Changing to Gemstone

[crawfofd]

I have been using sagetv for about 5 years and I have always used the standard system. I am now moving to the OS version of Sage and wanted to move to Gemstone. Before I do I would like to know a couple of things.
1. Does Gemstone work in Sage v9 OS
and
2. Will Gemstone be supported in Sage v9 OS

Thanks for any help anyone can give me.

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by crawfofd

I have been using sagetv for about 5 years and I have always used the standard system. I am now moving to the OS version of Sage and wanted to move to Gemstone. Before I do I would like to know a couple of things.
1. Does Gemstone work in Sage v9 OS
and
2. Will Gemstone be supported in Sage v9 OS

Thanks for any help anyone can give me.

Yes, to both.

[tvmaster2]

having never used a skin other than the factory-look, is there any advantage to Gemstone other than visual?

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by tvmaster2

having never used a skin other than the factory-look, is there any advantage to Gemstone other than visual?

For me, it really has to do with organization and fanart. Gemstone provides the concepts of "flows" which allow you to better organize your content. So for me, my main TV view is a list of unwatched shows, grouped by show name, showing only unwatched tv shows. Because Gemstone uses the Phoenix views under the hood, a "show" can be something your recorded, or ripped, etc.

Similarly for movies, I tend to use a default view that just shows me the unwatched movies that I've added to my system, and a Movie, can be something I've record, or ripped, etc.

So, in addition to organization, you'll also get banners, backgrounds, posters, etc. Which, you can also get in the default STV if you add the appropriate plugins.

Gemstone also offers the concept of Widgets. So you can configure your landing screen to show current details weather information, and upcoming recording, etc. Not sure what other widgets it has, since those are the only 2 I use

[crawfofd]

Thanks for the quick response Stuckless, I am loading Gemstone now.

tvmaster2, Just to let you know the reason I want to move to Gemstone is for the flexibility you have. I also like the ability to have more of a visual look.

[jusjoken]

In addition to what Stuckless said.... the only temporary concern with using Gemstone with SageTV 9 is that the existing plugin is based on the SageTV 7 STV and NOT the SageTV 9 STV. There is "little" different between those at this time BUT there were some changes made in the past few months to the version 9 default STV that will not be in Gemstone until we release Gemstone2 which is currently in progress.

I doubt you will notice these changes but just pointing it out.

k

[jusjoken]

Originally Posted by tvmaster2

having never used a skin other than the factory-look, is there any advantage to Gemstone other than visual?

Custom weather screens with 3 providers to chose from.

Widgets for the Main Menu - weather, system status, various lists of recordings, recommendations, heap monitor etc.

Built in custom menu manager (based on the no longer supported ADM)

Custom backgrounds including optional weather backgrounds

Actively being developed . Movie collections and system warnings for missing episodes as well as other new features coming soon in Gemstone2

k

[wayner]

I was a diehard SageMC user but I went to Diamond and then Gemstone and I think it is great. You can customize your menus quite easily and use a few different ways of presenting information. I have a lot of kids content some under TV I have a Kids' TV and under Movies I have a Kids' Movies. If you have lots of extenders (like I do) it is easy to save the setup from one extender and load it into all of your other extenders.

For TV the shows I use a banner view that allows the kids to easily find their shows and I use a Wall View for movies so you just see a few dozen movie posters.

If I remember correctly the original Sage UI your video library content is still sorted by folders. With Gemstone where the file is stored is irrelevant - all that matters is the metadata. I found this disconcerting at first but it makes way more sense once you get used to it.

[KryptoNyte]

Originally Posted by jusjoken

Custom weather screens with 3 providers to chose from.

And with one of those weather providers being WeatherUnderground, you can have your Sage startup screen not only showing the weather, but you can dial it in to show your own weather station.

[wayner]

Originally Posted by KryptoNyte

...you can dial it in to show your own weather station.

I resemble that remark!