SageTV acquired by Google

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by Brent

I'm not expecting to hear anything from Jeff (Narflex) at this point. He's at the mercy of his new employers now and employee's of Google don't tend to talk much - unless they have PR at the end of their name.

I hope to get a response from Google by tomorrow and I'll post here and on GeekTonic the moment I have something. Who knows, by then perhaps Google will share with all of us by then on sagetv.com or google/sagetv etc etc. This is not the end of everything guys. I think we'll be fine in the short-run at least and hopefully even longer. Give it some time and we'll know more.

So Jeff (and the whole team I suppose) are now google employees? If that is so then things should get interesting. We may be on the forefront of something great. Or we are the remnants of another dead platform.

I think the waiting to hear what is going on is the hardest part. I (like many others) was about to purchase my first HD300. That and I'm about to spend a fair amount of cash to finish my theater room. This initial email from Jeff had me wondering if centering my HT around sage is still a good idea. I'm still going to move forward with my plan as Sage existing or not doesn't really have to stop me. I can still use it to serve up my ripped movies and tv. If I have to I can use sage for everything but TV if the guide dies. I'm VERY happy with my current setup so I don't really care if development of Sage in it's current form stops for some time (similar to the transition from v6 to v7). It works now and will continue to until the guide data goes away. I for one have invested too much time and energy to go to another HTPC frontend. I don't really want to have to start from scratch. WMC may work, but I just don't like it. I'm OTA only right now and was about to pull the trigger on a Colossus (I may still) so this won't affect me in the short term.

I still believe that Jeff has our best interest at heart and wouldn't do anything to leave us out in the cold. That is unless his choice was sell to google or shut down sage for good. I think the fact that the forums are still operational is a good sign that we weren't left out in the cold. At least not yet.

[gmijackso]

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?

I have 8 tuners (4 HD, 4 SD) and have not yet jumped. I was a little distraught over not being able to upgrade to V7 and currently running V7 in a trial mode, but now I've located all of the old V6 software and can re-install that in 4 days when my trial runs out, if no new word has arrived by then.

As others have said, the current stuff should continue to work, providing guide info is available. Worst case, we'll have to get that elsewhere. Beyond that, my only other concern with the possibility to moving to a different software solution, is that it's very difficult (outside of myth) to get 8 tuners working in a single box.

[Skirge01]

With all the doom and gloom attitudes around here, maybe jaminben should take a stab at this one: http://goo.gl/pyvvX. ;-)

[Bagal]

I think it's quite interesting how many people in this thread (myself included) have said they were about to or in the near future buy a bundle of HD300's, at a rough guess it's got to be 50+ and if they did open the store again I bet they'd sell a bundle more than that lol

Having just been and looked at the latest screenshots in the Phoenix and Ortus threads it reminds me that even if the base product gets no more updates, the ability to extend and modify the system is still there and won't ever go away:

• Installing plugins may have got easier with v7, but you can still install them manually.
• Plugin devs use the 'SageTVPluginsDev.xml' file to manually add their in development plugins to the plugin manager, so we're not reliant in the Sage servers for the plugin list.
• Sage has long had the ability to use external network encoders, so even if a new tuner comes out that Sage doesn't support, it's likely that you'll be able to get it working.
• DVBLink is more European focused, but it's a great way to use non-supported tuners with Sage
• For those worrying about EPG data, yes you need to source the XMLTV feed, but Stephane's XMLTV Importer works great.

The list could go on and on....but what I'm trying to point out is that even if this is the final version of Sage as we know it, it doesn't stop it being a great platform that can be bent and twisted to do whatever we want it to!

[gabrielcab]

I think we haven't heard anything yet because Sage team still recovering from the hangover they had after finished their deal, and this is a proof of it:

Originally Posted by Narflex

Does that answer your question?

