SageTV V2.0.21

[chrysek]

Last update to SageTV was made from what I can see 6/29/2004. Its almost 2 months without any update... Does anyone know if anything is coming out to address issues and maybe with some additional improvements? Or did Sage People went for a vacation and maybe something will show up in September?

I just wana know if there are plans for HDTV support!!! And when it will be available!!!

[JasonJoel]

Nope, no one knows.

Frey Technologies has said they are not going to give information on upcoming releases or dates of said release.

So if you have a specific bug, I would file it at the support email address and see what their answer is. This is also the best way to insure that fixes you need are included in some 'future' release.

Jason

Originally posted by chrysek
Last update to SageTV was made from what I can see 6/29/2004. Its almost 2 months without any update... Does anyone know if anything is coming out to address issues and maybe with some additional improvements? Or did Sage People went for a vacation and maybe something will show up in September?

I just wana know if there are plans for HDTV support!!! And when it will be available!!!

[ToxMox]

Got me all excited for a second looking at your subject. Thought the next ver was out.

[chrysek]

I knew it!!! hehe.. When I was posting that was something that came to my mind and people will think its there.. I am kind of disapointed from lack of comminication from Frey Technologies to their users. It is always good to inform your customers whats in works and when they can expect some enhancements, updates maybe, or at least bug fixes. I am very disapointed because I had so many problems with my system and if not this forum and lots of $$$ invested in HTPC I would not get rid of my crashing problem... I just wish Frey Technologies would maybe come in to this forum every now and then and give us some hints of the future... I do not even want to mention Sage Studio relase.... Ehhh

[ToxMox]

As much as I think I don't like it, I actually see the logic behind what Frey has been doing lately. Before, when they used to tell us things were coming out the next 100 threads would be people asking when it was coming out or for screenshots or if it would do this or that and then we all just get anxious waiting for something to come out. Then they delay the release so as to give us the best user experience possible and try and squash all bugs etc. and we all freak out and get dissappointed. I know that once real info is available and Studio or the next release or whatever comes out that I'll be happy to have it in my hands and not have to anxiously wait an unknown period of time for it and end up with more questions than answers. JMO

[jptaz]

I think that because of Sage Studio and Media MVP support being mentioned in the forums that they are keeping quiet until they are sure that something will be a released feature. They have taken a lot of abuse over the Studio release not being out and I am sure there is a good reason they have not released it yet. Sending messages to Support does help a good deal of the time and I am sure that if they are going to put out a maintenance release they will let us all know.

John

EDIT: I would definitely favor them working with us on the forums to create a known good hardware/software compatibility list. Especially since so many users with PVR-350s still have problems. A lot of this is failings on Hauppauges part as they have some of the worst drivers on the market, but at the same time Frey should make it very clear that the PVR-350 has compatibility issues.

[Jere_Jones]

I remember that one of the things that I really liked about Frey and Sage was that the authors/owners were active in the forums. They communicated about what was going on, what progress was being made, opinions about the future, etc.

I miss that...

I don't know if they're too busy/on vacation/being political or what but I miss the "official" insight.

Have I mentioned that I miss their participation?

Jere

[ToxMox]

I think it also has a lot to do with competition from other products and not wanting the oposition to know exactly what features are being added and when they are coming out. That way when a cool new feature does come out they(Frey) are ahead of the curve for a while until the competition can add the same feature.

I do agree about having a hardware compatibility list of some sort though.

[jptaz]

I agree Jere I miss their participation, but I think they have to support too many hardware products, (PVR-350, PVR-250MCE, Black Bird, and All the DX9 Video card compatibility issues) at this point to spend time here. I mean the Support request form has gone from 24 Hour stated repsonse time to 72 hours. And back in the day Jeff would actually respond to them himself.

I also miss the good old days 1.4 with its simple GUI, No DX graphics, etc. honestly it had a smaller memory and CPU foot print and I know it had to be a lot easier to support. At least unlike Beyond TV they focused on the core recording, scheduling, and PVR engine, before they burried themselves in the GUI support jungle.

John

[Jere_Jones]

Oh... I forget that they are the complete support staff. I get the impression that Sage's popularity took off with the introduction of v2. Many new customers have to increase the support request quite a bit. Especially since there are probably more than a couple people who don't visit the forums before asking Frey for help.

