Google Fiber - my experience w what's left of SageTV

[david1234]

Originally Posted by tmiranda

The only possibility I see is if they open source a stripped down version of SageTV 7. I am sure a lot of work went into SageTV 8 to add all of the video on demand sources and the DRM stuff and I don't see any possibility of them open spourcing that. Maybe there is enough distance between 7 and 8 that they'd feel comfortable open sourcing the older version.

Wishful thinking on my part.

Do they still use the server code for google fiber? How much would really need to be open sourced? Wouldn't a closed-box library for the server work be enough?

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by david1234

Do they still use the server code for google fiber? How much would really need to be open sourced? Wouldn't a closed-box library for the server work be enough?

I'm sure they use a good amount of the server code, but I have no idea how much.

[7up]

Just wondering but as Google prepares for launch of Android TV and has demo'd support for live TV with ADT-1, any chance for some sort of relaunch of SageTV as Android app? Yes, just wishful thinking.

[KryptoNyte]

Brent, do you by chance still have all the images from your blog(s) and post(s)? I was just doing some reading on the blog and it's a little rough without the images.

[Brent]

Originally Posted by KryptoNyte

Brent, do you by chance still have all the images from your blog(s) and post(s)? I was just doing some reading on the blog and it's a little rough without the images.

Had a bit of a breakdown on the web server stuff. Not sure how much I'll be able to recover. Which post/s in particular were you needing?

[KryptoNyte]

I was reading through the installation here;

http://www.geektonic.com/search?upda...&max-results=3

It's really not important, was just a little curious as to what the various pieces of hardware looked like and thought the images ended up in the wrong directory or something.

[Brent]

You can vote on the "feature request" of unbundling Google Fiber TV from Google Fiber's Internet Service. Not sure if it will make anyone at Google move on the subject, but worth a shot to get their attention.

https://www.google.com/moderator/#8/...300.70c553&v=4

[wayner]

How about Goolge TV is offered as an OTT TV just like the new Dish Sling service announced at CES?

[7up]

I'm surprised Google hasn't offered an OTT package as they would seem like an ideal fit to put together some sort of combination of "cable" channels and internet content. Not sure if you've seen the announcement from Channel Master, which is tangential but interesting.

http://www.cnet.com/news/channel-mas...-dvr-ces-2015/

[will]

Originally Posted by wayner

How about Goolge TV is offered as an OTT TV just like the new Dish Sling service announced at CES?

The Dish Sling service sounds interesting but I'm sure there is more to this offering than the PR states.

Currently, it doesn't make sense for content providers to allow cable companies to unbundle their packages because a really popular channel, like ESPN, can be used to force cable companies to buy unpopular channels and increase total revenue (Disney and Fox do this all the time). I bet the content owners went along with Dish Sling as an experiment to test demand and I wouldn't be surprised if their Sling content contracts are for a shorter period of time than usual (one or two years vs five years).

Also, if Dish Sling is successful it would be in the best interest of the very large content providers to offer their packages directly to consumers via the Internet. Why go through a content provider and share part of the revenue pie when you can cut them out pretty easily? The argument for using content providers in the past was the huge cost of infrastructure for cable/satellite, with streaming, the huge cost isn't there.

Call me old fashion, but when all the dust settles on TV streaming, I bet we will be pining for the glory days of cable... Having to pay ten companies $10/month to get content and being forced to watch commercials doesn't sound like much progress to me.

[ranger]

Originally Posted by will

Call me old fashion, but when all the dust settles on TV streaming, I bet we will be pining for the glory days of cable... Having to pay ten companies $10/month to get content and being forced to watch commercials doesn't sound like much progress to me.

Agreed. I don't see how end users of programs like SageTV will benefit from the providers taking control of the delivery stream. After all, one of the big benefits for us besides being able to view the content when we want to, is the ability to bypass commercials. If the industry moves to a direct subscription, we can be confident that they will continue to broadcast commercials AND collect revenue from the end user. A model similar to Hulu Plus is what we'll be left with.

[tvmaster2]

Originally Posted by ranger

Agreed. I don't see how end users of programs like SageTV will benefit from the providers taking control of the delivery stream. After all, one of the big benefits for us besides being able to view the content when we want to, is the ability to bypass commercials. If the industry moves to a direct subscription, we can be confident that they will continue to broadcast commercials AND collect revenue from the end user. A model similar to Hulu Plus is what we'll be left with.

+1
We get warnings every month that we've "exceeded" our gigabyte bandwidth limit. There isn't currently a charge for that crime, but you can be sure there will be, as soon as the cable co's have decided they're losing enough revenue from cable-cutters.

PS - three hours of HD Netflix / any HD channel streaming, per day = the monthly limit.
Wow - that would go quickly, wouldn't it?

[7up]

Originally Posted by ranger

Agreed. I don't see how end users of programs like SageTV will benefit from the providers taking control of the delivery stream. After all, one of the big benefits for us besides being able to view the content when we want to, is the ability to bypass commercials. If the industry moves to a direct subscription, we can be confident that they will continue to broadcast commercials AND collect revenue from the end user. A model similar to Hulu Plus is what we'll be left with.

You can record Hulu/Hulu Plus and most internet content and skip through the commercials with Playon/Playlater and view on regular TV with Roku or Fire TV.

[will]

Originally Posted by 7up

You can record Hulu/Hulu Plus and most internet content and skip through the commercials with Playon/Playlater and view on regular TV with Roku or Fire TV.

I do that now but there are some issues with it.

1. The technology isn't there yet; for example, I can't schedule recordings or create a favorite
2. I often have recordings fail and PlayLater doesn't support recovery like automatic restarting of failed recordings
3. The quality is reduced when you stream from a computer (PlayLater/PlayOn) vs a dedicated device like an Apple TV or Chromecast

If these three issues could be fixed then I would try my best to write a plugin for SageTV that allows us to use PlayerLater as a recording source. In my opinion, that would be an amazing solution because we would just be replacing/sublimating our HD-PVR/cable with PlayOn/Hulu.

So far, the best quality TV I have ever streamed online is from Apple TV. Every now and then I'll add a series as a favorite late on SageTV and I'll be behind by an episode or two so I'll buy the missing episodes from iTunes (2.99/each). The quality is amazing compare to Hulu or broadcast TV; I would say it is about 20% below a blu-ray quality.

[7up]

I agree

[tvmaster2]

Recording PlayOn playlater also sounds crummy - no 5.1 streams with that service

[7up]

Originally Posted by tvmaster2

Recording PlayOn playlater also sounds crummy - no 5.1 streams with that service

Playon/Playlater is far from perfect, but it does work. For a lot of online content, such as Hulu (free) the big advantage is autoskipping of commercials if you watch on a supported device or the ability to take online only content with you for travel, such as Netflix, HBOGO etc. No longer having the Syfy channel, I recorded the Ascension mini series. It will never replace a good DVR setup but its nice to have for those time you can use it.