[Evil_Attorney]

Originally Posted by Bagal

The list could go on and on....but what I'm trying to point out is that even if this is the final version of Sage as we know it, it doesn't stop it being a great platform that can be bent and twisted to do whatever we want it to!

Those are some great points. So, the two biggest limiting factors are needing new licenses (assuming you want to be legal) and needing new extenders. Assuming that we could never buy another extender again, what's the closest extender replacement that will work with Sage? Some sort of mini computer?

[sic0048]

Well call me a pessimist. While I am happy for the windfall that Jeff and other SageTV investors got, we as the end users are totally screwed.

Yes I understand that our equipment will probably continue to work in their current states for a while, but I doubt we will see one more shred of support from SageTV.

Even if Google embraces the SageTV concept and goes full force into development and production, the resulting system will look very different from today's SageTV and I'm sure the two systems will not be compatible.

On the one hand, I feel lucky that I have a working V7 system and license (actually two if you include the system I built for my parents). I also have a couple of extra HD-100s that I bought cheap and have never hooked up, so I am probably covered for a while.

On the other hand I also feel exposed more than the average SageTV user because I have integrated my Sage system into a larger home automation system. I cannot simply jump to the next best system and expect my setup to work the same.

This news is about as bad as it gets for Sage users IMHO. Of course we'll just have to wait to see where the cards fall, but I don't have any expectation that my current system will actually benefit from this announcement.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by aflat

Don't forget Tivo. It's not cheap, especially if you buy Lifetime. I used to have my Tivo boxes set up so they could play movies from my PC, but it did require transcoding sometimes. It's workable, but not nearly as nice as Sage. I too won't ever go back to PC clients, I've been spoiled too much now.

But they don't work with Satellite and I will not go back to Cable, not with our worst-in-the-country provider.

Originally Posted by bastafidli

What is your take on the DNLA support built into most of current televisions as a playback device?

I have been very unimpressed by UPNP/DLNA so far. People who say SageTV is slow and uninspiring (UI wise), Sage has nothing on UPnP/DLNA in that department.

Originally Posted by gabrielcab

Reading this thread has became as depressive as reading local news online papers comments. Google is not Microsoft, if the headings where "Microsot acquired SageTV" that would be a real bad news, but its Google. Why Google would buy this company to destroy it?

I don't think anybody really thinks Google bought Sage to destroy it, Sage is just too small to worry about. What the fear is is that Google bought it for some purpose that is dramatically different than what SageTV provides today. Basically that they are planning to take something from SageTV to integrate it into another/future Google product and end the SageTV product out of lack of interest.

Originally Posted by robk

Is it legal (in the terms and conditions) to sell our private viewing habits to Google? Certainly there is a back door written in SageTV to allow the harvesting of wiz.bin.

AFAIK Sage doesn't collect any viewing data, nothing from the wiz.bin. I think (you can search the forum) the only data collected is anonymous data about the machines (tuners, OS, etc) Sage is running on so SageTV has an idea what it needs to support.

On the same subject, has anyone who is knowledgeable in law looked into what SageTV has to keep providing to us, such as Placeshifter Locator ID, EPG, etc.?

There's really nothing SageTV needs to provide to keep SageTV users going. Everything Sage uses can be replaced by the user. You can use alternative guide data (eg XMLTV), plugin repository can be changed with an XML file, LocatorID functionality can be substituted with dynamic DNS services.... The only thing really irreplaceable is the availability of SageTV branded hardware, ie the extenders.

[wayner]

Originally Posted by stanger89

The only thing really irreplaceable is the availability of SageTV branded hardware, ie the extenders.

What about new software licenses?

[stanger89]

True, guess I was thinking mostly of current SageTV users to continue operating.

[wayner]

Originally Posted by stanger89

True, guess I was thinking mostly of current SageTV users to continue operating.

Yes but it would be nice to be able to replace a dead extender with a Sage client but that isn't even appearing to be an option.

