has this functionality been added?

[JPW]

Does version 2 have TIvo like functionality? I am a big home theater fan. Is it possible to add a keyword favorite like home theater and have sagetv v2 search all fields and record everything new that comes in with home theater?

[Opus4]

See: Is it possible to schedule keyword based recording (for shows NOT in the guide yet) ?

- Andy

[Hector]

Originally posted by JPW
Does version 2 have TIvo like functionality? I am a big home theater fan. Is it possible to add a keyword favorite like home theater and have sagetv v2 search all fields and record everything new that comes in with home theater?

No. And depending on your hardware configuration you're going to find a few things that tivo does very well that Sage for some reason or another can't seem to manage.

On the other hand you'll find some very cool things about Sage. For me it's that Sage is open environment (ty files indeed) and allows you to bring all your media up into your home theatre in a much easier way than Tivo's HMO. If you want or need more than two tuners, Sage is for you.

What I like about Sage is that it keeps moving forward where Tivo is fairly stagnant. What I don't like about Sage is that they tend to gloss over simple expected functionality that I've had for for 5 years or so on Tivo. Sometimes it's hardware dependent but the biggest omissions seem to come with the hardware Sage offers bundled with their software which you would expect to be their 'reference' box.

I really really like Sage and use it daily but its just not advanced to the point that I'm going to cancel my tivo subscription. Especially because I watch a lot of sports and Tivo is far and away better for watching sports.

peace...

[tangfj]

I finally have Sage working well for watching sports after asking around for help on how to get the picture looking good. Look at this forum... depending on what you're doing now in Sage, you should get a much better picture.

http://forums.freytechnologies.com/f...&threadid=4832

[mlbdude]

Not that Tivo is better at sports than Sage but Tivos hardware decoder is better than your PC's video out solution. An XCard or 350 would solve that (but may introduce other issues).

I think this Favorite feature will come soon.

[tangfj]

I agree with mlbdude, but a Tivo can't:

1. play mp3's
2. play ripped dvds on a hard drive
3. check the weather
4. play xvids and divx's
5. easily upgrade hard drive space
6. freely share content over a network (at least not easily)

I think that Tivo is great for what it does, but if you're like me and want more bang for your buck then an HTPC is the only way to go. I'm also a type of person that love to tinker with things and the fact that there is almost always something you can do to improve on an HTPC is perfect for me. That being said, for PVR software for an HTPC, of course Sage is the only way to go as the other PVR software (you know who I'm talking about) isn't nearly as good at being a true PVR.

[Hector]

Originally posted by tangfj
I finally have Sage working well for watching sports after asking around for help on how to get the picture looking good. Look at this forum... depending on what you're doing now in Sage, you should get a much better picture.

http://forums.freytechnologies.com/f...&threadid=4832

I don't have any issue with the picture quality for sports. The pvr-350 has an excellent output.

Sage does not have slow motion, smooth ff/rr or frame stepping (single frame advance) which Tivo has had for 5 years.

That's why I say its much better for sports.

[Opus4]

Originally posted by Hector
Sage does not have slow motion, smooth ff/rr or frame stepping (single frame advance) which Tivo has had for 5 years.

I haven't tried them lately, so I don't remember how well they work, but look at the "Play Faster" and "Play Slower" commands.

As for single frame advance, every tie you press pause, it steps forward... at least it does on my system.

- Andy

[Hector]

Originally posted by tangfj
I agree with mlbdude, but a Tivo can't:

1. play mp3's
2. play ripped dvds on a hard drive
3. check the weather
4. play xvids and divx's
5. easily upgrade hard drive space
6. freely share content over a network (at least not easily)

I think that Tivo is great for what it does, but if you're like me and want more bang for your buck then an HTPC is the only way to go. I'm also a type of person that love to tinker with things and the fact that there is almost always something you can do to improve on an HTPC is perfect for me. That being said, for PVR software for an HTPC, of course Sage is the only way to go as the other PVR software (you know who I'm talking about) isn't nearly as good at being a true PVR.

1. yes it can play mp3's and display images.

2 neither does sage (pvr-350). In fact it shows up but just doesn't work which makes no sense to me. This stuff should just disappear when you have a pvr-350 congfigured and they know it's not going to work

3 I have weather on tivo. Where can you find a Sage weather module?

4 Sage with the recommended pvr-350 cannot

5 Sage is easier, both are easy.

6 Sage is easier, both are easy. This is tho where Sage is best.

Sage excels in its openness, Tivo excels in basic functionality.

I've seen the output of the folks who claim to have software decoders tweaked to awesomeness. I cannot tell you how many times I have been told that they have. Those people simply have never used hardware decoding for any length of time or simply are not very discriminating about their picture quality in MY opinion. No offense intended.

So if like me you insist on the quality of hardware decoding and are using the hardware Sage recommends/bundles, with Sage compared to Tivo you lose-

1 AC3 - you only get plain stereo (this is huge for me)

2 Close captioning

3 slow motion

4 frame stepping

5 smooth ff/rr

Don't get me wrong, I really like Sage. I would hate to have to choose between the two. For me it works out that Sage is better or at least as good for everything but actually WATCHING tv.

