Wishlist for SageTV?

[wayner]

Is there a list of things that people would like to see changed on SageTV? It might be nice to see what people would most like to see changed/updated. Some things may be possible, and some things may not.

Here are a few things that I would like to see (and I am probably missing some obvious stuff and there are some things on this list that I may be the only one who cares about):

1. 64 bit Windows version.
2. Fix placeshifting for 1080i content.
3. Improved web UI that merges BMT with the current web UI.
4. Fix some Fanart bugs (allow different Fanart for multiple movies with the same name from different years, etc).
5. Update compression codecs.
6. Improvements in the SageTV UI (maybe this falls under the Gemstone2 project).
7. iOS client.
8. Integration with streaming services like Netflix, Amazon, etc (may not be possible).
9. Any changes necessary to support 4K content/capture devices and/or 4K UI.
10. Any changes necessary to support HEVC/H.265 codec.
11. Support for multiple zones of USB-UIRT on Linux (maybe not really a SageTV issue).
12. ARM client for Raspberry Pi, etc.
13. Management of extenders (and other hardware clients) from web UI.
14. Support for multiple servers - syncing of folders, sharing of load.
15. Integration of SJQ into core of SageTV.

[poto]

>>>>10. Any changes necessary to support HEVC/H.265 codec.

For those still using HDx00 extenders, would be great to have SageTV server transcode HEVC/H.265 to extender-supported playback format.

[wayner]

Originally Posted by poto

>>>>10. Any changes necessary to support HEVC/H.265 codec.

For those still using HDx00 extenders, would be great to have SageTV server transcode HEVC/H.265 to extender-supported playback format.

Great example - I wonder how much of a load that would put on the CPU. And would showing 4K content on a 1080p device, like an extender, also require transcoding? Or can the TV just scale it to size?

[Taddeusz]

Intel, Nvidia, & AMD GPU hardware acceleration for transcoding video.

[wayner]

Originally Posted by Taddeusz

Intel, Nvidia, & AMD GPU hardware acceleration for transcoding video.

Yes, that would be useful. But those of us who have servers for SageTV rather than HTPCs are less likely to have video cards so then Intel QuickSync would be the most used of the three.

[Taddeusz]

Originally Posted by wayner

Yes, that would be useful. But those of us who have servers for SageTV rather than HTPCs are less likely to have video cards so then Intel QuickSync would be the most used of the three.

This past weekend I changed some hardware around after lots of previous consideration. My server was running Core 2 era hardware, dual Xeon L5430's with 24GB of fully buffered DDR2. It is now running on an Ivy Bridge i5 3470 with 16GB DDR3. I reconfigured my unRAID installation to load the i915 module and made the necessary changes to my Plex docker container and it is now able to run with Quick Sync acceleration.

The single quad core i5 3470 is roughly the same in performance to the dual quad core Xeons. Plus I get the added benefit of Quick Sync for Plex streaming. It ended up being a pretty good swap.

This is actually now our most powerful "desktop" machine. I actually run a lxde docker in unRAID so I can remote to it through VNC to perform most desktop related tasks with it. I also discovered that there were MakeMKV and MKVToolnix docker images for unRAID so with the BD drive I pulled from the now unused desktop I can do all ripping from the single machine. Those along with the Handbrake docker image I was already using.

[wayner]

This is getting a bit OT - but I take it that lxde is essentially an Ubuntu desktop in docker form? What is the advantage of that vs running an Ubuntu VM on your unRAID server, which is what I do? I then RDP into it from Windows PC as I installed XRDP on it.

And how does the Handbrake docker interact with SageTV? Do you run a nightly batch or have you integrated this Handbrake docker into an SJQ process or something like that?

[wayner]

Thought of another item:

Docker container version of the SageTV PlaceShifter UI (to do everything except playback files, unless that is easy to do) that would run in a browser or RDP/VNC session.

[Taddeusz]

Originally Posted by wayner

This is getting a bit OT - but I take it that lxde is essentially an Ubuntu desktop in docker form? What is the advantage of that vs running an Ubuntu VM on your unRAID server, which is what I do? I then RDP into it from Windows PC as I installed XRDP on it.

And how does the Handbrake docker interact with SageTV? Do you run a nightly batch or have you integrated this Handbrake docker into an SJQ process or something like that?

Sorry for diverging so much from the intended topic. I'll try and keep my reply short.

For me the advantage is less maintenance and it has access to all the storage, CPU, and memory that the full unRAID system has. It's not limited by the constraints of whatever the settings on the VM are. It's also lower footprint since it's not actually a full Ubuntu install. I have mine customized for my personal needs so there are some developer tools in there but if you want to take a look it is Here: https://github.com/jason-bean/docker-ubuntu-vnc-desktop and on my Docker Hub. Though I don't have a publicly accessible unRAID template.

