Community Comments on Google's Acquisition of SageTV

[chako]

Originally Posted by 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.

Where is that link again?

[HelenWeathers]

Originally Posted by chako

Where is that link again?

http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=57265

[OldPCGUY]

Originally Posted by valnar

Wow...then that begs the question. Why buy SageTV at all?

I have been busy for the last year remodeling and finally have time to upgrade my sage setup and see this anouncement.

The first thing I thought was that this was a squash aquisition. Some how google saw Sage as a threat(Commercial Free TV from cable, sat, OTA, internet etc..). I have no idea why. The market is too small.

Google probably hates OTA HD.

[OldPCGUY]

I would like to continue the speculation of why Google purchased Sage.

1)The top reason was to get the whole software team who have 8+ years of DVR, multimedia , place shifter, hardware drivers .....

2) Despite the google name the acceptance of Google TV was horrible. I went to the website and checked it out. Very little content! No whole House TV ! no hardware support. No program guide! Lame soultion.

3) Sage may seemed like a nitche market but they had/have more customers than we thought. They sold out every version of the HDRs. So Sage was beating Google's free software that sucked. Not hard to understand why.

4) The fact that goodle killed Sage Extenders, plans to kill EPG and plans to kill the forumn makes it sound like they hate/fear Sage customers.

Now for some predictions
A) Google has a vision for Google TV that will not excite customers. This sort of marketing where some director says we will decide what you want never ends well. Nokia did it and Apple kicked their butt. GM did it in the 80s and Japan kicked their butt.

B) Google will not have any customer support. Google sees customers as a consumer to be advertise to. So Google TV will have Adds !!! Sage customers hate adds.

C)Google has a number of failed products now. Google Chrome (OS and Apps), Google TV, Google Car the list will grow until the management stops playing around. I would not be suprised if Google cancels google TV.
Given that Search + Android = 98% of Revenues it should not be a suprise.

D) A new company will emerge to replace Sage and will be more successful but we will be paying more. I always felt Sage should charge more for their software.

Both Google and Apple have a mountain of Cash and no content. I would not be suprised if Apple purchased a Network, Movie and Cable company.

What does every one else think.

* merged with the ill-informed rant thread *

[mayamaniac]

Most if not all of these points have been brought up before in the Sage Acquired By Google thread.

I don't think anyone knows for sure why Google acquired SageTV. What we do know is that they are cooking something and that "Sage is not dead" based on the few little pieces of information that Jeff Kardaztke is allowed to say. So for now, we can't speculate that Google buys out SageTV just to kill it.

As for the future, who knows where things are going, I don't think even Google or Apple knows. They are both looking into making money in the TV market, but they are gingerly stepping their foot in it, and not heavily investing money into it. If the cable and satellite companies have their way, they like to keep it the same and happily collect monthly service and rental fees for the STB/DVR boxes for as long as they can.

Who knows if netflix, redbox, amazon, apple, and google will change the way TV is delivered and consumed. It is difficult to make hollywood adapt to new mediums when they are banking so much money from the current business model.

[OldPCGUY]

There is no way Google and Apple are going to get Free Content from Hollywood or Cable.

However, OTA is another matter. One could make the case for piping local broadcast channels over the internet.

The show could be stored in the cloud for a limmitted time.
The recording could be done in a way where you can't avoid the commercials.
Google could go after all the networks and independants with the right model.

They could just support streeaming from Netflix for movies.

I don't like this model but who cares what I think?

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by OldPCGUY

There is no way Google and Apple are going to get Free Content from Hollywood or Cable.

However, OTA is another matter. One could make the case for piping local broadcast channels over the internet.

There is already a new company Aereo trying to do that. And is being promptly sued by the broadcasters.

So no-OTA isn't another matter. It is still owned by the media companies.

Aereo sued



Gerry

[BobPhoenix]

Originally Posted by OldPCGUY

4) The fact that goodle killed Sage Extenders, plans to kill EPG and plans to kill the forumn makes it sound like they hate/fear Sage customers. *

I agree that extenders are dead in that they are only available on eBay. But I see no plans to kill the EPG or the forum. Jeff has said EPG will be available until AT LEAST the end of the year so while it MAY end it may also be extended longer as well.

[IVB]

Given my (somewhat) pleasant experience with HuluPlus & Netflix over the last 6 weeks, I wouldn't scream bloody murder if I could access those two, combined with locally stored media such as home movies or ripped DVDs, plus music, in an easy to use and single GUI.

Matter of fact, i've grown to actively dislike the HuluPlus integration currently in sage as I can only see my queue in a single list fashion (not grouped), and no ability to look up bookmarked shows.

I'm tempted to try a roku to see if the GUI is decent, but the promise of a GoogSage box that might have an integrated delivery GUI for all the above has me content to wait for another 3-6 months. I can use my laptop until then.

[will]

Originally Posted by IVB

Given my (somewhat) pleasant experience with HuluPlus & Netflix over the last 6 weeks, I wouldn't scream bloody murder if I could access those two, combined with locally stored media such as home movies or ripped DVDs, plus music, in an easy to use and single GUI.

I've used those services and I'm starting to wonder if I'm not seeing something because I always think they are lacking in video/sound quality and compelling content.

With those services, I don't see sport broadcasts, full news channel content (CNN, Fox, MSNBC, etc.), or shows on channels like HGTV, Science, History, Food, etc. Can you get this HD content, in full, through streaming?

