Time article on what happens when Google buys a small company

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by matterofrecord

Right I get what you're saying. I misread. However the problem for me is that I'm not a programmer so the learning curve is not realistic ( or even achievable ) . I think the problem is that although the plugin structure is in place, the software ( sagetv ) just isn't widespread enough. I mean you can't buy sagetv let alone get it for free. Without a large user base the plugin base is always going to be limited. The sagetv plugins that have been developed have all been made by a small dedicated base. The same names appear again and again ( and yes fuzzy I saw yours ). I would guess that 90% of the popular plugins are done by less than a dozen people.

If sage/google open sourced sagetv or made sagetv a closed source freeware or carried on selling it at a much cheaper price ( perhaps with a pay plugin market - like the app market ) then we would see some progress but with a small user base sagetv plugins will most probably stay a very niche sector. Although the plugins could happen in theory, the small user base means that new complex plugins probably won't happen in reality.

Right.. I did make that qualification in my post...

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

The only thing I wish they had done was remove the licensing. That is what is going to REALLY hold back development. If sage was still easily available, you would still have the entire group of 3rd party plugin devs grinding away at it.

[OldPCGUY]

After I downloaded the Playon Plugin subscribed to Playon and added their watch series plugin, it became clear to me. Internet TV is the future.

Watch Series has virtually every TV show on it going back 20 years. Quality varies but all the new stuff is HD.

Live sports is the only thing I don't have but I can't justify $65 a month for basic cable to watch 4 or 5 NFL games a year.

I think this is Google's vision and seeing that Sage already supported all the online services already, they may have viewed them as a threat to develop a low end box and easier to use software for Net Users only. A very young Google Exec said recording Live TV is an old idea.

I do not record any TV shows any more. And I am downsizing my storage space.

After seeing the article it is clear that PlayOn and Roku are threats to Google TV. I would expect Apple or Google to buy PlayOn or Roku and squash them.

When I look at Roku and Playon it really seems that Apple TV and Google TV are kind of lame.