Sage 7.0 Wishlist

[hedly]

I read all 8 pages of posts and my requests are not nearly as exciting as most of the others.

How about a being able to set the time (or the time interval) in which you would like SageTV to scan your media directories. It seems that my HTPC is continuously scanning my NAS where I store all my music and photos. Every time I look in the closet I see those darn green lights blinking furiously. Do we really need our media folders scanned more than one time a day?

If that is an issue, then simply add a button that says "Rescan Now" or something; so that if you add a new CD, DVD, or photos then you can find them sooner. Setting the time to scan would be nice because you could set it for when your network is mostly idle.

Also, might as well skip HD-DVD support, it seems that Toshiba may give up the ghost on that one. Including Blu-ray could up the price of the program.

Oh, one more thing. Concerning music, how about adding what Winamp calls Smartviews; in WMP they are called Auto Playlists. There are so many genres that are similar, i.e. Rock, Grunge Rock, Alternative Rock, Hard Rock, etc. What if I want to listen to all songs with the word "Rock" in it. I greatly dislike static playlists because when I add new music, they will not get added automatically to the playlist in which I would like them. With Smarviews, if a new album is Pop Rock, it automatically gets added into my Rock smart-playlist.

Well...time to go turn off the auto-scan for my media folders.

SageTV guys, keep up the great work. I did a lot of searching before I bought SageTV. I thought it was the most complete and simple product; the wife had to want to use it. Now, if the computer is down, she has withdrawls and clears my schedule so I can fix it. I have helped build 2 other HTPCs for friends since I got Sage a mere 4 months ago.

[Varible]

Hello, Im new here to SageTV and so far its great. The one thing I seem to be missing is good photo transitions when you are watching photos in slideshow mode. I would like to see something similar to the 'Ken Burns' effect that MCE has.

Thanks!

[nebulink]

Originally Posted by Varible

Hello, Im new here to SageTV and so far its great. The one thing I seem to be missing is good photo transitions when you are watching photos in slideshow mode. I would like to see something similar to the 'Ken Burns' effect that MCE has.

Thanks!

Interesting you bring this up. I was just going to look for a plugin of some sort to see if there was a way to add additional transition styles. Currently there are "None" and "3D Fade".

[Chilli]

This one should be easy. None of the existing conversion formats (iPod, PSP, AppleTV, etc) are ideal - either too small, "stretched" or simply does not play on a Blackberry at all. There are 12 million Blackberry users out there, and growing fast...

[pkats]

Expand on the videos. For example when you select videos you are brought to a sub menu with the options of “Home Videos”, “Movies” and “Unrated Movies” with the ability for each option to view a different import directory. And have the ability to password protect the “Unrated Movies”. Also have an easy way to add ratings to imported movies so they can be pass worded. (I currently use sagemc)

[Chilli]

Originally Posted by Chilli

This one should be easy. None of the existing conversion formats (iPod, PSP, AppleTV, etc) are ideal - either too small, "stretched" or simply does not play on a Blackberry at all. There are 12 million Blackberry users out there, and growing fast...

Scratch this. The best video conversion format for the newer Blackberrys (320x240) is "PSP High Quality". I had to test all 26 different video formats to figure out which is the best for my Blackberry. Maybe the menu should provide a little more information about each video format (e.g. 3gp@ 320x240 or mp4@720x480, etc) so users won't need to try all 26 formats to know which is the best for their portable device.

[Andrew54]

The thing I miss the most from other DVRs is:

1. Slow motion, and frame by frame
2. True Fast Forward and Rewind

I was very disappointed that this was not in SageTV were it is with most DVRs. I have read that people are more interested in commercial skipping than these functions BUT these functions are great for many reasons:

1. Sporting Events (slow motion and frame by frame)
2. Fast forwarding through a show and knowing where you are at in the show so that you know when to stop and play what you want to see within that show. (examples: American Idol - just want to watch the singing, David Letterman - just want to watch the monolog and interview with guest and nothing in between)
3. Sporting Events (creating your own replays and then skipping over too many replays, skipping over many of the slow parts but always knowing where you are in the game as you skip)

When I look at the things that are coming out in Beta versions I am very disappointed that this basic functionality is not being worked on. Many of the things I see in Betas are on improving Music, Slide Show and still picture quality in Slide Show - all fluff compared to the above basic functions that are very much needed.

In my opinion SageTV will not be a real DVR contender until they provide these basic functions.

