"Sage" at CES?

[TBoneJones]

I know Sage is officially no more, but are any of the original Sage crew at CES showing off what they're doing in GoogleTV this year? Anyone heard anything?

[malbec]

I don't suppose anybody is at CES, managed to run into Jeff and discover something cool like the announcement of a new Google TV server with "Sage inside" along with support for existing Sage equipment as well as an announcement around a bunch of new compatable extenders/TVs with built in extenders.

Just trying my hand at being the optimist.

* merged *

[Jfhar4]

You put the words right into my mouth; I have been wondering the same thing myself. I've been following CES on TheVerge.com but have not seen any major Google/SageTV announcements yet.

[valnar]

It takes a lot of time to wade through engadget.com during the CES show, so I'm subscribing here. If anyone spots a suitable Sage substitute, please post here!

[stanger89]

Probably should check out the SageTV Alternatives thread.

[dgeezer]

Interview with Rishi Chandler of Google TV. Video.
He is asked about SageTV at about 12 minutes in to interview. His response is that they basically see DVR's as old technology and that the future is more of a streaming model.

[valnar]

Originally Posted by dgeezer

Interview with Rishi Chandler of Google TV. Video.
He is asked about SageTV at about 12 minutes in to interview. His response is that they basically see DVR's as old technology and that the future is more of a streaming model.

Wow...then that begs the question. Why buy SageTV at all?

[trini0]

Originally Posted by valnar

Wow...then that begs the question. Why buy SageTV at all?

My thoughts exactly..

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by valnar

Wow...then that begs the question. Why buy SageTV at all?

Jeff. The only reason I can think of.

[OneOfMany]

Well, from listening to that, Sage is indeed dead. They have no interest in PVRs, and they have yet to finalize any agreements with providers. Now I wish I had a couple of more client licenses lol..

Grant

[Rob]

Then since the curent SageTV platform is not in competition with their plans, it begs the question: Why not open source SageTV, allow other extenders to work with SageTV or open it up so that client licenses are not required?

The only reason would be that they don't care to give us the time of day.

[pjpjpjpj]

Originally Posted by valnar

Wow...then that begs the question. Why buy SageTV at all?

Then why not offer Jeff (and whoever else they hired as employees) a lot of money to come work for Google, but just completely ignore Sage? If they don't want to continue in the DVR direction and think it's a pointless technology, why buy out Sage, or force them to kill the product? It wouldn't be competition if they're not going in that direction.

If this was purely a "personnel hiring", they could have given Jeff the opportunity to sell SageTV to others. There's no reason to kill SageTV unless they wanted some technological part of it.

....and this thread suddenly heads in the direction of the "community comments" thread....

[Rob]

I'd also guess that this means when the year is up, no more EPG (not a big deal since itcan be made available via a plug-in) and no more forums (this one scares me, since there is so much knowledge around here).

[phareous]

Originally Posted by Rob

I'd also guess that this means when the year is up, no more EPG (not a big deal since itcan be made available via a plug-in) and no more forums (this one scares me, since there is so much knowledge around here).

I get more depressed every time I view this forum... Google and Jeff really screwed over everyone here

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by dgeezer

Interview with Rishi Chandler of Google TV. Video.
He is asked about SageTV at about 12 minutes in to interview. His response is that they basically see DVR's as old technology and that the future is more of a streaming model.

I had started watching that, but never got a chance to get that far, that's unfortunate, but not unexpected.

Originally Posted by phareous

I get more depressed every time I view this forum... Google and Jeff really screwed over everyone here

Can you honestly say you'd have done something different in the same circumstances?

[cncb]

It's just another example of a big company ruining something good. And I think the answer is just because "they can"...

[phareous]

Originally Posted by stanger89

I had started watching that, but never got a chance to get that far, that's unfortunate, but not unexpected.

Can you honestly say you'd have done something different in the same circumstances?

Well obviously I don't know how much money they gave him, or even what they promised him. Maybe for him its a good deal because he got lots of money and now has a more guaranteed form of income. But we see the end result - his life's work up to this point is thrown away, and all the people he might have helped with his product are now alienated. I don't know what his goals were originally with SageTV...but obviously Google is on a completely different page there. I am almost wondering if he was mislead. Just look at his announcement: "By teaming up with Google, we believe our ideas will reach an even larger audience of users worldwide on many different products, platforms and services.". Well obviously YOUR ideas won't reach anything...its all Google's ideas now and any ideas you had with SageTV are gone. Not to mention all the smiley faces and stuff in his post... if he knew Google was killing Sage...why would he do that? Unless he was a jerk. That's why I think Google promised him the world and then ended up just doing whatever they wanted once they bought it

EDIT: Does anyone even know what his title is at Google? Does he have any say, or is he just a programmer now? Seems like the latter
EDIT2: His linkedin profile says he is "Software Engineer at Google"...so he isn't a manager...I doubt he has any say over what they do with SageTV

[stanger89]

Yeah, I'm willing to give Jeff the benefit of the doubt given how he's worked with the community over the years, but I definitely agree the whole Google thing sucks.

Well, with any luck, Ceton will be the new SageTV, their Echo extender sounds like it has the potential to be a capable alternative to the HD300.

[phareous]

I wonder if Jeff or the company was having financial trouble, and that's why he was so quick to sell out? We know this market is a niche, and obviously BeyondTV couldn't handle it (although near the end of the consumer product they weren't dedicating any resources to improving it).

SageTV met my needs perfectly.... and the ability to view in multiple rooms is a major requirement. I just don't see why this market is such a niche... why are people so content (dumb?) to pay monthly fees to cable providers, sat. providers, or tivo to have an inferior product?

[Narflex]

I still work on SageTV every day along with the whole team from SageTV before it was bought. SageTV is not dead. Ohhh....I wish I could say more...but that time has not come yet....