Where to buy hd300

[sleonard]

Originally Posted by speck55

If they were going to sell more licenses, wouldn't they sell more licenses in a business-as-usual form? If Google owns all assets, which include the bank and merchant accounts, so it's going into their pockets anyways. It's like printing money for them to generate license keys. And one would expect even if they were discontinuing the hardware, they'd want to dispose of it at retail rather than at lot auction or some other wholesale method of disposal?

My guess is that Google considers the liability of selling SageTV HW greater than the loss from disposing of it thru auction (if we're lucky) or just trashing it (if we're unlucky).

S

[lfilomeno]

Originally Posted by cumak

At the moment this one is listed on ebay for $350 (yes, that price is correct and you still have to pay for shipping!)

Also, this seller on ebay claims to have 12 brand new units available (see note at bottom). Now, exactly how does someone end up with 12 brand new HD300's to sell. Anyone who is holding out for the Sage store to reopen to sell off their remaining inventory, don't bother. I think someone at SageTV sneaked out the back door with them.

The winning bid for that one was $410! And that is without shipping!

[reggie14]

Originally Posted by lfilomeno

The winning bid for that one was $410! And that is without shipping!

That's insane. If the TiVo Premiere Q was available now I'd probably drop my extenders and move right away.

[wayner]

The seller seems to be in Australia - perhaps he is a professional HT installer and maintains his own inventory due to the expense/time of getting units to Oz. Given the Google purchase it wouldn't make sense for him to continue to install SageTV systems.

[doncote0]

I wanted to buy an HD300, but I also wanted another Electroline drop amp. So I got the drop amp first especially since I got some eBay gift cards for my birthday.

Now when I go to get my first HD300 in late July/August, I am SOL.

So disappointing... I do not have any HD Extenders and was about to get my first.

(Sage needs to add a crying icon to the icon and smilie lists.)

[bivcurtin]

New to SageTV, guess you can tell since this is my first post. I researched different solutions for over a year to find my Tivo replacement.

Decided SageTV was the best option because of the media extender hardware. Once I made the decision, went to the website with my CC and the HD200 were no longer availible (sold out) and was told to check back. Kept checking back was not sure it there was going to be any more media extenders.

As soon as the HD300 was availible I purchased and installed SageTV on one TV. Now that I have the frist TV working great and that the home remodeling is mostly completed. I went to the site with my CC out, I tried to purhcase 2 more but the store was closed.

I would assume the existing stock is being re-tooled to have google TV labels placed on them, and being placed in Google boxes. Along with migrating future purchases to a google eCommerece site. On this assumption they should be availible soon. Not going to pay $400+ for them on eBay.

Within 6 months, there will be a new site that has them for sale, or there will be lots of affordable used ones for sale as people move to a different platform.

It was worth the wait the first time, it will be worth the wait again.

[tvmaster2]

Originally Posted by reggie14

That's insane. If the TiVo Premiere Q was available now I'd probably drop my extenders and move right away.

only problem with my HD Tivo's is the damn flag. If your cable company uses it, then a lot of HD programs are NOT transferable between rooms.
lame

[reggie14]

Originally Posted by tvmaster2

only problem with my HD Tivo's is the damn flag. If your cable company uses it, then a lot of HD programs are NOT transferable between rooms.
lame

Apparently you can't transfer copy protected shows, but you can stream them.

[stevech]

Originally Posted by tvmaster2

only problem with my HD Tivo's is the damn flag. If your cable company uses it, then a lot of HD programs are NOT transferable between rooms.
lame

Some (most?) cable companies offer "whole house DVR" which is a normal cable co. DVR with a MoCA (IP over TV Coax) interface. This distributes recorded content from the DVR to non-DVR set top boxes in other rooms. For me on TWC, this is a few dollars more a month. Also, they put a larger disk in these DVRs. So it streams but doesn't copy.

[Savage1701]

Originally Posted by tvmaster2

I have T-Mobile. They've been bought. My phone still gets updates, I can purchase new phones and accessories, and I can get tech support.
The Sage purchase has a different feel to it than that - ie abandonment.
Not quite sure why you threw in the snarky eBay response, if that was your intention.
I just wanted to know who's in control. From your answer, I assume Opus is no longer a "Sage folk"? Whether he risks his job or not really isn't my concern.

Respectfully, when Nextel was bought out by Sprint it was not very good for Nextel customers. Nextel has poor coverage. Sprint originally promised dual-band iDEN/CDMA phones. Those did not last. iDEN coverage is not innovated, it is maintained. It could have been to voice what text is to regular phones, but Motorola mismanaged the hardware side and Nextel was not visionary enough to see that "audible texting" might just have caught on if they lowered the price and built the system out.

