Streaming Services (Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, etc.)

[NetworkGuy]

I know the whole idea of a streaming service is to be able to watch any episode when you want. But I like the idea of Sage keeping track of my favorite shows and which episodes that I have seen.

I was wondering is there has been any thought to tying Sage to streaming services in the same way it is tied to broadcast services?

I keep thinking about all of the cord cutters. Sage would make a great front end platform for all of the streaming services. It would be an integration point to keep everything in one place.

Sage would:
- be the single source of favorites
- list new episodes
- track what has been watched
- automatically pick the source (recorded or on-demand)
- automatically pick the correct streaming service

Thoughts?

John

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by NetworkGuy

I know the whole idea of a streaming service is to be able to watch any episode when you want. But I like the idea of Sage keeping track of my favorite shows and which episodes that I have seen.

I was wondering is there has been any thought to tying Sage to streaming services in the same way it is tied to broadcast services?

I keep thinking about all of the cord cutters. Sage would make a great front end platform for all of the streaming services. It would be an integration point to keep everything in one place.

Sage would:
- be the single source of favorites
- list new episodes
- track what has been watched
- automatically pick the source (recorded or on-demand)
- automatically pick the correct streaming service

Thoughts?

John

I've thought about this quite a bit. Unfortunately it's really hard to do mainly because most of the "premium" content providers do not publish any APIs and you need proprietary players for the DRMed content.

[will]

Originally Posted by NetworkGuy

I keep thinking about all of the cord cutters. Sage would make a great front end platform for all of the streaming services. It would be an integration point to keep everything in one place.

I believe ROKU currently does this with their what's new or streaming section and it is rumored that Apple is working on something like this too for Apple TV.

However, there are a few problems for a STV implementation:

• most streaming servies aren't open and don't have public APIs
• Netflix doesn't support opening of their app even for the big guys like Apple or ROKU (they view complete control as a competive advantage)

With the way things are changing things are only going to get more closed and encrypted. The best bet would be to create a front-end for a service like PlayOn/PlayLater. You can actually subscribe to PlayLayer favorites and I think it automatically downloads the files but it is far from perfect and isn't as smooth as using STV w/cable.

Something I've talked about in the past and literally (as of this week) just started implementing is using a HD-PVR to record from a streaming device (Chromecast) so I can watch it on my HD300s. Perhaps if we expanded this idea to replace our cable boxes with streaming devices, then when we go to watch a program, say House of Cards, it would know to flip to the Netflix "channel" and start the show on the device (either through a deep link or a command sequence). You still have the issue of EPG data but if canistream.it can get accurate information perhaps we could build something too.

[cncb]

You are essentially describing the Tivo OnePass feature that worked pretty well when I tried it a while ago.

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by will

I believe ROKU currently does this with their what's new or streaming section and it is rumored that Apple is working on something like this too for Apple TV.

However, there are a few problems for a STV implementation:

• most streaming servies aren't open and don't have public APIs
• Netflix doesn't support opening of their app even for the big guys like Apple or ROKU (they view complete control as a competive advantage)

With the way things are changing things are only going to get more closed and encrypted. The best bet would be to create a front-end for a service like PlayOn/PlayLater. You can actually subscribe to PlayLayer favorites and I think it automatically downloads the files but it is far from perfect and isn't as smooth as using STV w/cable.

Something I've talked about in the past and literally (as of this week) just started implementing is using a HD-PVR to record from a streaming device (Chromecast) so I can watch it on my HD300s. Perhaps if we expanded this idea to replace our cable boxes with streaming devices, then when we go to watch a program, say House of Cards, it would know to flip to the Netflix "channel" and start the show on the device (either through a deep link or a command sequence). You still have the issue of EPG data but if canistream.it can get accurate information perhaps we could build something too.

PlayLater subscriptions do work pretty well for this - and really, the only thing missing from it is the ability to set those subscriptions from within sage (something that MIGHT be able to be added to the PlayOn plugin), and the ability to watch recordings while they are being recorded (PlayOn would need to fix the lock they put on the file, as currently they lock it completely when recording with PlayOn, so nothing can open it, even for read-only - I've tried, and so far they are adamant that this is required for some reason - though I can't imagine why).

[fresnoboy]

I think if we can get a great integration of a SageTV client on Android TV, it would work pretty well in terms of metadata and search integration. Not perfect (like filling in missing SageTV episodes with OTT episodes), but pretty nice.

I'm not sure the HD300 is a good target platform for where V9 is going when many Android TV platforms have great OTT app integration already.

Thx
mike

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by fresnoboy

I think if we can get a great integration of a SageTV client on Android TV, it would work pretty well in terms of metadata and search integration. Not perfect (like filling in missing SageTV episodes with OTT episodes), but pretty nice.

I'm not sure the HD300 is a good target platform for where V9 is going when many Android TV platforms have great OTT app integration already.

Thx
mike

There is a SageTV Client for AndroidTV.