SageTV acquired by Google

[DFranch]

Wow, I this is a shock. I've been feeling guilty, I just switched to Media Center after being a Sage user for the past 8 years (Media center is the only way to use cablecard in my area). Trust me I'd much rather be using Sage than Media Center. Now it turns out It might have been perfect timing.

I'm going to hope that Google does right by Sage and in a year or 2 I'll be able to happily switch back to Sage (with full cablecard support). I guess only time will tell.

[brainbone]

Originally Posted by broconne

GrandCentral acquisition by Google worked out OK. However, that was a whole different ballgame. Google wasn't already in "that business"

Though Google stopped the use of SIP with GrandCentral, and that was a game changer for some -- and the workarounds still aren't exactly stable.

[Fonceur]

Originally Posted by madpoet

they took everything, including support, down.

They probably have to re-brand everything as GoogleTV-lite until it gets merged into GoogleTV or something... And I thought I was a pessimist...

[Slipshod]

Originally Posted by SomeWhatLost

for those who believe the gloom & doom 'masses' are over reacting, I just have one simple request...
provide just one example of where Company X gets acquired by Company Y, and the customers of Company X don't get screwed...

Zimbra acquired by Yahoo.
Woot acquired by Amazon.
Visio acquired by Microsoft.
Intrigue acquired by Logitech. (Harmony)
Slim acquired by Logitech.

I'm sure there are plenty more... That was just off the top of my head.

[ThePaladinTech]

Originally Posted by GKusnick

If we talk ourselves into a panic and start dumping HD300s on eBay for peanuts, how is that a good outcome for anybody?

It'd be good for me cuz I'd still like to buy a few

I'm certainly in the concerned "we're doomed it'll never work" group - but I *must* be optimistic, if Sage goes away there is nothing out there as good as it is IMHO.

on another note I don't quite get the "i've spent thousands of dollars on Sage" - You've likely spent a couple hundred the rest can be re-purposed (servers, tuners, etc.) The only thing that will become a total paperweight is the HD-100.

[panteragstk]

I'm willing to believe that the takedown of the website is just to transition to google. I believe that we will hear something very soon and get our questions answered.

I seriously doubt this is a "I got paid, screw you guys" situation. I think the minimal statement was just to let us know things have changed.

I'm going to be in the wait and see camp until something changes. This could be the best thing that ever happened to us. Sage could stay the same, but have google money/resources behind it. Can you imagine what we could accomplish with that scenario?

Android is open source, so why wouldn't the trend continue with sage? Fact is we know nothing.

For those of you jumping ship. PM me so I can buy your hd300's. (seriously)

[pez]

According to the wiki, GC stop accepting new users for 2 years and during that time no products were updates. However, it appears that the GC servers did not stop working.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GrandCe...al_termination

So maybe there is a small amount of hope that G will keep EPG and this forum up. I hope they also allow current users to upgrade to the latest versions.

[enthilzha]

+1
I love Google, I love Sage. There is a huge amount of opportunity that I hope both companies capitalize on. Sage isn't just a software license, its being a member of the most vibrant community of home entertainment enthusiasts anywhere.

No one expects support for existing Sage software and hardware forever, we're okay with change - just give the community a bridge to follow the product into its new life. You have a small army of developers and enthusiasts ready to build on an already solid, open, product. Imagine the next generation of Sage / GoogleTV with an already vibrant development community. Now compare that to just another closed, heavily DRMed provider DVR box or dare I say AppleTV.

You'll knock the hardware and base software out of the park, just don't under estimate the power of an open, extendable, product and the community that is looking for a path to keep doing what they've been doing for 9 years.

[jlindborg]

Originally Posted by SomeWhatLost

for those who believe the gloom & doom 'masses' are over reacting, I just have one simple request...
provide just one example of where Company X gets acquired by Company Y, and the customers of Company X don't get screwed...

I can quote several but one from rather personal experience comes to mind - my 10+ year old company was bought by Cisco around 10 years ago - guess what I'm working on this weekend? Migration tools from versions of our product line that were around back then. Without the aquisition our customers would have been screwed when we cratered - support was improved, the product integrations and got better, the UI improved our engineering resources went through the roof....

yes - our product lines got trimmed down but the core lived on and got much better. Trust me - from a customer perspective it was a huge plus.

Remain calm... this is not necessarily a terrible thing.

[speedfreakz]

add me the list of those worried, having used sagetv for many years and built 6 boxes with the software on it. What do we do now???

[davenlr]

The home page for SageTv http://sagetv.com/index.html sounds pretty optimistic as far as continued development. Perhaps there is hope.

