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SageTV Software Discussion related to the SageTV application produced by SageTV. Questions, issues, problems, suggestions, etc. relating to the SageTV software application should be posted here. (Check the descriptions of the other forums; all hardware related questions go in the Hardware Support forum, etc. And, post in the customizations forum instead if any customizations are active.) |
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#1
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Should I switch from Beyond TV...
I've used BTV for 3+ years and love it. However, I'm ready to extend my viewing experience from a monitor to a TV...an unfortunately obvious shortcoming of Snapstream's BTV. I've downloaded the free trial of Sage and although the interface isn't quite as intuitive, I like what I see and I can adapt. Questions:
#1-How do I get the commerical skip feature? BTV did it well and I'm told Sage does it better. Unlike BTV, it doesn't appear to be a native feature; is this correct? I'm hoping for a one key touch skip capability, like w/ BTV. #2 - BTV has a neat showsqueeze feature that you can automatically set to sqeeze recorded shows from MPEG-2 to .avi and it works well. Is there a way to get Sage to do this too? #3 - My dedicated, headless server is a PIII, 700mhz, w/ 512mb running XP home / SP2. It has a Hauppage WinTV PVR150. It works fine for BTV; Currently, it is working fine now w/ one Sage PC client. I tune a Directv stb with a serial tuning cable and it works fine w/ Sage too. Will this server hardware be enough horsepower to stream stnd definition to multiple Sage extenders and or clients? #4 - Can I use the Sage extender to access multiple servers on my network? For example, the Sage server will contain recorded shows and another photo server will contain family photos and ripped DVDs. Can I toggle between the servers using the extender front end? #5 - Can I have full access to my Sage server via a browser from w/in or outside of my home network w/out using a client? (localhost). #6 - Will Sage run as a service? BTV won't and I had to buy a 3rd party software to run it as a service. #7 - The placeshifter license is confusing; BTV has only a server license and client (or Link) license and it's pretty straight forward. Sage has both a placeshifter and client licenses. if I never access Sage from outside my home network, do I need a placeshifter license? Are client licenses sufficient for using the extenders and PC clients? #8 - Regarding recording, if I schedule a weekly series or sitcom to be recorded and then I look ahead and see that I've already seen an episode that is scheduled to be recorded, can I tell Sage to not record that particular episode in the series? My home is wired w/ CAT5; I rarely use wireless and never for streaming video or music. I have two VoIP lines and several PCs connected. My networking / configuration skills are moderate. Thanx. |
#2
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1) Install JREkiwi's comskip import to enable the comskip functionality in Sage. In addition, you will need to install either Comskipmonitor and comskip or Dirmon2 in place of Comskipmonitor and Showanalyzer (same link as Dirmon2) in place of Comskip. You need either Dirmon2 or Comskipmoinitor to monitor the directory your recordings are stored and kick off Showanalyzer or Comskip to scan the recordings and mark the commercials.
2) Install JREkiwi's autocompress plugin. I don't believe it is as feature rich as what you are used to in BTV, but it gets the job done. 3) For the most part I think so, but you may run into issues with >2 MVPs. 4) I believe so as long as the Sage server can access the other "photo" servers 5) I believe so, use Nielm's plugin. I have not played with this myself, so... 6) Yes 7) I am not sure, but I think there are three separate license types - placeshifter, client and extender. I do not believe they are interchangeable. 8) Yes My networking skills are moderate as well and have been able to figure them out and make everything work well. Also, I would encourage you to check out the customizations part of the board. In particular, this is a good reference of other capabilities you can add. |
#3
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http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=16237 and the comskip plug-in http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=21515 and something to kick off the comskip processes http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20358 All 3 are incredibly easy to configure but its definetly not an out of the box solution. Quote:
http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=23103 Quote:
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http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8426 Quote:
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Yes, you can set that show as watched and if you have your favorite configured to only record unwatched episodes it won't be recorded.
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Clients: 1xHD200 Connected to 50" TH-50PZ750U Plasma Server : Shuttle SFF SSH55J2 w/ Win7 Home, SageTV v7, Core i3 540, 2GB RAM, 30GB SSD for OS, 1.5TB+2x1TB WDGP for Recordings, BluRay, 2xHDHR, 1xFirewire SageTV : PlayOn, SJQ, MediaShrink, Comskip, Jetty, Web Client, BMT Having a problem? Don't forget to include a log! (Instructions for: PlayOn For SageTV v1.5, MediaShrink) |
#4
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Must have beat you by a hair. Although, I must admit I like your post better.
