Community Comments on Google's Acquisition of SageTV

[phareous]

Originally Posted by panteragstk

I agree with your logic, but why in the world would google buy sagetv just to let him continue to work on it like nothing has changed (at least that's what his post seems to indicate)? I have to think they wanted him for some of their own projects. Only time will tell.

I suspect Google is transforming SageTV into whatever product they want/need...but what that product will be remains to be seen

[tvmaster2]

lol this is almost as bad as watching the "news" pundits covering the primaries. Where's Doris Day when we need her . . .

[panteragstk]

Speculation thread are always amusing/annoying. You can pick which word fits best.

[freewheeling]

February almost here. We're about 4 months shy of a year since Google bought SageTV and not a peep out of Google about what they intend to do. I can't get my HDHomeRunPrime to work with SageDCT, although it works with practically everything else out there including WMC. There isn't even any documentation that suggests how it's *supposed* to work, what to look for, how to troubleshoot. And there won't be. I'm thinking it's about time to give up on SageTV. Silicondust doesn't even bother to support it any longer, and it'll drag further and further behind the curve of new hardware as time goes on. The irony is I could probably sell my old HD200 at a profit.

[toony]

Try to hang in there, Jeff said they are still at it. No reason to not believe him.

[Skybolt]

Originally Posted by freewheeling

... I can't get my HDHomeRunPrime to work with SageDCT, although it works with practically everything else out there including WMC. There isn't even any documentation that suggests how it's *supposed* to work, what to look for, how to troubleshoot. And there won't be. ...

You didn't try very hard:

http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=56528

Read the very begining post's. The ones about copying the MMC info to the sageproperty file.

Don't forget to thank babgvant for his hard work and support ...

Don't give up so easily

-Skybolt

[ericscottf]

As a fairly generic v6.6+3 hd200 user, I'm wondering how much longer we've got until something changes.

Either the disappearance of sage-loaded free guide data or the forums or something...

I know that there are contingencies for nearly everything on sage's side going dark... I'm still wondering, though.

I know that we were told we'd have at least a year from the "news" last june...

How much warning will we have before something changes? Will we have more than a year before something changes?

Anyone know anything new?

[dblaine2]

Freely available EPG updates were originally scheduled to end this summer but Jeff posted that they will continue until the end of the year.

But that is all the news that has been given.


Dave

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by dblaine2

Freely available EPG updates were originally scheduled to end this summer but Jeff posted that they will continue at least until the end of the year.

Nowhere has anyone ever said the EPG updates will ever stop...

[ericscottf]

Huh, I didn't see any of that..

I wonder if it's "at least" until the end of the year, or that's that...

Any other news one should be aware of?

[jbuszkie]

Originally Posted by ericscottf

Huh, I didn't see any of that..

I wonder if it's "at least" until the end of the year, or that's that...

Any other news one should be aware of?

I think what Fuzzy's trying to say is that no one ever said that it *WILL* stop.

It *might* stop after the year or what ever they extended it to.. but it also might be extended again like we all hope.

[Brent]

Originally Posted by dblaine2

Freely available EPG updates were originally scheduled to end this summer but Jeff posted that they will continue until the end of the year.

But that is all the news that has been given.


Dave

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

Nowhere has anyone ever said the EPG updates will ever stop...

This ^^^

There have been zero statements from SageTV saying the EPG updates would end... ever. They have committed to continuing AT LEAST until the end of 2012 - or something to that effect. Besides, if the EPG stuff did ever end, there are 3rd party plugins to deal with that situation. But I seriously doubt we'll have to worry about that before most of us have found something else to move to way down the road.

[ericscottf]

Sure, sure, there's no expiration date yet, I'm just wondering if anything else was known...
I know there's 3rd party EPG stuff, I just want some heads up when i have to start implementing...

[Brent]

By the way... I plan to write up my thoughts on the Google Media Gadget Thing sometime this weekend. I suspect Google has a team working on something that will surprise many. I don't know if it will satisfy the HTPC'rs like myself completely, but you never know I guess.

A little fact for those worry warts among us. Jeff (Narflex) continues to use SageTV for his home TV/HTPC setup. He cares about this stuff more than anyone at Microsoft or Snapstream ever did because he uses it himself. Not many MS employees actually used their own MediaCenter setup for long and even the CEO of Snapstream admitted to not using his BeyondTV for TV/DVR functionality. That was one of the things I admired about SageTV...

[Brent]

Originally Posted by ericscottf

Sure, sure, there's no expiration date yet, I'm just wondering if anything else was known...
I know there's 3rd party EPG stuff, I just want some heads up when i have to start implementing...

Personally, I don't see anything that would change Jeff's position in the next year or so UNLESS Google comes out with some super-fantastic-DVR-type device that makes SageTV's functionality obsolete. So if that happens, then you might want to start implementing. Personally My backup option would be to go with UVerse for a while if I gave up on SageTV. I don't see that happening for me at least for the next 10 months.

[ericscottf]

I'm not sure how much Narflex using sage helps me -- he's got access to the source, whatever custom improvements he wants for himself, etc, etc. He could keep using/updating it for personal use indefinitely, including adding things that for personal use that wouldn't legally be distributable.

[ericscottf]

Ugh, U-verse, no thanks.

If sage somehow became useless or undesirable for me, i'd go to Myth.
I must have my commercial advance, my un-DRM files, etc, etc.

[Brent]

Originally Posted by ericscottf

I'm not sure how much Narflex using sage helps me -- he's got access to the source, whatever custom improvements he wants for himself, etc, etc. He could keep using/updating it for personal use indefinitely, including adding things that for personal use that wouldn't legally be distributable.

Not saying it does help you necessarily. Just that it shows he cared about (and probably still does care about) the product. Let me put it this way - if Jeff didn't care at all anymore about SageTV at all he certainly could have stopped paying for EPG service already. And he hasn't. I take that as a welcome fact compared to what could have happened fwiw.

[chmilar]

When I saw Narflex's statement that EPG will be available until the end of 2012, I assumed that meant that the next generation googlized version of SageTV is expected sometime around the end of 2012 (at which time concerns about EPG will be resolved).

What that product will be is unknown. We can only speculate.

But, in the meantime, my SageTV setup is doing everything I need it for, and I don't anticipate my needs changing before EOY. If the new product doesn't meet my needs, then (and only then) I will start to look for other solutions (3rd party EPG, different DVR software, etc.).

[Fuzzy]

I see no reason to NOT implement the 3rd party EPG at whatever convenient time comes up. It actually has some customization features that the sage EPG didn't, and you won't really lose anything in the change.