That was scary...

[tvmaster2]

Originally Posted by Narflex

It's hard for me to say what throttling settings to use...just try not to overload the server.

Thanks - if you have any recommendations I’m all ears. I grabbed a copy last night, and there don’t seem to be any bandwidth complaints so far. This kind of thing is new to me, so I may have questions that help to keep things running smoothly

[jpwegas]

Originally Posted by Narflex

It's hard for me to say what throttling settings to use...just try not to overload the server.

Jeff,
IF someone were willing to do a migration to another type of bulletin board, would you be able/willing to provide a DB dump of all the public data? Many of the "migration" tools work by extracting directly from the DB or a DB dump.

--John

[Narflex]

Originally Posted by jpwegas

Jeff,
IF someone were willing to do a migration to another type of bulletin board, would you be able/willing to provide a DB dump of all the public data? Many of the "migration" tools work by extracting directly from the DB or a DB dump.

--John

No, I cannot provide that unfortunately.

[tvmaster2]

Originally Posted by Narflex

No, I cannot provide that unfortunately.

Old contract restrictions?

[Narflex]

Originally Posted by tvmaster2

Old contract restrictions?

Yeah, the whole Google thing. 🙂

[tvmaster2]

Originally Posted by Narflex

Yeah, the whole Google thing. 🙂

Bummer. Do take note that many of us would pay a yearly fee for the guaranteed access to this info...

[VCRUser]

Originally Posted by graywolf

Facebook
Never used it, never will
Too many security/privacy issues

Same here. I'd prefer anything other than Facebook; my personal preference is groups.io, but open to other non-FB platforms.

[BobPhoenix]

Originally Posted by graywolf

Facebook
Never used it, never will
Too many security/privacy issues

2nd this!

[tvmaster2]

Great, now we know what people DON’T want. Please, suggest some good things we DO want, because it’s clear a backup plan is in order...

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by tvmaster2

Great, now we know what people DON’T want. Please, suggest some good things we DO want, because it’s clear a backup plan is in order...

But wait, I have some ideas for the DO NOT WANT section

Seriously though, I'm not sure it's worth moving to a new stite as that has its own challenges and likely will go away as well, and I'm not hearing that Jeff is saying that this site will go away soon (although we all know it will happen eventually).

I would consider the following.
1. What's the life expectancy of this site (let's say 3-5 years optimistically)
2. What's the life expectancy of the "new" site. Likely about the same, if we moving to some other domain startup that is offering "group" support. They all fail, the new one will is likely to fail as well, and you are left no further ahead.

If you can't find a new site that has a much better life expectancy than this one, then there is no reason to move. Now ifonically, moving to Facebook would likely have a HUGE life expectancy. Groups.io, who knows? MyCoolBBForums run by some kid in India... who knows.

What is important is that you identify a lifeline for people when this site is down. eg, If you designate that https://github.com/google/sagetv/issues is that place, then create a sticky with "what to do when sagetv site dies" and people can learn over time to go there. Also, we can ask that the "this site is down for maintenance" include something like "please check https://github.com/google/sagetv/issues for more information of if you need help".

Github is an example for something is likely to be around for some time, we just need to point people there.

Now, if you do decide to just move to another site run by some kid in canada and hope for the best, then you should at least ask the admins to lock this forum down and force people to your new site, otherwise no one is going to go there on their own.

[NetworkGuy]

Originally Posted by stuckless

What is important is that you identify a lifeline for people when this site is down. eg, If you designate that https://github.com/google/sagetv/issues is that place, then create a sticky with "what to do when sagetv site dies" and people can learn over time to go there. Also, we can ask that the "this site is down for maintenance" include something like "please check https://github.com/google/sagetv/issues for more information of if you need help".

+1

[tvmaster2]

Originally Posted by stuckless

But wait, I have some ideas for the DO NOT WANT section

Seriously though, I'm not sure it's worth moving to a new stite as that has its own challenges and likely will go away as well, and I'm not hearing that Jeff is saying that this site will go away soon (although we all know it will happen eventually).

I would consider the following.
1. What's the life expectancy of this site (let's say 3-5 years optimistically)
2. What's the life expectancy of the "new" site. Likely about the same, if we moving to some other domain startup that is offering "group" support. They all fail, the new one will is likely to fail as well, and you are left no further ahead.

