It's Time to Say Goodbye

[NetworkGuy]

After over 10 years, I have shut down SageTV. A number of factors lead to this decision.

I did a review of what we were watching with some surprising results:

• 65% - OTA broadcast channels (CBS, NBC, ABC, FOX, CW, etc.)
• 30% - Streaming services (Prime, Disney+, etc.)
• 5% - Cable channels (Bravo, SyFy, USA, etc.)

Then Xfinity raised my cable bill by $40 a month which made me realize that I could get most stations for free with an OTA antenna.

Also, I felt I was spending too much time ensuring that SageTV kept working (i.e. old plugins not supported, patches for transcoding, Windows updates, java dependencies, etc.). And if something did break, the resolution was in days, not hours. (No disrespect to the people supporting SageTV, you have done a fantastic job keeping it running in your spare time, but I wanted dedicated support.)

Finally, SageTV did not and would never support any streaming services.

Here is my new setup:

MEDIA SOURCES:

OTA – it took a while, but I finally found an antenna that lets me receive 83 broadcast channels. I replaced my HRHomeRun Primes with a HDHomeRun Quatro.

Cable Channels – I added a subscription to SlingTV Blue for $35 a month for 84 channels

Streaming Services – I have subscriptions to Amazon Prime and Disney Plus. I add subscriptions to other services for a month when I find a completed series I want to record.

SOFTWARE

Plex – is used as my library for all movies and TV series that I want to keep permanently.

AnyStream – downloads from the following streaming services: Amazon Prime, Netflix, Disney+, Hulu, HBOMax

PlayOn (Desktop/Cloud) – Used to record any shows that I might have missed or from other streaming services: Peacock, Paramount, Discovery +, etc.

ChannelsDVR – This is my new SageTV. I use it to record and watch and delete. It works great remotely and has a dedicated support team. (Bug fixes are often released in hours.) The best part is that it allows me to incorporate some non on-demand streaming services. You can record or watch live from OTA (HDHomeRun), Sling TV (TVE login), Pluto TV and other sources. (You also have the ability to add your own source.) It also supports multiple import directories for local content. (AnySteam and PlayOn Desktop record to these directories.)

In summary, ChannelsDVR is a single source for everything we want to watch. It is only $80 a year and they are constantly improving the service. For example: when LOCAST went out of business, they added Locals via a TVE subscription. SageTV was a major improvement over the Tivo’s I used before. ChannelsDVR seems to be the next step in the evolution of home DVRs.

I will stop in from time-to-time to see how everyone is doing. Thanks for a fantastic 10+ years.