What does Sage have against documentation?

[Zone99]

Ok, so what does SageTV have against documentation? I have SageTV and a SageTV client.

Last night, while trying to keep track of:

- Hell's Kitchen
- The Celtics
- The Bruins

and one or two other shows I was watching, I bought SageTV Placeshifter and loaded it on my laptop. I figured I already had the client so I could Placeshifter for when I'm away from the house.

I installed it and looked for documentation and didn't find any in the Program menu. I started Placeshifter and was able to figure it out but there was nothing on settings, no help, etc.

I was able to watch the Celtics but, so far, for LiveTV and recorded TV, the quality has been terrible. The sound is choppy, the video stutters, etc.

The laptop is on a wireless G network.

Some documentation to start with might help!

Did I miss something in my download?

[Opus4]

I don't believe the Placeshifter installer includes the PDF manual, but you must have missed the link to the SageTV Manual on the downloads page. You can also download it from my sig lines. Setting up Placeshifter is Appendix N.

- Andy

[freedml]

One test is to see if Placeshifter works better wired. It doesn't check the throughput on a local network connection so if the throughput is too low you get stuttered playback. If it doesn't work any better wired, and if playback on the server is fine, then your problem might be non-64k-clusters on the recording disk or not enough CPU power on the server (see what the System Idle is when you're trying to watch on Placeshifter) assuming it's transcoding.

[Brent]

The title of this thread sort of made me chuckle given the massive size of the SageTV PDF Manual and the wealth of info available in the sticky threads on the forums.

But yes, there is a lot of info to get through sometimes.

[Zone99]

Originally Posted by Brent

The title of this thread sort of made me chuckle given the massive size of the SageTV PDF Manual and the wealth of info available in the sticky threads on the forums.

But yes, there is a lot of info to get through sometimes.

I think that's kind of my point. SageTV is actually several discrete products: the Server, the Client, the Placeshifter client, etc.

In this particular case, I was not at my HTPC but on a laptop elsewhere and wanted to install and use Placeshifter. Without the documentation with the client, I have to go down to the basement, switch to the HTPC on the TV, pull up the manual and check it out.

As opposed to having the documentation enclosed with the client. Then I would have simply installed, used VNC to access my HTPC, hit the settings and I'm off and running.

Now, the appendix does have good documentation but I still have to dig around for firewall port settings. I know I've seen those somewhere here so I'll keep looking.

It's a great product but sometimes the packaging confuses me. Although I'm easily confused.....

[Brent]

For next time, you can always get the latest SageTV Manual from this page.

Direct link to Manual

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by Zone99

Now, the appendix does have good documentation but I still have to dig around for firewall port settings. I know I've seen those somewhere here so I'll keep looking.

There isn't any 'digging' involved -- you simple click on the "Firewall Settings" link in the appendix that I pointed you to & it jumps to that section of the manual.

- Andy