What are you going to do now?

[navroan]

As long as it doesn't stop working, I won't be going anywhere for a while, as there was a bit of cost in initial setup (tuner cards, moar hard disk, extenders) and its only been about 6 months.

My concern at the moment isn't the extenders, but the EPG data, but as long as there's a way to keep program guide data going it shouldn't be an issue. Extender's possibly dying in the future may be a concern, but lets hope something gets sorted out by then.

This setup I have now is damn awesome compared to the directv DVR.

So, we'll see what happens =)

Edit: Now after reading the geektonic post, everything should continue to work for at least a year, so there's plenty of time to see what happens.

[bhyman1]

I'll use SageTV until the guide data stops.

Thankfully I have plenty of licenses.

[clayfree]

Originally Posted by LehighBri

I'm probably going to jump ship soon so I can move past this and onto whatever the future solution is.

I'd love to move to XBMC or Plex using jailbroken Apple TVs as extenders as XBMC, Plex, and Boxee are great for imported media, netflix, etc, but don't do DVR, thus I still need to fill the hole related to DVR capability.

Does anyone have a recommendation on what to use for a DVR replacement (e.g. perhaps Media Center?) but with the ability to use a very inexpensive extender (e.g. Apple TV as an extender)

I'm running 2 AppleTV's with XBMC installed. I love the media center capabilities(blows Sage away) but I have not found a good DVR solution. The main issue is mpeg2 decoding, Apple has not opened it up. I had the bright idea that I would run a Sage server for recording and use something like a Hauppauge H.264 encoder .... one big problem ... no one makes an ATSC receiver that encodes to H.264??(I'm OTA only) I'm at a loss to figure out why no company produces this combinaton.

There is much talk in the xbmc forums of Myth, MediaPortal, TVHeadend, etc. but the setups look complicatedand they are not sheduled to have native DVR functionality until V.12. I still think there is a solution there somewhere and I just have not figured out the right combination yet. I have my eyes on the little Sigma bot just announced, it is optimized for xbmc and will play anything.

For now I'm using something I read about in another forum called "TV". It gets all the channels right on my tv and the quality is fantastic. I just can't pause the damn thing!!!

That was the nice thing about Sage, it did it all in one package.

[SHS]

Originally Posted by clayfree

no one makes an ATSC receiver that encodes to H.264??(I'm OTA only) I'm at a loss to figure out why no company produces this combinaton.

Who know maybe just maybe there is one the things you can not buy it

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by clayfree

I'm running 2 AppleTV's with XBMC installed. I love the media center capabilities(blows Sage away) but I have not found a good DVR solution. The main issue is mpeg2 decoding, Apple has not opened it up. I had the bright idea that I would run a Sage server for recording and use something like a Hauppauge H.264 encoder .... one big problem ... no one makes an ATSC receiver that encodes to H.264??(I'm OTA only) I'm at a loss to figure out why no company produces this combinaton.

Because ATSC tuners don't even encode anything. It simply captures the already encoded MPEG-2 stream. Adding an H.264 encoder would cost quite a bit (y'know, like the cost of an HD-PVR), and end up with lower quality video to boot.

[Skirge01]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

But WHY bother with that? What are you going to GAIN using XBMC over a sage UI? Unless of course, you can't GET a sage UI anymore...

1. I had been looking at XBMC for a while now because I really like some of their skins.
2. I currently have just 1 TV in the house, but will be adding 3 in the next year, so I need a way to get content to them.
3. XBMC is still being developed. Developers will (someday) stop working on SageTV. The back-end will continue to function, however.
4. Experience. It's better to be prepared ahead of time for what you'll do, rather than waiting until you NEED to do something. (Buying a car is a great example.) I'm seeing how folders need to be set up; how files are best named; how to get HD audio working; how subtitles work; how MKV playback works.

BTW, if you notice, I did say I'm simply testing XBMC. Hence, #4.

[OneOfMany]

Originally Posted by sunray

All these people talking about how the cloud and streaming will replace everything are dreaming. Netflix was a big proponent of this idea and they've been trying their best to kill off the DVD by mail system quickly as possible and force everyone to stream. But then they ran a problem. Bandwidth. Netflix is now the biggest user of bandwidth on the Internet and the ISPs want them to start paying for it. So now they are backing off killing the DVD by mail quite so quickly. Somebody's going to have to pay for all the bandwioth streaming uses.

Agree. To those that believe that streaming will remain cheap, especially now that bandwidth usage is increasing exponentially is a fool.. You'll pay.

Originally Posted by sunray

Also the availability of TV shows and movies comes and goes with streaming depending on the whim of the copyright owner of the show or movie. With local storage and no DRM I can keep a show around as long as I want it plus some shows will most likely never be available for streaming.

