Simple Question?

[FnHag]

This might be dumb, but do I still need my Cox Cable service? I have there cable internet. Does this software connect to all the channels?

Am I missing something?

[dkardatzke]

You still need a video source, i.e. Cable, Satellite or Antenna. You then feed that source into the TV tuner card and then SageTV becomes the interface for all recordings and viewing of Live TV. You will still have access to the same channels you have currently through your TV.

Let us know if you have any other questions or need an example of a setup related to your service.

Dan

[FnHag]

What do you suggest as a good video source with your system, just as a opinion. And was it you I heard on Kroq this morning, if so that's why Im hear now, good to see your inovation come to life.

Chris

[dkardatzke]

Chris,

Actually it was my brother Jeffrey you heard this morning, he's the one who wrote the software. He's our CTO.

With regards to the video source, do you mean do I prefer cable over satellite? Or did you mean something else?

Dan

[FnHag]

Yes, Im wondering what would be the best video source for the price, since your software has been design around the subject. Just looking for your opinion from your experience. Im sure your software has been tested with many video sources, Im woundering if I could do better for my dollar. Im serious buyer, and will have your software in my system.

Thanks for your response.

Chris

[Narflex]

I used to use SageTV with DirecTV and that was great, and now I use it with Adelphia cable and it still rocks. What I like about using cable is for multiple tuners its easy to just split the coax, I don't need extra receivers. Pretty handy when you're running 4 tuners in one box like I am.

[dkardatzke]

I would have to agree with Jeff. I use Comcast cable and split the source. I have the Digital Cable box feeding the Provideo card and the straight Coax connnection feeding the PVR-250 card. That's the beauty of cable.

Of course all of the channel changing on the Cable box occurs with the Actisys IR-200L.

Dan

[jmeeks]

I too use Cable.

Jeff and Dan, I see you are splitting the cable. If I can, I would offer a suggestion. You might see wonderful results in video quality.

My house had several splitters to run the cable to various locations for each TV. I then upgraded my house system by using a powered distribution amplifier box which split the signal with a unity gain for each branch (ie. each downstream branch has the same signal strength as the originating input branch, hence unity gain). This vastly improved the video quality throughout my home. If your using just plain splitters, each time you split you decrease the signal strength to each of the branches by half of what the original strength was. Especially if your splitting 4 ways, I think you should look into a distribution amp.

I also used quad shield RG6 cable and terminate all open ends not connected to devices throughout the system with terminators

Here's a good explanation of what I'm talking about:

http://www.essex1.com/people/speer/cable.html

Just thought you'd like to check it out......


John

[Narflex]

Thanks for the tip John. :)

[FnHag]

Hi, is it possible to back track to a show I missed, but didn't record. Would be nice if I could go to any TV station (ABC, CBS, etc..) and watch any episode of Friends (just an example)

Thanks, John for your great responces.

Chris

[FnHag]

Do you think this could start a Internet TV? Similar to Kaza download site, but any TV show availible to download.

Chris

[Mark Lamutt]

Chris, no to your first question there - you gotta record the show to backtrack to it, and your second question would open the door to all kinds of legal and copyright problems that we don't even want to consider.

[Lady Avatar]

To piggy back on to Mark's response...

even though you can't backtrack you can set your favorites to record both First Run's and Rerun's. With this feature if you did miss an episode of show that is currently syndicated it will pick up the episode when it plays again (usually on another station or (in some cases) when the major network airs the show a second time (saw this happen last night with ER, channel 4 replayed an episode that aired earlier this year).

[Narflex]

Intelligent Recording also works great for that. Maybe you forgot to tell Sage to record something....but it uses its own 'intelligence' to record it anyways. One of the cooler features in my opinion. This option can also be disabled if you don't like that kind of automation.

[FnHag]

I think Kaza is legal, kinda the same idea. Music songs are copywrited, and that site is still going strong.

Anyways just curious

Thanks again, and look forward to using you system.

Chris

[FnHag]

Another qestion, if Im trying to start Sage TV buttom and a window comes up after the reminder window about the ten day trail, the window says "An exception occured in Java: Java.lang.NoSuchMethodError" What does that mean? Will not let me continue.

Chris

[Narflex]

What version of Java do you have installed? Do to DOS and type:
java -version
to find out.

Also, add this to the Windows registry as a DWORD value:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Frey Technologies\Common\consolewin=1

Then a DOS window will come up with Sage that should have more detailed error information, post that please.

Thanks,

[FnHag]

Java version 1.3.1_07

After I copied and pasted that line it said:
The system cannot find the path specified.

[dkardatzke]

Try upgrading your version of Java. Version 1.4 or higher is one of our minimum system requirements. Avoid version v1.4.1_01 because of a bug in that version with relation to shutting down the Sage applications.

Here's the link to Java: http://java.sun.com/getjava/

Let us know if that works.

[FnHag]

Java version 1.4.1_02

asking for my name and key, haven't got a key.

Just trying to use the 10 day trail version, and what the difference between Sage TV and Sage recording? How hard is it to just try the the Trail version.

Chris

[FnHag]

Ok dont need a key for trail version, I need to start over with this Trail version how do I do that?

Chris

[dkardatzke]

Chris,

The 10-day trial period must have expired so it's now asking you for a registration key. We reset the trial period with our beta version 1.2 if you'd like to try that. Send me a PM with your email address if you are interested.

SageTV is our fully-featured PVR application that incorporates a 14-day programming guide (See http://www.sage.tv/service.html for service area coverage in the US only). SageTV also gives you Favorites Recording, Intelligent Recording, One-touch Recording, Search functionality and Parental Controls. SageTV also gives you a full-screen interface so you can use SageTV from the comfort of your couch with a remote control.

SageRecorder is a time-based recording application only, there is no Programming Guide. SageRecorder does let you set up daily and weekly recurring recordings so you can program once and it will record your favorite shows every week.

Here's the screen shots so you can see the difference:

SageTV: http://www.sage.tv/stvscreenshots.html

SageRecorder: http://www.sage.tv/srscreenshots.html

If you have any other questions, just let us know.

Dan