I would pay $30 for Placeshift for iPhone/iPad

[wayner]

Dear Sage - please consider writing a Placeshifter app for the iPhone/iPad - I will pay $30 for this app - over and above my existing Placeshifter licenses. Once the iPad comes out this will be a great way to watch media content from SageTV.

I also believe this could be great publicity for Sage since you know that we will never see a similar app for Win Media Center from MS.

[mayamaniac]

This will probably never happen, so don't hold your breath waiting. Maybe if Narflex owns an iPhone/iPad. People interested should gather funds and donate an iPhone and iPad to him.

[Brent]

I'd pay $30 for placeshifter for iPhone. And you could program it to work the same way as it would for iPad even though I don't ever plan on owning iPad

[wayner]

Originally Posted by mayamaniac

This will probably never happen, so don't hold your breath waiting.

Why do you say that? Is this something that is very technologically complex - personally I am only interested in using this over Wifi since I am in Canada and we have to bend over and grab our ankles when it comes to 3G data fees?

Is this something that Apple would try to block? I believe there is a Slingbox client for the iPhone.

[PLUCKYHD]

To me I would rather have contol not a client/placeshifter for the ipad. I will already contol my sonos will it and would love to pull up a video library ui and select a movie and send it to a extender. I actually think this is feasible just need to look into the ipad API

[mayamaniac]

My guess is that it is not an easy port since SageTV is a Java app and unless you jailbreak it, the iPhone can't run java apps. So SageTV would need to rewrite it to work on the iPhone/iPad, which is a lot for work and I don't see them doing it.

If SageTV does decide to make an app for mobile phones, I would much rather have them develop one for Android cause I think Android is coded with Java also. Even though I own an iPhone 3G, I would switch to an Android phone because the iPhone is falling behind. And I don't see the next iPhone will be any different. If it doesn't run multiple apps (iPhone/iPad don't), have a 5PM+ camera with LED flash, and support Adobe flash (which they will never do), then I will switch to whatever the best android phone is once my contract ends. Plus Android being the better platform for developers as they don't have to go through the restrictive approval process that Apple enforces.

In the meantime, I use AirVideo on the iPhone to watch my recordings over WiFi and 3G. On good connections, it works quite well.

[bastafidli]

Originally Posted by mayamaniac

unless you jailbreak it, the iPhone can't run java apps

Cross-compiling Java apps to run natively on iPhone
http://www.xmlvm.org/iphone/

[bastafidli]

Originally Posted by bastafidli

Cross-compiling Java apps to run natively on iPhone
http://www.xmlvm.org/iphone/

And here is another one
http://www.innaworks.com/alcheMo.html

So there are ways, the question only is
1. Does Sage has the resources
2. Do they think there is a big enough market

I personally believe Sage should open the Placeshifter source code and let people port it. I obviously don't know how much the revenue from selling placeshifter is, but again, Sage could just simply control that each placeshifter connecting to server has license on the server regardless if it is open source port or official version from Sage. The question is, would this decrease their revenue they are receiving from extenders. I personally believe it wouldn't, because let say they make $30 profit from the extender. They could make the same amount of profit from placeshifter license running on any device, plus they wouldn't have to spend the resources supporting the device itself.

I can imagine it might be a scary proposition for Sage to decide to go this way, but there are some examples. Skype recently open sourced their Linux GUI while keeping the core engine closed. Sage could do the same way. They could provide closed source SDK/engine which would be reasonably portable while allowing developers port/write the placeshifter application for whatever platform they choose to. This way Sage would only have to provide support for the SDK/engine the developers while the developers would provide support for their end products.

[flavius]

Interesting links, thanks.

[jreichen]

Originally Posted by mayamaniac

My guess is that it is not an easy port since SageTV is a Java app and unless you jailbreak it, the iPhone can't run java apps. So SageTV would need to rewrite it to work on the iPhone/iPad, which is a lot for work and I don't see them doing it.

If SageTV does decide to make an app for mobile phones, I would much rather have them develop one for Android cause I think Android is coded with Java also. Even though I own an iPhone 3G, I would switch to an Android phone because the iPhone is falling behind. And I don't see the next iPhone will be any different. If it doesn't run multiple apps (iPhone/iPad don't), have a 5PM+ camera with LED flash, and support Adobe flash (which they will never do), then I will switch to whatever the best android phone is once my contract ends. Plus Android being the better platform for developers as they don't have to go through the restrictive approval process that Apple enforces.

In the meantime, I use AirVideo on the iPhone to watch my recordings over WiFi and 3G. On good connections, it works quite well.

