General Studio release still in the plans?

[Deadbolt]

I was wondering if anyone knows if Studio is still going to be released to everyone. We have many good STVs and imports with so few developers...if it was released just think how much we would have to choose from. Of course the use of any of these would be up to user...so I'm not sure why Sage is waiting. As an example of what could be done, look at Meedio with over 250 imports.

[Kanati]

Something tells me we'll never see it. I emailed them requesting to become one of the "chosen few" and after a few days got an email back saying that they weren't interested in having any more people using Studio at that time. They also removed references to it from their site. So I'm betting it's dead as a general dev tool for the masses. And might I say that that SUCKS.

[Mike Young]

No matter what they do with studio, it will never be able to match what Meedio can do. Sage is great at being a DVR but I have given up on having a truly customizable environment around it, and the media player just isnt exactly 'world class'.
I decided a while back to integrate Sage into Meedio as much as possible. Sage should sell just the DVR portion with features that make it easy to integrate into another app.
The biggest problem is retaining show info that is stored in the WIZ, otherwize I would use Sage only to schedule and record.
Sadly , I really dont know where Sage is heading....as SageTV seems to be a fairly closed end product.
At this point, If the MeedioTV product ever gets a decent feature set, I will switch over for sure.
There will be very little reason to buy SageTV over Meedio if that happens.

Mike/



mike/

[salsbst]

No matter what they do with studio, it will never be able to match what Meedio can do.

I disagree.

[Mahoney]

I'd have to agree; the only thing that's keeping me with SageTV is the client/server architecture. Microsoft have the right idea - the future for these things is to be a form of OS, a remote-run gateway to all sorts of apps. MediaPortal and GBPVR have the same understanding, too, a plugin architecture that makes it easy for extra funtionality to be added by third parties. Unless SageTV make it possible to customise their app as a gateway to other functionality they are going to be left behind fast as these things become more common in the living room.

[mightyt]

I used to think that a Studio release would triple the number of Sage sales / users and somewhat still do. On the other hand it can sometimes be difficult tracking the development that is going on now; what works, what doesn't and who integrates with what. If this increased say ten fold would that be better or out of control?? Asking the question here, not making a statement.

At the same time ... functional expandability is everything ... ease of use and look and feel doesn't hurt either.

Not sure what Studio is really like, but I remember hearing a year or so ago it didn't take a dyed in the wool / nuts and bolts programmer to use. Not necessarily a novice, but not a techno-geek.

If there was a tool that was fairly easy and allowed great flexibility with Sage it might not matter what people posted, most everyone (or many) would just do their own thing and this forum would be a place to share tips and tricks to leverage the best out of the tool.

But, as it's been said before ... It doesn't seem like even a potential reality so I've pretty much let it go ...

For now, or until something really compelling comes along, I am enjoying what we do have ...

T.

[Mike Young]

I dont really know much about studio, but from the development rate that we see...updates to STV's etc. I can only guess that it is not the easiest or quickest development environment.
Some of us write code for 8-12 hrs a day or more, the last thing I want to do is have to write code for my HTPC system....configuration is a different issue.
I dont nessessarily want a development environment, just a open, highly configurable environment that can easily integrate with other products.
mike/

[digitalabsolute]

From what I gather from screwing around with the various STVs and trying to squeeze a little extra customizablity out of SageTV, the backend doesn't currently seem to support a standardized plug-in scheme. The Sage program would need a more stable supprt for this, like Meedio, to properly implement it. So far as Plug-Ins go, I can't say I really care all that much, but a standardized Theme engine is paramount to me. I want my PVR to look good! I want people to be like "SHAZZAM! That is... you know... stupid fresh." Or what have you.

I would assume that is the reason they don't release it. Standardization is a big factor in making things freely available because they wouldn't want some untrusted crazy making some malicious thing or even just making something crappy that crashes all the time. It would look bad on them, regardless of what people smart enough to realize that Sage devs didn't amke the buggy crap think.

Hopefully they will get it locked down sometime and people3 will be able to create stuff. The locked down, unexpandable style of SageTV is one of the only reasons I have been keeping Meedio in my mind. Plus Meedio is pretty easy on the eyes.

[salsbst]

"SHAZZAM! That is... you know... stupid fresh."

LOL

[Mahoney]

Just wanted to take it all back... apologies for my negativity in the post above. Wonderful to see that Studio is out there. I will definitely be sticking with Sage, particularly with the DVB support Anders is working on.