Come Back to SageTV - Open Source in "Near" Future

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by stuckless

That's an interesting site...Good to know about it.

When netflix frustratingly shut down their public API last year, they did leave it open for a few partners. canistreamit was one of them (others were NextGuide, Yidio, and Fanhatten).

[samgreco]

Originally Posted by stuckless

I'm ok with a single box that can jump out to each offering, and I think that possible. It would be cool if you could get a search index into each provider so you could search for a movie, and show results from local, netflix, amazon, etc, and then when you selected it, would jump into that specific app. (AndroidTV is close with this, but Netflix still doesn't provide a hook into their search).

This would be my ideal solution short of having everything work inside Sage. And I know that can't happen.

[KryptoNyte]

Is there any way to launch an Internet browser of some sort on an extender? Probably not ... how about launch a browser on the server and view it/control it on the extender?

[KryptoNyte]

What about integrating a little home automation in this thing? No one can get a wifi doorbell working correctly otherwise it seems ...

[sacrament055]

Originally Posted by PLUCKYHD

Does playon even work. I have a lifetime but it was so buggy and crappy I gave up on it years ago. It was very unreliable. (never used sage plugin just playon itself was unreliable.)

Works fairly well but the current plug in only works in SD where some other devices work in 720p so work would be needed to make it better.

[pjpjpjpj]

Originally Posted by KryptoNyte

What about integrating a little home automation in this thing? No one can get a wifi doorbell working correctly otherwise it seems ...

There is currently a plugin for Homeseer, but that's only one of many systems. It would be great if someone could create a "generic" front-end UI that would be compatible with multiple systems, if they all used the same type of signal (i.e., z-wave or whatever). Of course, that would probably require those systems' front ends to be open, I suppose.... and I doubt (m)any are.... Is there a way to "intercept" the signals and at least convert them into generic "digital" (on/off) or "analog" (percentage on/off or open/closed) values that an UI could display?

Seems like everyone and their brother is selling a home automation system these days. Honestly, the only thing keeping me from taking the plunge is not knowing which system to pick... and if any less-expensive one were made Sage-compatible, that would probably be my choice. (Homeseer appears quite pricey)

[bcjenkins]

ecoBee has a nice API too for t-stats

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by KryptoNyte

... how about launch a browser on the server and view it/control it on the extender?

That's pretty much exactly what PlayOn does.

[Skirge01]

Originally Posted by pjpjpjpj

There is currently a plugin for Homeseer, but that's only one of many systems. It would be great if someone could create a "generic" front-end UI that would be compatible with multiple systems, if they all used the same type of signal (i.e., z-wave or whatever). Of course, that would probably require those systems' front ends to be open, I suppose.... and I doubt (m)any are.... Is there a way to "intercept" the signals and at least convert them into generic "digital" (on/off) or "analog" (percentage on/off or open/closed) values that an UI could display?

Seems like everyone and their brother is selling a home automation system these days. Honestly, the only thing keeping me from taking the plunge is not knowing which system to pick... and if any less-expensive one were made Sage-compatible, that would probably be my choice. (Homeseer appears quite pricey)

I could be mistaken, but I believe that the Vera ecosystem has an API which might be able to be leveraged through Sage; it works with all Z-Wave devices.

[wayner]

Originally Posted by Skirge01

I could be mistaken, but I believe that the Vera ecosystem has an API which might be able to be leveraged through Sage; it works with all Z-Wave devices.

Given the prevalence of tablets and smartphones I really don't think you need an interface for it on Sage. HomeKit may do a good job of integrating everything into one place, and many of your IoT devices may not need to be accessed very often and/or integrated into other devices.

I have had a Control4 system for years and while much of this stuff sounds very cool it isn't always that practical, especially if you don't live alone.

[Skirge01]

Originally Posted by wayner

Given the prevalence of tablets and smartphones I really don't think you need an interface for it on Sage. HomeKit may do a good job of integrating everything into one place, and many of your IoT devices may not need to be accessed very often and/or integrated into other devices.

I have had a Control4 system for years and while much of this stuff sounds very cool it isn't always that practical, especially if you don't live alone.

I may agree with that assessment, but I was trying to provide a solution for what pjpjpjpj was describing.

[pjpjpjpj]

I have thought about the practicality of having home automation monitored or controlled within Sage and whether it would really be worth it. In our house we didn't always have a phone or tablet handy so for a while it would have been nice to, say, check and see if we closed the garage door as we are settling into bed. At the time the Homeseer plugin was written, that was probably the case with more people as well. But now we have a tablet that stays in the bedroom and we could always use that (and I imagine most people always have a device nearby these days, moreso than even 5-6 years ago). So I really don't know why I'd need a Sage intregration... we do, in fact, always seem to have some device somewhere nearby.

