New user running trial, some customization questions please?

[mherce]

Hi, so I'm brand new to SageTV.

I've been looking at WHS boxes and was disappointed to discover they do not support a centralized MCE setup. However, MS's website themselves referred me to SageTV. So I spent the vacation week playing with SageTV trial and I think I have all the basics figured out:

1) I found the nice XMLTV app and got it working
2) I got commercial skipping working
3) Installed the nice SageMC and been using that during my playing with SageTV
4) TV is recording (though I will have to get into how to use my MCE blasters to control my STB later)
5) Got my media imported

So I got basics up, but I have developed some advanced user questions that I hope I can get some help with here?

I'm relatively technical (so no need to pull any punches ) and been using MCE and now Vista for my HTPC needs. I want a configurable setup, but not one I have to spend time turning into a hobby (been there, done that, am now too busy ). I have no problem spending time to get my setup right, but after that initial learning curve, I do not want to have to deal with it except for updating and minor maintenance. MCE has been perfect for this but its inability to support WHS is just beyond me.

Ok my questions:

1) Is there any way to get my MCE dvr-ms files imported into SageTV so it will read the meta data encoded in them?

2) SageTV cannot be as plugin challenged as it appears? Am I missing something? I thought every non-MCE HTPC software has tons of plugins. I was always jealous of things like Media Portal, being a MCE user. SageTV seems to have less plugins that MCE! Googling as I might, I could not find another SageTV plugin repository. I found a few links to a wiki that seems to be not working but that is it. So where is the main plugin site for SageTV?

3) As a baseline, I need at the very least these equivalent plugins to switch to SageTV:

Something like MyTV
And something like My Movies

I know these have to exist for SageTV as these are available for every HTPC software, but I am a total moron and I just can't find them.

4) What do SageTV users who actually have music collections use for music? SageTV's music system might be ok for the casual music user (though I question that, to be honest), but for people with large collections like me, I am sure you must use something else? What do you use and can you give me a link to how to set it up with SageTV?

5) How do I organize my media's data? What I mean is, I can use WMP to access and change data for my music files and my changes will show up in MCE. How do I accomplish this with SageTV?

6) This is not a big deal, but are there any other themes besides SageMC but that retain the function of SageMC? No offense to the great man who made it, but I've spent years looking at the MCE "look" and would like a different UI feel when switching to a new software . I couldn't find any alternatives that offer the same function.

Thank you for the help! I know these must seem like the stupidest of questions, but I promise I have googled and searched and typed in verification codes on this board so many times and haven't been able to find answers.

Thank you!

[Brent]

Originally Posted by mherce

However, MS's website themselves referred me to SageTV.

Wow, that was nice of MS.... Welcome to the SageTV community!

1) Is there any way to get my MCE dvr-ms files imported into SageTV so it will read the meta data encoded in them?

I'll have to let others answer this one since I converted from BeyondTV and not MCE

2) SageTV cannot be as plugin challenged as it appears? Am I missing something? .....So where is the main plugin site for SageTV?

You'll find all plugins talked about in the SageTV Forum thread called customizations. A good list of plugins can be found in this thread.

3) As a baseline, I need at the very least these equivalent plugins to switch to SageTV:

Something like MyTV

I'm not familiar with the MyTV plugin so I need you to tell me what it does that you need. I can say that the SageMC interface that you have already installed has a TV.com and IMDB integration to pull details from those sites.

And something like My Movies

MyMovies is very nice and SageMC has a half-step towards that. I have my 400 or so movies organized using SageMC and DVDProfiler. SageMC categorizes the movies into genres and can sort in the way MyMovies does, but I'll be the first to admit it isn't quite there yet. I use it and it works, but I have several feature requests to get it as good as MyMovies or Snapstream's BeyondMedia DVDLibrary (similar and has been around longer than MyMovies).

4) What do SageTV users who actually have music collections use for music? SageTV's music system might be ok for the casual music user (though I question that, to be honest), but for people with large collections like me, I am sure you must use something else? What do you use and can you give me a link to how to set it up with SageTV?

I use the SageMC music. It's not perfect and needs some work on the metadata stuff, but it works for me.

5) How do I organize my mdiea's data? What I mean is, I can use WMP to access and change data for my music files and my changes will show up in MCE. How do I accomplish this with SageTV?

You should be able to do the same with WMP and those changes will show up in SageTV if you re-import your media files. I personally use MP3Tag to edit my MP3 files, other programs to create playlists and SageMC to listen. It's not perfect but it works for me.

6) This is not a big deal, but are there any other themes besides SageMC but that retain the function of SageMC? No offense to the great man who made it, but I've spent years looking at the MCE "look" and would like a different UI feel when switching to a new software . I couldn't find any alternatives that offer the same function.

SageMC is really the main replacement interface available. Most either use it or the default interface. That being said, you can customize the layout, look and feel of SageMC to your hearts desire. Here's a walkthrough of SageMC, a walkthrough of customizing SageMC, and a thread with a bunch of SageMC "themes" that have been customized.

[Brent]

Originally Posted by mherce

1) Is there any way to get my MCE dvr-ms files imported into SageTV so it will read the meta data encoded in them?

You might try checking out this thread for advice on this

[DOS64K]

Brent covered everything already, but I will add a couple of things as a former MCE/VMC convert...

1. Sage's GUI (with the SageMC STV) is far more customizable than MCE/VMC is. Some of the themes coming out are really incredible. Plus, you can tailor your main menu anyway you like.

2. Probably most important, the Sage HD extender is far superior than the V2 extenders trickling onto the scene for MCE/VMC. I can't believe that people are drooling over those limited pieces of crap! Sage's extender is plug and play simple, streams darn near anything, and just plain works. Highly recommend you look into them (as soon as they fabricate some more that is ).

[mherce]

Thanks you guys Looks like I still have more searching and playing to do. I will get back to you with follow up question

[Rusdude]

Absence of MyTV-type of interface is probably the only reason I am considering building a second HTPC instead of just buying STV+extender. I know, I might be able to import MyTV's XML metadata into Sage (haven't tried it yet since I am still organizing my media), but even then Sage will still lack show/season banners and nice navigation (the only workaround I found would be to have each show name as a genre and make custom genre icons, but that seems like a major pain).