SageTV v3.0.3 Beta

[sleonard]

Originally Posted by stanger89

FWIW, Sage also supports HD WMV files (doubt DRM'd files though, I haven't tried). And to my surprise it plays them VERY well, I tried a couple trailers (Specifically the 1080p Halo2, system-killer trailer) and it actaully played mostly stutter free on my 2.4 GHz P4

I haven't tried any HD WMV files yet but it's good to hear Sage plays them well.

Originally Posted by stanger89

Have you tried removing the directory and then re-adding it? Sage will only pick up the folder.jpg when it initially imports the associated file.

That worked. Thanks. I hope I don't have to re-add the directory every time I add a new DVD. Maybe Sage should tweak this functionality a bit.

Originally Posted by stanger89

WMA tags aren't supported yet AFIAK, I mentioned that to Jeff a little while ago.

I was actually hoping that was the case. I'll be patiently waiting for this in a future beta. Hopefully Sage rethinks the Jukebox UI as well since as it is currently kind of clunky if you only have a few albums and nearly unusable if you have a very large collection. Something makes me think there are plenty of others who think so too

Originally Posted by Opus4

BTW, here's a tip: you no longer have to mark your thumbnail images as hidden -- just go to Detailed Setup -> Lib Import Dirs, then choose whether each import dir should be able to import videos, music, and/or pictures. Each dir can import any combination of those media types.

Yeah, I figured out the hidden thing pretty quick. Good tip though.

Originally Posted by Opus4

Oh. I guess I should change that comment about making the thumbnails hidden on p. 94 of the v3 manual...

Page 103 where the manual lists supported file types needs to be updated as well. It still lists only MP3 for music files.

[Morgan111]

I see the Photo Album has had a couple of improvements. You can now change the number of row/columns and there is a 3D Fade transition option. The transition needs a little work. The 4 second default transition time seems awful slow. I tried faster times, but then the transition doesn't seems to flow smoothly. One other problem with the transition is that if you pause the slideshow, it stops on the next frame but it is always partly into a transition. That is the case if you manually advance then as well.

Looking forward to the HDTV support comming up (firewire please!)

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by sleonard

That worked. Thanks. I hope I don't have to re-add the directory every time I add a new DVD. Maybe Sage should tweak this functionality a bit.

If you make sure the folder.jpg is there before Sage finds the media, ie probably make sure to put the folder.jpg in there before you put the media, it should be fine.

But yes, I'd like to se that functionality tweaked.

[LegolasX21E]

Yeah Im Glad the Beta's out but Im recording too much to install. Can Someone post additional screenshots? Thanks!


~LegolasX21E~

[1972]

Originally Posted by Humanzee

Any word on a fix for the PVR-350 End of File problem? I have too much to record this weekend to risk messing with my current install.

Yes, please! Could someone try this one? Some months back Frey support told me they where working on it.....

Originally Posted by LegolasX21E

Yeah Im Glad the Beta's out but Im recording to much to install. Can Someone post additional screenshots? Thanks!
~LegolasX21E~

I'm also looking forward for some screenshots. Has it still the boring user interface?

Also: still no genre sellection for mp3's?

To give you an idea for my first impression: If the 350 EOF problem is not fixed I just stay with 2.2.8 and SageMC... (sorry guys)

[phantomfsoc]

Honestly I'm not crazy about losing Comskip, the Remaining HD space meter, and most of the other tweaks from Cayars STV, but God Dam V3 is just so pretty. I just looks so nice and clean. And I think I almost fainted when I saw how good my recordings looked with the new DX9 support. I had given up on quality a long time ago but now I'm in love with my HDTV set again. For just that reason I can't downgrade back to 2.2. I'll live with the Bugs for now. And if the SAGE MODDING GURU's read this... Pump us out an STV than gives us the stuff we all miss but still has the look of V3.... PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE!!!!

[Opus4]

BTW: a few marker icons got skipped for the installation file -- see the first post of this thread to downlod a zip file w/the icons. They are not critical, but they make the LiveTV Guide a little more informative, since they are used to mark which shows will be recorded.

- Andy

[thatdude90210]

I'm seeing the channel changing freeze too.

Some screenies for people who asked for them:

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[oshapir]

Will there be a quick fix for the channel changing freeze bug?

This is the only problem that prevents me from installing the new beta ver. and I think I'm not the only one ...

Thanks,
Oren.

[Archerkit]

Originally Posted by sleonard

Last but not least again regards the Jukebox. I just got to say that the UI, even if it did list the music files properly, would be nearly unusable for more than a few albums. I'm hoping that the adding of support for WMA was the priority and that there is a drastic change planned in the Jukebox UI planned for a later beta.

I really like a 2-pane view. The left pane styled like a file explorer with expandable categories (Album Artist, Artist, Album, Genre, etc.) If you expand the Album Artist category for example, you get a list like Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Grateful Dead, etc.. Each of those categories is, in turn, expandable to show the albums by that Album Artist. If you highlight an Album Artist that artists albums are listed in the right pane. If you highlight an album, the songs on that album are listed in the right pane. Sage please, please, take a look at Windows Media Player or J. River Media Center to see how a Jukebox UI should be done. Oh, and please make use of both Album Artist and Artist tags. Album Artist is immensly useful.

I am hoping for an improved UI as well. I REALLY want Sage to be my only interface, whereas now I flip between Sage and Xlobby. Xlobby has a very good interface as well. A two-pane looks is fine if it's readable on an SDTV, but for a lot of us tha may not be the case if it's standard TV fonts.

