SageTV Review @ Den Guru

[geogecko]

SageTV Review at Den Guru

Is SageTV 4 the path to Media Center Nirvana?

http://www.denguru.com/2006/05/05/is...ana/index.html

"After using SageTV as my main media center program for a week, I discovered that I didn't miss my regular media center program (Windows MCE) as much as I had expected I would. SageTV met my media center needs well enough, and I became accustomed to it without too much trouble. It had a few quirks with the menus and controls, and a couple of barriers that I had to overcome during the initial setup, but Sage TV is a decent media center application with a lot of potential - especially when combined with the SageTV Client."

--Sounds good.

"That said, there were some minor areas that could use a little work. First, SageTV is very spartan in appearance; I'm apparently not alone in wishing for a better-looking interface, since SageTV fans have spent the time to skin it for a better look. Second, its menu structure needs to be completely redone; the menu system didn't feel natural, and was difficult to become accustomed to.

Third, it became clear through the review process that SageTV's main focus is television recording and management. The TV options were feature-rich and provided excellent functionality, but the other media center functions seemed a little like an afterthought. I found the music section to be very underpowered, and although I was happy with the video library, I kept forgetting where it was, because it is labeled "Imported video" and separated from the music and photo menu items."

--Yep, seems a lot of us feel the same way...just read the post V5 thread.

"I also discovered that SageTV would freeze up after resuming from the Windows welcome screen. Since Windows defaults to the welcome screen after displaying the screen saver, I had to restart SageTV every time the screen saver ran until I got around to disabling the welcome screen."

--That's what the SageTV screensaver is for...

--Guess they missed getting version 5, although, it does appear that they had Placeshifter during the review.

[waynedunham]

Hey, I was just going to post that link.

They seem to have pretty much the same concerns as a lot of people here. Not surprisingly they didn't care much for the music section. For me that's not a big deal because I rarely listen to music at home, there's just too darned much video to watch.

[geogecko]

Originally Posted by waynedunham

Hey, I was just going to post that link.

They seem to have pretty much the same concerns as a lot of people here. Not surprisingly they didn't care much for the music section. For me that's not a big deal because I rarely listen to music at home, there's just too darned much video to watch.

Yep, I agree. Only certain times when music is played...normally when we're doing something else, or have people over.

But the CD Player "issue" really needs to be addressed. So many people want it...yet it eludes us.

Sorry for jumping the gun...on the post.

[DFA]

Yep. CD Player. I just got to jump on the wagon any time anyone mentions it. I figure if it just keeps popping up all over the place, the squeeky gear will get oiled.

DFA

[jhh]

While the reviewer mostly has a point in what he says I have 2 things to add:

- Nielms dynamic menu overcomes most of his objections in terms of appearance and logic menu layout, btw it looks as if he didn't find the weather section

- This great forum adds a lot of value to the product - hey - maybe that is why he doesn't know about Nielm's dynamic menu.

Jan

[Mahoney]

But having to add 3rd paty addons and rearrange the menu to get something satisfactory isn't a great solution, ultimately. Ideally you wantot install and have something great with minimal knowledge or configuration needed. My experience of getting Sage to a) work and b) work as I want it to is that it requires a lot of time, frustration and knowledge to achieve it.

Admittedly I'm an odd-ball - in the UK, using a set top box via a custom controller, and with a DVB-T card as my other capture card. Means there are a lot of things for me to work on. But even so it's hard work.

[stevech]

The improved basic UI needs to be in the SUPPORTED product, not within unsupported add-ins or hidden unofficial modes.

[blade]

Originally Posted by stevech

The improved basic UI needs to be in the SUPPORTED product, not within unsupported add-ins or hidden unofficial modes.

I agree the UI could use a lot of work; however, if you read enough posts I think you'll see that you'll never satisfy everyone. Some of the STVs, features, and menus that people love I absolutely hate and hope Sage never implements into the default STV. I'm sure some of the things I desire to see others cringe at. Personally I love the look of SageMCE, but it's missing a couple of key features that the default STV has that makes it totally unacceptable for me.

Everyone has different tastes and ideas about what the UI should look like. I'm glad that there are so many options. I'd rather have flexibility than to be stuck with something I dislike.

[mayamaniac]

Good review. I agree with most of his critiques. He mentioned the media extender and placeshifter, but very briefly, just a few sentences. Its obvious that he did not tested them, which is a shame since this is where SageTV really shines compare to the competitions. I think he really missed out on the full SageTV PVR experience.

As for the Media Center stuffs particularly the Music section, it is true that I also do not use it often. But if it was better designed and make it easier to use, I would definitely use it more often to play music, rather than using iTunes or WinAmp, because of the 10 foot interface.

[dbfresh23]

He didn't really say it, but I think he was hinting at the same thing I think when he was talking about SageTV's main focus being TV recording. Win MCE is by far IMO the best Media Center app, SageTV is by far the best PVR app. Since I use my system mostly for recording TV at this point I mostly use Sage.

I must say that I disagree with the one he ranked #3, Media Portal was aweful the last time I gave it a try.

[KarylFStein]

There is a Forum on the site where you can add your discussion about the review. In case you missed the link, it's at the bottom of each page where it says "Join our discussion of this topic".

The big thing that I think the reviewer missed are the customizations and user community.