Win8 SKUs announced

[wayner]

The main idea is that there are two main editions - Win8 and Win8 Pro. It looks like MC will be a paid add on to Win 8 Pro. Why would anyone want to upgrade from Win7 for an HTPC especially since MC is the same?

It is too bad at Sage isn't still alive to take advantage of this.

Speaking of that we are now 10 months since the Google acquisition and still no news other than Narflex still works on Sage on a daliy basis.

[PiX64]

Originally Posted by wayner

The main idea is that there are two main editions - Win8 and Win8 Pro. It looks like MC will be a paid add on to Win 8 Pro. Why would anyone want to upgrade from Win7 for an HTPC especially since MC is the same?

It is too bad at Sage isn't still alive to take advantage of this.

Speaking of that we are now 10 months since the Google acquisition and still no news other than Narflex still works on Sage on a daliy basis.

Yeah that's pretty annoying!!!!!!

[phareous]

Originally Posted by wayner

Speaking of that we are now 10 months since the Google acquisition and still no news other than Narflex still works on Sage on a daliy basis.

So depressing...

[rgroves]

I'm not upgrading to Win8.... why should I? Win7 is rock solid, and does everything I need it to do with it.

We just been an update from the former SageTV crew, on the future and SageTV/Google.

[davephan]

You'd be better off backing up your working SageTV system better. Take images that can be recovered onto different hardware. Store the images, install files, and keys in multiple places. Write up documentation so that someone else can recover the system. Practice recovering the system on another computer to make sure that the system can be recovered by you or another person. You will then be ready for a disaster to occur, so you can keep SageTV running for decades. It might come to that too. I guessing a year will come and go, and there still won't be any news about the future of SageTV or it's replacement. It may take many years for a viable replacement from Google or someone else. We just have to be prepared to keep the system running as long as you and/or your family is alive.

Dave

[will]

Originally Posted by davephan

We just have to be prepared to keep the system running as long as you and/or your family is alive.

Are you a SageTV Prepper?

[davephan]

No, I do disaster recovery.

Since SageTV's future is unknown, and there isn't a good viable replacement, I think it is more important than ever to keep SageTV running for as long as possible. To keep SageTV functioning for as long as possible, which may be many years, you have to do your back and recovery tests. Then document the process and fix any holes in your DR plan.

If you do nothing, you won't be prepared for the disaster, which can occur at any moment with no warning. The resources, like the forum, could be gone in a moment, without notice.

Therefore, I think that you should only consider making any significant changes to SageTV after you know that you can recover your system.


Dave

[wayner]

I personally think that the biggest risk is hardware that is discontinued and then becomes hard to get.

This makes the biggest risk for me the HD-PVR. My system has two HD-PVRs and I have a spare one. I would not be happy with my system if I was not able to capture cable channels in HD. Therefore if Hauppauge discontinues this product I will have to figure out what to do. It would be interesting to see what would happen to pricing of the product - would it immediately shoot up like the Sage extenders?

I have lots of spare HD-200s (which I paid up for in the last year) so I am good there and my server hardware can always be replaced and Sage reinstalled.

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by will

Are you a SageTV Prepper?

Perfect timing. I was just reading an article by a doomsdayer who listed all the things you'll need to survive after the oil runs out and we destroy the planet. He missed the "working SageTV image", I'll have to write him a letter telling him to update the article.

[UgaData]

My biggest concern in continuing to use SageTV is the loss of EPG data. I don't expect Zap2it to continue allowing free access to there TV listings.

I believe there are some plugins for retrieving EPG data from other sources just not sure how easy they would be to setup.

[wayner]

Guide data is the least of my worries - it took Slugger very little time to come up wiht an alternative.

[will]

Originally Posted by wayner

Guide data is the least of my worries - it took Slugger very little time to come up wiht an alternative.

I don't think it is a matter of having the skill-set to create a guide data plugin. I would be more concerned about where do we get the guide data from and can that provider give us the quality data we are use to.

[wayner]

The worst case scenario is that we scrape web pages. Don't forget that our Sage brethern outside of North American have always had to source their own guide data.

My background in the PVR world started with TiVos. I live in Canada and TiVo didn't supply guide data for Canada. So someone created a process to grab XMLTV data and convert it to the TiVo guide format. But then you had to buy a special network card for your TiVo, hack your TiVo, and then set up a cron job to FTP that homegrown TiVo guide data file to your TiVo and then run a process to integrate that data into the TiVo.

Compared to that getting guide data into SageTV is a piece of cake.

Don't forget that there are many other people requiring this data as well, including users of WinMC, NetxtPVR, MythTV, etc. In aggregate there are enough users around to figure out how to get this data.

[will]

Originally Posted by wayner

Don't forget that there are many other people requiring this data as well, including users of WinMC, NetxtPVR, MythTV, etc. In aggregate there are enough users around to figure out how to get this data.

You bring up a great point. I've never used MythTV but does anyone know where they get their data from? I assume it is free because MythTV is open source...

[wayner]

I believe it comes from Schedules Direct and is pretty much the same data that we get today in Sage.

Schedules Direct is an organization created by several MythTV developers and others with similar projects to provide program listings data as a replacement for the packaged Data Direct feed from the Zap2it Labs division of Tribune Media Services. The project was originally known as Easy TV Data, but was changed to Schedules Direct due to some concern over possible trademark infringement. The new project web site can be found at http://www.schedulesdirect.org/.

The cost of a Schedules Direct membership is currently US$25/year, with a 7 day trial.

[drewg]

Originally Posted by wayner

I believe it comes from Schedules Direct and is pretty much the same data that we get today in Sage.

They also can use multiple sources, but they are essentially in bed with the SD people (and for good reason). If you try to mention mc2xml or scraping or anything they consider against any sort of TOS, they'll get quite upset at you. Bunch of goodie-twoshoes..

Drew