Narflex please keep fighting for client licenses

[GKusnick]

Any solution that involves selling client licenses would have to be thoroughly vetted by Google's lawyers. Lawyers are expensive. They'd have to sell (I'm guesstimating) on the order of 50-100 client licenses to cover the cost of one lawyer for one day. Frankly I doubt there's enough demand for client licenses at this point to make it worth their while.

My guess is that the solution, if any, will more likely take the form of a patched EXE from Jeff working in his spare time.

[mayamaniac]

I'm really curious to know how many SageTV users actually NEED a client license right now. If you are one, start a thread with a poll so we have an idea of the magnitude of the problem here. Something like:

POLL: Do you need a client license?

[ ] I NEED a client license right now! F#@$ &%# Google!
[ ] Don't need one, but I want a client license for PC client in case my extender dies.
[ ] I don't get all the fuss, I have no need for a client license.

I actually have 2 client licenses that I bought before the extenders came out. I'm not using neither of them at the moment, but I guess they will come in handy if/when the extenders die. Also, I don't think the client license are transferable even if I want to donate/sell them.

[speck55]

Originally Posted by mayamaniac

I'm really curious to know how many SageTV users actually NEED a client license right now. If you are one, start a thread with a poll so we have an idea of the magnitude of the problem here. Something like:

POLL: Do you need a client license?

[ ] I NEED a client license right now! F#@$ &%# Google!
[ ] Don't need one, but I want a client license for PC client in case my extender dies.
[ ] I don't get all the fuss, I have no need for a client license.

I actually have 2 client licenses that I bought before the extenders came out. I'm not using neither of them at the moment, but I guess they will come in handy if/when the extenders die. Also, I don't think the client license are transferable even if I want to donate/sell them.

My guess is a lot of those that needed client licenses have bailed after 1.5 months of silence, and sold their extenders and had Suegole tell people they can't try and recoup their software investment by selling those too.

My knee-jerk would be to make the poll. But I figure someone else will right as I do and we'll have like 5 poll threads.

[IVB]

oddly, after a year of being okay with just an extender my wife complained last week about having no local BR player in the MBR (just a DVD player), and no DVD or BR player in the H/T room. But I have 3 client licenses that i'm not using, so I'm torn between building an HTPC client with drive, or just getting a standalone cheapo BR/DVD player. (I use CQC to automate/control it all, but that BR player will be unintegratable unless I spend $$$ for one with an automation interface).

[david1234]

Originally Posted by mayamaniac

POLL: Do you need a client license?

[ ] I NEED a client license right now! F#@$ &%# Google!
[ ] Don't need one, but I want a client license for PC client in case my extender dies.
[ ] I don't get all the fuss, I have no need for a client license.

I actually have 2 client licenses that I bought before the extenders came out. I'm not using neither of them at the moment, but I guess they will come in handy if/when the extenders die. Also, I don't think the client license are transferable even if I want to donate/sell them.

I don't know that polling matters anymore, but I would be one of those that's stuck. I have the server and a single hd100. I don't want to deal with using my server as a client, since it does one thing and it does it well.

I would like to expand to 2 more TV's, and I can't do that as things stand today. I can do 1 of them, if I was willing to turn my server into a client.

The irritating part, is that I had planned on buying 2 HD300's this fall (actually, a TV and HD300 in the fall, and then another TV/HD300 after tax-return time), but there is no reason I couldn't have moved the hd300's up a bit in the plan.

[pknowles]

Originally Posted by mayamaniac

I'm really curious to know how many SageTV users actually NEED a client license right now. If you are one, start a thread with a poll so we have an idea of the magnitude of the problem here. Something like:

POLL: Do you need a client license?

[ ] I NEED a client license right now! F#@$ &%# Google!
[ ] Don't need one, but I want a client license for PC client in case my extender dies.
[ ] I don't get all the fuss, I have no need for a client license.

I actually have 2 client licenses that I bought before the extenders came out. I'm not using neither of them at the moment, but I guess they will come in handy if/when the extenders die. Also, I don't think the client license are transferable even if I want to donate/sell them.

I have 1 client license that I use occasionally to watch TV at my desktop computer while surfing the web. I would like at least 1 more (possibly 2 more) for future plans of adding TV's in other parts of the house. My current license will probably get used for the kitchen TV, when we get one, and I just won't be able to watch on my desktop anymore without a server restart.

