Where's 3.0??

[mayamaniac]

Originally Posted by silkshadow

Are you dense?

SageTV is not run by morons. In fact I would say the opposite is true in general. Does anyone believe that the owners of SageTV would price their product to a point where they are in danger of going out of business? SageTV is an American company. Not a North Korean one. Their purpose is to make money. If they were not making money they would, obviously, increase the price. Let alone if they were in any danger of going out of business.

I agree. As I said before, don't worry about SageTV folks starving, not when they have a great product. Instead, you should worry whether they will start overcharging. I don't know if everyone tried the competitions before making SageTV their PVR, but SageTV really kicks ass, seriously. There's always room for improvement but the exisiting features more than exceed what others offer. If SageTV want to sell their technology, I'm sure plenty of bigger companies will hand them loads of cash. And yes, before deciding to pay for 3.0, maybe we should all wait to see what it offers first.

[fieldeffect]

I think the that reason Sage has the upper hand on MCE is that Microsoft have never really targetted users like us (i.e. pure PVR people), they're more interested in selling millions of OEM built hybrid PC/TV computers. They therefore don't make an effort to support the sorts of hardware and features that we're looking for.

If Microsoft ever decide that it's worth the money to cater to the PVR enthusiast market, they could add support for hardware decoding and define a plug-in format that allowed developers to make custom menu items. That wouldn't take them very long and would make Client/Server operation the only reason to choose Sage.

I really hope that 3.0 is a big deal and makes some real core improvements, but unless they are going to spring a big and very pleasant surprise on us, it seems like they are all about expanding into new areas like Linux, extenders and web interfaces rather than addressing core issues like software rendering performance, hardware decoding support, and all the things that get talked about again and again and again on these forums.

Sorry, did that sound like a rant? Go Sage go!!

Nick.

[ben_gb]

Just because it's an American company, doesn't make Sage immune from making mistakes or going bust! There are plenty of companies, or should I say ex-companies, out there which had a great product and still failed.

I do worry about Sage, because I don't want to lose it, at least not until something better comes along...

[parkimar]

Eeerm , correct me if Im wrong, but I understood that MCE can operate client server - The X-Box, PC's, the nex X-Box 360 and specific extenders can all act as clients.

Additionally, I play with MCE on my system, and I installed MCE customiser 2005 and have added new menu items and hidden some of the standard ones.

My experience has been that the big advantage Sage has is it\s ability to work with a huge amount of hardware, it's user community and it's extensibility (e.g. many tuners, etc).

With regards 3.0, I'd happily pay an upgrade fee if I felt the upgrade would offer ME significant benefit. The definition of significant is personal, and is a bit like pornography, it's difficult to exactly specify, but you know it when you see it.

Cheers

Mark

[GbrNole]

mce can operate a client server but it's limited the hardware extenders (xbox and linksys right now)

the 360 will be a great future extender but who the heck knows when it will be really available?

the big limitation with mce's current extenders is that they can't do divx/xvid nor can they pass an ac3 stream which is quite a letdown since they're not cheap solutiuons.

it's also disappointing that mce isn't offering a software client or at least allowing a full mce install to act as a live tv client.

if it wasn't for those pitfalls i'd seriously consider jumping to mce.

i'd be stoked if sage can spring a nice surprise and rollout some exceptional extenders (beyond the mvp) when 3.0 finally rolls out. i'd never look at mce again under that scenario {based on current technology - cable card being the disclaimer}

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by GbrNole

the 360 will be a great future extender but who the heck knows when it will be really available?

November.

[fieldeffect]

Originally Posted by parkimar

Eeerm , correct me if Im wrong, but I understood that MCE can operate client server - The X-Box, PC's, the nex X-Box 360 and specific extenders can all act as clients.

Additionally, I play with MCE on my system, and I installed MCE customiser 2005 and have added new menu items and hidden some of the standard ones.