Ok, I understand their absence, but I still miss their presence.

Jere

PS - I don't agree with the argument about maintaining a competitive advantage through silence.

[chrysek]

That is true John, but every now and they someone should visit forum maybe... I dont know, I would fee so much beter...

[ToxMox]

Jere,
You don't agree with the argument itself or if that is really the reason?
I'll quote from a previous post of Dan's (see http://forums.freytechnologies.com/f...2292#post52292)
Quote:
"To give an "official" response, the MVP is on our roadmap but we are not yet ready to announce timing of a release. Integration with the MVP goes beyond doing work with the Studio as the MVP client will need to be tightly integrated so that any firmware and software updates for the MVP will be immediately supported. As you all have noted we have been very tight lipped lately and this mainly for competitive reasons. You'll also notice our competitors have become more tight lipped as well. Just know that we are working on great things for SageTV and are constatly looking to ensure the future of the technology and our customers at all levels."
End Quote.

[ToxMox]

Oh and there is at least one additional person handling support requests. I believe his name is George.

[Jere_Jones]

I believe that it is a reason. I just don't agree with the argument itself.

When I actually bought SageTV, v2 was still in beta so I actually bought 1.4 even though I never installed it. I was very impressed with the "cooperative" atmosphere in the forum. Between the activity of the users, the activity of the authors, and the promise of v2, I made the decision to purchase and haven't regreted it once.

But, IMHO, it is Frey's right to disperse information when and how they see fit.

I just disagree. BTW, it's ok with me if I disagree with their policy.

I still love SageTV and am eagerly looking forward to Studio!

Jere

*edited to correct spelling mistakes*

[ToxMox]

I have no problems with you disagreeing with what they are doing. I kind of disagree too but I understand the reasoning behind it.

I do feel however that the lack of their participation in the forums is a little disheartening and wish they would have more of a presence in here again.

[Jere_Jones]

ToxMox,

And here I thought you and I were disagreeing and all along we had the same thoughts.

Great minds think alike... and so do ours.

[jphhughes]

This thread http://forums.freytechnologies.com/f...&threadid=6882 touches on this topic as well. MLS sent, what I thought was a very good message to Frey, as far as I can see their was never a reply.

[mls]

Originally posted by jphhughes
This thread http://forums.freytechnologies.com/f...&threadid=6882 touches on this topic as well. MLS sent, what I thought was a very good message to Frey, as far as I can see their was never a reply.

Was off for a while taking care of other things on my end...

However you may note that my message was sent on 8-18-2004 and it is now 8-29-2004 and there has been no reply to my e-mail yet.

Although quite a few people become rather upset with me at times, I am glad that some of my comments do open up some further discussion about things.

After all, one can't get any re-action if one does no action to start with. Even though there now may be a few that totally dislike me, I'm still impressed by all the information/discussion that my comments have brought out of those willing to active.

[mls]

Originally posted by chrysek

I just wana know if there are plans for HDTV support!!! And when it will be available!!!

I see this question all the time and have avoided it. However, thought I'd toss a quick comment in here about it (for no real reason).

Have any of you people asking of HDTV support got any idea how complicated that would be and/or how much data has to be manipulated?

From my understanding, a good HDTV recording would use up about 2Gig for each 10 minutes. That's 12Gig an hour, or 24Gig for a 2 hour movie!

I guess that might be ok for those that have a couple Terabytes of hard drive space in some dedicated server, but sure not anything an average home computer system would have.

Anyway, won't much matter in a few years once everything changes to digital TV anyway. Everything will have rights management to prevent recording it anyway (or am I the only one that sees that coming?).

[stanger89]

MLS, it's not that hard, current HD cards just capture the MPEG-2 stream and write it to disk, it requires about 6GB/hour. Sage 1.4 had experimental support for the AccessDTV and HiPix. When we ask for HD support, we're asking for Sage to support one of the current HD cards.

However recording uncompressed HD, like from a cable or sat box's outputs is impossible now, it's about 1.5Gbps way more than the PCI bus can handle, and even if you get past that (by using PCI-X or PCIe) you've still got to store it, and at 600GB/hour that wouldn't be easy.

What I'm waiting for is an HD version of the CX23416 MPEG encoder and therefore and HD version of the PVR 250, that would get around all the DRM issues.