If you can't find a new site that has a much better life expectancy than this one, then there is no reason to move. Now ifonically, moving to Facebook would likely have a HUGE life expectancy. Groups.io, who knows? MyCoolBBForums run by some kid in India... who knows.

What is important is that you identify a lifeline for people when this site is down. eg, If you designate that https://github.com/google/sagetv/issues is that place, then create a sticky with "what to do when sagetv site dies" and people can learn over time to go there. Also, we can ask that the "this site is down for maintenance" include something like "please check https://github.com/google/sagetv/issues for more information of if you need help".

Github is an example for something is likely to be around for some time, we just need to point people there.

Now, if you do decide to just move to another site run by some kid in canada and hope for the best, then you should at least ask the admins to lock this forum down and force people to your new site, otherwise no one is going to go there on their own.

Good to see you’re still around - thought you were toast. Github was the place I went to look for others when the site went down recently. I do know a kid in India, but he’s an accountant from the London School of Economics. As far as Canadians go, well, where should I start?

The real mystery is decoding what Jeff has recently commented on. Will this site remain? He can’t give out the database, so a merger with a new product isn’t likely. My hope is he keeps this one going, and if it’s a nuisance for him, makes it a paid service to at least make it worth his while.

Why doesn’t Hamilton have a NHL team?

[SHS]

Originally Posted by Narflex

Yeah, the whole Google thing. ��

So I assumes you can't even update the forum to one of free forums and still keep here ?.

[Monedeath]

probably depends on if someone could provide a migration path for him to follow that was viable and not a gigantic time sink.

Which has an additional challenge because testing for that without the actual database adds its own complications.

Alternate option: Looks like vBulletin is still in development and has an upgrade path from 3.6+ to their current version(updated just over a month ago).

Downside is the license is $250. (Upgrade is $209)

https://www.vbulletin.com/en/upgrade/

[btrcp2000]

I would throw some money at that if it will preserve what we have and buy us time for the future. I dont have any intention of leaving, but I pay attention, and it still seems like there's nothing out there that comes close to Sagetv. Channels DVR seems closest and might be interesting to play with. That said, I subscribe to their weekly digest of emails, and its full of people complaining about broken stuff, like where we all were 10 years ago trying to get premium channels into Sage. I'm sure it will improve over time and unless DRM breaks the streaming, I can see it being very attractive, but I dont want to go through the Beta stage again. I haven't said the words "Wife Acceptance Factor" in years and don't care to go back there.

[wayner]

The thing is - there is far less reason to need SageTV these days as TV is moving away from the broadcast model to the streaming model. Many (most/all?) of the interesting shows are now available via Netflix, HBO Go, Amazon Prime, etc and you don't need SageTV for that.

SageTV excels at recording TV shows from OTA, cable or satellite. It is not leading edge for playing back pre-recorded content, and it has very little to no capabilities for playing streaming content.

If I wasn't a sports junkie I would also likely be ditching SageTV.

[Tiki]

Originally Posted by wayner

The thing is - there is far less reason to need SageTV these days as TV is moving away from the broadcast model to the streaming model. Many (most/all?) of the interesting shows are now available via Netflix, HBO Go, Amazon Prime, etc and you don't need SageTV for that.

SageTV excels at recording TV shows from OTA, cable or satellite. It is not leading edge for playing back pre-recorded content, and it has very little to no capabilities for playing streaming content.

If I wasn't a sports junkie I would also likely be ditching SageTV.

My biggest complaint about the streaming model is lack of control. Shows come and go from the streaming services all the time. With Sage, I can save thing for as long as I want and watch when it suits me. Also, Sage has much better transport controls than most streaming players - I can easily jump forward and back in specific increments that I can set to my liking. And I can always choose to skip commercials with Sage (either manually or with the Comskip plugin). Streaming services are mixed when it comes to commercials, but most have at least some (Amazon Prime doesn’t have ads in the middle of their shows, they do usually have an ad at the beginning).

I have started using a Roku for some streaming content, but still use Sage for most of my TV watching (personally I think there is still lots of stuff worth watching on Cable between local channels, basic cable, and premium channels).

