Don't forget about the OSX clients

[flavius]

Originally Posted by Tiki

...has anyone actually tried contacting Sage directly (via email or bug/support request) about this issue?

They will tell you that there isn't anything to say about the subject matter.

[Tiki]

Originally Posted by flavius

They will tell you that there isn't anything to say about the subject matter.

Does that mean you tried contacting Sage, or are you just guessing based on the fact that Sage typically doesn't like to announce things they are working on until they are ready for release (or at least Beta testing)?

[flavius]

I did ask them about support for OS X.

[sandor]

Originally Posted by Tiki

Does that mean you tried contacting Sage, or are you just guessing based on the fact that Sage typically doesn't like to announce things they are working on until they are ready for release (or at least Beta testing)?

this is the response i got in June of 2010:

Sandor,

Thank you for the offer. We are not looking for anybody at this time though.


Thanks,

George Oms
SageTV, LLC
http://www.sagetv.com
- Hide quoted text -

[Nadim]

What did they say when you asked for support Flavius?

[flavius]

Originally Posted by flavius

They will tell you that there isn't anything to say about the subject matter.

The latest Mac release I can find is 6.6.2 which came out almost a year and a half ago. So I have since moved on. My Sage system has been down now for more than a week due to construction but nobody's missing (or noticing) it much. I find it just too ironic that the moment the Mac community is growing faster than ever, Sage is dropping support for OS X.

Why? Who knows. Maybe they are going belly-up? I have been speculating about this quite a bit here on the Sage Forums. Maybe there are not seeing the love from the Mac community. Maybe they are feeling the Netflix pinch? We are streaming a lot more these days than we are watching recordings.

[MCE-Refugee]

Originally Posted by flavius

Why? Who knows. Maybe they are going belly-up? I have been speculating about this quite a bit here on the Sage Forums. Maybe there are not seeing the love from the Mac community. Maybe they are feeling the Netflix pinch? We are streaming a lot more these days than we are watching recordings.

My Sage server has been down since I moved a few months ago as I just haven't got round to setting it up. I have also moved to a house in the UK where there is Virgin cable. I simply don't bother to record anything any more even on the cable box as it's all available via BBC iPlayer or similar & for the odd show that is not I can find it in the 'usual places' & download it really, really fast as I now have 50Mbps broadband. I also bought a Boxee Box which plays everything that I have & does a good job on finding cover art & other metadata. Even my new TV has BBC iPlayer & can stream media from a NAS. I simply don't find I have a need for Sage any more with or without a Mac client.

[Tiki]

Originally Posted by flavius

Why? Who knows. Maybe they are going belly-up? I have been speculating about this quite a bit here on the Sage Forums. Maybe there are not seeing the love from the Mac community. Maybe they are feeling the Netflix pinch? We are streaming a lot more these days than we are watching recordings.

I highly doubt that Sage is in danger of going "belly-up" any time soon. Over the last several months they have been cranking out new product at a pretty fast rate.

Sage 7 was a major overhaul both of the user interface and of many of the under-the-covers stuff that makes Sage work, so the beta cycle was longer than usual. They created a new plug-in system for Sage with that release, which also required them to launch a new server to host the plugins and automate the plugin "approval" process.

Then there was the release of the HD-300 extender, and the debugging that went along with that.

Now Sage 7.1 is back into the beta cycle with support for the new Hauppauge Colossus capture card, plus continued changes to support 3rd party developers who are working on plugins and replacement UIs.

If you read these forums, you will probably notice that some of the Sage developers seem to be even more active than normal (Narflex in particular seems to be posting more).

You may also notice that Sage has been quite active in petitioning the FCC regarding Cable Card and AllVid.

So, with all this going on, I'm not surprised that they haven't been able to keep up with the Mac support. "Belly-up"? I think not. However, given how long it's been since they've done anything, I do think Sage owes it to the community to make some sort of official statement regarding future Mac support.

[rtengvad]

Originally Posted by Tiki

However, given how long it's been since they've done anything, I do think Sage owes it to the community to make some sort of official statement regarding future Mac support.

I agree. IF sage really has decided to fully stop the development of the Mac-version it would only be right to pass that information to its loyal costumers here at the forum, so that they can act accordingly. But the fact that we have not head anything from Sage makes me believe that they still haven’t made up there minds on the matter.

Just a few weeks ago I persuaded a friend to upgrade to version 7 on his windows server, just to realize that there is no client for his Mac. I felt a bit stupid.

Rasmus

[MCE-Refugee]

Originally Posted by flavius

Just a few weeks ago I persuaded a friend to upgrade to version 7 on his windows server, just to realize that there is no client for his Mac. I felt a bit stupid.

Apparently the Mac V6 Placeshifter will work against a V7 Sage server. Not great if you need to buy Placeshifter to replace the Mac client software as there is no trade-in programme.

[rtengvad]

Yes I've read that, but placeshifter does not work with DVD streaming. And the kids used to watch a lot of DVD on that mac.