[jominor]

Originally Posted by Andrew54

The thing I miss the most from other DVRs is:

1. Slow motion, and frame by frame
2. True Fast Forward and Rewind

I was very disappointed that this was not in SageTV were it is with most DVRs. I have read that people are more interested in commercial skipping than these functions BUT these functions are great for many reasons:

1. Sporting Events (slow motion and frame by frame)
2. Fast forwarding through a show and knowing where you are at in the show so that you know when to stop and play what you want to see within that show. (examples: American Idol - just want to watch the singing, David Letterman - just want to watch the monolog and interview with guest and nothing in between)
3. Sporting Events (creating your own replays and then skipping over too many replays, skipping over many of the slow parts but always knowing where you are in the game as you skip)

When I look at the things that are coming out in Beta versions I am very disappointed that this basic functionality is not being worked on. Many of the things I see in Betas are on improving Music, Slide Show and still picture quality in Slide Show - all fluff compared to the above basic functions that are very much needed.

In my opinion SageTV will not be a real DVR contender until they provide these basic functions.

<Shrug> I've been using Sage since version 1.4 in about 2004. This feature is not a big deal, IMO.

People are far more impressed with Placeshifting and commericial skip than "true" ff. I no longer even think about it.

[mayamaniac]

Slow motion is hardly ever used, at least I don't, and I watch NBA and NFL games. You can hit pause multiple times to go frame by frame.

SageTV has "true" FF/FW, it is available on the Extenders. It just doesn't do the offsets on play resumes like in Tivo.

[jominor]

Originally Posted by mayamaniac

Slow motion is hardly ever used, at least I don't, and I watch NBA and NFL games. You can hit pause multiple times to go frame by frame.

SageTV has "true" FF/FW, it is available on the Extenders. It just doesn't do the offsets on play resumes like in Tivo.

The repeat pause is what I do also. Works for sports, cartoons, and movies.

[Andrew54]

I'm sorry to disagree but hitting pause multiple times is not frame by frame - it may be a few frames by a few frames and forward only and not rewind. I don't understand why these basic functions were not added four years ago - this not rocket science to add.

With "true" FF/FW available on Extenders then it shouldn't be that hard to add to server and clients.

I think it is time for SageTV to look at issues like these and backfill work on things that are missing (basic things that are missing).

Frankly I'm sick of work around(s) and half working add-ons to make SageTV look something like a full fledge DVR.

Originally Posted by mayamaniac

Slow motion is hardly ever used, at least I don't, and I watch NBA and NFL games. You can hit pause multiple times to go frame by frame.

SageTV has "true" FF/FW, it is available on the Extenders. It just doesn't do the offsets on play resumes like in Tivo.

[bbroerman]

There are a couple of extensions out there that will change the basic functionality (skip) into Fast Forward and Rewind, but you have to make sure your decoder can handle it. I found that the Cyberlink decoder works pretty well with this, but the Nvidia and the old (Sage 4) built-in decoder did not. Now, I haven't tried this with Sage 6, but it should work pretty well.

I have found that in my usage, setting the forward skip to 30/60 and back to 15/30 works great for skipping commercials... and is more convenient than FF/REW.

[jominor]

Originally Posted by bbroerman

There are a couple of extensions out there that will change the basic functionality (skip) into Fast Forward and Rewind, but you have to make sure your decoder can handle it. I found that the Cyberlink decoder works pretty well with this, but the Nvidia and the old (Sage 4) built-in decoder did not. Now, I haven't tried this with Sage 6, but it should work pretty well.

I have found that in my usage, setting the forward skip to 30/60 and back to 15/30 works great for skipping commercials... and is more convenient than FF/REW.

+1 I think this is a non-issue. I cannot think of the last time anyone who has seen the system in use(not demoing, just normal use) said, "Hey, how come that isn't "true" FF/RW?"

They usually go "Wow. Skipping commericials is cool." or "It's cool that you've got all those shows."

[Djc208]

Originally Posted by jominor

+1 I think this is a non-issue. I cannot think of the last time anyone who has seen the system in use(not demoing, just normal use) said, "Hey, how come that isn't "true" FF/RW?"

They usually go "Wow. Skipping commericials is cool." or "It's cool that you've got all those shows."

Same here. I tried the "smooth" FF/RW controls in SageMC and ended up going back to the regular step-skip. ComSkip takes the bulk of the commercial out and what it misses I can fine tune with the 10 second skip button. Worst case I have to watch 5 seconds of the commercial.

But my friend to has a Mac setup was jelous of the commercial skip on my system. Unfortunately the Mac Sage program doesn't support his tuner so he can't convert.

[gveres]

Along similar lines, I would like 1.5x and 2x playback speeds with audio. Check out PowerDVD and WinDVD in this regard. There are some shows (mostly talk shows) that would benefit from this. You can get through a show in 1/2 the time.