Note that I am relatively new to Sage. If I am wrong about any of the above working with Sage and hardware decoding please beat me up and educate me.

peace...

edit: fixed typo encoder to decoder.

[tangfj]

hector, in many instances I wasn't talking about sage specifically. What I was really getting to is that since sage is run on a pc (that's why I refer to HTPC and not Sage in my last post), there is more expandability (if you have the time). For instance, I use myHTPC for a frontend with Theatertek, SimpleVideo, and SageTV. Theatertek is for watching dvd discs as well as backups (with coverart in myHTPC), SimpleVideo is for watching xvid's and divx's (with coverart as well in myHTPC). For mp3's and weather I use the built in modules with myHTPC.

While I do agree that Tivo has it's upsides (mainly in hardware decoding for me, I have both SageTV and a freestanding Tivo unit), the openess of the pc platform makes it the only option for me now after seeing how many things a HTPC can do. I also like that I can always upgrade a PC for future functionality (hopefully HDTV catches up on the pc front).

*EDIT* I don't want to make it sound like using my combination of encoders you will get a picture that is as good as Tivo. What I meant to say was that I am happy with the PQ that I get now with my current setup.

[Bubster]

Originally posted by Hector
I've seen the output of the folks who claim to have software encoders tweaked to awesomeness. I cannot tell you how many times I have been told that they have. Those people simply have never used hardware decoding for any length of time or simply are not very discriminating about their picture quality in MY opinion. No offense intended.

Are you talking about encoders or decoders here (you mention both)?

[Hector]

Originally posted by Opus4
I haven't tried them lately, so I don't remember how well they work, but look at the "Play Faster" and "Play Slower" commands.

As for single frame advance, every tie you press pause, it steps forward... at least it does on my system.

- Andy

Thanks for replying.

I've tried the commands 'faster' and 'slower'. I don't know exactly what they're doing. Mostly they cause the video to skip in a really odd way. It's not slow motion that's for sure.

For me the pause command does nothing but pause. Mashing it again does nothing. The pause/play command works as expected but no frame stepping.

Initially I assumed the poor play transport was beta related but now we're seeing release candidates its clear its just not something they feel is important or doable. At first I missed it it a lot, but I've gotten used to the limitations except for sports where its 'needed'

peace . . .

[Hector]

Originally posted by tangfj
hector, in many instances I wasn't talking about sage specifically. What I was really getting to is that since sage is run on a pc (that's why I refer to HTPC and not Sage in my last post), there is more expandability (if you have the time). For instance, I use myHTPC for a frontend with Theatertek, SimpleVideo, and SageTV. Theatertek is for watching dvd discs as well as backups (with coverart in myHTPC), SimpleVideo is for watching xvid's and divx's (with coverart as well in myHTPC). For mp3's and weather I use the built in modules with myHTPC.

While I do agree that Tivo has it's upsides (mainly in hardware decoding for me, I have both SageTV and a freestanding Tivo unit), the openess of the pc platform makes it the only option for me now after seeing how many things a HTPC can do. I also like that I can always upgrade a PC for future functionality (hopefully HDTV catches up on the pc front).

*EDIT* I don't want to make it sound like using my combination of encoders you will get a picture that is as good as Tivo. What I meant to say was that I am happy with the PQ that I get now with my current setup.

I agree with you completely except for the fact I don't feel I have to choose between the two. The openess of the HTPC you describe is EXACTLY why I like Sage which IMHO is by far the best WinPC based PVR.

To be clear I don't think Tivo is better overall, esp for the more geek inclined like most of us here. I just find that Sage is missing some very basic things that it SHOULD have.

HTPC's rock. I will never disagree with you there but the picture is a little muddier if you want hardware decoding.

Of course a little time will fix all this

peace. . .

[Hector]

Originally posted by Bubster
Are you talking about encoders or decoders here (you mention both)?

That's because I am an idiot. It was a typo that I fixed (thanks). I meant decoders.

[Bubster]

Originally posted by Hector
That's because I am an idiot. It was a typo that I fixed (thanks). I meant decoders.

What aspect of the picture quality do you think is suffering with software decoders?

Apart from advanced de-interlacing capabilities (which isn't relevant for TV output anyway), the only thing I can think of that a hardware decoder will inherently do better than a software decoder is provide its own, high-quaility TV out, whereas a software decoder will be at the mercy of the video card's TV out, few of which seem up to much at the moment.

But what this really means is what people really need isn't hardware decoding, but simply decent TV support on video cards.

I have to say though, I do agree with your comments overall. I also don't think its valid to explain away any of Sage's issues by listing the things it does that Tivo doesn't do; that kind of defensive approach really doesn't get us anywhere. The best thing we can do is accept that Sage still has some areas that need looked at if it is to beat Tivo on all fronts, and try and persuade Frey to deal with them in a timely fashion.

