What Would You Ask SageTV?

[Brent]

Hi everyone. Lets "pretend" we were at a conference and the next speaker was Jeff, CEO (or is it CTO) of SageTV. And there was a Q&A session open for you to ask questions of him.

What would your top 5 or 7 questions be? Keep the questions relevant to SageTV and HTPCs please

EDIT: I'll be asking some of these questions in an interview. so get your questions in by end of day Wednesday, 5/27th. Thanks,

UPDATE:
Part 1 of 2 of the GeekTonic interview is available

Part 2 of 2 of the GeekTonic interview is available

[wayner]

Only a few for now:

Why has the UI not been modernized?

Do you worry about DRM issues and lawsuits when adding functionality like playback of ripped BluRay discs?

Who do you see as yout target market? Geeks? Less technologically inclined?

What would it take for SageTV (and other PC based PVRs) to become more mainstream?

Why has MS seen only (at best) lukewarm adoption of Windows Media Center? Would widespread adoption of WinMC benefit SageTV?

[GKusnick]

Originally Posted by Brent

Lets "pretend" we were at a conference...

Why is the word "pretend" in quotes? Are we really pretending, or are we just pretending to pretend?

[Brent]

Originally Posted by GKusnick

Why is the word "pretend" in quotes? Are we really pretending, or are we just pretending to pretend?

That's not a valid question Greg

Chalk the quotes up to my over-zealous punctuation issues that I fight constantly. But I'm pretending because I'm not at a conference & neither is Jeff. But I do have plans to ask some questions and hopefully get a few answers if all goes well.

[QueOnda]

1. What is his vision of what he wants SAGETV to be which cannot be done NOW and WHY can't it be done now?
2. Would Sage ever go commercial like another B line product referring to Star Trek ship's name?
3. Would he ever make it so plugins and add-ons are more easily installed, managed and maybe downloadable from the 10' interface?
4. CC is great, what took them so long?
5. HULU still around the corner? What about NetFlix and others?
6. What's in plan for SageTV 7?
7. Do you use SageTV in your home? What do you watch in your spare time? What are your hobbies?

[Brent]

Okay, we can take off the pretend and just call it a future interview.

I need your questions by the end of day Wednesday next week. Some questions will be left unanswered, but I'll try to get as many addressed as possible and report back to all.

[LehighBri]

This might be a little bold, but perhaps Jeff would do one of those live interviews on ustream or something. Or perhaps a Skype-like call, something to the effect of what Ian Dixon does on thedigitallifestyle.com.

Either way... I think the outcome remains the same... we'd like to pick the brains of those behind the scenes of SageTV, get to know them a little better, get to know where their heads are on current features, get to know where they see Sage going in the future.

[Brent]

Originally Posted by LehighBri

This might be a little bold, but perhaps Jeff would do one of those live interviews on ustream or something. Or perhaps a Skype-like call, something to the effect of what Ian Dixon does on thedigitallifestyle.com.

Hmm. That would be good, but for now lets focus on what questions you have, post them here and I'll try to get as many answers as possible.

[Humanzee]

I've been using Sage for 5 years.

Why no CD player? or did I miss that because I stopped looking for it 4 years ago?

I also second, the hulu/netflix/etc. question.

[reggie14]

Before I make my list, I'm curious where you think you're going with this interview. Is it going to be high-level questions about movement in the industry as a whole, or more specific questions about SageTV/Frey and where it is going?

[Brent]

Originally Posted by reggie14

Before I make my list, I'm curious where you think you're going with this interview. Is it going to be high-level questions about movement in the industry as a whole, or more specific questions about SageTV/Frey and where it is going?

Well, honestly I want to at least touch on both as SageTV's place in the niche market. But my main focus will hopefully be SageTV/Frey - where they have been, a few "why is it this way" things and where they might be going. Stuff like that.

[LehighBri]

I'm always interested in the roadmap. Not sure if he can address these items, but would love to know generally where Sage is thinking of going with:

1. Improved GUI, mainly focused around native Fanart support and skinning support (e.g. I am a HUGE fan of XBMC's GUI and love how slick and clean it is and love the focus they have on making skinning easy for developers... as seen in developer posts here and here)
2. Native Netflix support, including support through extenders
3. Native Hulu support, including support through extenders

[jm9843]

I'd want to ask most about the likelihood of certain features being added in the near future.

The biggies would be the officially supported addition of streaming online video services such as Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Unbox, maybe even a partnership with Vudu. HD200/100 support for these is a given.

Has a partnership with CableLabs or any of the Satellite TV providers been considered for delivering secure HD content to SageTV? The HD-PVR isn't the most elegant solution and there is always the threat of the analog hole being closed, while the R5000-HD mod can be either cost prohibitive or limited in stb/provider compatibility.

Do they expect fully-featured Blu-ray support (BD-J menus, BD-Live, decoding of advanced audio codecs to PCM on the HD200, etc.) in the next couple of years? In other words, matching the experience we've come to expect from DVD for Blu-ray as well.

