Britney's still way hotter than Bono though.... And the music both sucks, so looks are all that's left. ;D

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by polen

What he said!! This is great news!!! I was planing to buy a new TV with internet apps, like the VIZIO TV, and also a new HD300 to replace my HD100. Now I'm taking a hugh look at GoogleTV and looking at buying a Sony with GoogleTV enbedded and just keep using the HD100.

GoogleTV is our new extender and our future.

I wouldn't count on any direct compatibility between existing sagetv servers, and a googletv device, short of just browsing network shared recordings/imports, and playing them back on the google device. A network media player is NOT an extender.

[SHS]

Originally Posted by wayner

Rakesh, the owner of Snapstream / BeyondTV has a blog posting on this deal. His main conclusion

http://rake.sh/blog/2011/06/19/my-ta...ion-of-sagetv/

Problem is he forgot a few things that going kill his main conclusion as more and more ISP are starting to do Bandwith Caps.
I say about 25/30% maybe more of the america people in rural area do not have any high speed internet
Satellite Internet suck (Slow, Uesless for games, Bandwith Caps 200/500mb a day and max speed of maybe 2mbps)
Wireless Internet all types really bad in rural area (Can be as slow as old 56k modem up to DSL1024k if really lucky on a good day)

[robk]

Originally Posted by jm9843

This is fantastic news. I've been a big proponent of SageTV adopting Android for future iterations of its extender hardware and developing an official Android client. The later would run on Google TV devices with the upcoming Honeycomb update with Android Market (i.e. apps) and tablets. The argument being that Sage could leverage the open environment of Android (and its Java underpinnings) to focus on their strong suits while the Android ecosystem takes care of where they've been lacking (the web, search, Netflix, Hulu, licensed rentals, etc). The idea that Sage would get huge exposure on embedded devices (tv, blu-ray, stb, avr) while possibly gaining access to protected content (cable card, satellite, AllVid) was just icing. Make no mistake, Google TV will be a success. Android 1.0 (released Sept '08) didn't take over the world in 7 months either.

That's what is wrong with the world today. Who needs all this technology for entertainment and advertising? It's absurd. When I was a little kid we got channels 2 - 13 in B/W and we still survived, even thrived! We spent time with people, not computers and DVRs. We met girls at school, church or work, not on a website.
BTW, I install EMR systems for small medical offices - if you want to see horrible overuse of the internet, look into HIPAA 5010 - a true government mandated nightmare.

Just my $0.02

[wayner]

Here in Canada we have lots of issues with bandwidth caps but I am guessing that those will go away over time or at least increase to a size that it becomes irrelevant - like 1TB per month.

In terms of the rural users - I think they are kind of SOL. They are going to be missing out more and more as high speed internet becomes a requirement to be part of modern society - just like electricity and running water.

[valnar]

Originally Posted by robk

That's what is wrong with the world today. Who needs all this technology for entertainment and advertising? It's absurd. When I was a little kid we got channels 2 - 13 in B/W and we still survived, even thrived! We spent time with people, not computers and DVRs. We met girls at school, church or work, not on a website.

I remember asking my Dad what was his favorite toy as a kid. I'm thinking a puzzle (maybe the 40's version of the rubiks cube) or a hula hoop, a baseball, etc. Something classic.

His answer was nothing. They had no toys back then. A stick and a ball if he was lucky.

[pjpjpjpj]

Thoughts:
1) If/when Sage goes away, what are the limitations to continuing to run what you have installed right now? Obviously, no further plugins or updates, no troubleshooting service. No EPGs, but I believe someone smarter than I could write a plugin (or a wiki about how to create your own XML mod) such that it could use some free service on the web somewhere. Don't the non-USA users have to do this now anyway? Otherwise, current SageTV software could keep working as-is, right?

2) The HD200/300 extenders still work in standalone mode. It's not like you have to throw them away - consider them like the WD or Roku devices, right?

3) Go do a web search (heh, "Google") the phrase "google buys sagetv". LOTS of articles out there, pretty much all of them view this purchase as a move by Google to get into the DVR market, because apparently the lack of DVR capability is viewed as the biggest reason that GoogleTV hasn't taken off. BTW, notice how many of the articles use a stock photo of the SageTV UI that isn't the default background - the "modern living room" photo that was part of a plugin?