Having said that, I do think they should finish tidying up what's there and get it out the door and then move on to the next version, where they will have a bit more freedom to experiment again and maybe try out some of the Tivo features people are wanting.

- Neil.

[Hector]

Originally posted by Bubster
What aspect of the picture quality do you think is suffering with software decoders?

Apart from advanced de-interlacing capabilities (which isn't relevant for TV output anyway), the only thing I can think of that a hardware decoder will inherently do better than a software decoder is provide its own, high-quaility TV out, whereas a software decoder will be at the mercy of the video card's TV out, few of which seem up to much at the moment.

But what this really means is what people really need isn't hardware decoding, but simply decent TV support on video cards.

I have to say though, I do agree with your comments overall. I also don't think its valid to explain away any of Sage's issues by listing the things it does that Tivo doesn't do; that kind of defensive approach really doesn't get us anywhere. The best thing we can do is accept that Sage still has some areas that need looked at if it is to beat Tivo on all fronts, and try and persuade Frey to deal with them in a timely fashion.

Having said that, I do think they should finish tidying up what's there and get it out the door and then move on to the next version, where they will have a bit more freedom to experiment again and maybe try out some of the Tivo features people are wanting.

- Neil.

To be fair I was speaking of 'software decoding' in the sense of the overall solution which as you correctly point out is at the mercy of the video card. That being said I have yet to see a consumer solution that relies on software decoding that has an output that looks as good as the pvr-350 or tivo.

I agree with you that Sage users taking a defensive approach isn't helpful, but I have to say that there are almost no Sage 'apologists' by comparison to the Tivo forums. For example if I were to post on the Tivo Community Forum all the things I liked about Sage over Tivo I would receive 100 replies, 50 would scream at me to 'just use Sage then and go away' and the other 50 would be defending whatever limitations I brought up.

I realize this is not contrary to what you are saying, but as the relative new kid on the block and a natural critic at that, I find that the Sage forum is probably one of the most open-minded company forums I've been a member of. Tivo's is probably one of the worst.

Anyway I am just hanging around today waiting for that new version .

[Bubster]

Originally posted by Hector
To be fair I was speaking of 'software decoding' in the sense of the overall solution which as you correctly point out is at the mercy of the video card. That being said I have yet to see a consumer solution that relies on software decoding that has an output that looks as good as the pvr-350 or tivo.

I agree with you that Sage users taking a defensive approach isn't helpful, but I have to say that there are almost no Sage 'apologists' by comparison to the Tivo forums. For example if I were to post on the Tivo Community Forum all the things I liked about Sage over Tivo I would receive 100 replies, 50 would scream at me to 'just use Sage then and go away' and the other 50 would be defending whatever limitations I brought up.

I realize this is not contrary to what you are saying, but as the relative new kid on the block and a natural critic at that, I find that the Sage forum is probably one of the most open-minded company forums I've been a member of. Tivo's is probably one of the worst.

Anyway I am just hanging around today waiting for that new version .

Yes, I don't think the defensive attitude has been particularly bad here, but I suspect the Tivo forum might have started fairly open minded, with opinions becoming more entrenched over time. If highlighting this sort of behaviour at this stage can stop it ever getting as bad as the Tivo forum sounds, then that can only be a good thing.

Unless, of course, something just as bad comes to the fore, like "Maxtor-hatred". Oh, hold on, that was a whole other thread.

- Neil.

[Hector]

Originally posted by Bubster
Yes, I don't think the defensive attitude has been particularly bad here, but I suspect the Tivo forum might have started fairly open minded, with opinions becoming more entrenched over time. If highlighting this sort of behaviour at this stage can stop it ever getting as bad as the Tivo forum sounds, then that can only be a good thing.

Unless, of course, something just as bad comes to the fore, like "Maxtor-hatred". Oh, hold on, that was a whole other thread.

- Neil.

Oh man I guess I better search for Maxtor instead of starting whatever that was up again, heh.

[jominor]

Originally posted by Hector


I've seen the output of the folks who claim to have software decoders tweaked to awesomeness. I cannot tell you how many times I have been told that they have. Those people simply have never used hardware decoding for any length of time or simply are not very discriminating about their picture quality in MY opinion. No offense intended.


peace...

edit: fixed typo encoder to decoder.

Well, it's hard to take offense considering we've never met, but with a hardware accelerated decoder(not hardware decoder), and some changes to the color calibration, I have a picture better than my standard TV.

The picture is easily comparable to a DVD. I am sure that HW decoding would be even better, but not by much. Regardless, when I move to a HDTV, I'll move to a HW decoder,but for now, my picture is excellent.

In fact, I had some guest over one day. Until I showed them the desktop, they didn't know they were watching through Sage.

Viewing transparency is what you want. People should not know that a computer is in the process.

[mlbdude]

If you move to HDTV software decoders using component or DVI out perform better than the 350 anyway. 480i is just for us standard def TV suckers.