The future of Sagetv?

[Skirge01]

Announcing SageTV v7!

New Features*:

- No sticking gas pedals

* Additional features to be announced at a later date

[wayner]

It would be nice to have some direction of where Sage is going in the future.

The Smartphone market is growing like crazy - is Sage thinking about addressing this by releasing a Placeshifter type of product that would extend Sage onto Smartphones? An extension of this is the iPad/ other tablets.

There is continual debate around the attractiveness of the Sage UI - is this something that is being addressed? Or does Sage think that other projects (like Server on a Stick) are higher priorities?

What about CableCard tuners - is this something that will remain beyond the scope of Sage?

[Brent]

Originally Posted by wayner

It would be nice to have some direction of where Sage is going in the future.

The Smartphone market is growing like crazy - is Sage thinking about addressing this by releasing a Placeshifter type of product that would extend Sage onto Smartphones? An extension of this is the iPad/ other tablets.

There is continual debate around the attractiveness of the Sage UI - is this something that is being addressed? Or does Sage think that other projects (like Server on a Stick) are higher priorities?

What about CableCard tuners - is this something that will remain beyond the scope of Sage?

I know you read my blog Wayne SageTV has already said they're working on a SageTV 7 with a new UI. They haven't said much more than that and I doubt we'll know more until it comes to beta for all to play with.

If SageTV were to add a mobile placeshifter product we wouldn't know about it until it was read to test - and with iPhone possibly not until it was accepted (if Apple ever did so) by the powers that be at Apple.

In the interview with Jeff last summer he said not much had changed from SageTV's perspective with respect to CableCard. I don't know what might have changed since then to turn that around although you never know I guess.

[reggie14]

Originally Posted by Brent

In the interview with Jeff last summer he said not much had changed from SageTV's perspective with respect to CableCard. I don't know what might have changed since then to turn that around although you never know I guess.

There might be some movement on CableCard. At least, I think there are discussions going on. I've heard reports that Sage has been talking to SiliconDust about their CableCard device. And SiliconDust posted a message on their forums last week indicating they're still trying to convince CableLabs to let them give other applications access to copy-freely content.

[wayner]

That's true Brent - but how long ago that you wrote about the Server on a Stick - and we haven't seen a beta yet. Is that project still alive?

I would argue that lots has happened in the CableCard world I don't know the exact timing of your interview with Jeff vs. other announcments - but we know much more about the Ceton 4 card tuner, SiliconDust is coming out with a CC tuner and Hauppauge may be as well. There was also the "lessening" of the DRM that is required for CC so that you no longer need a special mobo.

I was the one who started the "It's awfully quiet..." thread since we have not seen betas in quite a while - and that thread was started months ago. Maybe it is a cause of looking at a duck and only seeing above the water?

And is Sage7 primarily a new UI with pretty much the same functionality or are other things changing as well? I haven't heard anything on that front.

[Brent]

So many questions. Wish I could answer all of them today but I can't. I'm very anxious for what comes next from SageTV too. Often times these sorts of things take time - I don't think it will take nearly as long as the iPad took to come to market from the time rumors began about that product

[wayner]

The reason that many of us are touchy is that we have had one or more bad experiences in the past - ie. BeyondTV, Meedio, MCE, etc.

[Brent]

Originally Posted by wayner

The reason that many of us are touchy is that we have had one or more bad experiences in the past - ie. BeyondTV, Meedio, MCE, etc.

I was a Meedio user when that blew up (Yahoo), then a BeyondTV & BeyondMedia user as they began to re-focus towards Enterprise and even a MCE user for a bit although never satisfied enough to stay with MCE. I don't feel at all worried about things around here - and I definitely did worry (for good reason) with Meedio and SS. The day Jeff walks away to do something else is the day I panic. Till that day I'm very happy with the direction thus far.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by reggie14

Well, version 3 happened, they just decided to call it 4. Sage 4.0 was released a couple weeks after the last Sage 3.0 beta.

Well yeah

Sage v3 was another example of a "tease". It was announced in January 2005 with a projected Spring release, whereas the beta didn't even start until July. I really don't remember one way or the other, but I'd be surprised if Sage has made any posts about v3 progress during those 6 months.

I vaguely remember Studio being horribly late. But, I didn't really follow that because I was never interested in using Studio and I didn't imagine things like SageMC coming out of it.

IIRC it was mentioned/forecast/posted that Studio would be part of 3, but never made it. I seem to remember lots of heated posts about Sage lying and failing to deliver Studio in V3 as promised.

And that's about the time Jeff and Dan stopped casually posting and talking about what they were doing and wanted to do with Sage.

Originally Posted by Brent

I was a Meedio user when that blew up (Yahoo), then a BeyondTV & BeyondMedia user as they began to re-focus towards Enterprise and even a MCE user for a bit although never satisfied enough to stay with MCE.

Get out! Before you kill Sage too!

[Brent]

Originally Posted by stanger89

Get out! Before you kill Sage too!

I know! I'm definitely tempting fate right about now

[nick_l]

Originally Posted by Brent

You guys are killin' me. Seriously. We'll know about what comes next as soon as it makes sense for the SageTV guys to do so. In the meantime watch some TV, add some hard drive space to your HTPC server, try some add-ons. This is not something to stress about.

