Open Source FAQ Discussion

[turak]

Originally Posted by Opus4

For Linux users: are the steps really any different?

Thanks.

Andy

From my experience it depends if you are doing a 64bit build or a 32bit build. For 32bit, I installed V7 and dropped in the Sage.jar and lucene-core jar from your windows install FAQ. Then I modified the startup scripts to not require a license key.

For 64bit you need to install the 64bit .tar.gz and 64bit .deb. Instead of installing V7, but the rest is pretty much the same.

I would definitely include a warning about the 64bit version. It seemed pretty stable for me when I was just using my HDHomeRun's for OTA recording. Things went south quickly when I added my HDPVR to the mix. SageTV would crash when it tried to use external tuner plugins and when it would stop a HDPRV recording.

[wayner]

Originally Posted by turak

I would definitely include a warning about the 64bit version. It seemed pretty stable for me when I was just using my HDHomeRun's for OTA recording. Things went south quickly when I added my HDPVR to the mix. SageTV would crash when it tried to use external tuner plugins and when it would stop a HDPRV recording.

What were you trying to use for tuning? It wasn't firewire was it?

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by wayner

Can you currently use an HD200 or HD300 to connect to a Sage V9 server? I don't think you can. That will make it hard for me to move to V9 as I have 9 extenders to replace.

Of course you can use an extender to connect to a v9 server -- lots of people, including me, are doing so.

Andy

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by turak

From my experience it depends if you are doing a 64bit build or a 32bit build. For 32bit, I installed V7 and dropped in the Sage.jar and lucene-core jar from your windows install FAQ. Then I modified the startup scripts to not require a license key.

For 64bit you need to install the 64bit .tar.gz and 64bit .deb. Instead of installing V7, but the rest is pretty much the same.

I would definitely include a warning about the 64bit version. It seemed pretty stable for me when I was just using my HDHomeRun's for OTA recording. Things went south quickly when I added my HDPVR to the mix. SageTV would crash when it tried to use external tuner plugins and when it would stop a HDPRV recording.

If someone wants to write up a FAQ post for a Linux install, I'll be happy to include it. As you mentioned, including comments for 32 bit and 64 bit would be nice.

Andy

[turak]

I was trying to use GenericTunerPlugin, but it would also core dump immediately if I tried to select firewire.

I was able to use the GenericTunerPlugin.so with a external test program provided by stuckless, but SageTV would crash if it tried to use it.

[wayner]

Awesome - I thought that you would require V9 specific firmware. Will there be any shortcomings in the future as new functionality is added. I assume one would be that they won't support playback resolutions higher than 1080p - I assume that in the future Sage V9 will likely support 4K video (or even higher).

[turak]

Originally Posted by Opus4

Of course you can use an extender to connect to a v9 server -- lots of people, including me, are doing so.

Andy

I'm using an HD200 and an HD300 with V9. I haven't seen any issues that aren't also effecting my Windows Client.

[wayner]

Originally Posted by turak

I was trying to use GenericTunerPlugin, but it would also core dump immediately if I tried to select firewire.

I was able to use the GenericTunerPlugin.so with a external test program provided by stuckless, but SageTV would crash if it tried to use it.

I know on Windows that 64 bit firewire drivers do not exist - I am guessing that this may also be the case with Linux. So when it comes to Windows if you want to use a 64 bit OS then you can't use firewire for tuning.

[Opus4]

OK -- there is now a new FAQ post regarding what types of systems SageTV can be installed on and what can be used for video playback.

Note: I don't use Linux, so if there are mistakes in any comments about Linux, please let me know.

Andy

[Tiki]

Originally Posted by wayner

Awesome - I thought that you would require V9 specific firmware. Will there be any shortcomings in the future as new functionality is added. I assume one would be that they won't support playback resolutions higher than 1080p - I assume that in the future Sage V9 will likely support 4K video (or even higher).

The developers have stated that they intend to maintain backwards compatibility with all the extenders (including the old MediaMVPs) for the foreseeable future. Because of the way the extenders work, it shouldn't be too difficult to make sure they continue to work:

All the back-end server stuff and most of the UI stuff is handled by the server. The extender tells the server what formats it is capable of decoding natively. If the extender is capable of decoding it, the server will stream the unaltered file to the extender. If the extender is not capable, the server will automatically transcode to a format that it does support (if it can).

This is why even the old MediaMVP's continue to work (they can't display HD content, but you can still play HD recordings - Sage just transcodes them on the fly to a lower resolution MPEG so the MediaMVP can handle them). The same thing can be done with 4K content (none of the current extenders can display 4K), or certain audio formats. The only issue is that transcoding requires a powerful processor in the server.

Since the firmware can no longer be updated in the extenders, it is possible that bugs could be uncovered that won't get fixed - hopefully people will find ways to work around them.

Since the UI stuff is handled in the server, UI's (like Gemstone, or the default Sage interface) and plugins can still be updated to take advantage of new Sage 9+ features and they will work on the old extenders (even though the firmware in the extenders isn't being updated).

[coryking]

I feel there is a few things that aren't addressed in the FAQ that should be:

1. Going forward, what is the role of Narflex and the original SageTV crew? Are they going to be doing active development work? Program/Project/Product Management support? Chilling on the forums and answering questions?

2. What are the expectations for SageTV going forward? Is it expected to take a life of it's own and go wherever the community guides it? Is it expected that somebody will fork it and most of the development work will take place elsewhere?

If the answer to these questions are "we don't really know, we are just winging it", that is a perfectly valid answer, but should be in the FAQ :-)

On a side note, I am very excited to learn that SageTV is finally being open sourced. Our family has been loyal SageTV users for a very, very long time and I truly hope this move breathes new life into the project. There really isn't anything quite like SageTV out there or I would have migrated years ago...

[Narflex]

I'm just answering questions on the forums, approving code changes and submitting code changes (when I know it's something easy to do and I can get it done way faster than others due to my level of SageTV knowledge). I don't plan on doing extensive SageTV development going forward...but am always reading everything in the open source forum and handling any requests that come in from GitHub.

I'm basically waiting to see what kind of development community spawns around SageTV. I gave it 10+ years of my life full time already...so it's time to pass it on to others...but I will always be supportive because of how much I invested in it already (and of course I still use it at home).

[Monedeath]

One possible item for a FAQ is directed towards that are new to developing on SageTV and working with the associated types of media(video/music/pictures).

Recommendations/suggestions on diagnostic tools or other aids that can be used to help them figure out what is going on.

I recall seeing some threads where various tools get brought up from time to time. But that can be a real devil trying to find those posts/referrals, particularly for someone who doesn't know they exist in the first place.

It would be nice to try to get something like that put in one place where people can easily find the information.