[IVB]

Originally Posted by will

With those services, I don't see sport broadcasts, full news channel content (CNN, Fox, MSNBC, etc.), or shows on channels like HGTV, Science, History, Food, etc. Can you get this HD content, in full, through streaming?

Given that I don't watch sports, get my news from the inter-web, those aren't relevant for me. HGTV is the one big missing area. $90/month is a lot to pay for that, they ain't that great. (Well, Real Housewives is another hole, I'd like to dig & bury that six feet under though)

For quality, I was watching on a 15" laptop, was absolutely good enough. Whether that scales to my 50" HDTV I can't say, since the PlayOn integration with SageTV is marginal at best when you have 5-6 shows but 100+ episodes in your queue. I've only had the patience to navigate that once or twice, it didn't suck but it clearly wasn't HD.

Although here's the thing: How many non-network TV shows are actually good enough that HD makes a difference in your enjoyment?

[OldPCGUY]

Originally Posted by BobPhoenix

I agree that extenders are dead in that they are only available on eBay. But I see no plans to kill the EPG or the forum. Jeff has said EPG will be available until AT LEAST the end of the year so while it MAY end it may also be extended longer as well.

http://www.geektonic.com/2011/06/wha...mers-post.html

Reading this post it is hard to say what Google plans to do, but they obviosly wanted some programming experience.

This guy thinks google is serious about Google TV

http://techie-buzz.com/tech-news/goo...ght-again.html

If google is serious about Google TV they need a serious influx of high quality content. Youtube, and Hulu are great for a segment of the Market. Neflix has great content across all age groups and ethnic groups.

[Brent]

SageTV is not being shut down - for those that already owned it and want to continue using it. EPG will likely be around for quite a while (Jeff aka Narflex said that he still uses SageTV for his home TV system) and the website stuff should still be around for the foreseeable future.

I don't think Google "hates" SageTV or its users - they just aren't focused on it in any way. The developers and possibly some of the technology the SageTV team used are likely being used in some Google project(s) - time will tell.

I think Google is serious about GoogleTV although I'm not 100% convinced that the SageTV guys (mostly Jeff) are working on some other, related non-GoogleTV project.

[reggie14]

Originally Posted by Brent

SageTV is not being shut down - for those that already owned it and want to continue using it. EPG will likely be around for quite a while (Jeff aka Narflex said that he still uses SageTV for his home TV system) and the website stuff should still be around for the foreseeable future.

While I also have high hopes for the EPG data continuing past this, remember that Jeff does have a bit of an advantage working inside the company. If Google is working on a SageTV replacement, Jeff might get access to it well before we do. Remember, Google likes using their staff as alpha/beta testers.

[Brent]

Originally Posted by reggie14

While I also have high hopes for the EPG data continuing past this, remember that Jeff does have a bit of an advantage working inside the company. If Google is working on a SageTV replacement, Jeff might get access to it well before we do. Remember, Google likes using their staff as alpha/beta testers.

Tell you what. When I switch from SageTV & announce it, you guys can start panicking at that point. There is no reason to panic or even worry about it at this point.

[brandypuff]

..that SageTV is not more. I never thought or even considered something like that would ever happen. It was the best (and still is) and only viable solution for PVR recording and now it's dead. Thanks a lot for selling us out and thanks Google, for killing it in order to replace it with - NOTHING.

* moved to appropriate topic *

[PiX64]

Originally Posted by brandypuff

..that SageTV is not more. I never thought or even considered something like that would ever happen. It was the best (and still is) and only viable solution for PVR recording and now it's dead. Thanks a lot for selling us out and thanks Google, for killing it in order to replace it with - NOTHING.

Thats a bit off topic for this thread don't ya think? Besides there is a thread count of what about 50 of just people complaining and voicing their opinion on this topic.

[cat6man]

Originally Posted by Brent

Tell you what. When I switch from SageTV & announce it, you guys can start panicking at that point. There is no reason to panic or even worry about it at this point.

can you text my mobile..........then i can stop reading this thread and go back to watching/using sageTV

[PredatorVI]

I've got SageTV server, 2 x client license, 2 x HD-300, 1 x HD-200 and I'd like to know that it wasn't money wasted and that I'm not going to have to rip out my infrastructure to get more capabilities, improvements, fixes, etc. And really, what other good options are out there anyway?

I don't expect Google to say anything as they are good at delivering stuff when they are damn well good and ready, but not so good at communicating to people who support their services (a.k.a., customers).

But hey Google, do you think you could toss us a freakin' bone so we know what is going on?!?!?!?

<I feel a little better...for a minute>

[thomaszoo]

Originally Posted by PredatorVI

I've got SageTV server, 2 x client license, 2 x HD-300, 1 x HD-200 and I'd like to know that it wasn't money wasted and that I'm not going to have to rip out my infrastructure to get more capabilities, improvements, fixes, etc. And really, what other good options are out there anyway?

I don't expect Google to say anything as they are good at delivering stuff when they are damn well good and ready, but not so good at communicating to people who support their services (a.k.a., customers).

But hey Google, do you think you could toss us a freakin' bone so we know what is going on?!?!?!?

<I feel a little better...for a minute>

Very similar to what I have (I have one additional HD-100). But my view is that there isn't currently anything out there that equals it; if there was, I don't think the HD-300s would be going for $300-$400. So if you think it is money wasted, sell what you have now (and maybe make some money).

What I have works very well, better than when I first started with Sage (I don't even remember the version). I'm sure there are plugins that I could use that I haven't even looked at.

Wayne