Just to be clear, do you have the iPhone 3G or 3GS? I've tried video from different sources - AirVideo, ESPN mobile, weather channel, etc - on a 3G and it's not very reliable. It doesn't get far before stuttering or even completely hanging.

[flavius]

Likely your server is lacking the horses (just like mine).

[voidpt]

Haven't dug into the fine details. But wouldn't it be possible for SageTV to make an official "SageTV Web Placeshifter". Made up of HTML5/video tags and stuff. I think Job's showed some New York Times HTML browsing with embedded video on the iPad. So if SageTV Server had a webserver that gave some structured navigating with the media contents. And it would re-code on server to H.264 format best for the device in question. Not sure about LiveTV viewing. Best part, this should be possible to make work for a lot of devices. And on the iPad, no restrictions, and no App needed.

Just some thoughs. Head is tired, end of Friday, need

[wayner]

Originally Posted by jreichen

Just to be clear, do you have the iPhone 3G or 3GS? I've tried video from different sources - AirVideo, ESPN mobile, weather channel, etc - on a 3G and it's not very reliable. It doesn't get far before stuttering or even completely hanging.

Is this only using a 3G connection or is it the same when you are connected via wifi? My interest in this is primarily wifi. I went to try this with my wife's iPod Touch laast night but it had old firmware so I had to update that which is a LONG process. I will try it tonight with Air Video.

[wayner]

Originally Posted by bastafidli

1. Does Sage has the resources
2. Do they think there is a big enough market

I think that this would drum up some good publicity and interest in Sage and could sell some SageTV Media Player licenses as well. Especially since you know the probability of a Win Media Center app for the iPad is <<0%. Think of the marketing opportunites "Watch Live or Recorded TV on your iPhone or iPad using SageTV!"

[pvrpenguin]

What about even having a small app could control SageTV and not actually watch video? I guess this would be like a mobile version of the SageTV webserver plugin.

There have been countless time when I"m away from my computer that I think of a show I want to record or want to ensure my upcoming recording schedule is correct. Being able to bring up an app on the iPhone that would allow me to view my Guide, Favourites, Schedule would be awesome!

[wayner]

Originally Posted by pvrpenguin

What about even having a small app could control SageTV and not actually watch video? I guess this would be like a mobile version of the SageTV webserver plugin.

Many of us have been doing that for over a year - keep up with the group!

Sage Mobile Web

[matt91]

Originally Posted by pvrpenguin

What about even having a small app could control SageTV and not actually watch video? I guess this would be like a mobile version of the SageTV webserver plugin.

There have been countless time when I"m away from my computer that I think of a show I want to record or want to ensure my upcoming recording schedule is correct. Being able to bring up an app on the iPhone that would allow me to view my Guide, Favourites, Schedule would be awesome!

you can already do this with the www server or the mobile www server.

[wayner]

Originally Posted by mayamaniac

In the meantime, I use AirVideo on the iPhone to watch my recordings over WiFi and 3G. On good connections, it works quite well.

I didn't know that Air Video existed so I tried it. It works ok but it is kind of slow to watch shows since pretty much everything that I have in Sage (avi, mpeg, ts, mkv) has to be transcoded. Transcoding 1080i MPEG-2 files takes about 90% of the CPUs on my E8400. Transcoding H.264 files from the HD-PVR doesn't take as much resources but these seem to be transcoded down to a very low bitrate as they look crappy - and this is on a iPod Touch. I would hate to see how it would look on a much bigger screen like the iPad. All of this was done over 802.11g wifi.

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by voidpt

Haven't dug into the fine details. But wouldn't it be possible for SageTV to make an official "SageTV Web Placeshifter". Made up of HTML5/video tags and stuff. I think Job's showed some New York Times HTML browsing with embedded video on the iPad. So if SageTV Server had a webserver that gave some structured navigating with the media contents. And it would re-code on server to H.264 format best for the device in question. Not sure about LiveTV viewing. Best part, this should be possible to make work for a lot of devices. And on the iPad, no restrictions, and no App needed.

I think the limitation here is bandwidth selection. Placeshifter has the dynamic bandwidth adjusment built-in. You'd have to basically choose which bitrate profile you wanted to use for the stream, and go with that, and HOPE that your connection can keep up.

[jreichen]

Originally Posted by flavius

Likely your server is lacking the horses (just like mine).

I don't host ESPN's video for them so it wouldn't explain the poor performance of that video

I see you also have an Athlon 64 3200. Although it's getting a little old, it's hard to believe it doesn't have enough horses. H.264 transcoding does seem to stress it but mpeg4 doesn't.

I might have to try lower bitrate and resolution to come to a good point where the phone can handle it.