Xlobby screenshots (xlobby.com)

What I don't know is - how much of the UI can be redone via STV changes? Could one of our amazing STV wizards redesign it, or are they are the mercy of Sage itself? And how many other folks would also like to see a UI change for the Jukebox?

Regardless of what happens, I don't see myself changing from Sage to something else just because of the Jukebox, since it does the TV stuff so very well. Work that magic on the music side and life is good.

[nielm]

Originally Posted by Archerkit

What I don't know is - how much of the UI can be redone via STV changes?

see the SageMC STV for an example of what can be done with STV changes...

[snoopy]

The channel change freezes are happening to me also and I have rolled back to the 1.4.2 java version.

[oshapir]

Can anyone else confirm that the channel changing freeze bug can be fixed by using Java ver. 1.4.2 and not the latest 1.5.x?

Oren.

[littlerm]

I have the channel changing bug also and Java version 1.4.X doesn't help. The new theme looks great, it only needs a couple of small tweaks like disk space indicator, etc. to be perfect. I'm sure those with Studio will fix this soon enough. I am also eagerly awaiting HDTV recording.

[broderp]

First a few comments, from a "non-tecky" POV.

Of all the features listed so far, the ones to make any differnce to me is the UI upgrade. Yes HD recording could be cool, but again, as a non-technical person (living in a technical word with technical people) I really wont be using that feature until HD recording devices are much more abundant and "idiot proof". Money is a factor as well. No major HTPC upgrades planned for the next year or two. The rest of the stuff I either don't know what it does or does not effect me, nor did I miss it or realize it was "broken".

I guess my point is that unless SAGE is targeting this product to the technically advanced in the world, and never expect to see thier product on the shelves of BEST BUY, CIRCUIT CITY or other major retailor, then this is what they are doing. To become mainstream I feel they need to be doing what they promised all along, and that is deliver STUDIO as promised. All the functionality is there for us non technical people, how about some flexibility?

Aside from that, V3 looks great! and seems to be a worthy step up from V2.

Now for my questions:

1. What is the best way for clean install WITHOUT reloading FORMATTING HD?? Does the FAQ still apply? (I always LOSE my recordings and MP3s!, they are there, but I cant get sage to recognise them)

2. I see there is a new install wizard and it backs up your critical files, How does this work exactly, does it use those backups to "re-create" working files so you don't lose ALL your information?


I miss the DRIVE SPACE USED bar from Cayars, wish they would add that
I miss the WEATHER SUIT, wish they would add that
I miss the UPCOMING RECORDINGS on the main menu, wish they would add that.
I miss the COMSKIP features as well. Add these 4 and it's perfect.

Thanks for your time.

[mostlyfodder]

I'm also having the channel changing problem. I don't know what java version I'm using, I just upgraded from my previous v2 installation.

My vote is, don't install this yet on your main htpc. I've had no troubles with all the public betas so far, which hasn't proven to be a bad idea until now

-mf

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by broderp

1. What is the best way for clean install WITHOUT reloading FORMATTING HD?? Does the FAQ still apply? (I always LOSE my recordings and MP3s!, they are there, but I cant get sage to recognise them)

2. I see there is a new install wizard and it backs up your critical files, How does this work exactly, does it use those backups to "re-create" working files so you don't lose ALL your information?

As always the recommendation is to make a backup of your entire Frey Technologies (now SageTV) dir, and then just install over the top. If you don't mind loosing settings (decoders, etc), then you can delete the properties file, and it will be somewhat cleaner.

[jelder]

I am having a problem with my clients, on the PC or through MVP. When I start to play a recording, a menu screen comes up as if I had pushed the stop button. I can hit the back key and the screen will go away and the file will continue to play, so it is not a show stopper, but it is definitely annoying. I am using the Sage MC stv, but was also able to reproduce this with the default 3.0 stv. Otherwise 3.0 is great, it fixed some other "slow response" problems I was having.

[ukmgranger]

Installed v3 over the top of v2. Mmmmm

I have the 'channel not changing' problem too.

Other problems I have:

Cant seem to see how to get the blaster (USB-UIRT) to my STB configured on my pvr250 composite i/p. The 'tuner control' is looking at a uu_irsage.dll for control over the STB.

Also I can't seem to get Exclusive mode to work. I can click on 'Yes' for that dialogue box but it doesn't seem to stick. It always seems to say 'no'. I have to say that I'm not sure how to tell if exclusive mode is working or not anyway?!?

On a positive note - Sage does now handle 'folder.jpg' pictures much better now for DVD's/MP3's. It picks them up much better now.

I'm disappointed the the 'useability' of the jukebox isn't any better. I was expecting more in this area. To be honest, appart from the file-type handling it doesn't seem that anything has changed here.

I did play a couple of WMV-HD files and they seem to play fine!

So - to sum up:

My system is only working for media playback at the moment (not TV), which is basically useless to me.

I'm looking forward to the bugs being ironed out and the speedy release of v3.04.

Big up the Sage Massive

[Stealth1971]

I didnt read about the HDTV support feature listed previously... Did I miss something? Sorry - would have been nice to know before I busted my butt building software for this support. I have received multiple messages about people buying Sage because of HDNE support (given it wasnt perfect...). So some heads up would have been nice

I was about to release a new version that handles loss of signal better and doesnt "freeze up". Not sure about continuing support now...