I sometimes use Handbrake for my ripping tool chain. I don't use it directly in conjunction with SageTV. BTW, the Linux Handbrake doesn't yet have QS acceleration, not that QS has high enough quality for me in that regard.

[wayner]

Thanks - despite using it for over a year I still don't totally understand how dockers work. But they seem to have a bunch of limitations - like nano may not be available or you get command not found when trying to install something with apt-get.

I was playing around with Docker versions of some things, like Apache, when I decided to just do the stuff in a full Ubuntu VM. I spent too much time trying to trace down things that "just work" in a regular install. Like in Apache I wanted to be able to execute Python code by hitting a specific URL. But Python isn't in the Apache docker and I couldn't figure out how to configure Apache to execute Python scripts in the docker version.

And when you start to get a lot of different dockers then you start getting into port mapping hell as you have to remember what ports you are using for each docker. That is why I am really looking forward to 6.4 so I can give each docker its own IP address. The only issue is that I may run out of addresses in a /24 subnet.

[KarylFStein]

My biggest ask is getting Placeshifter up to a modern playback engine, (and hopefully making it so future upgrades will be easier i.e. little or no custom code needed in the library.

Not a SageTV issue, but having an Android client be able to play back Comcast streams with 5.1 audio without me having to transcode the files .

[tvmaster2]

seeing the Hauppauge tuners, mainly the HD-PVR and the Colossus, are the only way to get set-top material recorded, I guess that will never change? I mean once those two devices get outdated, then what?

[peternm22]

Originally Posted by tvmaster2

seeing the Hauppauge tuners, mainly the HD-PVR and the Colossus, are the only way to get set-top material recorded, I guess that will never change? I mean once those two devices get outdated, then what?

There are a bunch of network based encoders that people have been using (these accept HDMI, but only do stereo sound). More info here: https://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=63177

I have two of the BM3000 devices and they have been rock solid reliable for me capturing HDMI from my Shaw Direct receivers. My only complaint is they do degrade the picture quality slightly (other people have mentioned they don't notice a difference).

[wayner]

Originally Posted by tvmaster2

seeing the Hauppauge tuners, mainly the HD-PVR and the Colossus, are the only way to get set-top material recorded, I guess that will never change? I mean once those two devices get outdated, then what?

As long as you can still get boxes with Component outputs those should not be obsolete - unless not having 4K makes it obsolete. But some of those BM1000/BM3000 devices are starting to come out that can capture 4K. The only problem is that I am not sure that these things are legal as they break or ignore HDCP.

[tvmaster2]

Originally Posted by wayner

As long as you can still get boxes with Component outputs those should not be obsolete - unless not having 4K makes it obsolete. But some of those BM1000/BM3000 devices are starting to come out that can capture 4K. The only problem is that I am not sure that these things are legal as they break or ignore HDCP.

oh yeah, forgot about the component. Better grab a used Shaw Direct 600 series as a backup. I don’t think I’d use Sage much if it couldn’t record 5.1 audio, so those BM devices wouldn’t work for me. My cable company still has a Cisco set top with component and 1394 out, so that’s good. I’m not worried about 4k, my eyes aren’t good enough...lol.

[tvmaster2]

Originally Posted by peternm22

There are a bunch of network based encoders that people have been using (these accept HDMI, but only do stereo sound). More info here: https://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=63177

I have two of the BM3000 devices and they have been rock solid reliable for me capturing HDMI from my Shaw Direct receivers. My only complaint is they do degrade the picture quality slightly (other people have mentioned they don't notice a difference).

I capture everything at 720p just in case I need to use Placeshifter, and even on a 55” Samsung, it’s never bothered us, quality wise. I set the boxes to output that way to the Hauppauge devices.

[wayner]

Originally Posted by tvmaster2

I capture everything at 720p just in case I need to use Placeshifter,...

You wouldn't have to do this if item # 2 were fixed

[tvmaster2]

Originally Posted by wayner

You wouldn't have to do this if item # 2 were fixed

it’s a trickle-down effect...

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by wayner

1. Any changes necessary to support 4K content/capture devices and/or 4K UI.
2. Any changes necessary to support HEVC/H.265 codec.

Like madVR?

[Zogg]

As a newish SageTV user, here is my wish list:

1. Disable a tuner without jumping through hoops

[this was incredibly simple in BeyondTV]

2. While playing back a video, simply type a number to jump to that position in minutes

[i.e. type 34 and it jumps to playback at 34 minutes, rather than stopping your video playback and going to channel 34]

3. Way to get system messages emailed or texted to me

[apparently there have been plugins to do this but they are unsupported/out of date now]

I'm on V9 latest version and open to suggestions. Again being newish it's still very hard at times to dig information out of the forums and wikia and know if it applies to the open source version or not.