SageTv 2.2 review in June Computer Shopper

[waynedunham]

There's a half-page review of SageTv 2.2 in the June 2005 issue of Computer Shopper which just arrived in my mailbox today.

It rated a 7.5 (out of 10). In the highlight capsule the Pros were:

Records TV on your PC; user friendly interface; program controls digital photos, music, video

Cons were:

Buggy installation procedure; no phone support

They had a problem with the installation requiring an Email to tech support which I'm sure is why they gave those two items in the cons column.

Overall they gave a pretty favorable review of it. However in a half page review with a screenshot and the highlights column they didn't go into a lot of detail and only hit the highlights.

[Jere_Jones]

My dad complained about the same thing: no phone support.

Of course, I ended up BEING his phone support!

Jere

[Kanati]

I am disliking the no phone support as well... I just ordered a PVR250, UIRT, remote and sage 2.2 today and had to jump through email hoops to get it ordered... And now, though I've paid for overnight SATURDAY delivery... The tracking number shows just overnight which is going to delay my order until monday. And since I changed the shipping address to my home address, I'm going to have to take the day off (or half a day maybe) so I can be at home for the delivery to arrive. So far, I'm not real happy with anything other than the software itself which I've used at a couple of friends' houses.

[Crashless]

I can see how the lack of phone support can be frustrating for new users. It is something that a lot of companies have now a days.

My web host doesn't have phone support either, but they do have a Service Chat, that allows real-time chat with a support tech. That might be a viable solution.

The issue ultimately becomes finances, IMO I would much rather stay with the current support offerings (email and this community, which probably yields better results than most companies' tech support lines) as long as free upgrades stays standard. If I had to choose between free upgrades and phone support, I would choose free upgrades every day of the week.

[korben_dallas]

Originally Posted by Crashless

If I had to choose between free upgrades and phone support, I would choose free upgrades every day of the week.

10-4 on that one!

[dbfresh23]

No phone support?

Would you rather call MS and pay their crazy rates for phone support from someone you can't even understand? Would you all be happy if SageTV went the MS route and setup a 900 number that charges $50/hr for support from a tech in India that has never even heard of NTSC, very doubtful.

As the open source community has demonstrated over the years, online support via things like email, bbs, and forums like what we have here can be just as good as phone support.

Providing support for SageTV is also something that would be more complex because there's so many different combinations of things that can happen - cable, sat, pvr150, xcard, serial or usb control, etc. If instead of selling software, SageTV was sold as a complete system like Tivo then maybe phone support would be feasible.

I'm pretty happy with this community support system rather then listening to someone I cannot understand reading from a flow chart. If you really require a great deal of support then you probably belong using something less advanced like a Tivo or Replay (not trying to insulte anyone here).

[Kanati]

first off... my tracking number now seems to reflect correctly... I should get my hardware tomorrow...

and secondly... that's a poor argument db. I wouldn't hold the open source community up as a shining beacon of anything. I personally dislike buying a product where I can't call someone and talk to them about billing, purchasing, support, etc... But I do understand that in some cases it probably isn't feasible financially for it to happen. It doesn't, however, mean I have to like it just because I understand it. If I really felt strongly about needing tech support via phone I wouldn't have purchased sage in the first place. I did. So obviously I feel the quality of the software is enough that it offsets their not having a phone number I can contact (I DO have a fax number now though... muahahahahaha...)

Anyway... it's a gripe. It's not a show stopper.

[pawn]

First, the article sounds suspiciously similar to the CNET review posted in the Announcements/Sage TV in the News article. I personally wish they hadn't used the phrase "buggy" installation, which to me implies a lot of problems with the install. I've never had any installation issues, and I certainly wouldn't call the install "buggy". The author doesn't really explain what the root problem was, so a reader will just take it at face value, but for all we know, it was a driver issue, or whatever.

Second, the support I've received from Sage (formely Frey ) has been far superior to any phone support I've ever suffered through. In fact, I would say in general, email support is superior to phone support.