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#5
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That'll teach me for take the time to properly quote everything
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Clients: 1xHD200 Connected to 50" TH-50PZ750U Plasma Server : Shuttle SFF SSH55J2 w/ Win7 Home, SageTV v7, Core i3 540, 2GB RAM, 30GB SSD for OS, 1.5TB+2x1TB WDGP for Recordings, BluRay, 2xHDHR, 1xFirewire SageTV : PlayOn, SJQ, MediaShrink, Comskip, Jetty, Web Client, BMT Having a problem? Don't forget to include a log! (Instructions for: PlayOn For SageTV v1.5, MediaShrink) |
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edit: too slow
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- Jack __________________________________________ Server: AMD Phenom 9750, 2GB RAM, 2 Hauppauge PVR500, 1 Firewired DCT6200, 1 HDHomerun tuning 2 QAM channels, Vizio 37" HDTV LCD, 1 USB-UIRT Clients: 1 MediaMVP, 1 Placeshifter Client, & 1 SageTV Client. |
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HTH, Stu EDIT: dangit ; I'm slowing down in my old age. I don't want to throw away the post. |
#8
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gilded07,
The answers to one of your questions are misleading. You can't use the webserver plugin to watch shows from outside your network. Well, in theory you can, but you can't stream it unless you have an amazingly fast internet connection since the webserver doesn't transcode it to take up less bandwidth. The placeshifter does a great job at that, but I highly doubt your 700Mhz CPU is up to the task. It won't be able to transcode video files in realtime, which also means you won't be able to play divx/xvid/etc. movies on a media extender. Other than that the responses so far are pretty accurate. |
#9
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__________________
Main System: Athlon X2 +3800, Asus A8N-E, 4GB RAM, 1x 200GB SATA, 3x 400GB SATA, 1x 500GB SATA, Geforce 7600GT, 1x Hauppauge PVR500, 1x Hauppauge PVR150, SageTV 6.2.4, XMLTV+Clickfinder to XMLTV, Windows XP Pro Bedroom: Hauppauge MVP |
#11
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Matt
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Server: Ubuntu 16.04 running Sage for Linux v9 |
#12
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No. 1
Just can't compare the two... Try SAGETV you'll never go back to buggy PVR software again. I did the same move myself with 3 yrs with GBPVR software with sound sync problems or no sound recorded and timeline errors. SAGETV doesn't do that and I am using the same drivers go figure, but I am happy with SAGETV doing these 8 months of heavy duty recording now with the Fall Season all 3 PVR-150 gets a good workout with SAGETV behind the wheel..
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#13
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Do you see many people on the BTV forum that are switching to BTV from SageTV? There have been many people I've seen on the SageTV forum switching from BTV to SageTV. Dave |
#14
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I switched a couple years ago from BTV to SAGE. I still have BTV up to date and installed but I really like SAGE better. It is a full media center not just a pvr. If Beyond had done the integration of TV and Media, it might be a better competitor. I don't use anything but Sage anymore. Development pace is much faster with Sage.
I have two silicon dust HD tuners, a Pvr 500 and Nvidia DualTV in my box--6 tuners and have no issues using all of them at the same time with Sage. BTV --- that was a different story. Last edited by lparkin; 10-13-2007 at 07:38 PM. Reason: add |
#15
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#16
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EvilPenguin: I certainly appreciate the your post and all the others' posts as well. However, regarding the the three comskip threads you shared...I must admin I'm confused and overwhelmed. I guess I got spoiled w/ BTV's out of the box and easy to use commercial skip feature. I was hoping for some step by step instructions but have yet to find them; just a bunch of files w/ no explanation of what to do w/ them (download to where? run what?). Have I overlooked the instructions?
Regarding showsqueeze, based on what I've read I doubt my slow server would be able to transcode and stream the squeezed .avi content to an extender, and hdd space is cheaper than a new build so if I want to use an extender w/ Sage I'll have to give up the space saving .avi format. Not a big deal, because my 200gb hdd should be enough and especially since an HD extender might negate this disadvantage anyway. I'm not ready to give up yet. I'll spend some more time re-reading the posts on comskip but having to learn a second language to get a com skip feature is a show stopper for me. If I can't figure it out I will have to stick w/ BTV because having Sage w/ the extender but having to manually FF through shows would feel like a step backwards. Maybe I should have stated my configuration skills are beginner! |
#17
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512mb RAM is too small for a SageTV server, IMO. Sage is a bit of a RAM pig as it's Java-based. 1GB should be considered the practical minimum. Your CPU should be fine until your Wiz.bin database grows large or you import tons of media files (10,000+ MP3's will do it)
You will enjoy SageTV. It's extremely flexible and can grow as you add new hardware.
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Intel NUC SageTV 7 server - HDHomeRun PRIME - 2TB iSCSI ReadyNAS storage Intel i3 HTPC SageTV 7 Client - Win 7 x64 - Onkyo TX-674 |
#18
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1) The actual program which analyzes the video file an creates an output file detailing when the commercials happen. There are two main programs, ComSkip and ShowAnalyzer. Both essentially do the same thing, however I've personally found ShowAnalyzer to be a little better.....your mileage may vary. 2) An "Import" for Sage TV which takes those output files from Comskip and uses that information to skip over the commercials while watching the show. 3) None of this is possible without another piece of software which sits idle on your computer, simply waiting until a file comes along which matches the criteria it's looking for. Once it sees that file, it activates ComSkip/ShowAnalyzer. This one is called DirMon (Directory Monitor) and is kind of the ringleader which kicks everything off. Does that help clarify why there are three items? |
#19
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I think I understand the role of the apps; I was hoping for more detailed instructions or procedures on how to install. I'm going to look again tonite.
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#20
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Also, Java apps don't necessarily need more ram. I would say that you can get buy with a sage server, easily with 512 on an XP box. Sage is not a ram intensive app. Any app written in any language can be take a lot of resources. I have commerical processing, three tuners, and IR running 24/7. |
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