Exactly. When I want to watch my old Twilight Zones or cartoons they ain't gonna be found in the "cloud"

For me, I use Clients exclusively with a dedicated WHS TV Server. So hardware will never be an issue. And the PC frontend means I can use/launch any software I want in addition to what Sage offers. I just setup Client and P/S on my daughter's new Win7 HP Iconia Tab, and I am streaming all my stuff from home to work here.. Can't beat it.

I'll switch EPG stuff when I need it, and hopefully it will be not too painful.

Grant

[IVB]

i'm in non-eBay prices negotiations to buy a few HD300's, even though this is potentially dying/dead platform. It works just fine, i'm sure someone will figure out the EPG situation.

Is this a plan that will work for 5 years? Who knows. I don't need Ms. Right, I want Ms. Right now. This should keep me going for at least 24 months if not longer. I still use the stock Sage GUI, I tried switching to the newer ones but the wife/kids hated it because it was different and they knew how to use the stock one.

In 24 months, GTV will be in its 2nd rev, and then I can worry about this stuff. Until then, I should be able to go back to my plan of ignoring the inner workings of my HA/HT setup since it's all stable & I have hardware backups. (i'll have 2 HD300, 2 HD200, 2 HD100, and 3 client licenses currently unused. Oh, and I only own 2 TVs )

btw, given that i can watch ripped DVDs, BR, tv recordings, home movies, netflix-watchnow, huluplus, all through a unified interface, I don't actually know what else I'd really need. This path could last 5 years, assuming EPG is dealt with.

[Evil_Attorney]

I'm staying put as long as possible. It looks like EPG won't be and issue and if my HD200/300s die, I have two PC client licenses that can be used in a mini-ITX system. From what other Sage users have said, the NVIDIA ION chipsets will play back 1080p BR movies, which makes it nearly as good as an HD300. I also think that there will be more good plugins to come.

I would like to second the idea of someone starting an alternate website for buying/selling (since you can't do it here). Anyone up for this? Or maybe just use a Twitter tag for any sale-related tweets. How about #SageTVSale ?

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by Evil_Attorney

I'm staying put as long as possible. It looks like EPG won't be and issue and if my HD200/300s die, I have two PC client licenses that can be used in a mini-ITX system. From what other Sage users have said, the NVIDIA ION chipsets will play back 1080p BR movies, which makes it nearly as good as an HD300. I also think that there will be more good plugins to come.

I would like to second the idea of someone starting an alternate website for buying/selling (since you can't do it here). Anyone up for this? Or maybe just use a Twitter tag for any sale-related tweets. How about #SageTVSale ?

I would avoid the Ion platform, now that the i3 is about. You can build a mini-itx i3 for not much more than the ion, and you'll have much better performance. The only thing my bottom-end i3 lags a bit on is 3D bluray in TMT5.

[sandor]

Originally Posted by IVB

i'm in non-eBay prices negotiations to buy a few HD300's,

cheers for that. my life would be much easier now if i could have bought 2 HD300's on Monday like i was planning...

[cjalphonso]

I'll stay with Sagetv unitl it no longer works. However, I have a feeling that if Sage leaves us loyal customers out in the cold, we will start seeing a bunch of Keycrack generators and then we will have unlimited licenses. I'm sure someone can make a patch to get the schedule data. I really hope this is not the case, I really like my current set up and would love to pay for future devices and support.

[david1234]

I'm really just not sure how to move forward--- I need two more extenders, to expand to three clients from my single hd100. I was going to purchase those over the next 6 months, and upgrade the server to version 7 in the next 2 weeks.

I don't absolutely need to upgrade my server, but the media library performance was significantly better in the 7 beta. Plus, the interface was very nice.

I don't have any option for the extenders though. I don't have any client licenses to use in a computer, and the placeshifter license that came with my HD100 would work, but I could only connect a single placeshifter at a time (without the trial message), when I need 3 concurrent connections.

Worst case, I can run my server next to one TV and use it's client along with my hd100 to get 2 clients, but the server would need a significant hardware upgrade to output HD video. And like any hardware upgrade, there is risk when you mess around with a stable system.

[BarkOLounger]

I'll also stay with Sage as long as I can. The more I think about trying to replace it the more I realize what a great decision it was to pick it 6 years ago.

I really hope that Google will allow Sage to sell off it's inventory for those of use who need a few more extenders, and remote controls. Things like that. I'm among the many sage users who was planning out my upgrades of my existing HD100 and HD200 with the new model. I had hoped to by 5 more this summer and retire out the old ones.

I also hope that if Sage opens the store up again they do something like limiting how many items a single person can buy. My fear is that they open the store back up and everything sells out too quickly from someone purchasing ridiculous numbers of items in hopes of making money on Ebay. Even at the crazy prices on Ebay right now, i'm still tempted because i need one so bad and don't have any way of knowing what's coming next.