Rasmus

[rtengvad]

Originally Posted by flavius

Why? Who knows. Maybe they are going belly-up? I have been speculating about this quite a bit here on the Sage Forums. Maybe there are not seeing the love from the Mac community. Maybe they are feeling the Netflix pinch? We are streaming a lot more these days than we are watching recordings.

In that case I suggest Sage to focus their efforts more on the European market.

Over here we are not half as developed as you are in the US. Video streaming is still only in its absolute infancy. No Netflix or Hulu here. In fact we have just now started to pick up on digital TV recording, something you have done for a decade with systems like Tivo, Sage a.o.

Rasmus

[heffneil]

Yeah I think it is safe to say it is Forgotten at this point. I can ONLY imagine that the reason there hasn't been an official announcement is because they are unsure or having problems with the Mac version? Maybe that is the mac guy in me that is hopeful. I would be happy with just a client at this point...

And while we are wishing an official iOS client would be nice too

Thanks,

Neil

[simonen]

Originally Posted by MCE-Refugee

Apparently the Mac V6 Placeshifter will work against a V7 Sage server. Not great if you need to buy Placeshifter to replace the Mac client software as there is no trade-in programme.

This is what I do and it works fine. I don't play DVDs, they are all ripped to an avi file or something, so I cannot speak to DVD streaming not working.

[Nadim]

For me the old 6.2 Mac Placeshifter locks up really bad with really high bitrate HD video.

I wish they would tell us once and for all if there is going to be a mac version ever..?

[sandor]

Yeah, i just want to hear something conclusive.

In terms of **not** using Sage.. i still cannot drop it. I've got a central Mac Sage Server and then HD200's.

I tried EyeTV for a couple weeks, couldn't put up with it - no live TV = no go, especially for sports. I've got an AppleTV 2 on the tv too, and i love that - Netflix is great, but they still don;t have the greatest selection. I definitely still consume most of my media via what Sage has recorded OTA. It simply works, even v6, and i have all the multimedia setup on a 5 ghz 802.11/n network which has been working well - average of 14 MB/s throughput!


Anyway, i too want an answer from Sage in reference to future Mac support. I would love a way to utilize the AppleTV as a client, and i am still searching for a Sage replacement - i really cannot see going back to a Windows machine just for Sage.

[GregT]

I'm with you on not wanting to go to a Windows machine, just for Sage. At some point I might consider a Linux install, but it seems doubtful at this point.

Just last week, EyeTV updated their iOS client, to include Airplay capability for video. I think that will do it for me. I have EyeTV on my Mac desktop, with an HD-PVR feed from a DirecTV box. It streams live TV (and recorded content) to my iOS devices. Now with Airplay, the iOS devices can stream that on my AppleTV 2 units, which gives me live TV anywhere I have an AppleTV installed.

When I travel, I stream to my iOS devices. When I'm around the house, I can stream to my TVs. Maybe some day there will be an EyeTV interface built-in to to AppleTV, but until then, I'm always carrying my live and recorded content in my pocket...

So far, so good. The two caveats so far, is that I can't have a live window running on the computer itself, and stream live to an iOS device at the same time, and I also have the Turbo.264 HD stick plugged into the desktop Mac, to improve streaming performance.

[Fonceur]

Originally Posted by sandor

i really cannot see going back to a Windows machine just for Sage.

What about running SageTV 7 in a Windows XP/Linux VMWare image, anyone tried that?

[hotwire]

I'm working on getting a SageTv v7 setup in Parallels right now.
http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=54797

The HDHomeruns are working, the Hauppauge HD-PVR is not. After I install the driver for the HD-PVR it will lock up in Windows. Parallels support wants to remote into my machine to troubleshoot. My guess is that there's a problem with the highspeed USB in virtualization. I'm really hoping that I can get the HD-PVR working, without it there is really no point in running Sage in a VM just for OTA broadcast tv. If I can't get this working I might just break down and get a Dish Network PVR.

[will]

In the past, Sage been great with doing the full suite of software for all platforms. However, Sage should just focus on releasing a v7 client/placeshifter and dropping Media Center for the Mac. The HTPC community seems to be more and more moving towards the direction of having a centralized server that records everything and having their TVs connect to it through an extender. How many of us really having our HTPC that records off of two or three cable boxes with HD-PVRs hooked up in our living rooms (talk about a low WAF)?

I would love to be able to get a SageTV v7 client working natively on a kitchen iMac, but if I was building a new SageTV server I would be foolish to go out and by a Mac and pay a premium for a system I'm putting in the basement. Plus, I would have to run Windows in bootcamp anyways for most of the drivers.

The future for SageTV on Macs is clients. In my opinion, no one makes better looking or sleeker machines than Apple. If I have a computer visible in my house, I prefer it to be a Mac. I'm not going to buy a beautiful iMac for my office and then plug in HD-PVRs to it.

Sage, please keep the Mac client alive and delegate the ugly server tasks to Windows/Linux. Apple just dropped their rack-mounted server line and in the eyes of Apple the future of Macs are clients, not servers!