The problem here is that many of us aren't users we're "enthusiasts". We want to be let in on the secrets, we want to voice our opinions, right or wrong (even if no one is really listening to us but us). It's like rooting for your favorite sports team, we want to feel involved, special, to be part of the scuttlebutt.

There probably aren't a lot of people who hang around the Comcast (Xfinity, UGH) DVR forums talking about how great it is, and with good reason. This community is good for and important to Sage. I'd just like to see a few more breadcrumbs for us to feast on while we wait for the next good stuff that's coming.

Nick

[stanger89]

We'd all like to hear more from Sage, to know the roadmap, to know where things are going. Please don't take the "defense" as anything more than historical context as to why we don't hear much out of them.

Most here are very understanding about plans changing, unfortunately, enough people aren't that Sage has decided it's not worth the risk/trouble.

[JetreL]

This has been said before and it still rings true. If SageTV closed its doors today my PVR will still work. I will still get SD, HD, and network streams to my boxes and the overall functionality still works great!

So no worries on that front. I am not saying that they are going anywhere just that SageTV is a very good product how it is now and whatever they come out with next upgrade wise or new I will do my best to support their efforts for that product too.

[setherd]

Originally Posted by Brent

I was a Meedio user when that blew up (Yahoo), then a BeyondTV & BeyondMedia user as they began to re-focus towards Enterprise and even a MCE user for a bit although never satisfied enough to stay with MCE. I don't feel at all worried about things around here - and I definitely did worry (for good reason) with Meedio and SS. The day Jeff walks away to do something else is the day I panic. Till that day I'm very happy with the direction thus far.

I loved Meedio. I wish SageTV had a program to build it's menu's like meedio did

[jredwine2857]

I have been running Sage for the last 4-5 years and I have to say it is the best thing since sliced bread! I am the coolest guy in town when friends come over and see my setup. I recommend it to everyone I know or who cares to listen to me talk about it. It has worked very reliably over the years and the constant updates always bring more features! The community is key to their succes and they seem to listen. If they keep this up I want to buy stock when/if they go public.

[stevech]

Originally Posted by JetreL

This has been said before and it still rings true. If SageTV closed its doors today my PVR will still work. I will still get SD, HD, and network streams to my boxes and the overall functionality still works great!.

Excluding software hacking/development, how would you get Guide data (EPG)?

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by stevech

Excluding software hacking/development, how would you get Guide data (EPG)?

The same way people using sage in the rest of the world do it. XMLTV importers.

[JetreL]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

The same way people using sage in the rest of the world do it. XMLTV importers.

What he said!!

[sportera]

Have to say since switching from MCE to Sage years ago, life was great running 2-HD20 DTV receivers through 2 dual nvidiatv tuners on a WHS with 1 client PC and an extender.

THEN I UPGRADED TO HD-PVR's.....

Life with Sage hasn't been that great lately. After upgrading my WHS to dual quad core with 4GB ram, upgrading my client to dual core with 4GB ram, replacing video cards with nvidia 9500GT's, I still have occasional problems with jerky video watching live TV and aggrivating 3-5 seconds of video freeze with audio studder on the hour and half hour when EPG goes to next scheduled show time slot EVERY HOUR OF EVERY DAY. Not to mention the occasional lockups from the HD-PVR's which isn't a SageTV problem, or is it? Did most of the recommended bandaids to those too.

I keep my systems upgraded to the lastest STV versions (had to give up on using SageMC, which my the way I loved over the vanilla STV) due to more studder and other issues when using SageMC. I did upgrade my client from XP to Windows 7 64 (hoping for better memory management) at the same time and was blaming Microsoft for a time for my Sage problems. But after reading, AND READING MORE, for weeks through the forums I found tips here and there such as "installing new native recording patch", H.264 codec recommendations, etc., which I admit got me somewhat sane again for awhile, but not a happy camper yet.

So today, I do watch live HD and recorded television which I couldn't do before upgrading to the HD-PRV's. That was a big plus to get to that day. But the occasional jerky video while watching live TV, plus the aggrivating studder hourly, is starting to wear me down again and the thought of throwing it all in the garbage can and replacing with Directv HD DVR's keeps growing stronger by the week. Having photos and music access through the server was nice for a few years but tell you the truth, it isn't worth that much to me anymore.

I sincerely hope SageTV comes out with a new version that REALLY supports HD-PVR tuners, Windows 7 64, plus a better solution to running Blu-ray DVD's. I'm about tapped out in spending money on hardware upgrades and frankly have been going in circles lately trying to find better solutions through my now daily forum searches and readings.

I think I'm going to start putting money in a piggy bank to save up for a couple of DTV DVR's with 1TB hard disk replacements. I hope I find happiness soon with SageTV or there will be a whole bunch of hardware going up for bid on ebay.

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by sportera

I think I'm going to start putting money in a piggy bank to save up for a couple of DTV DVR's with 1TB hard disk replacements. I hope I find happiness soon with SageTV or there will be a whole bunch of hardware going up for bid on ebay.

Sounds more like you should just use a fraction of that cost to buy an HD-200 or two...