VERY unhappy with the MVP trial period handling

[cmaffia]

Question:
I've purchased two client licenses.
One is being used by my MVP using Matt's Plugin.
How does this licensing thing work? Will I have to forfeit one of these client license in return for one that works only with the MVP??

What if I have a problem with the Sage Supported MVP and want to go back to the plug-in? What if my MVP dies and I want replace it with a small footprint PC using SageTV Client? Will that mean I can't use my old client license any more?

Originally Posted by TakeFlight

<second thread rant>
How boring life would be if people stopped bitching about every little thing. Of course, life might be easier for the people the bitching is aimed at.

How long has the official media extender been out? Did you people expect perfection? What planet are you living on or what drug are you smoking? Since when is a software application the perfect fit for everyone on the planet? And since when was the first release of a software application perfection?
</second thread rant>

Guess what? I've got something positive to say regarding SageTV...

I faxed in the authorization form today and was pleasantly surprised only a couple of hours later (if that) I had an email with my new MVP Extender license.

Thanks SageTV!

[TakeFlight]

Originally Posted by cmaffia

Question:
I've purchased two client licenses.
One is being used by my MVP using Matt's Plugin.
How does this licensing thing work? Will I have to forfeit one of these client license in return for one that works only with the MVP??

What if I have a problem with the Sage Supported MVP and want to go back to the plug-in? What if my MVP dies and I want replace it with a small footprint PC using SageTV Client? Will that mean I can't use my old client license any more?

Read...

http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=14703

As for going back, I don't think you will be able to. So, I suggest trying the MVP Extender feature on a trial basis first.

People, we are talking about $30 here! Worse case scenario, you just have to shell out another $30. It's not that much!

[BobPhoenix]

When I bought my 2 MVP licenses I kept the one I was using for the SageTV Client that drove 2 instances of Matt's MVP client - just in case. I can put the extra client to use sooner or later so I don't think I'm out anything. Plus I look at it as a way to support Sage/Frey since they are not charging for updates.

BobP.

[jptaz]

I agree. I will probably just buy a second MVP license instead of upgrading. $30 is not a big deal and the other option is BeyondTV and that is much more expensive and has bad support for the MediaMVP and all the hardware requirements are much higher. I consider my $30 purchase of the MVP license my 2005 Upgrade fee...which Frey has not charged me for lots of major upgrades over the last few years.

John

[Fluffdaddy]

Originally Posted by TakeFlight

People, we are talking about $30 here! It's not that much!

Half a nite out. With or without female company

[cmaffia]

30 bux is subjective....especially when I think about how much I have already spent around my SageTV purchases. I agree with the idea that one can think of the 30 bux as the cost of an update. Yes SageTV has provided us updates for free which is very very cool.

And on that note it is only fair to say that I will buy an additional license just for my MVP as soon as Frey has worked out all the bugs with 4.0 (4.1). Sage 4.0 (4.1) reminds me of the problems I had with 2.1. I know it isn't my hardware since I am having the same problems with 2 seperate computers and rolling back to 2.2.8 fixes everything

Originally Posted by TakeFlight

Read...

http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=14703

As for going back, I don't think you will be able to. So, I suggest trying the MVP Extender feature on a trial basis first.

People, we are talking about $30 here! Worse case scenario, you just have to shell out another $30. It's not that much!

[Tomahawk51]

I initially read some of the comments that seemed to revolve around annoyances regarding the MVP trial.

I just installed over 2.2.x, played with customizations, and sat on the couch with my MVP to get a feel.

I wanted to note that the "TRIAL" floating text has not been very intrusive at all, IMHO. I also find that the speed and responsiveness is better than my 2.2 solution (sure- it could be even better, but not bad at all).

Since I was initially put off by the initial posts, I wanted to weigh in and say that so far it looks good to me.

[joe123]

I also want to be fair here. I recently found by accident that my WinTV-PVR 150 tuner was recording badly ( fuzzy images ). So images on my MVP were also showing blurry and bad.

I need to do more tests, but I would like to say that the images on my MVP have significantly improved since I replaced my bad WinTV tuner. So for this issue, it was not the fault of the MVP.

[AboveUnrefined]

The issue is the change. The real question is will anyone buy SageTV if the trial of SageTV and SageTV Client have an annoying overlay of TRIAL during playback?

Yes, as I would buy a dump truck that has the dealer's sticker on it if I wanted that truck, because I know when I buy it I can take it off -- I hope the majority of people would think that way, though I do sometimes question how people think quite often.

The real issue is the long term health of SageTV if they go down this path. If we do not make noise about this now maybe frey will say, well it worked with the MediaMVP, lets do it for all the trials now.

