I took the SageMC plunge...mmmmm!

[jbarr]

I've always liked the look of SageMC, but I was always hesitant to use it permanently due to two main issues:

1. WAF is very high with the default STV
Come on, this should be self-explanatory! Seriously though, having come from the ReplayTV world, the transition to the default STV was a real no-brainer. And after customizing it with the dynamic menu plugin and a few others, it really was an amazingly functional UI. Quick, solid, and we were used to its functions.

2. It's not "officially" supported by SageTV
At first, this seemed like a reasonable concern to me. I was investing a lot of time, money, and effort to deploying a home theater PC that would become our "TV appliance" and I didn't want to introduce anything that would possibly affect its stability. OK, so that lasted about a week! Now I find myself relying heavily on several third-party, "unofficial" addons, so why not add another to the mix, right?!?

So, I downloaded the files, installed them, selected the proper menu file, and then spent the next hour or so playing with the SageMC's features and tweaking the settings. The end result? Um...wow! It's a very intuitive and slick STV, and the WAF is high. In fact, my wife came into the room while I was testing it out, and she said, "Go ahead and leave it. It looks good!" Needless to say, that sealed the deal....

Anyway, I'm very impressed with the overall look and feel of SageMC. It did take a bit of "user adjustment" to get used to some of the navigation differences, but overall, it's a solid, amazingly thought-out STV.

Digression #1:
I just ordered a second Seagate Barracuda 320GB SATA hard drive, increasing the overall media storage to 640GB. I'll allocate some of that space to DVD rips and additional music files, but at least 200GB of it will go into the SageTV recording pool bringing it up to 200+ hours of recording space.

Digression #2:
I have two minor "glitches" with SageMC at this point:

1. The DVD burning options don't appear anywhere. I originally had the default STV version installed, so I just installed the SageMC version over it retaining my preferences. I then imported the STVi, and enabled in the "Extras" menu. And yes, I restarted SageTV, both server and client. The problem is simply that the menu items don't show up.

2. The Weather screen displays everything nicely (I love the maps) but when I choose the "Current conditions" selection, it seems to hang for about 30-45 seconds. When I initially go into the weather screen, it displays the current conditions fine, it's just if I happen to choose the button, it hangs for a while.

[dflachbart]

Hi Jim,

welcome to SageMC, nice to hear your 'story', and thanks for the kind words !

Originally Posted by jbarr

I have two minor "glitches" with SageMC at this point:

1. The DVD burning options don't appear anywhere. I originally had the default STV version installed, so I just installed the SageMC version over it retaining my preferences. I then imported the STVi, and enabled in the "Extras" menu. And yes, I restarted SageTV, both server and client. The problem is simply that the menu items don't show up.

I think this is a known issue with the current version of SageMC, have a look at EP's Video tools thread...

2. The Weather screen displays everything nicely (I love the maps) but when I choose the "Current conditions" selection, it seems to hang for about 30-45 seconds. When I initially go into the weather screen, it displays the current conditions fine, it's just if I happen to choose the button, it hangs for a while.

Hmmm, I haven't seen this one before... Can you produce a debug log, maybe this can shed some light...


Dirk

[evilpenguin]

Originally Posted by flachbar

I think this is a known issue with the current version of SageMC, have a look at EP's Video tools thread...

Yep, its known and hopefully will be fixed pretty soon.

[jbarr]

EP: That's exactly what I thought. I'll wait for any updates.

Quick followup: I'm really liking SageMC! I'm discovering more and more of the "subtle" features that make it really nice to use.

Thanks!

[technazz]

Originally Posted by jbarr

EP: That's exactly what I thought. I'll wait for any updates.

Quick followup: I'm really liking SageMC! I'm discovering more and more of the "subtle" features that make it really nice to use.

Thanks!

What took you so long???

[jbarr]

I know, I know!

Feature request: "Number of more" in Recorded TV

So far, I'm finding the UI anf funcationality very complete and well thought-out. There is one small thing I would love to see added: When I display the Recorded TV screen, all of the recorded shows are nicely listed, and I keep them sorted by title. Like the default STV, shows are grouped. In the listing on the right, if there is one show, the right column shows when it was recorded. If there is more than one show, then the word "More" displays. How about having it display how many more instead of just "More"? For example, if there are 5 shows for that title, have it display "5 More" or some such.

Question #1: Disk bar
I have the "disk bar" enabled at the top. It displays the remaining free space and hours left. Excellent feature. But the background is just a plain blue bar. I have seen screen shots that show the disk bar as being an actual colored indicator (red, yellow, green) that visually shows the status. I am using the MCE theme, and do not see this. How can this be enabled?

Question #2: Song information
When I am browsing songs in the Music browser, I can't seem to find a way to get detailed information about a song without first playing it. When I play a song, I can toggle the Cover Art/information and see lots of nice details, but I cannot figure out how to display those same details without playing the song first. Suggestions?

[grooves12]

You should probably take those suggestions to the main SageMC thread.

[Opus4]

They've been posted in 2 places already... why a 3rd?

- Andy

[jbarr]

Yikes! Sorry! (it's been a long week......)