Size of SageTV User Community

[bsung]

I'm relative new to Sage (~6 months) but really like it and hope it continues to develop and improve. Obviously, one of the biggest factors in the success of the company/products will be how many users/customers they have. Anyone have any idea? Someone asked a related question about how many of the HD200's were in the original shipment (referencing only 100's of units) which ran out recently in a different thread.

Based on merit alone, I should be confident that Sage is a healthy, successful company that will continue to update/upgrade products. But we know it's not always the best product which wins so I figured I'd ask the question.

I guess that's one reason to get others onboard with Sage as well.

[ybrew]

There are over 12 thousand registered users on this site. Some are obviously snapstream users (I'm sure I'm still registered on BeyondTV's website), mythtv users, etc.

No idea how many of those users registered never to be seen again.

[Brent]

You can make a rough judgement of this buy gauging active forum members and stats. Obviously there are many who buy and use SageTV who never even register for the forums as well.

• Forum Threads: 34,181
• Forum Posts: 313,340
• Forum Members: 12,291
• Active Forum Members: 1,390 (not sure how they define active)
• Currently Active Users: 323 (61 members and 262 guests) as of the time of this post
• Most users ever online was 871, 03-21-2008 at 09:49 AM.

In comparison here's Snapstreams stats:

• Forum Threads: 41,888
• Forum Posts: 277,583
• Forum Members: 26,412
• Active Forum Members: (they aren't showing this stat but I'm guessing its much lower than SageTV these days)
• Currently Active Users: 85 (10 members and 75 guests)this is actually higher than I've been seeing over the past several months for SS
• Most users ever online was 636, 05-06-2006 at 09:33 AM. Note how long ago this was - it indicates a decline from 2006 to now.

GreenButton Forums (mostly MS Media Center folks)

• Forum Threads: 178,439
• Forum Posts: 300,884
• Forum Members: 119,219
• They don't show many other statistics here.

I'd say the SageTV community is pretty strong and rivals any of the competing for-pay and free HTPC software apps. Throw in the number of plugin, theme and add-in developers for SageTV and the helpful guys on the forums and I'd say this is one of if not the best forum for HTPC users.

Now as far as number of customers, I doubt they would disclose the number of customers though.

[mayamaniac]

SageTV is leading the PVR/HTPC frontier in many aspects, most noticably their technology is ahead of the competition. Being a Java platform, SageTV is the only product among competitors to have a Windows, Mac, and Linux versions, althought the Windows version is the most polished. And not only that, they were among the first to have a client and server model, with later additions of Placeshifter and Media Extenders that really separate SageTV from the competitions. Built on a solid PVR core that is second to none. And with SageTV Studio for community development, there are so many cusomizations to extend the value of the product. There's no doubt that this is a healthy community and extremely active.

But even with all that, they are still in a niche market. Most people only know of DVR and Tivo boxes from their service provider, and possibly heard of Windows Media Center. They don't have a clue about SageTV. Even the Engadget crowd is clueless about SageTV.

[Brent]

Originally Posted by mayamaniac

But even with all that, they are still in a niche market. Most people only know of DVR and Tivo boxes from their service provider, and possibly heard of Windows Media Center. They don't have a clue about SageTV.

Very true - the HTPC market is definitely a niche market at the moment.

Even the Engadget crowd is clueless about SageTV.

Mostly true. Many of the Engadget readers are unaware or uninterested in HTPCs for the large part although there are many who are HTPC enthusiasts - me included.
Still, the Engadget writers are the most friendly to SageTV of all of the biggest mainstream gadget websites. Compare the coverage between Engadget vs. Gizmodo for instance and you'll find that Engadget has them beat on SageTV coverage as well as other HTPC coverage by a long shot.

[Polypro]

Agree, Engadget HD is pretty good for HTPC coverage. Ben D *says* he loves VMC, but I think if he had to do it over, he'd go with Sage

P

[Brent]

Originally Posted by Polypro

Agree, Engadget HD is pretty good for HTPC coverage. Ben D *says* he loves VMC, but I think if he had to do it over, he'd go with Sage

P

I tried to suggest SageTV when he was deciding on his HTPC. He just couldn't believe that the HD-PVR output was as quality as the output of CableCard.

I think he actually has a HD100 that he at one time was planning to review or try out but not sure what happened with that. Regardless he's definitely "in" to HTPC's and home automation - one of the reasons I always follow his write-ups and the EngadgetHD podcasts. Darren Murphy at Engadget & HD has always covered SageTV pretty well also.

[dravenone]

Bsung, I've been a Sage user since V2.x but haven't participated in the boards until recently. Don't let the numbers fool you, I'm also of the mindset that there are many users who just are not registered.

I don't know how easy it is to design, test, and create something like the media extenders Sage has, but I like to believe it takes a bit of effort and $$ and I can't see a company going through that exercise or contracting someone else to do it just to sell a few hundred units.

Welcome aboard!!

[bsung]

Originally Posted by dravenone

Welcome aboard!!

Thanks! I feel as if I've been missing out on a big feature of Sage since the extender was out of stock since the summer but I'll finally feel like I'm on board on Monday when it arrives.