My problem is that when I first setup my home theatre system 4+ years ago, I used PowerDvd and my wife loved the 2x for some of her shows. Then I switched to BTV and we lost that capability. The first question she asked when I switched to Sage was "does it have 2x w/ sound?"

Greg

[pjpjpjpj]

The only thing I would really like to see in a future release is support for streaming audio (internet radio) and streaming video (online TV episodes or internet-only broadcasts). Of course, being an HD-Extender-only user, I would need it to be available in the HD Extender, and I do not know if the Extenders even have the physical ability to ever do that (though I don’t see why not… they effectively “stream” recordings from your hard drive).

Just to cast my vote on the FF/Rew issue, I choose not to use comskip, but have set up my extender remote skip-forward buttons for 10 seconds and 2 minutes. We very rarely (hardly ever) use the FF/Rew buttons. As soon as a commercial break starts, we hit the “2-minute” button. Sometimes that is the whole break. If not, it’s either a quick 3 to 6 taps of the “10 second” button to get through the last commercial. On certain shows where there are a lot of big breaks (*cough*cough* American Idol *cough*), we can hit the “two minute” button to get through the four-minute break immediately. While I probably ought to set it for only one minute (quicker for three-minute breaks), I have found that two minutes “just works” for us. I guess it’s a personal-preference, YMMV thing. It keeps the WAF up, and that’s what really matters, right?

On another note, I have had more lockup issues with the FF/Rew buttons than any other buttons on the Extender, so that’s another reason why I shy away from using them.

Coming from Tivo, one thing I would like to see (that Tivo had, and I miss) is a way to jump to the “end” (say, one minute short of the actual recording end) instantly. Tivo allowed you to do this, but on Sage I have to use my “two minute jump” repeatedly.

[BobPhoenix]

Originally Posted by pjpjpjpj

Coming from Tivo, one thing I would like to see (that Tivo had, and I miss) is a way to jump to the “end” (say, one minute short of the actual recording end) instantly. Tivo allowed you to do this, but on Sage I have to use my “two minute jump” repeatedly.

You could try this plugin but I'm not sure if it works on 6.3.10 or not as I haven't had a chance to try it yet.

[flashbacck]

Originally Posted by Andrew54

I'm sorry to disagree but hitting pause multiple times is not frame by frame - it may be a few frames by a few frames and forward only and not rewind. I don't understand why these basic functions were not added four years ago - this not rocket science to add.

With "true" FF/FW available on Extenders then it shouldn't be that hard to add to server and clients.

I think it is time for SageTV to look at issues like these and backfill work on things that are missing (basic things that are missing).

Frankly I'm sick of work around(s) and half working add-ons to make SageTV look something like a full fledge DVR.

I agree that smooth FF/RWD would be very nice. This has been mentioned ever since 1.4, and I believe the explanation that was given at the time was that it would require heavy changes to the way Sage works so it never became a priority.

It's true that smooth FF/RWD is just a superficial feature, but I think it's the little things like that that distinguish good products from great ones.

[Brent]

Originally Posted by flashbacck

I agree that smooth FF/RWD would be very nice. This has been mentioned ever since 1.4, and I believe the explanation that was given at the time was that it would require heavy changes to the way Sage works so it never became a priority.

It's true that smooth FF/RWD is just a superficial feature, but I think it's the little things like that that distinguish good products from great ones.

I might be missing what's being discussed here, but there is a "true FF/RWD" plugin available for the standard STV as well as built into SageMC. I've used it since day one and it works perfectly.

[dooferlad]

My wish list at the moment is based on getting the current product right. Lets face it the 3 key things that Sage has to do are play, record and provide a nice UI...

Playback

• TV playback is OK as long as FSE is enabled and source material is OK.
• I don't use DVD playback because Sage doesn't resume imported material from the last position. Vague memory of menus and navigation being quite
  restricted - I want to be able to jump around more easily! I use WinDVD since this works OK.

Recording

• Fixable errors are left in recorded files.

User Interaction

• Playback is OK as long as source material is error free. Playback resumes in the wrong place (normally only a second or so out) now I am using digital TV. I assume this is because the file has indexing errors in it. Why not fix these when recording?
• UI sometimes freezes up. This is probably my #1 thing I would like to see fixed. What exactly is it waiting for? Mostly this happens scrolling through recordings. I would happily see Sage increase the amount of memory it used so it could cache everything it needed if this would speed things up!

I think since V2 the only new feature I use is the ability to use BDA tuners and even that has its problems. Surely fixing the UI lock-ups should have been a higher priority than YouTube integration?