Registered Owners Download Page?

[IncredibleHat]

Everytime I go to find an 'update' to SageTV, I spend a long time scouring the website looking for a page with download links to versions and updates or whatever for registered owners (which I am).

How come there is no page of information ?!? A page with like "New version 6.0.xx Download Now" then listing out whats changed, and WHY the update is a bother to get.

Closest it seems I ended up on today, was downloading the TRIAL VERSION... with no idea if this is the right file or not. It looks to have a number in the filename that is larger than the version I have installed... but its TRIAL!? Wtf.

So... hey webmasters of the sage tv website. Get with the ballgame and make a useful update and downloads page for all of us who have bought sage tv and want to try and keep up to date without having to dig through miles of old forum posts to see what may have come out and when, and what it was all about.

Edit:
Oh, and is the TRIAL download the one I want? I don't want to be installing this if its going to break my current registered installation... grrr... lack of information!

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by IncredibleHat

Everytime I go to find an 'update' to SageTV, I spend a long time scouring the website looking for a page with download links to versions and updates or whatever for registered owners (which I am).

How come there is no page of information ?!? A page with like "New version 6.0.xx Download Now" then listing out whats changed, and WHY the update is a bother to get.

Closest it seems I ended up on today, was downloading the TRIAL VERSION... with no idea if this is the right file or not. It looks to have a number in the filename that is larger than the version I have installed... but its TRIAL!? Wtf.

So... hey webmasters of the sage tv website. Get with the ballgame and make a useful update and downloads page for all of us who have bought sage tv and want to try and keep up to date without having to dig through miles of old forum posts to see what may have come out and when, and what it was all about.

Edit:
Oh, and is the TRIAL download the one I want? I don't want to be installing this if its going to break my current registered installation... grrr... lack of information!

Well it's always been this way. On the Home Page you have the FREE DOWNLOAD button. And when you reach that page you have a couple of statements in there.

The first 2 sentences:

SageTV Version 6, SageTV Placeshifter Version 6, SageTV Client Version 6 are now available! Just click on the appropriate link to download (current customers or trial users). If you are a current customer upgrading to Version 6, please make sure you update all versions of your installed SageTV software for everything to work correctly.

Licensed customers may use the files below to update. If you are not a licensed customer, you may use the software for a 15 day trial. If you are already running a previous version of any SageTV software, you can just install the latest version over the previous version.

I don't know-seems pretty clear to me.

Gerry

[IncredibleHat]

Originally Posted by gplasky

I don't know-seems pretty clear to me.

Well, actually the 'signature' of Opus4 is far more clear

See, its the "Download 15 Day TRIAL version 6 now!" that keeps throwing me off. How are people supposed to know to go to the free trial page, to then read subtext about possibly registered owners?

Its called a design of flow issue.

Sort of like if someone changes the sign of their building to "Foot Doctor", when they do mostly Chiropractic services.

If anything, there needs to be secondary links to the same page under Support as "Downloads" or "Updates and Downloads"... so the general public of owners who are used to going to company sites and support sections for updates and patches, will not get confused by being confronted with only links that exclaim trials or free versions.

But anyhoo... I found it. In a round about way

Plus, don't you know?!? PEOPLE DONT READ PARAGRAPHS OF TEXT! Heheh. I have designed many pages in my life, and I came to that conclusion a while back. No matter how small a paragraph can be reduced, people will still only read the big flashy graphics or look for the singular bold words or sentances around links they want to click. I turned into one of those people sadly.

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by IncredibleHat

Well, actually the 'signature' of Opus4 is far more clear

See, its the "Download 15 Day TRIAL version 6 now!" that keeps throwing me off. How are people supposed to know to go to the free trial page, to then read subtext about possibly registered owners?

Its called a design of flow issue.

Sort of like if someone changes the sign of their building to "Foot Doctor", when they do mostly Chiropractic services.

If anything, there needs to be secondary links to the same page under Support as "Downloads" or "Updates and Downloads"... so the general public of owners who are used to going to company sites and support sections for updates and patches, will not get confused by being confronted with only links that exclaim trials or free versions.

But anyhoo... I found it. In a round about way

Plus, don't you know?!? PEOPLE DONT READ PARAGRAPHS OF TEXT! Heheh. I have designed many pages in my life, and I came to that conclusion a while back. No matter how small a paragraph can be reduced, people will still only read the big flashy graphics or look for the singular bold words or sentances around links they want to click. I turned into one of those people sadly.

What would be better would be Sage TV program giving you a little message that new software is available and giving you an option to answer OK and just take you to the link. Now THAT would be something.

Gerry

[jbarr]

I tend to agree with IncredibleHat on this one. It is definitely confusing in that there is nothing indicating where you should go other than trial-and-error and stumbling upon it at by clicking the "15-day Trial" graphic.

