Stay or Bail ?

[wayner]

I am worried about being able to replace my extenders (5xHD-200 + 1xHD-300) if they happen to die. I could probably get by building PC clients but then there is the issue of client licenses - it would be nice if Google would allow us free Client licenses in the future.

Failing that then perhaps XBMC is an option for the frontend while continuing to use SageTV as the backend server. It works on PC clients or potentially other types of hardware - a Jalibroken Apple TV2, for example. There should be not problem using XBMC as a front end for your existing video library and completed Sage recordings and the front-end looks very much like SageTV V7 including all of the Fanart. The issue is that LiveTV and (likely) currently recording shows will not work. You also would not have the capability of scheduling recordings, viewing recordings, etc unless someone wrote a plugin for this functionality (note that this should be very doable as this functionality exists through the APIs or web browser).

I do worry that over time our existing SageTV developers will likely fade away and no one else will come on board since it is a dead product. Moving to something that is alive and vibrant, like XBMC, may be a good solution.

[jarredduq]

I'm sticking with Sage unless Google's plans don't align with what I'm using Sage for today. At that point I'm hoping that the current developers are either moving forward with Google, or have moved to support another solution.

I'm very happy with Sage right now, and don't see anything changing dramatically to make what I have obsolete in the next 2 years or so. EPG is the only thing that worried me, and there is already a fix for that.

I really think Jeff is a stand up guy, and hopefully did think of the existing users when being sold to Google. There is a huge change taking place in the way media is going to be distributed, and Sage simply could not move past the glass ceiling on their own.

My hope is they are going to make a product that combines the best of SageTV and the existing GoogleTV. I feel there is a 60/40 chance of this happening.

If not, I will have to start over with something else....

[heffe2001]

Originally Posted by jarredduq

I'm sticking with Sage unless Google's plans don't align with what I'm using Sage for today. At that point I'm hoping that the current developers are either moving forward with Google, or have moved to support another solution.

I'm very happy with Sage right now, and don't see anything changing dramatically to make what I have obsolete in the next 2 years or so. EPG is the only thing that worried me, and there is already a fix for that.

I really think Jeff is a stand up guy, and hopefully did think of the existing users when being sold to Google. There is a huge change taking place in the way media is going to be distributed, and Sage simply could not move past the glass ceiling on their own.

My hope is they are going to make a product that combines the best of SageTV and the existing GoogleTV. I feel there is a 60/40 chance of this happening.

If not, I will have to start over with something else....

This pretty much sums it up for me at the moment. I'm hopeful that Sage will continue in some sort, and we'll see more development on what we're all currently running, but if it goes to the wayside, I'll look for something else (most likely WMC7, all my hardware is compatible aside from my extenders, I would just really need to replace those).

[wayner]

Originally Posted by heffe2001

...most likely WMC7, all my hardware is compatible aside from my extenders, I would just really need to replace those).

One of the problems with WMC7 is that MS killed the old TGB forums and wrapped them into "Windows Experts Community" and, at least in my opinion, the forums are painful to use. There is also the risk that MS seems to have lost interest in WMC and there is chatter that they may drop it from Win8 - then we are all back in the same boat again.

[sandor]

Originally Posted by will

...in my experience WAF = tuners not locking up and missing TV shows. ...

+ the ability to through a custom jpeg as the background. this is *far* more important than channel logos.

my in-laws just moved in with me, and i gave my mother in law my HD200 to use as i search for a 2nd and 3rd... one night of watching TV on it, and she picked up the Sage ways.

[pat_smith1969]

No DRM is important to me, not because I am doing anything wrong but because it ALWAYS gets in the way of doing anything.

Extenders are REAL important to me too. They are just so convienant.

I will keep my sagetv going as long as I can, buying extenders on ebay as I need them (oooofff they are up to $450 now - price gougers). I will also keep my eyes open for other solutions, perhaps ones offered by the current developers of Sagetv, if they start a new project.

Failing all this, I will just buy my wife a tivo... it works... always. For myself I will probably just setup some RSS feeds (of shows I like) that update my torrent client to automatically download them into my library and use the HD300 without sage tv to access my media library.

[Brent]

stay for now.

WMC is nice for some, but it's missing too much for me compared to SageTV plus I personally believe WMC is a dead platform - although that argument is kinda moot given SageTV's situation now. If I leave SageTV I'll likely go with XBMC for media and UVerse for TV. Sad, but true.