[bastafidli]

Also no new extenders, that limits the potential. I tend to work front to back, figure out the best possible front end for my living room and then make the back end work. That's why I jumped on SageTV as soon as they announced HD100 without ever hearing about them before.

[remmy925]

Now I ask myself....why am I so intent on reading this. Why torture myself. Why hope someone has the answer when there is one thing that will always remain true in this situation. Just as I finally get my girlfriend able to use SageTV and not set the PC to sleep because she continually insists that the power button is the proper method to stop live TV, now I have to train her for something new. God help me. God help me now! I can't wait for months of hearing "well that's stupid, you mean the pause button pauses TV and the power button turns off the computer. Why do you like this."

[IVB]

Originally Posted by sic0048

On the other hand I also feel exposed more than the average SageTV user because I have integrated my Sage system into a larger home automation system. I cannot simply jump to the next best system and expect my setup to work the same.

That's also my biggest concern. I use CQC to control SageTV, and in the back room have one of the only truly universal remotes possible - when i hit a button, CQC traps it, determines what i'm watching/doing/etc through 2way integration with the HD200/denon/etc, then performs a variety of tasks. And i'm one of the "light" users, many folks don't even bother with the Sage GUI, and use CQC custom screens on a touchscreen to do all this.

Sic, here's hoping we don't have to find another hardware option to do this - not only will we have to buy extenders/etc, we'll have to fund CQC driver development. And really, what other options have the Sage TCPServer equivalent where you can use an external control program to monitor it.

[oddjob]

Can I run both Sagetv and WMC in the backend?.. I'm just thinking if someday the EPG stops working.. I could use WMC to record shows and stream to my HD100 extender recorded shows..

Would that work?

it would not be pretty, but at least I can view it on the TV.

[pez]

Originally Posted by panteragstk

I was thinking the same thing. We have often wondered how many sage users there actually are. I guess we have a better idea now.

There are 16303 registered forum members per http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/memberlist.php.

That should provide a good starting point for a calculation.

[polen]

Originally Posted by sic0048

I also have a couple of extra HD-100s that I bought cheap and have never hooked up, so I am probably covered for a while.

You should hook them up and apply the latest beta firmware before that goes down.

[sleonard]

Maybe we need to setup an alternative repository and let everyone here know about it in case they decide to shut down the forums as well. Also, how about an XMLTV plugin for a seemless transition just in case.

It's better to be prepared and end up not needing them than scrambling to figure out how to get guide data an hour before your favorite show is starting.

S

[Evil_Attorney]

Originally Posted by sleonard

Maybe we need to setup an alternative repository and let everyone here know about it in case they decide to shut down the forums as well. Also, how about an XMLTV plugin for a seemless transition just in case.

It's better to be prepared and end up not needing them than scrambling to figure out how to get guide data an hour before your favorite show is starting.

S

I second this. It would be nice for that repository to include some of the informative setup posts and info too.

[autoboy]

Congrats SageTV. It's the dream of every entrepreneur to build a company that is eventually acquired or goes public.

Why all the doom and gloom? I think SageTV V7 is pretty fully baked as a DVR system. The HD300 plays every format I throw at it. The development community has built some great plugins, and it's still an open system so developers can continue to build on the fundamental V7 baseline system. As a DVR system it's pretty fully complete and as long as we can find EPG data, we're all set for the next 5 years at least.

There wasn't much left for SageTV to do to the core systems. They worked and worked well.

SageTV tried to get DRM cable card and failed. They couldn't develop around DRMed Netflix and Hulu systems as such a small company. I think this came at a good time for the company as it reached a crossroads it could not cross without substantial investment or acquisition.

I have a lot of hope for a GoogleTV / SageTV partnership. But even if it fails, Frey gave us a system that we can modify for years to come. Stopping development now means little to me since I really didn't need much more than they already offer. Now, the only downside is if there aren't enough extenders on the market for the demand, and that we can get client and server codes for new installs.