4) My personal wish would be for SageTV to be left as-is, "grandfathered in" as it were, still able to receive EPG info from Google via Zap2It. But since that's unlikely, maybe that a future release of GoogleTV would work on the HDx00s via a firmware upgrade - such that the HDx00s would pull in GoogleTV UI and operation from the cloud, rather than our servers (similar to the "future of cable TV" youtube clip posted here last week from Comcast). If the future GoogleTV box is similar to an HD300, couldn't they do this?

5) For whoever above said OTA TV is dying, I'd like to introduce you to my growing number of friends who are cutting the cord (like I did). Mid-30s to mid-40s parents of small children who are realizing that pay TV has way too much trash, way too many infomercials, way too many re-runs, and the cost keeps going up and up. There's a small but growing counter-movement to pay TV, and having the ability to see certain shows for free online (or minimal netflix payment) just makes it easier.

6) TV as we know it won't go away soon, at least not totally. I agree with valnar above (and I have posted these opinions in other threads) that those on this forum are part of a small minority and have a skewed view of TV viewing. The VERY LARGE MAJORITY of people in the world still plop on their couch and watch TV. And a lot of them still don't even have a DVR. And many of those are (gasp!) under age 40. Which means it's gonna be a LONG time until TV moves to "all on-demand" as some here imagine.

7) If you think TV as we know it will go away, call ESPN and CBS. Ask them about the multi-BILLION dollar contracts they signed with the SEC (college sports conference, not Securities and Exchange Commission) to televise college football for the next umpteen years. Ask Fox is they are planning on moving the "American Idol" cash-printing juggernaut to an on-demand pay channel. Heck, there's a new ESPN launched every couple of years - Bill Simmons' old running gag about "ESPN8, the Ocho" isn't that far from being reality. Oh, and did I mention that pretty much all of the top TV shows yearly, all of which make billions for their respective networks, are not only on "regular" TV, but available free OTA? Why would they have incentive to switch that cash cow to "on-demand" or "online only"? Sports and Reality TV are driving the bus, and neither of those work well in an "on-demand" format.

8) I got into Sage because it did not have monthly fees. One-time purchase of software and hardware, I'm all OTA, I have ZERO TV bills. If this all switches to monthly fee-based, I'm gonna be mad. And if my HDHRs become useless....

9) And, finally, as everyone else says, congrats to the Sage guys. They reached the goal of today's world... create a great product and then get bought out by a behemoth for a large check. I hope Narflex thinks of us when he's sipping champagne on his yacht.

[DFranch]

Originally Posted by pjpjpjpj

Thoughts:
8) I got into Sage because it did not have monthly fees. One-time purchase of software and hardware, I'm all OTA, I have ZERO TV bills. If this all switches to monthly fee-based, I'm gonna be mad. And if my HDHRs become useless....

Your HDHR's will work on Media center. they won't become useless.

[matt91]

I was off the grid most of this weekend, and didn't see this until my daily troll through the forums today. Just spend 60 minutes readying this thread.

I'm somewhat sad, but it's probably more anxiety than anything else. I just hate the thought of having to devote time to learning/installing something new, if, for some reason, my Sage server stops functioning.

Like many on here, Google knows what color underwear I have on today. If they can create something that allows me to record TV, watch DVDs, listen to MP3s, watch photos, etc, on my TV, then I'm sure it'll be fine with me.

I've put money into my setup, but also benefited greatly from the software and hardware too.

I'm cautiously optimistic about all this, although, as I said, a little nervous too. I just hope we get some additional details within the next few weeks.

Good luck to everyone

[tvmaster2]

I don't know about anyone else, but Netflix only streams in stereo, not 5.1 (unless you have a PS3). That is why I stopped subscribing. Same with most streaming services - lousy audio.
Britney, here we come

[valnar]

In the past, I remember hearing from Sagezillas on this forum that have multiterabyte arrays and something like 8 tuners in their setup. I wonder if any of them have jumped off a bridge?

[rickgillyon]

Originally Posted by valnar

In the past, I remember hearing from Sagezillas on this forum that have multiterabyte arrays and something like 8 tuners in their setup. I wonder if any of them have jumped off a bridge?

Why? It's still working...