PS: If Google actually makes some significant strides in the next 18 months and listens to the SageTV crew I might end up with some sort of GoogleTV setup. We'll see...

[nycjoe]

Bail.

I've been on sagetv since about 2005. The truth is that no one knows what Google plans to do with sagetv, but it would be pretty naive to expect a product that is similar to what we now know. It's unlikely that whatever they produce will be as accessible as sagetv is today (ie, no access to your recordings, or even recording TV at all).

I cant imagine that a project under no development will remain in demand - for sure it will be obsolete within a year (/two?) at most. Sagetv seemed perfect to me two years ago, until I realized how great extenders are. How new hardware like an HD-PVR improves your viewing experience. Oh well, maybe they'll release the source code and permit others to work on it.

There's also the support issue. The EPG workaround, for example, may work well for a while, but not be as reliable as the service is currently. Extenders may fail. The linux version needs an activation server.

Kinda makes me think that maybe I should have supported an opensource project like mythtv instead... I shelled out for the following:
2xHD200's
windows server license
linux server license
2x client licenses
1x placeshifter
(+ upgrades over the years)

[Synomenon]

This sucks. I actually just purchased SageTV a month or two ago after leaving behind SnapStream BeyondTV (they have seemingly abandoned their home users as well) and now it's happening again with SageTV. If I knew this was going to happen, I wouldn't have purchased SageTV.

[Brent]

Originally Posted by Synomenon

If I knew this was going to happen, I wouldn't have purchased SageTV.

Well that's definitely understandable. Good news is you have a very awesome HTPC at least for now. I think it will be a very viable solution for at least a few more years.

[APillowOfClouds]

Originally Posted by Localhorst

Hi,

to be honest i installed SageTV for the first time, right after i read the "aquired by google" news in several news magazine. So i might not fiddled out everything which is possible, but so far as i can see it well okay but the software does not elate me at all. From the technical point of view it looks like an assembly of several parially open source codecs (ac3filter, dscaler, Mainconcept), some parts are written in java, some in c++. Even if it looks like made of one piece it is a conglomerate of multiple applications wrapped under one hood.
I honestly prefer (as developer) a bit more consistency in projects - especially in order not to loose some sort of overview.
Anyway thats not the answer to the question by daz. There are a lot of alternative, but only a few of them are really worth to try out. First of all XBMC, which is nice but does not have a dvr engine. The one which is currently in the works is lightyears away from beeing useful. But it is free and if you do not want to have TV and Radio on board a great way to handle with. Mediaportal is well lets say something like the cancered version of XBMC. It grows from release to release and gets unstable like hell.
And finally my choice: The DVBViewer which is probably the only HTPC project made in one piece from the same developer team since 2002. I did not found anything in the feature list of Sage, XBMC, Mediaportal etc. which is not already inside the DVBViewer. This starts with the magical placeshifter and ends up with the probably best integration of digital tv/radio hardware. Almost every adapter is supported and there is no limitation how many devices you want to use in the same time. I guess there is no standard which is not supported yet (except HBBTV). CC, ISDB, DVB-Subtitles are running since ages. The program is translated in almost every language - even mandarin, japanese and farsi.
There is a demo which can be used for testing.

Horst
PS: I wonder why so less people here ever heard of the program, their board has 5x more users than Sagetv and according to google trends well lets say the only peak above the DVBViewer trend is from this month

I came from TiVo then BeyondTV then MediaPortal. As a developer of 20 years who has led many high profile projects and teams, I don't really see any problem with Sage's consistency or construction and it seems the most full featured reliable product I've used. That's why I'm so upset at what's going on. It's been rock solid for me, most of the problems I have center around cable boxes that power off and the occasional blue screen on my server which has more to do with unstable power than anything else. The actual software works great.

I was excited initially at your post about DVBViewer, but when I looked at the site it looks like a lot of talk about European tv stations and DVB. Maybe I'm wrong but I don' t get the impression from a cursory glance at the site that it's anything like Sage.

I'm just curious, if you're happy with DVBViewer, what brought you to the forums of a (potentially) dying product as a new user?

[BobbyDing]

I'm staying with Sage as long as possible. And I'll be keeping my eyes and ears open for CES 2012 to see what Google TV can do for me (they owe me after ruining my life ). I just wish I could get a spare HD300 without having to sell yet another a kidney!