Roku does have an api, so I think it may be possible to develop a plugin that “tunes” the Roku to a particular program via an http request, then records it using an HD-PVR, Colossus, or similar capture device. I think the hard part would be developing the interface to figure out what’s available to record.

[VCRUser]

Although not nearly as effortless as Sage, I can record Roku content when I have too many tuner conflicts, tuner failure, or just don't know in advance about a particular show I'd want to record. If the show is also available on demand through an available Roku channel, I play it, with the output going to a Hauppauge USB2 Live device, essentially a device that accepts composite output, and then records to disk through USB. I only use this when I can't get the show via easier means (Sage, PlayOn) and it's worth the effort. The main drawbacks:
1. You need a Roku that outputs composite; a few do. Alternatively, I've heard of hdmi-to-composite converters that might work.
2. You need to set up each recording manually.
3. The files run larger then they really should be, so I run them through Handbrake afterward.
4. I also have to manually copy them to an appropriate folder on my Sage server and if I want them to be treated as "shows" rather than "videos" I have to fiddle with that as well.
So it works, but I wouldn't want to have to do it too often, so long as I have Sage & Playon.

[btrcp2000]

I also need sports, esp baseball and until mlb lifts the local blackout for their streaming app there are 0 better options. Commercials will be more and more of a thing on the traditional streaming apps. Remember way back when when cable TV's big selling point was no commercials? Not willing to give that up and it drives me nuts when we are watching Hulu and can't control (and are occasionally asked to "choose" a commercial experience). PSvue going away was interesting. big deal when it launched because they had things like regional sports, but obviously they couldn't make it work. Makes me suspect these other ones will go too once the content providers start raising fees on them like they do the cable cos.

If I wasn't a baseball fan it would be a lot easier

[stuckless]

I think the dream of relaibly recording a roku (or any box) like a set top box is more a pipe dream. In essence you want to create a "play on" and that's much harder to do on a closed box like Android and Roku. It's why playon only exists on windows.

To reliably record something, you need to know 3 things.
1. How do I start it
2. When do I start it
3. When is it done

If you look at traditional TV, the "guide" provided that information, and even on traditional TV it's not trvial, but at least they all agreed that things would have unique "channels" and have start and end times and that information could be collated and once you have that information you can then "tune" pretty much any device. Even for tradiional tv this process is quite complex but, at least there were technologies in place to allow the transmission of the "guide" in the stream and then it just took some processing to collate the information. Companies then formed tha ttook that information and provided it to anyone with a fee.

There are some sites out there that try to do this for streaming services, but, it's much harder. There is no real way to "know" what is on netflix for any given region, except to "scrape" that information, and it's hard, and time consuming, and unreliable. Netflix, Hulu, Amazom, Apple, Disney, CBS, etc are not going to "give out" this information like they do with cable/sat.

Once you "know" what to record, the "how" to record it is different for every service AND it's different for every platform. ie, if I figured out to record netflix on roku, it doesn't help me understand how to record netflix on Android, or AppleTV. If I figured out Neflix it doesn't help me at all in trying to figure out Hulu or Disney.

I think if you are looking for a Play-On like solution, then I suggest you just pay for Play-On, since they are a dedicated company that is trying to solve the problem, and it's not easy. It was, we'd see 10 of these services/apps out there.

Ironically the video industry is moving to a realm where pirating is becoming easier than actually using the service. And this is ironic because, they gradually moved to a place where piracy was harder. ie, it's not that hard to setup a tuner and record, or just go into netflix and watch something. Or just the DVR that a cable provider supplied. But now that we have so many "streaming" services each with a different interface, video controls and different behaviours across different platforms, it's actually quite a bit easier to just pirate content.

At some point, we might see a subscription TV app that basically licenses content from Netflix, Apple, Disney, etc, and charges 150/month and you get everything in one app, and at that point, we've emulated the cable pattern all over again, and we are back to HUGE monthly costs where you pick your "bundles" and you get everythign in 1 interface. But we are a long way from that. In fact I think netflix was best positioned to be that, but, it changed from being a content aggregator to a content producer that that changes the landscape entirely. We just waiting for the next Netflix that is ok being the aggregator and not the producer.