I'm worried though, because for Google whatever revenue selling off excess inventory would create is meaningless. Even if Sage had thousands of HD300 in a warehouse it wouldn't be enough money to motivate google. I wish there was a way to ask google to let Sage sell the stuff based on their "Don't Be Evil" mantra. Does anyone have any idea on how to mount a write in campaign asking google to be nice to us Sage users? I'd love the opportunity to sign a petition asking them to allow Sage to gracefully exit our lives. I know they don't have to do that, and i know that it's not necessarily a smart business move for them, but if Google would allow Sage to treat us right it would be one less evil thing in the world.

I guess the only other thing i want to say is thanks to the people at Sage for giving me and my family a product that we truly love and has made a meaningful improvement in our quality of life the past 6 years. I've always recieved good support, especially considering how little the product costs. I've spent a couple thousand of dollars toward the SageTV bottom line (extenders and licenses over the years), but considering how small a company they probably were, i feel that they've always given me more than my money's worth in terms of the software, its features and service I received.

My kids (9 and 10) have grown up only asking to watch "Sage". I'm not sure i've ever heard them ask to watch TV.......

[wit713]

For now, I am still sticking with Sage but will keep my eye out for alternatives. I use sage primarily for recording since I work night work and can never watch anything live. I only use Sage on 1 tv so if something bad did happen I would just get a dvr from fios. I am also whs v1 so I would have to upgrade soon anyway.

I am currently typing this with my android smart phone and like Google products so hopefully something good will vome out of this.

[sleonard]

Unsold extenders will stay where they are for a year so they can do warranty replacements. After that they will go to the trash. Such a shame.

Maybe Google could auction the lot of them as discontinued inventory.

S

[toony]

I'm going to stay with sage for now and see what the future brings. Since there are no more updates I don't think my colossus will ever run smoothly. So for my wife's tv im going to get a pvr from my cable co. Then she will be happy with proper recordings. She can still access sage for the downloaded content.
I myself watch 99% downloaded & ripped content so there is no issue. Besides the ota and analogue cable works fine.

[matterofrecord]

nothing compares to sage for uk viewing.
MS media center limits uk to 2 tuners ( not 4 like usa )
Cyberlink 1 tuner
nero had a version 1 tuner
media portal - well meaning but unpolished
gbpvr/npvr - poor hardware support ( esp anything not hauppauge)
UK only nebula media - buggy and only recently came out of bankruptcy but possible freeview alternative. 6 tuners for all channels ( hd comming soon suposedly)

sage tv brilliantly gives users freedom, relaible, a good effort across the board hardware support, a fantastic community that.... oh wait yeah I forgot.

Might have to use sagetv for most things and whatever else works for future hardware etc.

[mightyt]

Here's what I am trying to do ...

• Trying not to panic (though tempted to)
  
• Wait and see what happens in the short term (I like Sage too much)
  
• Look at alternatives (if I see GoogleSage jumping off the cliff long term)
  
• Listen to what others are doing here as time goes by (This forum always pointed me in the right direction, why would it change now)
  
• Hope things will be equal or better for SageNext (We could end up looking back and thinking that was the best move ever. Yes, that is optimistic!)

[tchapin]

I'm thinking about the Roku w/ the Plex channel as an extenderish replacement. The Roku looks like a good solution. Plex server gives you access to your photos / video / music and the Roku gives you netflix / amazon VOD / hulu plus content. Plex is currently in active development, which I like.

Other potential extender replacements are AppleTV2s. But then I would need to upgrade to HDTVs. I currently only have SDTV displays. And I'd have to transcode everything. I like that it has Netflix and that it's easily controlled via iPhone.

I'm not thrilled w/ the social aspects of Boxee. It's interesting that Vudu is a Boxee partner though.

On the DVR front, perhaps MediaPortal would work. I'd have to investigate whether it has a web front end for handling the DVR configuration.

I'm also going to take a look at what shows we watch and what it would cost to go netflix / amazon VOD / itunes store / hulu plus only w/ no DVR. I think I currently pay around $80 / month for cableTV.

My issue is that I upgraded to SageTV 7 recently and find that the performance on my MVPs is not really acceptable, especially for streaming video. Luckily I have one HD200 that I moved to my primary TV, so we're ok for now. I was going to purchase at least 2 HD300s "any day now". If Google decides to re-open the store and sell HD300s again, I would be happy with Sage for a while.

I'm still excited to see what Ortus and Phoenix will do. I lived with SageTV v6 for so long that I'd be relatively happy for a while. The community is really strong.

So, if I can't get any other hardware extenders, I'm going to do my research and look elsewhere. If I can, I'm on-board for quite a while longer. It seems that EPG won't be a problem, nor will plugin repository. Both of those are really nice things.