Come Back to SageTV - Open Source in "Near" Future

[i0zjh02]

This is great news, I can’t wait to see how SageTV moves forward. I still run SageTV server with 3 PC clients, but have to admit my primary system is now Argus TV / Kodi based.

I have to state the backend of Argus TV is excellent, it never fails. I have problems with SageTV frequently missing the audio on HD channels and I never managed to resolve it – using both TBS6284 & TBS6285 quad T2 tuners. The ability to record all channels on a single frequency is a big improvement.

However as everybody else has stated even though a lot of us have found alternatives to SageTV I have personally never found a replacement I’m 100% happy with. There simply isn’t anything that comes close to the overall experience of a proper client server setup like SageTV (Simple things like I hate moving to a different room in my house and not being able to carry on watching a video were I left off)

My main wish list (most of which people have stated before). It’s short as to be honest I liked most things already in SageTV and look forward to being able to revert back to it as my primary system in the future! Thanks to everyone who worked hard to make this a possibility and also to those who will continue to make it a reality 

• Ability to record multiple channels on single frequency
• Ability to use as a backend to KODI,
• Better tuner support (problems with audio and my TBS Quad tuners)
• Easier setup, I struggle to get SageTV to play certain file formats (and simply don’t have this issue out of the box with Kodi)

[doncote0]

Supporting remote audio and video using a solution let me test this out. Java was an option as was a java-free option (just using ActiveX). I can say by far that the ActiveX solution was more stable, more secure, faster and used far less CPU while providing the same if not better audio and video.

[g-man]

Originally Posted by CanadianEh

I've been using MediaPortal for the past few years, which works okay, but it seems like everyone has abandoned the MP client in favor of the XBMC/Kodi integration

I moved off Sage for MP as well but recently switched to the XBMC/Kodi integration (using PI2) as setting up and maintaining a Windows 7 machine at each client location is just a PITA. Also I moved over to WMC as the backend as setting up the EPG in MP just stinks and seemed to crash on a regular basis.

Of course nothing beats Sage and I would move back in a heartbeat. I am in agreement with Fuzzy, the PI2 does 80% of what I need in all of client locations except for my main media room (projector, screen, AV gear) where a dedicated PC has the flexibility to drive the media experience I need in that room.

I am excited to see where this goes.

[Taddeusz]

Originally Posted by doncote0

Supporting remote audio and video using a solution let me test this out. Java was an option as was a java-free option (just using ActiveX). I can say by far that the ActiveX solution was more stable, more secure, faster and used far less CPU while providing the same if not better audio and video.

Huh? Not to be offensive but really? You are referring to the Microsoft/Internet Explorer only technology? The one that even Microsoft is now phasing out of their latest browser in Windows 10? The one that nobody that I know has developed for in at least 10-15 years?

Sorry but there are much better and much newer technologies that provide the same functionality as ActiveX and have the advantage of working across different browsers and operating systems.

[wayner]

Originally Posted by i0zjh02

• Ability to record multiple channels on single frequency
• Ability to use as a backend to KODI,
• Better tuner support (problems with audio and my TBS Quad tuners)
• Easier setup, I struggle to get SageTV to play certain file formats (and simply don’t have this issue out of the box with Kodi)

Are these European tuners? That will always be a tough slog to support since most of the developers are on this side of the pond, unless you can find some Euro based developers to help the project along.

[roymcd]

Originally Posted by doncote0

Supporting remote audio and video using a solution let me test this out. Java was an option as was a java-free option (just using ActiveX). I can say by far that the ActiveX solution was more stable, more secure, faster and used far less CPU while providing the same if not better audio and video.

Sage is currently cross platform in no small part to being written in Java. You may live in a Windows-centric world but there are people here who prefer to run Sage on other platforms. Personally, i didnt want Sage running on a bloated, proprietary OS that I had to pay for. But I guess you'll have the option of transcribing it to any language you like after it goes OS.

[i0zjh02]

Originally Posted by wayner

Are these European tuners? That will always be a tough slog to support since most of the developers are on this side of the pond, unless you can find some Euro based developers to help the project along.

They are but as I mentioned they work 100% when used with my current Argus TV backend, and also all the other PVR packages I tried before settling on Argus TV / KODI (WMC, Next PVR etc..). I only have seen the issue in SageTV so far so I dont think the problem is the card/drivers :-(

[routerunner]

Originally Posted by wayner

Are these European tuners? That will always be a tough slog to support since most of the developers are on this side of the pond, unless you can find some Euro based developers to help the project along.

I wouldn't call it just European. Multiplexing channels in a single transport stream is a DVB feature and SageTV simply doesn't support it. Actually, this is something I would love to see being supported in the OS version and as I know just one or two things about DVB I might well looking into it myself when the time comes

Originally Posted by i0zjh02

They are but as I mentioned they work 100% when used with my current Argus TV backend, and also all the other PVR packages I tried before settling on Argus TV / KODI (WMC, Next PVR etc..). I only have seen the issue in SageTV so far so I dont think the problem is the card/drivers :-(

If you are referring to the audio issue you are having or to other issues related to the TBS in particular you might want to have a look at the "Tuner Preroll" plugin (link below) which is somehow dedicated to the TBS tuners which unfortunately are not 100% supported by STV, or better, the support didn't complete because of the buy out few years back, but there are some other tips as well.

Cheers
Eddy

[Fuzzy]

Anything related to tuner support CAN be supported via the network encoder interface (and I feel that is actually the preferred method going forward). In any case, this doesn't require open source, and would work with the current version of sage. What it would require is to have, for instance, 2 network encoder ports for each 'tuner', have the encoder control the tuner, recording to a buffer, and writing out a file when asked to tune a virtual channel. If the channel requested by sage is on a stream already being recorded, it will utilize the same tuner, and just remux the proper tracks out to the new file. The issue is that sage would not necessarily KNOW when this is happening, and may ask for more tuned channels than are able to be done from the number of physical channels you can record. This will then simply result in a failure to tune on the new channel, and sage will have to deal with that. I'm not positive, because my memory simply doesn't work right anymore, but I thought someone DID create a SageTV network encoder like this MANY years ago, for systems that are likely now obsolete...

