Beta .11 feedback

[jominor]

Originally posted by mattsm
I like the all in one DVD/TV/Video/Music setup also. Please don't even think about getting rid of it

Matthew

Ditto. I spent a weekend integrating myHTPC and Snapstream to get a feel for the integrated system.

My feeling is that this is a great idea. The integration provides one stop shopping for anyone using the system. Want music, movies, or weather, just switch to it. I don't want to see the XP desktop unless I have to do some type of maintenance.

[Deadbolt]

Anyone know if there is a sendcommand code (girder), or key command to jump directly the the recording list?

Thanks,
Deadbolt

[stanger89]

Originally posted by Deadbolt
Anyone know if there is a sendcommand code (girder), or key command to jump directly the the recording list?

Thanks,
Deadbolt

Try here:
http://forums.sage.tv/forums/showthr...ht=sendmessage
They haven't been rigorously tested (I need more buttons), but it should take care of every command that was in Sage as of 2.0.10.

[stanger89]

Originally posted by Watter
drbenson's points:

1. Moving to an all in one media center
I agree completely. I'd much rather all of the effort were put toward the PVR functionality even if the other stuff is easy and only takes 10% of your time, I'd still rather that 10% of your time were put into the PVR side.

Is there any PVR functionality missing? Is there any PVR functionality not working correctly? Most everything they've done since I started using Sage 10months ago is user interface/useablility improvements. The core PVR functionality seems to have been in place since the very beginning. Almost everything that people have been requesting have been UI improvements. I guess I just don't understand what they need to be doing. Just trying to understand.

2. The preview
Again, I agree completely I'd rather that space were used for additional information about the show or perhaps just a larger font.

Yup, hopefully they add some options for this. Actually I'd like to be able to configure the fonts a little, their a little too big for me on an HDTV.

3. Seperating recordings from live TV guide
Wow. I couldn't "disagree" with your more on this one. I've always hated thwe way Sage grouped those two things together. Live TV and recordings are two completely different things that need to be handled in different ways with different options and methods of organization.

-Watter

Yeah, I almost never used "SageGuide" in 1.4, it's just easier to go into Sage Recordings or LiveTV Guide to find/do what I want.

[Deadbolt]

thanks Stranger89...but is "Sage Recordings" the same as library?

Deadbolt

[justme]

I'd like to see a command that toggles between the Home menu and SageRecordings. My Tivo's "Tivo" button behaves this way. The first press takes you home the second takes you to "Now Playing". Later presses just switch the two screens. If I could get a command like this I could mimic my Tivo's behavior perfectly with my tivo remote.

[nielm]

Deadbolt: Anyone know if there is a sendcommand code (girder), or key command to jump directly the the recording list?

As I mentioned in the RW thread, no, not directly, but a multigroup that sends the commands for 'HOME' then 'SELECT' will do it (jumps to main screen and selects first menu item).

[Deadbolt]

This is what I'm doing now. But it also starts a new preview ... so if you were watching something and left it to check the recording list with this multigroup...your program you are currently watching is gone.

Deadbolt.

[salsbst]

Stanger, I happen to think the PVR functionality could be greatly improved:

a) truly live TV
b) custom filter graphs
c) all sorts of PVR-management improvements, refinements to conflict resolution and multi-tuner features
d) bug fixes

I understand that people feel that the market has signalled that being the best PVR is not good enough. I just happen to find this sad. I think the beauty of an HTPC was that I could choose the best PVR, the best music jukebox and the best of everything else and combine them in the way that I like. Apparently, however, that view of the HTPC may be dying in favor of the "I don't want to have to set anything up, I just want it to work" view. I guess that is the nature of a maturing market as it seeks to build a larger customer base.

I suspect that adding music and DVD probably didn't take all that long, and I'm not saying that I think development time has been misallocated yet. I have no hard feelings about this. As I said, I only hope that the PVR and API interfaces do not lose out to DVD and music when it comes to development time in the future.

BTW, if you take a look at the feature request thread, there are obviously other useful PVR features that are not yet in there yet.

[mlbdude]

I loved SageGuide . One stop shopping and less clicking. I guess for me it is not as important but for the wife it was the easiest way to get to, well, everything.

I hope that when Studio gets released it will have the functionality to recreate that.

I too would like the PVR features to be the center of attention.

truly live TV

Is that possible with our hardware? That would be great.

I would like to see the Favorites expanded quite a bit. Category and Sub-Category favorites, channel specific favorites (this is coming I hear), and the ability to browse guide and recordings by Category\Sub-Category\Title.