I suppose it's just my insane desire to have MORE AND MORE in my Sage.

P.S. This also falls under the category of "stuff that could be done in Sage now, even with it not being open source" (see the Homeseer plugin).... but as has been countered, it wasn't done before and this announcement has breathed new life into people doing development.

[dinki]

I've been running Sage for a long while now and I've been running a home automation server for an equal amount of time. I ran Homeseer for many years but recently switched to the open source Ago Control as it allows for easy customization with zero cost.

I tried the Homeseer plugin a while back and while it is functional, I always found myself just using my HA remote controls and smartphone to control things via web interface. I did create a 'button' on SageMC many, many years ago that would shut off the lights in the living room for the night, but again, it's just easier using the remote/phone for these things now.

I'm saying this because I believe that an all inclusive SageTv (Home Automation, Netflix, Hulu, etc) isn't critical to me. I've been using Kodi for a couple of years now and don't have any issue with launching other programs that are specifically designed to interact with other services. In Kodi, this is usually done by going to the 'Programs' menu and launching those apps from there. This may be a more universal option for the SageTV gui if these apps can be controlled via remote control and upon exiting them that you go back to the SageTV gui. Perhaps this can be done already. I'm using Android set top boxes for Kodi.

I'd rather see a solid SageTV client app for Android/IOS/Windows mobile and versions for the Raspberry Pi/Linux instead of trying to make SageTV do everything.

[Gustovier]

Originally Posted by stuckless

When you say "watch Netflix" you literally mean speaking it? I think it would be funny if you were watching a moving on Sage and one of actors said the words, "Watch Netflix" and it just switched you over to Netflix

Lol. It's actually "Xbox one go to Netflix" which isn't really said by mistake.

But as of now this is the only way to get everything on one input. Without much compromise. There's even an Xbox one plex client app but it still needs some work. But I use sage for my tv and stored movies/tv shows. With your BMT app and Phoenix (the original one) I get metadata and eye candy too.

[valnar]

Can the administrators send out an email to all forum users about the open source announcement instead of them happening upon it by chance? Surely one email in 3 years wouldn't be construed as spam?

I'd hate for our best developers to miss it. Yeah, I'm selfish.

[emveepee]

Originally Posted by valnar

Surely one email in 3 years wouldn't be construed as spam?

It is to me, and I report things like that to the Canadian Anti-SPAM group.

Martin

[KryptoNyte]

... and just as soon as he's done with hockey practice, he'll get right on it.

[lesbell]

I just stumbled across the announcement (via Google+) and it's music to my ears. It's an ooportunity to fix compatibility problems with the Australian FreeView OTA EPG, which has caused major problems with scheduling recordings here.

Beyond that, the key requirement has to be to maintain the core, simple and highly-polished PVR/DVR functionality in Sage. Politically-induced bandwidth restrictions in AU mean that streaming is not a high priority, but the ability to easily get OTA and recorded TV to computers and Android devices would immediately multiply the utility of our Sage setup.

I'm a Java/C/C++ coder, albeit with no audio/video streaming expertise, but I'll happily join the effort. I've always treated Sage as a consumer-level, set-and-forget appliance and not dug into the architecture and all the addons, so an early priority would have to be to get to grips with all that and document it.

I reckon that if the core is maintained and documented, and the project brought back to life, everything else will just follow as developers get confidence that it's a platform they can build on.

--- Les

[speck55]

Originally Posted by nyplayer

I wonder if this will mean the end of the EPG data being provided by Google?

Could be, but why? If google owns the EPG or has a mondo large (unlimited?), and it's obvious that Google has gotten what they need from the acquisition, and the SageTV project doesn't represent a cannibalizing threat to their greater commercial goals, why not continue to pass through the savings?

OTOH, and to be fair, they owe us nothing. But if it costs them nothing extra, why not? (This is not to say I wouldn't mind paying a reasonable fee to have the continued "just works" integration without having to have XML this and batch that and blah blah).....

[nyplayer]

Originally Posted by speck55

Could be, but why? If google owns the EPG or has a mondo large (unlimited?), and it's obvious that Google has gotten what they need from the acquisition, and the SageTV project doesn't represent a cannibalizing threat to their greater commercial goals, why not continue to pass through the savings?

OTOH, and to be fair, they owe us nothing. But if it costs them nothing extra, why not? (This is not to say I wouldn't mind paying a reasonable fee to have the continued "just works" integration without having to have XML this and batch that and blah blah).....

If they do it means that anybody can look at the source and use the SageTV free EPG data in their own PVR software. Most of the recording backends are ahead of SAGETV (tuner Support etc..) minus the free EPG data.