My experience has been that the big advantage Sage has is it\s ability to work with a huge amount of hardware, it's user community and it's extensibility (e.g. many tuners, etc).

With regards 3.0, I'd happily pay an upgrade fee if I felt the upgrade would offer ME significant benefit. The definition of significant is personal, and is a bit like pornography, it's difficult to exactly specify, but you know it when you see it.

Cheers

Mark

I have a couple of XBoxs, one Linux and one for games, but i'd never set one up as an extender for MCE because I assumed that it couldn't stream live TV. Can it?

Nick.

[silkshadow]

In regards to MCE's client ability, who the heck wants to buy 4-5 xboxes just to have MCE extenders? Not being able to use a "client" mode on other MCE boxes is a big problem with MCE for me as Sage's client/server system is one of the main reasons I love it. I know some people really want MVP style STBs for Sage but I have a bunch of computers and far prefer using them as they can also double as downloading boxes, PBXs, etc and can be used fully with no Dvix or whatever problems.

Just because it's an American company, doesn't make Sage immune from making mistakes or going bust! There are plenty of companies, or should I say ex-companies, out there which had a great product and still failed.

I do worry about Sage, because I don't want to lose it, at least not until something better comes along...

Umm, yeah bad companies go bust while good comapnies grow. That is the way of capitalism. So are you calling SageTV a bad comapny? Otherwise, this seems more like your issue than Sage's . So, if you're that worried, I am sure SageTV would be happy to take a donation from you. Personally, besides the extremely questionable decision to give a very small number of people Studio, I find SageTV to be a pretty good comapny. Good companies don't go bust.

[parkimar]

It can play TV

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/m...tenderkit.mspx

However it has not had great reviews.

http://www.winsupersite.com/reviews/mcx_xbox_review.asp

It would seem that for all the limitations of the MVP, where it matters e.g. Picture quality , it kicks ass. (Unless your on HDTV).

And given that sage can use MVP as a client ....


Cheers

Mark

[GbrNole]

the winsupersite review is old. the near's blog and the green button are better sources of info for the xbox extender and linksys extender reviews.

the boxes work well when hard wired and if you have a mod chip in your xbox you can load the xbox extender software right to the hard drive which significantly speeds up operation.

actually i'm kinda surprised that some pioneering guy or girl hasn't provided a switch in the xbmc software so that when you select "my tv" the xbox auto switches to the xbox extender interface to allow for viewing.

xbmc is a better frontend for playing dvd's, videos and music though since you can play back most all file types through the xbmc interface.

i'm definitely one of those people who is enamoured by the thought of a media shared home and having good hardware clients to share that media.

[WLNE-TV]

I am not classifying 3.0 as an upgrade. As far as I'm concerned, its a bug fix version. I have two long standing bugs that I was told I would have to wait until 3.0 to see fixed. I wouldn't pay a dime for 3.0... not when I've already paid a fortune for a commercial version that doesn't work as advertised.

[dbfresh23]

Originally Posted by WLNE-TV

I wouldn't pay a dime for 3.0... not when I've already paid a fortune for a commercial version that doesn't work as advertised.

Fortune? Did you get suckered into one of those silly Ebay Auctions?

[GbrNole]

Originally Posted by dbfresh23

Fortune? Did you get suckered into one of those silly Ebay Auctions?

nah he purchased a commercial version of sage and like a commercial version of anything else it's a crap load more expensive than a home use license.

[Crazedz]

Oh man not this "Sage isn't charging enough they may go out of buisness" rant again!!

What are you people investers wanting to convince jeff and dan to raise costs so you can increase your market shares?

Or is this pure idiotism you got money burning gaping holes in youre pockets and just want to give it away but only by buying?

Sorry i don't mean to be mean or rude but i think Jeff and Dan know full well what their doing and how to do it without having other people tell them how to run their company! If you want to send them money as silkshadow said them by all means go right ahead.