I would also like to see the ability to specify default recording qualities for the different types of recordings. Live TV, Manual Recordings, Favorites (not so important since you can do it individually), and Intelligent Recordings.

all sorts of PVR-management improvements, refinements to conflict resolution and multi-tuner features

This would be good too. Especially when taking into account padding. It would be nice to have a global default start and end padding value too like BTV has.

I would also like the OSD to be enhanced quite a bit. That is one thing in BTV I really like.

I think with the way studio is supposed to work the tasks of non-PVR stuff can be done by us and some other Frey employees. Jeff can focus on the core items.

[salsbst]

Originally posted by mlbdude
I think with the way studio is supposed to work the tasks of non-PVR stuff can be done by us and some other Frey employees. Jeff can focus on the core items.

My unspoken thoughts exactly.

[stanger89]

Originally posted by Deadbolt
thanks Stranger89...but is "Sage Recordings" the same as library?

Deadbolt

Actually no, Sage Recordings is where everything Sage records goes, while the library is where all the imported media and things you specifically told Sage to put there go.

[glbrown]

And we really need that button.

[stanger89]

Originally posted by salsbst
Stanger, I happen to think the PVR functionality could be greatly improved:

a) truly live TV
b) custom filter graphs
c) all sorts of PVR-management improvements, refinements to conflict resolution and multi-tuner features
d) bug fixes

Fair enough, I just hadn't seen anyone commenting on specific PVR issues in a while, and since I don't have multiple tuners and few/no conflicts I probably don't see some of these. I completely agree, if there is something lacking in the core PVR functionality that should take priority.

[stanger89]

Originally posted by mlbdude
Is that possible with our hardware? That would be great.

Yes it is possible with our hardware, at least the 250 for sure, probably the 350, and it should also be possible with the new Blackbird design cards since I think you can use them as plain old SW cards. Here's how I've done it:
http://forums.sage.tv/forums/showthr...ght=brightness
However, without deinterlacing, using the Preview pin looks far worse than the compresed stream.

I would also like the OSD to be enhanced quite a bit. That is one thing in BTV I really like.

I hope they don't make it too much like BTV, it was one of the things I hated about that. It was nice and pretty and transparent, but it took at least half the screen, it was really annoying. Sprucing up the OSD is fine as long as they don't make it bigger.

[jvl711]

I just want to say that I feel that sage V2 is going in the absolute right direction... I think that a product that is a out of the box compete home entertainment solution is what the mass market is going to want. I think that alot of the beta testers are probally a little more tech savy, and might not lke the choice of how Sage impliments certain features like DVD playback and MP3 playback, but these type of people may be more than happy spending many hours setting up other applications to take care of these tasks. But as a programer myself I know that most customers don't want to insall a whole boat load of applications to take care of the home entertainment experience, and this product will appeal to those people.

I am personally very impressed with what this company has done with this product. I feel that they are by far the best product on the market, and I feel that they won't have many problems making this product even better.

I am also impressed that they have not charged new customers for the new version of Sage. I think there idea is to create intrest in the new version of Sage and then alow people to buy the Studio to allow them to customize the application.

<b>"THIS PART IS JUST A THOUGHT"</b>

I also think that the MVP might be able to take this product to another level... Most people are going to be afraid of this product because they don't understand it. But I think the MVP might be something that makes more sense to them. Has sage thought about making a embeded linux solution???? Imagine a customer being able to go to there local Best Buy or Comp USA and buying a small pre-configured linux-Sage box and a bundled MVP, and all that person has to do is plug this Sage server into the LAN and plug the MVP into the land and turn the two devices on a "EVERY THING WORKS". No configuring... no messing arond unless you want to. I think that people would buy this. And it would be a whole hell of a lot cheaper that TiVo if you had a few TV's in your house.

[stanger89]

In the HTPCnews interview, Dan said they already had SageClient running on an MVP "in house" so it should be coming. And yes, getting full multi-Tivo, multi-room functionality for a fraction of the price, that would sell big. Most people don't want a PC in their living room, but most people do have a PC, if they could just install something on their PC and stick a box next to the TV they'd go for that.

[glbrown]

This is exactly what I am shooting for and got a ton closer today.

[mlbdude]

Yeah I think the BTV OSD covers up too much of the show. The part I like that I hope they adopt is the ability to channel up and down to see the title and descriptions of what else is currently on.

[Ducky]

Weird. Am I the only one whose license key for the SageTV client failed utterly after running the Beta 11 setup?

It seems strange to me, at least.