Google Fiber - my experience w what's left of SageTV

[Brent]

I've failed to do anything on my blog for a long while so in the meantime will post a few thoughts here from a SageTV users in case anyone is interested.

I am definitely sad to see this community dwindle. While I am one of the fortunate ones able to use the part of SageTV that Google is actually utilizing right now, it is largely slimmed-down from what you and I were used to in terms of flexibility and functionality to say the least.

That being said, I understand the team's situation. They have their hands very full trying to keep up with a massive increase in user base - a user base that isn't nearly as technologically able as this community is/was. They are also keeping the feature-set limited in ways to keep the content providers happy enough as they grow. You should see some of the crazy questions/posts from the Google Fiber groups pages. Their groups page is really hard to take after years of reading/posting on these SageTV forums.

I have two Google Fiber TV boxes and a Network Box (the Server if you will). They work very, very well and deliver to me every channel in basically uncompressed HD goodness. It has Netflix, YouTube, Vudu and VOD built in and a universal search that works across all of the above.

What it doesn't do:
* No video server (movies etc) capabilities - unless you copy said video file onto the network/server box. I now use Plex & Chromecast for much of my movie stuff.
* No web app to see your guide, tv recordings etc
* iOS and Android app is quite good, but crippled so that you can't watch recorded content on your device and can't even use outside of your home network.
* No more plugins
* Customization is at a minimum
* Only four TV boxes allowed in a single home. A strange requirement to me even though I don't need more than that anymore.
* On the content side of things I think the lineup is quite good, but HBO does not include HBOgo for some reason. Also no AMC channel is a problem for some.

As far as the internet part of Google Fiber goes, my experience has been nothing short of wonderful. I occasionally read the "you don't need that much bandwidth" but it sure is nice to have it when you want it. I do a lot of high-bandwidth work from home and stream a lot of video and do some serious upload/download stuff as well and having that much bandwidth with almost no loss during the day and night is just awesome.

One thing that has really surprised me is how responsive and just plain good the customer service has been with Google Fiber. I live in a condo where all of the residents have switched to Google Fiber and those of us who have called or emailed for support have all had a very good experience. Not something I expected from Google really.

I believe Google will continue pushing the expansion of Google Fiber to more and more cities. They just hired a new head of Google Fiber from Qualcomm and I see that move as a sign this is a business for them and not just an experiment.
http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2014/09/...-google-fiber/

Anyone have questions for me? I'll try to answer anything I can.