*****OFFICIAL SageTV Recorder FEATURE REQUEST/UPDATE THREAD*****

[Xleon]

I second your feeling on the Provideo website, it looks like an 8yr old designed it!

I was lent a Hauppage PVR-250 from a friend who was also building a unit (but under Linux which came to a grinding halt due to lack of drivers).

I had all sorts of sync problems with that card. I wasn't happy with the quality of the recording either. Even on a very high bit-rate, I could still quite large macro blocks when there was fast movement. At 4Mbs (which is my prefered bitrate as it goes 2hr per DVD) the quality was not good at all. I was also having trouble in editing the recorded MPEG with anything other than the cutter software they supplied. There is something strange about the resulting MPEG which other A/V software doesn't like.

So, I tried the ProVideo PV256T (there is a Pro version now which also has hardware audio encoding like the PVR-350, my version is slightly older and uses the PC CPU to do the encoding). I had an issue in that it doesn't seem to like VIA/AMD combinations. The quality is much better for the bitrate and the MPEG stream is 100% DVD writable (it can even store them demuxed to the disc if you want). There are lots of tweaks so you can change all sorts of recording aspects as well.

I had a sync issue with this card which I've now fixed. Using 128Kbps audio with Sage Recorder, it would sometimes jump out of sync then back in again. Using a higher bitrate (the Sage default of 384Kbps), the problem has been solved.

Maybe it's a personal thing, but for me the quality was the issue and the ProVideo won hands down. So much so, that a colleague of mine where I work also chose the ProVideo after seeing the two cards in action.

I've not had a chance to see the Hauppage 350 in action. It might be a 100 times better than the 250 I tried.

I hope that goes some way to helping you decide. If you can, do what I did and either borrow one from a friend, or buy it from a company that will let you take it back for a refund if you don't like the one you bought.

[djc]

Thanks for the detailed info. Yes, video quality is certainly the most important factor for me (aside from getting it running, of course).

The ProVideo may be the way to go, although I'm also trying to think through the "whole house" architecture piece (I've tried a Prismiq for playing the video back out onto my TV in another room, but it has issues) and make sure I wind up with a complete solution!--David

[Xleon]

1) It would be nice if Sage Recorder didn't crash when it ran out of disk space. It would be much better if it simply stopped gracefully the current record.

2) Maybe we could have a small area on the main GUI for 'system messages' such as "Disk Space Low", "Recording" or something similar. It would also be able to show the bitrate details for the current chosen compression (ie. Best, Good) as I can't remember the numbers off the top of my head and currently you have to go into the Properties file to check.

[mrr19121970]

My request are:

.) turn off mouse pointer in full screen mode.
.) option to stop screen saver (like wintv2k - at all, or in FS mode)
.) option to have FS preview at startup
.) command line to have preview on or off at recording
.) command line to send recording schedules to already running sage recorder
.) improved command line syntax and syntax checking. ie why do i need to put my args in double quotes - you can parse from the '-record', '-end' etc
.) file name on command line should automatically be saved to the video directory in the options, not just anywhere sage recorder fancies
.) file name on the command line should be parsed for invalid chars ('*','/','\') etc - ie when digiguide provides the programme name as file name
.) there should be an option to start recording X minutes earlier, and end Y minutes later to prevent missing the first and last moments of your show
.) option to turn off the splash screen

[gsquared]

Just starting to feel my way around the program but a couple of items already stand out as "sure would be nice if..."

-fully configurable file names with a minimum ability to append the recording date and channel to the filename (ie. Friends_20030904_008.mpg)

-ability to schedule a 4 weeks ahead - I was just going through my PBS mailing and the regular 8:30 show has an added 8:00 show on Sept 28 - now I'm going to have to remember to change the schedule in 2 weeks time. :-(

-as previously mentioned some extra buttons on the time settings to increment by 15 or 30 minutes/reset to 0

-possibly a slightly different interface for channel selection in the schedule page - use the keypad interface from the SR main window?

Just a couple of initial impressions. Otherwise it looks like I may be able to get rid of my 3 VCRs if the SRx2 system looks to be as relaible as the tape it should replace.

G^2

[Ralph]

I've just been trying out SageRecorder as the only bit of decent software to run on my newly aquired ProVideo PV256C Pro encoder card. Very pleased with results so far.

A couple of features I would really like to see.

1. How about an option to record in real time direct to fast editable DVD+/-RW.
Ulead DVD MovieFactory 2 can do it so I know it's possible

2. Always on top option.

3. Still image jpeg snap shot capture.

I'll be following developments with interest.