[davephan]

I would have bought 3 client licenses if I knew the store was going to close just to back up the HD extenders when the break in the future. It's just a matter of time when they fail. If I'm lucky, it will be years. I would still buy the client licenses today if they were for sale, just as insurance.

Dave

[bunch92]

Originally Posted by davephan

I would still buy the client licenses today if they were for sale, just as insurance.

Dave

Same here , I would buy 2 client licences if I could ....

[sleonard]

Originally Posted by IVB

oddly, after a year of being okay with just an extender my wife complained last week about having no local BR player in the MBR (just a DVD player), and no DVD or BR player in the H/T room. But I have 3 client licenses that i'm not using, so I'm torn between building an HTPC client with drive, or just getting a standalone cheapo BR/DVD player. (I use CQC to automate/control it all, but that BR player will be unintegratable unless I spend $$$ for one with an automation interface).

I put a BD drive in the Sage server, added AnyDVD-HD and just put my DVD's and BD's in the server drive. After a media refresh I can play them at any extender.

S

[bobhaze]

I would buy 1 client license and two HD300's in a heartbeat. Or 3 client licenses as plan B.

Bob

[Tiki]

Originally Posted by bobhaze

I would buy 1 client license and two HD300's in a heartbeat. Or 3 client licenses as plan B.

Bob

+1

[IVB]

Originally Posted by sleonard

I put a BD drive in the Sage server, added AnyDVD-HD and just put my DVD's and BD's in the server drive. After a media refresh I can play them at any extender.

S

yeah but my server is in the "basement". You have to go outside, in a side door under our deck, through the crawlspace, and then there's the magic room.

AKA, the height of unWAF. Then again, thats why she let me totally redo it to build out a server "room".

[BobbyDing]

+1 on a couple of client licenses.

I can't help being curious why Google would care about more client licenses being sold or given away. Since you cannot use the clients if you don't already have a server license. Is it that the clients contain much of the same code that's in the server, and they want to keep that all under thumb? Is it that they would need to issue a new EULA and a new web sales site (and that's not worth their time/$$$)? Is it that releasing more clients would be competing with their own future product (Google Media Center Clients??)?

That's all my meager mind can come up with. Anybody else have any guesses?

Bobby

[crusing]

I would buy at least 3 client licenses as insurance for my existing extenders. If I could buy HD300's at its original price I would probably buy 2 or 3 more.

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by BobbyDing

I can't help being curious why Google would care about more client licenses being sold or given away.

Who knows for sure, but it probably has something to do with lawyers. Google is under regulatory attack at every turn. Lawyers would pull them apart if they thought Google was selling something to users that they had no intention of supporting.

When I worked at IBM (and they were under regulatory attack) we had to be super careful about what potential future products we spoke about to the point that we couldn't tell clients when or even if an upgrade was coming out. The main reason for this was lawyers. Somewhere along the lines the competitors complained that IBM was so powerful that if we even mentioned we may have some product coming out it would scare customers away from our competitor's product. They accused IBM of "making up" stories about future wonder-products just to kill a competitor's current product. (Why buy something from DEC today when IBM will have something better tomorrow? How about this nice little 360 to carry you over until we come out with that wonder-product?)

I have no doubt Jeff would be selling us licenses if he were able.

[VCRUser]

I would buy a client licence & a 200 or 300 extender. (What do you get in a 300 that you don't get in a 200?)

[wayner]

Originally Posted by VCRUser

(What do you get in a 300 that you don't get in a 200?)

A bit faster, smaller size, (optional) IR receiver.

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by IVB

yeah but my server is in the "basement". You have to go outside, in a side door under our deck, through the crawlspace, and then there's the magic room.

AKA, the height of unWAF. Then again, thats why she let me totally redo it to build out a server "room".

Put it in your desktop, or any PC connected to the network, run AnyDVDHD on it, and share the drive. That's all that's needed.

[Ender]

I would love to purchase a client license or two. If that is untenable, then an android app for the logitech review would be great, as long as it does not skimp on the functionality.

[speck55]

Just chiming in with everyone else - I would take two client licenses to complete build using Win64 clients, and two additional as insurance against my extender(s) dying. Then I would be at peace.