Community Comments on Google's Acquisition of SageTV

[darcilicious]

Originally Posted by tvmaster2

Why haven't we done that? That would be good, you know?

I haven't because what I have still works. (At least until the 12th )

[Slugger]

Originally Posted by tvmaster2

If you could lead us to an easy to understand version of this I would be all ears. The last time I had a look at the instructions it appeared rather daunting, unless I am missing something. So you're saying we can eliminate the built-in EPG today, and be done with it?
Why haven't we done that? That would be good, you know?

I'm close to completing an initial version of my plugin that will allow you to cut ties with the Sage EPG service. It's not done, I'm still tweaking it a little, but I'm close. I'm actually using it as my EPG source on my test server. Once I'm comfortable making the switch on my production server, I'll release it to the plugin repository.

The docs I'm working on are here. Because Schedules Direct isn't going to give me the ok to release an SD version of the plugin until Sage/Google actually announces an end date for its EPG service, I've went ahead and written a similar plugin using mc2xml to obtain guide data. The docs I've written discuss an overview of what's added by this plugin and what you'll be losing by using it.

The install details aren't filled in yet (online), though the steps you'll have to follow are listed. Be warned that there is a bit of manual labour involved in installing this plugin for two reasons:

1) The author of mc2xml will not allow me to bundle mc2xml with the plugin, forcing the user to do a manual installation and setup of mc2xml outside of Sage.

2) There is no hook within the Sage event system to identify plugin install/uninstall events and since I have to do a little bit of magic to register the EPG plugin, you have to manually restart Sage once after installing the plugin and you have to do some manual edits to Sage.properties if you choose to uninstall the plugin. It'll all be outlined in the wiki doc above, but there is some work you'll have to do.

Once you install, updates are painless, handled via the plugin manager, and require nothing special from the user - just click update and restart Sage.

I think this is going to be the best alternative for free listings data for North American users. My Schedules Direct implementation is much cleaner and more hands off for the user, but I'm starting to wonder if I'll ever actually be able to release it for public consumption.

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by tvmaster2

If you could lead us to an easy to understand version of this I would be all ears. The last time I had a look at the instructions it appeared rather daunting, unless I am missing something. So you're saying we can eliminate the built-in EPG today, and be done with it?
Why haven't we done that? That would be good, you know?

The only reason I haven't switched, is that the sage EPG still functions, and it DOES provide some added information (in the form of season and episode numbers).

[nycjoe]

http://code.google.com/tv/android/do..._emulator.html

there's a section there that talks about live tv (though it supposedly does not work at this point)

[vorius]

Damn, I'm so disappointed. I really liked SageTV and I was looking forward to upgrading my home setup now with 2 more HD extenders... now it's all gone. And nothing good to replace it.

I am disappointed in Google for dumping us and for the SageTV execs who agreed to this buyout and abandoned us.

[tvmaster2]

so it's been two months since a post from Narflex (from what I can see).
are the clouds getting darker?
the price of extenders on ebay is dropping....

edit: wow - that was fast

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by tvmaster2

so it's been two months since a post from Narflex (from what I can see).
are the clouds getting darker?
the price of extenders on ebay is dropping....

edit: wow - that was fast

What was fast?

[tvmaster2]

netflix goes from $70 to $300 and back to $70's again, all in a few months. That's how fickle the world of streaming is. are you listening, Google? Broadcast/Cable still here - still rolling along...

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by tvmaster2

netflix goes from $70 to $300 and back to $70's again, all in a few months. That's how fickle the world of streaming is. are you listening, Google? Broadcast/Cable still here - still rolling along...

I guess that's one way to look at it. But:

$822 million in revenue. (49% higher than 2010)
$62 million in income. (63% higher than 2010)

Earnings per share exceeded Wall Street expectations by 20%

And they thought they were going to lose 1 million subscribers for the quarter but only lost 800,000.

Did they make mistakes-sure. But they made mucho money. And the game continues to change.

Gerry

[tvmaster2]

Originally Posted by gplasky

I guess that's one way to look at it. But:

$822 million in revenue. (49% higher than 2010)
$62 million in income. (63% higher than 2010)

Earnings per share exceeded Wall Street expectations by 20%

And they thought they were going to lose 1 million subscribers for the quarter but only lost 800,000.

Did they make mistakes-sure. But they made mucho money. And the game continues to change.

Gerry

funny, I thought I heard on CNBC that projected subs were WAY down, lower than expected. Nothing like the media to send conflicting messages eh? lol. Either way, a 35% drop in one day doesn't usually indicate much good
I dropped them in January due to a rate hike; wrote them a letter explaining why and all I got back were promotions to sign back up again.
Guess I wasn't alone.
But if we were to take your data as gospel, we'd all be pretty stupid to not buy a s#$%load of this stock, today! What do you know about Coinstar?

[toony]

I have to say that I'm getting more upset with each passing month. I keep coming back here to see if there is anything from the sagoogle people but nothing. Narflex hasn't posted here in 2 months.

Quite disheartening.

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by toony

I have to say that I'm getting more upset with each passing month. I keep coming back here to see if there is anything from the sagoogle people but nothing. Narflex hasn't posted here in 2 months.

Quite disheartening.

What date did your system stop functioning?

[sleonard]

Originally Posted by toony

I have to say that I'm getting more upset with each passing month. I keep coming back here to see if there is anything from the sagoogle people but nothing. Narflex hasn't posted here in 2 months.

Quite disheartening.

He added me to Google+ Circles last week out of the blue so he's keeping some sort of tabs on things/people from here.

I suspect that the reason that they said guide date would be continued for at least a year was that a year was the estimated time frame to produce the Sagoogle TV integration. I don't expect to hear much from them until next May or June.

S

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by sleonard

He added me to Google+ Circles last week out of the blue so he's keeping some sort of tabs on things/people from here.

I suspect that the reason that they said guide date would be continued for at least a year was that a year was the estimated time frame to produce the Sagoogle TV integration. I don't expect to hear much from them until next May or June.

S

More likely the year was the length of time they could convince the beancounters commit to continue paying for it. They had to support the recently sold HD300's for at least the warranty period anyways. Thats not to say they won't continue paying for years to come - just depends on who's making the decisions.

[tvmaster2]

SageTV was kinda like Steve Jobs: genius, frustrating, brilliant, and now dead. We won't see anything like them again in our lifetime, but we'll be able to tell other generations that "we remember when ..... "

[toony]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

What date did your system stop functioning?

funny

[toony]

Originally Posted by sleonard

He added me to Google+ Circles last week out of the blue so he's keeping some sort of tabs on things/people from here.

I suspect that the reason that they said guide date would be continued for at least a year was that a year was the estimated time frame to produce the Sagoogle TV integration. I don't expect to hear much from them until next May or June.

S

Is there a Sagetv circle going on?

[sleonard]

Originally Posted by toony

Is there a Sagetv circle going on?

Right here.

S

[Skirge01]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

What date did your system stop functioning?

10/2

[korben_dallas]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

What date did your system stop functioning?

You poke fun, and I realize it's not that big of a deal, but..

There are valid reasons to be concerned about sinking (more) money into a SageTV system.

I have held off purchasing a new TV, largely in part because of my client dilemma. If nothing comes of SageTV by 2Q 2012, I'll probably move to a dual cablecard Windows Media Center and get an Xbox for an extender. It's a few steps forward on some things and one step back on others, and of course my preference would be to see SageTV marching forward. But right now, the music is not playing and the band is no where to be found.