Ralph

[tafguy]

Hi everyone,

I have registered the product like many others to overcome the limitations of 32k audio and proprietary mpeg2 that the Creative DVCR software sets and generates.

In term of above restrictions, I found this also contradictory that this excellent software is done by a different company than the one that creates the capture card.

My primary use is recording from TV shows, and transfer 8mm tape and VHS to hard drive to burn on DVD.

Things I like to have as features that I personally found that the software lacks during my repetitive use.

- A functionality that allows user to set a delay to the recorder to stop. For example, after hitting the record button, I can click the delay button and increment time interval of 5 minutes until the desired record stop time like 1 hour. At the end, it will automatically name the file so you can rename it later to what you want.

Since I won't be at the desk monitoring the software for the end of the show and I don't want to go to the scheduler to set it since the time I play the tape and record it took only seconds. And if it happens to forget to stop it, I can strip
down the over time taped generated mpeg file unless there is a feature that I overlooked that allow me to do this.

I used to own an old high-end Akai VHS tape recorder that has that feature and I found it very useful like taping a show quickly and set the record end time if you don't have time to program it.

- If this can not be done, is there any plan that allow user to redit the generated mpeg file to make it shorter so that you can cut down the to where it is supposed to cut in case you forgot to stop it. I have tried with other software but it results in audio/video out of sync.

- I did not find any custom setting where you can enter the video bit rate eg. 5 Mbits/s or 4 Mbits/s but you have to use the presets ones. Or is there any setting that have variable rate based on a specific duration you set?

The others features from other people are also nice too.


Great work!

[newtbert]

Audio level control for PVR-350 and VBR quality setting would be great!

[hansson]

Here's a simple one :

Save the preview window location, size and zoom setting on exit, and restore on startup.

Thanks for an excellent application !

[shamca]

Feature request :

One touch record *timed* on the main gui. e.g. "rec now" with a drop down for (.5hrs, 1.5hrs, 2.0hrs....), it appears that otherwise I have to either press record and wait for the program to end then hit stop, or create a record in the scheduler (a bit long winded when you need to start *now* .

[shamca]

Originally posted by shamca
Feature request :

One touch record *timed* on the main gui. e.g. "rec now" with a drop down for (.5hrs, 1.5hrs, 2.0hrs....), it appears that otherwise I have to either press record and wait for the program to end then hit stop, or create a record in the scheduler (a bit long winded when you need to start *now* .

..Solved my own problem. If you right click on the red recording dot on the main UI, it gives you some nice options, including the one described above.

[Saxtus]

I have two feature requests, both about the playing capabilities of SageRecorder and not the recording:

Feature request 1: Add as OSD at a screen corner on PVR350 TV out, the video counter so we can know at what position the playing video is. Also the filename at another screen corner will be useful. User will be able to turn them on or off using the remote control.
Feature request 2: Video playlist: A user can be able to add multiple files and go back and forth using the remote control.

[Saxtus]

One more feature request, simpler than the above two:
Add an option to turn off completely local decoding when output to PVR350 TV out is enabled.
Thank you!

[dfried]

I have three feature requests:

1) When you enter a file name into the default or first level save box and you then click to direct the save to a new folder it carries that name forward so you don't have to start over after selecting a folder.

2) A better way of accessing the start of a scheduled recording that is currently in progress.
The best would be a control button that brings you to the head of the file and opens the preview window and starts playing from the start of the recording.

3) Command line control over the duration of the commercial skip. I would like to be able to enter in any variable I want and skip ahead that much. A keyboard shortcut would be nice as well.

[dfried]

Guess I have one more request:
the ability to go to a specific point in a file when playing it back.
Have a goto box that can be made active when you right click on the timeline

[Xleon]

I'm interested to know if any more features are planned for Sage Recorder, or is the current feature set complete?

It seems to be mainly used as a remote encoder for Sage TV now and any more features may start to overlap Sage TVs feature-set so I'm guessing the current Sage Recorder feature-set will not be added to now.

I could be wrong . . . Only Dan can really answer that.

[Phaseshift]

Since FAT32 file systems have a file size limit of 4GB, how about have the recorder automatically start a new file once that limit is reached. Right now, recording just stops at that limit, although sagetv makes it seem like it is continueing.

[naln]

Hi,

How about support for the Plextor 402U series of USB2 encoders which can do DivX hardware encoding. Sage 2.1 supports it and so should sage recorder for those of us who like to use it on a client.

[bobtv]

Req. Shutdown when recording is done. This it not possible now right?

[Gem]n[]

Hi there,

Please make it compatible for the Adaptec Videoh! 2010 card like version 1.4.10 does as it doesn't seem to work at the moment.

Version 1.4.10 works perfectly.

thanks

Gem