The UI question. Is it on the way, will the plugin architecture be improved, previewing/downloading themes right from the UI, etc.

Thanks Brent, I'm looking forward to reading the interview.

[HelenWeathers]

I'm curious as to what extent and in what areas you feel the digital conversion has slowed SageTV's progress, if at all.

1. Has dealing with both SD and HD been more problematic than expected?
2. Is retro support for 4:3 screens holding back development of UI enhancements?
3. How long will you continue to support SD capture devices? (not talking about playback of older recordings here)
4. Do you wish SD would just disappear? or Do you wish you had more time preparing for HD?

[Fluffdaddy]

The only thing I would like to see Sage add is full Blu-ray support. just put the retail disk in my Blu-ray pc player and watch, just like the good ole DVD dayz

Other then that....I'm happy.

[Addict]

I tweeted this to ya...

"Ask him about the importance of UI in a HTPC, and how Sage plans to address the influx of "flashy" competition."

[tahoetim]

I would ask more basic questions pointed toward ease of use/consumer focused issues. I love Sage but could not call my bro-in-law who has a theater room and tell him to simply order the sage kit and expect him to get it going without my help. how many of us honestly could/would recommend the Sage system to their friends or relatives?

#1 Issue - Why doesn't Sage provide a remote that turns off the tv? This is a BIG deal for extender use where there is just a tv and a HD200. I fumble around in the dark in bed to find TWO remotes to turn the system off. This is a basic and important oversight, IMHO.

#2 Issue - I like the idea of plugins coming from public talent BUT: Why doesn't Sage set up a standard and hold developers to it. Adding multiple addins runs the risk of breaking the whole system. The goal should be to NEVER require users to edit the properties files, registry, etc. There should be an install exe file that all developers could use much like Windows uses.

#3 Issue - Why doesn't Sage offer a PRE-PURCHASE software program and tuner card kit (hvr-2250?) that will evaluate a users analog, digital, clear QAM, antenna channels and report what the customer will get and what cards will be required to receive the desired channels BEFORe they buy the Sage system. The Silicon Dust lineup is not perfect by any means.

#4 Issue - For this forum; Why can't we buy and sell parts to each other on this site?

[stanger89]

Must... resist... urge... to... respond...



I do have one:

Has SageTV looked into a partnership with Netgear/Infrant to include/build a ReadyNAS Pro/NVX Sage server?

Oh, and here's another one:

Is there some technical hurdle (driver limitations?) that prevents Sage from extracting the channel/tuning maps from QAM streams, thus making QAM setup "automagic"?

tahoetim:

#3 Issue - Why doesn't Sage offer a PRE-PURCHASE software program and tuner card kit (hvr-2250?) that will evaluate a users analog, digital, clear QAM, antenna channels and report what the customer will get and what cards will be required to receive the desired channels BEFORe they buy the Sage system. The Silicon Dust lineup is not perfect by any means.

Could you elaborate on this, I don't understand what it is or how it would save anyone money. How is it different from buying a tuner(s) and running the SageTV trial?

[Brent]

All excellent questions - keep em' coming.


By the way, I wasn't very clear on this above so I just want to get this out there. I will ask as many relevant questions as I can. Just know it is very unlikely that we would hear much in the way of planned features or major roadmap in this interview.

I'm not saying it won't happen, but I know the policy has continued to be this: Other than at CES occasionally, SageTV won't disclose future plans, features or roadmaps in most cases unless that feature (or whatever) is a few days away from release. This is to keep us from getting mad at them, hounding them, embarrasment for having to back off of a promise, giving the competition ideas of what their next-new-thing will be etc.

I will definitely ask some of those questions though. Questions that have been mentioned above might include Netflix, Hulu, Pandora support?, UI plans? etc. Just don't get your hopes up too much to think we'll here about the next version of SageTV or the next greatest feature. It would be great, but I don't want to set the expectations nearly that high

That being said, it will be a very informative interview that SageTV users won't want to miss.

tahoetim, I think your fellow SageTV forum members could answer every single question you asked if you post it in a separate thread. I'll try at least

[tahoetim]

I belong to a custom car forum. We have donated $ to have community tools that float around the country for the members to use. I see a case where a tuner card (or cards) travel around. the software I am imaging is not Sage, it's more like the HDHR "sniffer" setup utility program that would tell a potential user exactly what he/she will get with tuner options in HD/analog/digital/OTA. I don't know if one card exists to do it but a quick and dirty sniff would be handy for some new people. Maybe the on line channel lineup sites are good enough for most users.

I am still fuzzy on the channel availability thing. My HDHR sees no channels. I went to my local Charter Cable to turn in my DVR and asked what channels were piped free in digital and two ladies started arguing over the question.

I told them that I currently get about 40 analog channels free without their box over an old tv. They aren't cutting over to digital until June 12. They haven't got a clue!