Now while i personally don't mind or wouldn't care if Sagetv's costs rose or they charged a little more for the product to buy i certainly take issue with things like charging for extra tuners. What the heck is this user fee's on additional tuners that we already bought or buy? I would never except user fee's for added tuners myself i don't care how good the product is. If sage feels they need to charge more then fine raise purchase costs some but trying to get them to pull this nickel and dime stratagy to bleed their consumers like Snapstream has developed would be to much.

Thats also by the way one of the big reasons i would never buy Beyondtv i won't pay thoughs costs not when their's sage or if god forbid i had to then i would go for one of the other free pvr products that (yes i have tried several of them i know how much of a work in progress they are) are out their before paying any company for the privilage of being able to add tuners i payed for to sage's product or any others.

Speaking of beyond you wouldn't happen to work for snapstream and just be trying to take some heat off by getting sage to adopt your same stratagy to take some pressure off you as well as trying to stop bleeding off said customers to competing products like sage now are you? Sorry but i just don't buy the your so concerned about sage going out of buisness that you think they should adopt these beyond crazy ideas to make more money so it makes me a bit suspicious as to why. When i get suspicious my mind goes into overdrive wanting to know what else is going on here with customers that not only want to throw their money at a company but want to throw everybody elses money at them as well. But this is straying from the path a bit so.....

Anyway sorry i just can't except the idea of charging somebody after purchase of the software and tuners more money to be able to use more tuners when they already paid for the product. Plugins yes major upgrades begrudgedly yes as long as the upgrade isn't a huge cost like every other company seems to like to charge but for adding in a tuner to a product you already bought no i can't except that one and wouldn't pay the cost's i would as i said switch before doing that.

Disclaimer: im not telling Jeff or Dan how to run their buisness they can do what they want with it but im just saying what i would do in the event they did certain things i didn't like or couldn't except and why.

Now can we have an end to this issue please?

[Fluffdaddy]

Originally Posted by Crazedz

Now can we have an end to this issue please?

Nope, Not in your life time.

[ben_gb]

Crazedz,
Calm down, it's only some opinions on a BBS. Or aren't we allowed to have those any more without being accused of either share manipulation, or working for the competition?

For the record, I don't own any shares in SageTV, and I am not connected to BeyondTV or any other similar company.

My comments about Sage were from the POV of a concerned customer. Contrary to what you seem to be implying, I do want them to survive and grow (for selfish reasons - I like the product).

[Crashless]

Originally Posted by ben_gb

Calm down, it's only some opinions on a BBS. ...snip...

Wow, I haven't seen these called 'BBSs' since the '90s. Why did it ever change anyways? It's way fewer keystrokes to type B-B-S than F-O-U-R-U-M. I don't get it. I suppose that once smilies are introduced things change.

But really, who doesn't miss the days of dedicated dialup terminal sessions, ASCII art and 2400bps modems?

I still have a 9600baud voice-modem somewhere. I bet it's an antique now. I'm thinking about selling it on e-bay for $300 because it's gotta be worth at least that. Those things have got to be hard to find these days.

Has anyone noticed that it's hard to sell something on ebay if you haven't sold anything before? What kind of crap is that? How is anyone supposed to trust me, if no one will trust me?

cCoffeeee isss mmmyy frrrieendd!!@

[mayamaniac]

SageTV: "3.0 will be a free upgrade"
Customer 1: "Why not charge? You guys need to make money to survive. I don't mind paying for the upgrade"
Customer 2: "Shut up, I like it free. Switch to BTV if you like paying for every little things"


PS: This thread is going off topic, maybe should be closed.

I'll try to put it back on topic, so where's 3.0? They have been hinting that it'll be out in the "coming weeks." And weeks and months went by, and nothing.

[dbfresh23]

Well I think Spring is officially over on the 21st of this month so they still have 13 days to make their deadline.

[ukmgranger]

I think it will be out on the 18th. Thats my 30th birthday!!

Noooooooo. I go on holiday that weekend for a week. I won't be able to get my hands on it right away

Ah well, here's hoping!