[shadeblue.com]

Excited to hear the news of SageTV getting open-sourced soon!

I just dusted off my SageTV server and extenders yesterday and got it all running again. After living with Comcast Xfinity X1 for a year, I'm ready to get back to a real whole-home DVR experience. Also one that doesn't nickel and dime me for each TV/STB. The X1 has some unique features that are nice, but their STB are way too slow.

+1 on the Roku/Amazon FireTV clients. (maybe AppleTV in some future world)

Cheers,
SB

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by shadeblue.com

Excited to hear the news of SageTV getting open-sourced soon!

I just dusted off my SageTV server and extenders yesterday and got it all running again. ...

Welcome back

[shadeblue.com]

Originally Posted by tmiranda

Welcome back

Thanks!

[i0zjh02]

Originally Posted by routerunner

I wouldn't call it just European. Multiplexing channels in a single transport stream is a DVB feature and SageTV simply doesn't support it. Actually, this is something I would love to see being supported in the OS version and as I know just one or two things about DVB I might well looking into it myself when the time comes



If you are referring to the audio issue you are having or to other issues related to the TBS in particular you might want to have a look at the "Tuner Preroll" plugin (link below) which is somehow dedicated to the TBS tuners which unfortunately are not 100% supported by STV, or better, the support didn't complete because of the buy out few years back, but there are some other tips as well.

Cheers
Eddy

Thanks for the suggestion Eddy :-)
OK I've installed that and will see if it makes a difference

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

Anything related to tuner support CAN be supported via the network encoder interface (and I feel that is actually the preferred method going forward). In any case, this doesn't require open source, and would work with the current version of sage. What it would require is to have, for instance, 2 network encoder ports for each 'tuner', have the encoder control the tuner, recording to a buffer, and writing out a file when asked to tune a virtual channel. If the channel requested by sage is on a stream already being recorded, it will utilize the same tuner, and just remux the proper tracks out to the new file. The issue is that sage would not necessarily KNOW when this is happening, and may ask for more tuned channels than are able to be done from the number of physical channels you can record. This will then simply result in a failure to tune on the new channel, and sage will have to deal with that. I'm not positive, because my memory simply doesn't work right anymore, but I thought someone DID create a SageTV network encoder like this MANY years ago, for systems that are likely now obsolete...

I did find the older solution I seemed to remember. StephaneM created a DVB network encoder that could record multiple channels from the same frequency, and had buffering that allowed back. This functionality could probably be duplicated on any tuner that we can access the entire frequency stream from, most likely. http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=49610

[Jabroni]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

I did find the older solution I seemed to remember. StephaneM created a DVB network encoder that could record multiple channels from the same frequency, and had buffering that allowed back. This functionality could probably be duplicated on any tuner that we can access the entire frequency stream from, most likely. http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=49610

DVB4Sage supports Virtual Tunners too, even thou I dont know how it handles the CAM thread. But since on my current provider there lotsa of Frequencies available, there is not much use of it, and there is no easy way which channels you could be double tuning.

I use DVB4Sage on my day 2 day usage, but just as 1 tunner w/ no virtual tunners

[waynedunham]

Originally Posted by shadeblue.com

Excited to hear the news of SageTV getting open-sourced soon!

I just dusted off my SageTV server and extenders yesterday and got it all running again. After living with Comcast Xfinity X1 for a year, I'm ready to get back to a real whole-home DVR experience. Also one that doesn't nickel and dime me for each TV/STB. The X1 has some unique features that are nice, but their STB are way too slow.

+1 on the Roku/Amazon FireTV clients. (maybe AppleTV in some future world)

Cheers,
SB

I think this is the first comment I've seen here of Comcast's X1 system. I too am on Comcast, but given just how HORRENDOUS all of their past STBs have been I didn't want to chance going to the X1 only to find out it suffered the same as their old boxes. i.e. Make you want to vomit and/or throw the damned thing out the window every time you try to use it. I have 2 of their "new" old boxes, but they are hooked up to my HD-PVRs so I never actually see them.

[tpowell]

I'm very excited about this. I just bought an Intel "Computestick" to run Windows on. It would be awesome to see a Windows version of SageTV Client running on this stick.

[stanger89]

It should be possible, but the reports on AVS Forum are not promising regarding it's video playback performance.

[gerberdude]

Originally Posted by g-man

Of course nothing beats Sage and I would move back in a heartbeat. I am in agreement with Fuzzy, the PI2 does 80% of what I need in all of client locations except for my main media room ...

I think the temptation of the $30 extender has everyone forgetting what they paid for their HD300/HD200 originally. I don't remember what I paid for my HD200, but remember at the time it seemed expensive, especially for a young guy just starting out.

When I was considering it, you guys all sold me on the features and convinced me that the value was worth the price.

Of course I was so elated with how well it worked I went out and got an HD300 when I needed one and didn't balk at the price at all.

That being said, I currently use an RPi2 with OSMC/Kodi in the bedroom on a small screen with stock speakers, and I find the "80%" to be quite sufficient. The Pi2 fixed ALL of the video stuttering and UI slowness that I experienced with previous Pis.

I think one advantage of going open source is that it opens up all kinds of options for all different price points for hardware. Wherever you want to get in, you can.

[GTwannabe]

Great news. But I've lost so many channels to CableCard copy protection that I'm now considering dropping cable.