They have a wonderful URL of http://sagetv.com/download.html which takes you where you need to go, but the only way to get to it is through the trial grpahic. It would be nice if theycould add a "DOWNLOAD" link at the botton of the page next the other site-specific links.

I'll make the change for them if they want, and won't charge that much!

[Opus4]

As Gerry mentioned, there is currently a link on the right near the top of the main SageTV page. It is a big blue graphic with a large font, as should be visible in this post. That was recently added to make the download easier to find. The next time the site gets redesigned, maybe it will change, but it is prominently on the main page for now.


- Andy

[flavius]

As gplasky said. Not hard to do. Could also include the release notes, so that I don't have to come here anymore

[IncredibleHat]

Well, a notice in SageTV about updates WOULD be nice, however sometimes, don't you get a little peeved with how many programs bother you on a daily basis about a new update to them?

Heh... with the notion of an "HT"PC... you really don't want the machine bugging guests (or the W/HAF) with a notice about an update to some software they don't understand to begin with.

Sorry I didn't catch the FREE DOWNLOAD button graphic. The page I was on was a big graphic with 15 Day Trial in it. I see now on the root base index, the button is what you posted above.

[GTwannabe]

I wish SageTV had the ability to update clients to the current version when they connect to the server. Having to run around to all my computers and re-running the installers every version change gets annoying.

[flavius]

VNC helps

[mayamaniac]

on the home page, where it says on top:

SageTV | Store | Support | Technology

They should add a Downloads link also:

SageTV | Store | Downloads | Support | Technology

And of course Downloads should link to: http://www.sagetv.com/download.html
I think that would help most people find it quicker.

[GTwannabe]

Originally Posted by flavius

VNC helps

I use VNC and MS Remote Desktop, but it's still a pain. I have:

1 headless server
1 desktop PC client
1 HTPC client
1 laptop PC client
1 laptop placeshifter
1 work PC placeshifter
3 placeshifters at my parents' house

[balazer]

I will agree that finding the software update page is a pain.

On any other software company's web site, to download an update you click on "Support", and then "Downloads" or "Software Updates". At sage.tv, under "Support", there's not a single mention of downloading updates - not even in the FAQ. Instead you have to click on "SageTV", and then "Download 15 Day Trial". And on the download page, while it does mention upgrading, it doesn't say which versions you can upgrade from for free and which versions you need to pay to upgrade from.

Also, the older versions don't seem to be linked anywhere. What's a guy with a version 4 license key supposed to do if he wants to try out the latest version 5? (I found the link in a forum post)

[IncredibleHat]

I know this can be considered a headache, but there are also download sites/sections/pages for user addons and plugins that could also benefit from being linked too on the downloads page. Maybe under a second of "For Advanced & Registered Owners"... so free-trial people dont get confused with all that stuff. But then, thats the beauty of having TWO seperate download pages for NEW trial customers, and REGISTERED customers. Reduce confusion and increase useful content.

I guess a thing like that would require more web maintenance, and depending if they have a backend web administration script or not, depends on how easy it would be to manage all that. I know I hate to update static pages.

[jbarr]

IncredibleHat, great idea. And it really wouldn't require any more Web maintenance at all. Simply add a

"Click here for some excellent user-created and user-supported Plugins, Add-ons, and Customizations"

link that points to the "Customizations" page on this forum.

[GKusnick]

I'm not sure it's a good idea to link directly from the product pages to the third-party add-on pages, bypassing these discussion forums. New users might get the mistaken idea that these add-ons are certified and supported by SageTV LLC. I think it's better that new users find these things through the forums (as they do now), so that (a) it's clear these add-ons are created and supported by the user community, and (b) new users have a chance to learn from other users' experiences before deciding which (if any) add-ons to try.

I personally like to get to know an add-on developer through the forums and form some opinion of their cluefulness (or lack of it) before trusting their code to run on my machine. Sending new users directly to the third-party download pages short-circuits that whole process and could lead to some very bad initial impressions of SageTV's stability and reliability.

[IncredibleHat]

Good point GKusnick. jbarr's idea of linking to the forums sub category of customizations would help that factor.

Although there are some fairly 'required' type components that tend to get lost in the posts. Things like EXETuner plugins, and control files for various remote controls people have confirmed working etc. Those are more for the advanced users however I agree. Even though I have my head on straight about all this technology, I still am fumbling in the dark with many of these plugins and addons lol.

Having sage sort of 'stamp of approval' the stuff by listing them on their website, could open a painful can of worms for sage as people tend to think THEY are responsible for those addons. Its like how some of my clients get bombarded by tech support emails, only because they SELL software on their website! Not create all of those packages. Ya know?