I think it'll be in great health as the majority of the people have the imagination to know what the product will be like once a product is purchased... it's a neccessary evil as people can easily get over even the trial client for a pc...

Additionally, I think the MVP seems pretty phased out with the one you can buy right off of Sage's site -- you pretty much get a sage client in a box -- and even if the MVP does have wireless in it, most cases it wouldn't work right as in real world environments you would need a 100% excellent connection and a good AP to get really nice quality video.

This complaint, in my opinion, is unfounded as it is a demo... if, on the other hand, you paid for it and you are getting that crap then you have all the rights in the world to get steamed up over getting out of bed in your underwear and having your wife get mad at you for no apparent reason... I find this to be an illogical yet humorous way to vent about something.

[mayamaniac]

I think its silly to complain about a floating "TRIAL" text on the screen. But I also think it's silly for SageTV to do put that in since the trial version does expire. Its not like you can use the trial version forever. But so what, I wouldn't bitch or start a complaint thread about it.

If anything, I would complain about the normal 14 day trial period for SageTV. A couple of years back, I wanted to test out SageTV to see if it was better than Beyond TV. I downloaded the trial version and started configuring everything to work. Of course, I ran into a lot of problems and have to resort to this forum for anwsers. But the real problem was I did not have enough time within the 14 day trial period to resolve all the issues I was having. Some issues were partially resolved, others I was still hunting down for answer. I also have a regular job and life and did not have time to fuss with the SageTV issues on a daily basis. So the 14 day trial expired and SageTV did not run anymore. At the time, I emailed tech support for a way to extend the trial period. They told there's no way to do it except to format and reinstall the OS.

That was unacceptable. SageTV should either extend the trial period to 30 days or more or implement a way so that the trial license can be extended without formatting the OS.

It doesn't matter to me any more since I ended up taking the risk and buying SageTV so that I could continue to work out the problems. But luckily it worked out as most problems were solved and it is good product in my setup. But I'm sure everyone has different problems and time is needed to work them out. Sometime 14 days can go by too quickly.

[gblinckmann]

Originally Posted by AboveUnrefined

Yes, as I would buy a dump truck that has the dealer's sticker on it if I wanted that truck, because I know when I buy it I can take it off -- I hope the majority of people would think that way, though I do sometimes question how people think quite often.

I can answer that for me, at least. I just came over from using BTV & GBPVR (licensed for BTV 3 & donated to GB-PVR).

I did a short evaluation of SageTV. Even though the trial time is 7 days for the MediaMVP client, me eval time was <24 hours. Since I use the MediaMVP exclusively for playback and the computer just records with the service running in the background, all my TV viewing would have "Trial" bouncing around for a week. That's not much of a trial, but in the day that I did the setup and testing, I found that this was the system for me.

If I were really on the fence about the purchase or if I had any problems, the "trial" bouncing around likely would have kept me from trying to fix problems during the trial period as my family would not have been happy with the software. Fortunately, the floating "trial" was the only real complaint.

It wasn't too big a deal for me, but since it would have expired after 7 days, I don't see how it can possibly benefit the company to do this . If it didn't expire, I could see using the bouncing "Trial" as a deterent so that people would order a copy.

[blade]

Originally Posted by gblinckmann

It wasn't too big a deal for me, but since it would have expired after 7 days, I don't see how it can possibly benefit the company to do this . If it didn't expire, I could see using the bouncing "Trial" as a deterent so that people would order a copy.

Sage has already stated that it's due to security reasons. So I'm sure they have some logic behind why it's needed.

[roxy99]

What do you need a trial for more than 7 days for?? Either it works day 1 or it doesn't. It took me 1 hour to set up MVP and saw that it worked. I immediately bought the license.

The mpeg quality on an SDTV is awesome- even better for me than directly connecting my STB to the TV. $30 is worth it.

I agree that Sage TV for a first time user should have at least a thirty day trial. It bloody takes 14 days just to set everything up! So Sage TV itself for a first time buyer should be at least 30 days. Or perhaps limited to 1 tuner or something like that but a more generous trial period is needed if Sage expects to gain market share. $80 software + PC + wires , etc--> , HTPC is a serious investment and users should have a chance to properly evaluate such a complex and sophistacated product like Sage. I've been a user for 1 month and still working out kinks in my system. Many power users here have been using Sage for a year and are still tinkering with it.

If I can only figure out now how to make MVP see my linux network shared folder that resides on a shared non-Sage PC on my network.

Blade,
You are probably right regarding security issues. Its a double protection, some people can crack the authentication check so an additional measure of security is needed.