AT&T has not closed its sale on T-Mobile yet. But when it does, prices will no doubt rise as another competitor falls. Sprint and US Cellular will go next, probably to Verizon since they all use CDMA technology, and Verizon will get true WiMax technology.

A few niche players will be left who sell prepaids, burn phones, and Walmart re-brands, but they won't be getting the latest iPhone or Android phones.

And although not a frequency play per se, RIM has all sorts of issues of its own on the OS side. They will be fortunate if they can last as a niche product but I don't think they will ever be a growth story or innovator again.

[speck55]

Originally Posted by Savage1701

Respectfully, when Nextel was bought out by Sprint it was not very good for Nextel customers. Nextel has poor coverage. Sprint originally promised dual-band iDEN/CDMA phones. Those did not last. iDEN coverage is not innovated, it is maintained. It could have been to voice what text is to regular phones, but Motorola mismanaged the hardware side and Nextel was not visionary enough to see that "audible texting" might just have caught on if they lowered the price and built the system out.

AT&T has not closed its sale on T-Mobile yet. But when it does, prices will no doubt rise as another competitor falls. Sprint and US Cellular will go next, probably to Verizon since they all use CDMA technology, and Verizon will get true WiMax technology.

A few niche players will be left who sell prepaids, burn phones, and Walmart re-brands, but they won't be getting the latest iPhone or Android phones.

And although not a frequency play per se, RIM has all sorts of issues of its own on the OS side. They will be fortunate if they can last as a niche product but I don't think they will ever be a growth story or innovator again.

My small business used Nextel despite all its shortcomings on the data side. iDEN was a joke that way, but I agree the push to talk was a good alternative to phone calls that would inevitably last way too long otherwise. Nextel was also the first carrier to offer unlimited plans (in my region anyways). The other guys had to eventually follow suit. As I recall, Sprint promised the world before and during the acquisition, and while these great things were possible by combining the iDEN technology (lower frequency voice transmission meant I could get voice coverage in areas like basements or datacenters where CDMA/GSM just didn't penetrate) with the CDMA, it turned out to be just a move to buy and stifle a competitor.

What I don't get, is why Google is so gung-ho on TV? Stick to your core product. Go buy out some search providers/technology. If it's advertising revenue opportunity, I guess maybe I can see what their reasoning is, but I really doubt Google is going to be the "Nation's Cable Company":

I mean cloud/streaming video has a LOT of ISP's working hard AGAINST it - as many of those providers are cable companies and the likes of U-Verse, trying to protect their video revenue by implementing monthly bandwidth caps and overage. And there's little anyone will be able to do short of buy a business class internet connection, once ALL the providers implement these caps.

Add to this that U-Verse has announced they have stopped plant build-out, meaning that no area currently unserviceable by U-Verse will become serviceable any time soon, along with the vast amounts of areas where there is no broadband, or the best they can get is 768k DSL or even (in the case of my relative) 128x128k DSL (which actually ends up being a BRI ISDN line).

Whoever bought the skeletal remains of BlockBuster probably made a smart move - because when these transfer/bandwidth caps become universal, we just might see a resurgence in people renting physical media to view.

[speck55]

Originally Posted by stevech

Some (most?) cable companies offer "whole house DVR" which is a normal cable co. DVR with a MoCA (IP over TV Coax) interface. This distributes recorded content from the DVR to non-DVR set top boxes in other rooms. For me on TWC, this is a few dollars more a month. Also, they put a larger disk in these DVRs. So it streams but doesn't copy.

But - in my market, both TWC and U-Verse don't really put very large drives in their DVR's - AT&T maxes at 500GB, and TWC I think is approx the same but it's been considerably longer since I've dealt with them.

You can't record and archive (limited disk space), you don't own the equipment nor the copy of the data on the drives inside the units.

Add a few family members of varying ages and genders in a single household with varying interests all in HD, and those "whole home" DVRs become "oh, your episode of X? Yeah I deleted it because I needed room for my episode of Y".

AT&T won't let you have > 1 DVR per house, period. They also chose not to allow the use of WMC as a receiver/DVR, even though the underlying Microsoft MediaRoom that their IPTV system runs on allows it, if I recall correctly.

Add up the monthly rental fees for DVR boxes, which are much more substantial than those of the non-DVR STB's, for say 5 sets, and that really isn't an economical solution either.

[Jackal24]

Originally Posted by speck55

but I agree the push to talk was a good alternative to phone calls that would inevitably last way too long otherwise.

Not to mention that it had the added benefit of pissing off every one else within earshot. Bluetooth headsets are bad enough when you get to hear one side of some strangers conversation. I don't need to hear both sides with with beeps in between.

