standards for STVs: install, configuration, etc.

[spockware]

Is there standard steps everyone needs to do to install a custom STV?

For instance:

1. Install and configure all SageTV settings first using default STV
2. Shutdown SageTV
3. Unzip custom STV to certain directory
4. Restart - voila!

What standards can I expect from a custom STV?

For instance:
1. All STVs MUST SUPPORT ALL SageTV default STV configuration settings
2. All STVs MUST SUPPORT x number of options like DVD playback, LiveTV,etc.

Thanks!

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by spockware

Is there standard steps everyone needs to do to install a custom STV?

For instance:

1. Install and configure all SageTV settings first using default STV
2. Shutdown SageTV
3. Unzip custom STV to certain directory
4. Restart - voila!

First, an STV, itself is completely self-contained, it does not rely on other STVs, so the installation of just an STV, is no more involved than dropping it in a directory of your choice (the STVs/SageTV3 directory is the easiest) and then picking it from the list in Detailed Setup -> Advanced.

Now what complicates it, slightly, is that many STVs rely on some external help, usually java classes. In this case follow the developers instructions, which generally is nothing more than unzip the archive to the SageTV directory and then restart/pick the new STV.

There is no "standard" because it's really up to the developers discression to use what they want and put it where they want.

What standards can I expect from a custom STV?

For instance:
1. All STVs MUST SUPPORT ALL SageTV default STV configuration settings
2. All STVs MUST SUPPORT x number of options like DVD playback, LiveTV,etc.

Thanks!

There are none, it's completely open ended, they can do as much or as little as they want. There are certain core features, that can limit some functionality, but there's nothing forcing a dev to use any of them.

[nielm]

... and in reality, there are so many options for configuring Sage that it is rare that an STV developer has time to test all combinations of all settings (VMR9 vs overlay for transparancy; preview video in window vs background)... Also some devs do not use certain features (I don't playback real DVDs, others don't playback recompressed AVIs)
This may lead to things looking odd...

Remember: with a custom STV released for free, you get what you pay for