[Brent]

Originally Posted by Localhorst

PS: I wonder why so less people here ever heard of the program, their board has 5x more users than Sagetv and according to google trends well lets say the only peak above the DVBViewer trend is from this month

I'd say it's because DVBViewer might be okay for some in Europe, but it's pretty weak compared to what's available for U.S. CableTV. It doesn't provide anything close to what I need out of an HTPC.

[kitramos]

but just as I went to go to the shop page i find it's mia, and that they've been bought out by Google. what really put the nail in the coffin is the article that was linked from the official faq's that the epg might not be around for more then a year. I love the design of the interface and the test run i did with it has it working rather slick. but really if the epg was to be shut down, then for my purposes this program is little better then the stuff bundled with the capture card. as my main use is to have it auto record the shows I want. dang annoying too as I looked for another program that seemed to be on the same level as sage tv was.

[Localhorst]

was excited initially at your post about DVBViewer, but when I looked at the site it looks like a lot of talk about European tv stations and DVB. Maybe I'm wrong but I don' t get the impression from a cursory glance at the site that it's anything like Sage.

Yes this is probably one of the biggest problem which might be caused by the fact that the majority of the users are germans, a few brits and several north europeans. I can assure you that the DVBViewer (even if the name hypothesize that it is only intended for european digital tv) is far more than that. It works fine with ATSC (used by myself for more than a year in Oakland CA) and IDSB (Japan, South America). Closed captions worked fine, as well as the ATSC EPG. You do not need to subscribe to an content provider, since the data is read completely from the stream. Its quite nice to have a 7 day epg without dialing up.
I really could advise to test the demo version, which is a 6mb download and comes with everything (except recording and streaming ability).

Horst
PS: I use it since 5 years and never felt that the 19 USD one time fee was too much for it. And i'm still curious to see that a 8mb Installation contains a complete HTPC solution. Okay if you want HD Skins you might download a few mb more

[stanger89]

I'm hoping we hear something more solid from Sage/Google about the future yet this summer/fall. Looking around, DirecTV's HR34 "Home Media Center" looks quite interesting.

[svemuri]

Stay for now.

Bail in 3 months unless
- Some sort of extender is available under $200 or
- Jeff gives away Client licenses or Placeshifter licenses.

Bail by the end of the year unless
- SageDCT or something else makes HDHR Prime work with Sage or
- I can make Ceton work with Sage with SageDCT

I would have to bail to WMC if Comcast decides to mark everything Copy Once. I hate DRM, but thats the only option. Actually, if that happens, I may try Dish/DirectTV if they don't HDCP their HDMI out for non-locals (and I would have to spend another $400 for 2x Colossus, some more money for Dish receivers and $10/mo more for additional receivers).

As Stranger said, It's hard to replace Sage.

Hopefully, the store is reopened for one final order or Jeff gives away Client licenses and I can stick with Sage for next 2-3 years. By then, Sage/Google will come up with another awesome product.

[JetreL]

Originally Posted by pjpjpjpj

Wow, your wife gets upset if a channel logo is missing or not instantly up-to-date? I must have a really cool wife... she doesn't care about how anything looks, as long as it records her shows and she can play them.

yup yup, mine too! The WAF for me is can I turn it on and watch TV and DVDs in how few clicks?

Past that the rest is eye-candy and she could care less not to mention we do not watch live TV ever.

Originally Posted by stanger89

I'm hoping we hear something more solid from Sage/Google about the future yet this summer/fall. Looking around, DirecTV's HR34 "Home Media Center" looks quite interesting.

DirecTV's HR34 "Home Media Center" is BAD REALLY REALLY BAD! Not to mention DirecTV's requirement to force you into a 2 year contract just by activating their receiver. No exceptions. But to each their own, just saying.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by JetreL

DirecTV's HR34 "Home Media Center" is BAD REALLY REALLY BAD!

How do you figure? Maybe I've not read enough but it's not out yet, and sounds pretty interesting. 5 tuner centralized "server" with clients (including some Samsung TVs, ie no box required), 1TB expandable storage.

[Fluffdaddy]

First Replay-TV now this. I know how to pick them.

And lets not get into my Betamax dayz

Staying for now, much Coin spent on my system and it works.