[speck55]

Originally Posted by Jackal24

Not to mention that it had the added benefit of pissing off every one else within earshot. Bluetooth headsets are bad enough when you get to hear one side of some strangers conversation. I don't need to hear both sides with with beeps in between.

Working on construction sites, that's pretty much nearly the least annoying sound anyone hears.

[Jackal24]

But in the grocery store, gas station, etc., it is pretty annoying.

[joe123]

Originally Posted by GKusnick

Imagine that instead of being bought out by Google, they'd just quietly gone out of business and shut down the EPG servers without warning.

You have to be kidding, right?

Going out of business would be a hell a lot better than Google legally owning the rights to SageTV technology.

If SageTV would have gone out of business (no way, but if) someone could have leaked the source code to open source and it would have continued.

Worse case is what has happen. A big giant like Google owning the rights to the code as they can go after anyone else having anything even close to SageTV had.

[speck55]

Originally Posted by joe123

You have to be kidding, right?

Going out of business would be a hell a lot better than Google legally owning the rights to SageTV technology.

If SageTV would have gone out of business (no way, but if) someone could have leaked the source code to open source and it would have continued.

Worse case is what has happen. A big giant like Google owning the rights to the code as they can go after anyone else having anything even close to SageTV had.

You bring up an important point, above, in bold.

Has anyone (I might if noone has) checked with the USPTO for patents in the name of Frey Technologies or any of the principal creators? Perhaps the silent period is to allow time for Goliatherr Google to file patents en masse. Now that they have the source code, imagine the vast quantity of ridiculous patents that they could file for.

Then they sue any cable provider that has similar middleware and whole home DVR's for royalties. "Full speed ahead".

[joe123]

Originally Posted by speck55

Now that they have the source code, imagine the vast quantity of ridiculous patents that they could file for.

Then they sue any cable provider that has similar middleware and whole home DVR's for royalties. "Full speed ahead".

I used to be a consultant for a company that did these things. Trust me, the first thing Google did as soon as Jeff sold out SageTV was to have all their layers file pantents and C & D ( notices to cease and desist ) to all those using similar technology.

The really bad thing for us is that ANYONE trying to come up with any SageTV like product will now be hammer by Google.

Really bad for us.

But we do have one winner - Jeff is smilling all the way to the bank

[speck55]

Originally Posted by joe123

I used to be a consultant for a company that did these things. Trust me, the first thing Google did as soon as Jeff sold out SageTV was to have all their layers file pantents and C & D ( notices to cease and desist ) to all those using similar technology.

The really bad thing for us is that ANYONE trying to come up with any SageTV like product will now be hammer by Google.

Really bad for us.

But we do have one winner - Jeff is smilling all the way to the bank

Yeah, you've got that right - he is the only winner at this point.

At this point, I can only hope Google gets a big backfire in the form of prior art or to-date-unexercised existing patents that those patent holders will take action on now that it's not a one-man-show but Google that's infringing. And as others stated, it's probably a jaw-droppingly low number (similar to Google's worldwide coffee/entertainment expense tab for a week) that bought the rights.

I really hope the third party devs pull everything they can away ("license is hereby granted for anyone not associated with Google...") or GPL their stuff forcing Google to at least be stuck by the "derivative" part of the license.

[reggie14]

Originally Posted by joe123

If SageTV would have gone out of business (no way, but if) someone could have leaked the source code to open source and it would have continued.

Worse case is what has happen. A big giant like Google owning the rights to the code as they can go after anyone else having anything even close to SageTV had.

Who would have open sourced the code? Why would Jeff do it? If SageTV went under as a company, why would he just give away the code, removing any possibility of selling it or commercializing it in the future? The IP rights wouldn't just disappear if Sage went under. So, even if someone did manage to steal the code (which seems very unlikely), they wouldn't be able to legally use it. That might be OK for a small, largely underground efforts. But, if you want a new supply of extenders you'd likely need some more official backing.

Originally Posted by speck55

Has anyone (I might if noone has) checked with the USPTO for patents in the name of Frey Technologies or any of the principal creators?[

Shortly after the Google announcement I did a basic patent search on Jeff's name. I came up with one hit, and it actually seemed to be from the right Jeff, but it was from Jeff's pre-SageTV days and definitely wasn't DVR related.

Originally Posted by joe123

I used to be a consultant for a company that did these things. Trust me, the first thing Google did as soon as Jeff sold out SageTV was to have all their layers file pantents and C & D ( notices to cease and desist ) to all those using similar technology.

The really bad thing for us is that ANYONE trying to come up with any SageTV like product will now be hammer by Google.

I kind of doubt it. There's tons of prior art here. What does Sage do that other products can't do? It's more a matter of Sage doing things better than other products, or having a better combination of features than other products.