SageTV v2.2 Manual: Info, Corrections, and Feedback

[Opus4]

I know I commented on this as a reply in a thread asking about a manual, but here's more detail:

The SageTV v3.0 User's Guide is now available for download. (Right click on that link & choose "Save Target As...", at least using IE 6 in XP Pro.) This is a 240+ page PDF covering all parts of SageTV, including: installation, a Quick Start guide describing some of the basic features, all the menus, the Setup Wizard and configuration options, the playback displays and controls, and all commands SageTV can use. In addition, several appendices cover such information as properties settings, where files are saved & when they are deleted, remote controls and IR receiver/transmitter options, among other extras.

The User's Guide is completely cross-referenced, with internal hyperlinks allowing you to immediately jump to another part of the manual that is referenced on the page you are currently reading. Example: if a menu's description says a button jumps to another menu, that description will contain a link to the next menu. After following any links, simply use Adobe Reader's "Previous View" to return to your original location. "Previous View" and "Next View" are located at the bottom of the Adobe Reader window, to the far right of the page number display.

Check it out.

Edit: The above link was updated for the v3.0 manual. See chapter 8 for a list of changes and new information in the manual.

Note: The SageTV and SageTVClient v3.0 installation files now contain this complete manual. You will only need to download the manual separately if you have not yet installed SageTV and wish to review the manual first.


- Andy

[salsbst]

For those of you who don't know it, Opus4 (aka Andy) wrote this beast. A lot of hard work went into making it a great resource.

Congrats and THANK YOU!

[mightyt]

Andy ... Your finger must hurt because you're given my printer a workout ...

As always ... nice work ...

T.

[Opus4]

Thanks.

For any possible future updates, I would be interested in hearing whether there are any omissions or parts that are not clear. I won't promise to make all changes, but errors really ought to be fixed. The long-time users around here who are quite familiar with SageTV may not find the manual so useful, but I would like to help clear up details for new users, if I can.

- Andy

[jominor]

Originally Posted by Opus4

Thanks.

- Andy

It looks very good. The delete order, property files, the command-line stuff.
Heck, you even include the SendMessage utility.

This is strong stuff!

Excellent job!

[IVB]

Well I for one, am very upset by this news.

Between this & the forum, I now have no one but myself to blame when I can't get something to work.

(Thanks, great job. )

[mls]

Opus4 -

I haven't had a change to look thru everything real close, but in a quick scan thru of the commands section I found the descriptions for Aspect Ratio 4x3 and Aspect Ratio Source are reversed. Minor mix up.

I know you put a lot of work into this, but since it is such a large amount of information, it's easy to have made a few typos here and there. I'll let you know if I find anything else (assuming I actually get time to read thru the whole thing top to bottom).

Otherwise, great job

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by mls

in a quick scan thru of the commands section I found the descriptions for Aspect Ratio 4x3 and Aspect Ratio Source are reversed.

Thanks -- I see it & know how that happened. Actually, it is worse than that -- 16x9 is listed as using 4x3 ratio everywhere. Oops!

I figured I would put in a few "unimportant" things like that to see if anyone actually read the thing... You win this one! As a bonus, you can now download another copy of the manual completely free! (I spoke with Frey & they are going to allow me to pass out such bonuses!)

Edit: Uh... in case anyone reads too quickly, I said the _manual_, not SageTV.

- Andy

[VorpalBlade]

As a new user, this has saved me a ton of time. Thanks for a well thought out manual. Your effort shows!

[jphhughes]

I have tried to download the manual without success. Using your suggested method of saving as target I get the file downloaded to disk but when I try to open it I get error message saying acrobat cannot decrypt file. IF I try just a regular download by clicking on file I get an empty file. Any suggestions would be apprciated.

[salsbst]

what version of acrobat are you using?

[Opus4]

What version of Adobe Reader are you using? You may need version 6.

Edit: Oops, I guess I was a little too late. Oh well, I 'll leave this since it has a link to the download site for Adobe Reader.

- Andy

[jphhughes]

Thanks that was the problem . I was using version 4 upgraded to 6 and all is well.

[mightyt]

Hey Andy ...

FYI ... Think I found a User Guide oops ... P. 31 ... Under "Group by" ... Screen Shoot on the right shows "Catagory" ... Bullet Text to the left dosn't ...

T.

[Opus4]

Thanks -- someone sent me a note about that one already, so it will be fixed in the next version.

- Andy

[Opus4]

In case anyone hasn't noticed: the 2.1 SageTV and SageTVClient installations now place a copy of the full manual in your SageTV directory.

As before, if there are errors, ommissions, etc., please let me know.

- Andy

[kny3twalker]

Thanls for the well presented manual
I have not read completely through the new additions for 2.1 but looks nice ever since 2.0

[Opus4]

Here is a v2.1 change that did not make it into the manual:

The seeker/library_import_filename_extensions property is no longer used (p. 179 of the v2.1 manual); instead, it has been replaced by these three similar properties:

seeker/picture_library_import_filename_extensions
seeker/music_library_import_filename_extensions
seeker/video_library_import_filename_extensions

Their use should be pretty obvious, espcially if you look at your current properties file.

- Andy

[Opus4]

A couple more properties that didn't make it into the manual:

power_management_wait_time - time in milliseconds between SageTV state checks, where the state of SageTV is determined and the system's power management state is adjusted accordingly. (i.e.: if sleeping, allow screen saver/monitor power off; if not recording + sleeping, allow standby.)

power_management_wakeup_preroll - time in milliseconds that SageTV should schedule the system to wake up before it needs to perform an operation. (i.e.: before a scheduled recording is to start.)

The wait_time probably wouldn't need to be updated, but if your system takes a long time to wake from standby, you may find it useful to increase the wakeup_preroll time.

SageTV's PM feature cannot be disabled -- it simply automatically makes use of your system's PM settings.

- Andy

[Opus4]

Another v2.1 manual correction...

The manual states that the music library will load thumbnails only from an image embedded in the mp3 file, as was the case with previous versions of SageTV. However, just like the video library, albums can use external images for their thumbnails. You can use: folder.jpg OR <music filename>.jpg (and other image types listed on p82 of the v2.1 manual) stored in the same directory as the music files.

If you use <music filename>.jpg, it will use the thumbnail for the first song it finds on the album (sorted by track number), as it is a Album thumbnail, not a song thumbnail.

- Andy