Considering Sage TV

[toricred]

I've seen that error on my server when I set my Java heap too high and try to launch the Sage GUI and the server is running as a service.

[Audacity]

Well, it looks like "project streaming video" is a success. Setting up a HTPC friendly browser interface is substantially easier than getting a XBOX 360 to access Hulu from Canada. For my needs, SageTV is just as capable as 7MC with the important addition of having the SageTV Client, so I just purchased SageTV + 2 client licenses.

Thanks for all the help!

[NoodleNT]

Originally Posted by jnmfox

I found all the different software confusing as well, maybe they should organize things by OS and have a matrix showing the differences.

Yes! BTV made it very easy to figure out. The website does a poor job helping new customers figure out what they actually need. A design wizard or matrix would be great.

[jnmfox]

Originally Posted by NoodleNT

Yes! BTV made it very easy to figure out. The website does a poor job helping new customers figure out what they actually need. A design wizard or matrix would be great.

It all makes sense to me now but when I first got on the site trying to figure-out if I need just SageTV Media Center or if I also needed a client or placeshifter licence.

They should just have a description of the SageTV Media Center on the front page and showing all of its features then from their link to the other OS versions of the software that would describe the differences.

+

A simple maxtrix showing basically:

SageTV Media Center=Main interface/PVR application
HD300= Hardware extender (and describe the function of an extender) with a built-in client licence
Client= software to use you SageTV on a separate PC in the house.
Placeshifter= watch your SageTV videos over the internet

[stevech]

agree.
SageTV to the newbie is more than bewildering

[davephan]

Originally Posted by bits

I would suggest that you consider a ROKU for playing Hulu vs using HTPC. Sage HD300 + ROKU should get you everything you want and would be cheaper and simplier not to mention a much better form factor than HTPC.

I have been thinking about getting a Roku box because Playon requires Microsoft Silverlight. The Silverlight application seems to be unreliable. I have to uninstall and re-install every 2 - 3 weeks. I get a message on the TV about a problem with Silverlight every 2 - 3 weeks. Uninstalling and reinstalling Silverlight always fixes the problem, but it is an annoying and recurring problem. Maybe Windows 7 would work better with Silverlight than XP - maybe that is the problem. Or, maybe Silverlight is just buggy software.

Is there a way to integrate the Roku box with SageTV? If not, a separate Roku box would be needed for each TV to stream Netflix.

I don't think Playon works with the Linux SageTV version, so if that is the case, if I needed a separate Roku box for each TV, then switching from the SageTV Windows version to the Linux version would be easier, since I need Netflix streaming to function. Netflix streaming and DVDs can easily replace the cable premium movie channels.


Dave

[Audacity]

Originally Posted by davephan

I don't think Playon works with the Linux SageTV version, so if that is the case, if I needed a separate Roku box for each TV, then switching from the SageTV Windows version to the Linux version would be easier, since I need Netflix streaming to function. Netflix streaming and DVDs can easily replace the cable premium movie channels.

In 2003 when I setup my first HTPC practically all of my content came from recorded standard definition cable TV. Now, 8 years later, the amount of time I spend watching recorded TV (vs content sourced from Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, etc) is well under 50%. This is what spurred me to move away from Windows Media Center.

My problem with WMC? Extenders. The only extender I could use was the XBOX 360, and while it worked well for recorded TV, it didn't work well for Hulu and other random internet video sources. Being in Canada doesn't help because to get to some of those sources I need the extender device to initiate a VPN connection to a endpoint to defeat GeoIP-based tracking.

There are extender devices like Roku, but even those devices can only watch a small subset of the online video available to a PC. After switching my bedroom extender with a HTPC (in this case a Dell Studio Hyrbid I had sitting around doing nothing) I've been able to access all the recorded TV and online video content, and setup VPN connections at will. Thanks to SageTV having a client application that runs on PCs, this is all possible.

Going forward devices like Roku, AppleTV, Boxee, etc all could start adding more video sources from the web, but the problem here is that if you're using a device like that the content publishers seem to want a business relationship setup between themselves and whoever makes the hardware. And even in those cases the number of videos available to the device is a subset of what you can get if you're using a PC. Software like PlayOn substantially degrades the quality of the video (when I tried it) and the navigation isn't nearly as good as what you get when you go to those sites directly via a browser.

So, I believe future set top boxes need to contain a browser that content publishers cannot discriminate against. That way the Boxee/Roku/etc developers won't need to implement new interfaces for each new content publisher that puts a website on the internet.

Finally, using a traditional browser with a remote control sucks. The solution to this problem (for me) was to purchase The Loop for each HTPC in my house. Now, while running Google Chrome configured with a default zoom level of ~200% for web pages, websites are easy to navigate.