[Torkild]

Originally Posted by reggie14

XMLTV will work in a pinch. I don't think its a great long-term solution, but it will work.

I asure you, it is a great solution

[fidget]

Originally Posted by traker1001

Personally I think this was a completely gutless, cowardly and unethical move on Sage team side. Not only do They walk with no warning and a extremely crappy statement, no longer have to support sage, Honor any of the contracts, deal with customers anymore, But they sell what was a great product to a competitor who will most likely kill it, Rather than doing something to make sure of it's continued survival.

But I guess I am only one of an increasingly rare breed who wouldn't even considering selling his soul for a few suitcases of money.

And Even if by some miracle google doesn't kill it, IT will most definitely never be the same again.

Although they don't really give a crap, I absolutely do blame Jeff and his team and I believe there are much better ways whey could have handled this if they had actually given a crap.

Wow, who peed in your Cheerios this morning? While don't believe this is a good thing for the users, i do respect Jeff and company's decision. I have been using SageTV since version 1.4 and the only reason that I am not happy is because of Google's inability to produce a commercial product (e.g., one that they sell directly rather than give to an OEM form them to try and market). I am sure that Google has made some level of promises to Sage WRT keeping the product alive, but I don't expect them to try to keep them.

[brainbone]

Originally Posted by fidget

Wow, who peed in your Cheerios this morning?

Guess I missed that post from traker1001. I see nothing gutless, cowardly or unethical about selling SageTV to Google.

How it turns out for us as users remains to be seen, but in any case, gutless, cowardly and unethical aren't the correct words to describe the turn of events. Would it be "gutless, cowardly and unethical" for SageTV to close its doors because it couldn't generate enough revenue to continue operation? No. "Unfortunate" is the correct description for such a case, just as "unfortunate" would fit perfectly if Google fails to deliver a good product from the SageTV purchase.

[reggie14]

Originally Posted by ThePaladinTech

on another note I don't quite get the "i've spent thousands of dollars on Sage" - You've likely spent a couple hundred the rest can be re-purposed (servers, tuners, etc.) The only thing that will become a total paperweight is the HD-100.

I think all the extenders are essentially paperweights once you move away from Sage. I definitely wouldn't have bought an HD200/300 to use in standalone mode. Its painful. So, I have an HD200, and HD300, and a couple hundred dollars of software licenses that aren't going to be used if I move away from Sage.

The rest of the Sage related stuff might effectively become useless too. My server, hard drives, and tuners are only useful if I intend to keep using a PC-based DVR system. Unless Google announces a product relatively soon inspired from SageTV (soon meaning 6 months or so), I doubt I'll continue using a PC-based DVR. Even if I do, I'd probably go with Windows 7 MC, in which case I'd immediately buy XBox 360 slims and an HDHR Prime to replace my Sage HD extenders and current tuners/capture devices. So, I figure I at least have to add in my HDHR, HD-PVR, and Colossus as probable soon-to-be-paperweights.

Overall, that's not too bad in my mind actually. I certainly feel like I've gotten my money's work out of my Sage stuff. I probably wouldn't have bought that last Colossus tuner if I knew this was going to happen, but that's only $150. Almost everything else I've bought I think I've had long enough to justify the cost.

Originally Posted by pez

So maybe there is a small amount of hope that G will keep EPG and this forum up. I hope they also allow current users to upgrade to the latest versions.

The more I think about it, the less I think Google will pull the plug on SageTV's EPG service. It should be a drop in the bucket for them, so I'd hope the Sage guys can convince them to keep it around for a couple years.

Instead, I'm actually more concerned about support on my extenders. I have a HD300 that's still under warranty that seems to be working great, and an HD200 that's out of warranty and once a month seems to act up (no idea if its firmware or hardware related, but physical power cycling fixes it). If my HD200 goes down, what do I do? I can't buy a new HD300 anymore.

[Serra]

1. Love Google, I use Google whenever possible. Google Calendar in itself is awesome.

2. If I were Jeff and Google came knocking, I would have sold too. Its like a dream come true.

3. I'm sad about the sale. I fear that SageTV will disappear and all of the things I love about it will be gone. I really see no alternatives.

4. I'm not worried about the lack of communication. I've been in these types of deals before and everyone WANTS to talk, but the paperwork is overwhelming and often no one can figure out exactly what they can and cannot say. Plus, there is often a period where the people just don't know what will happen. They have an idea, but no one is sure, they don't want to (and often can't for fear of reprisal) give false information.

5. I'm afraid my extender purchases are now going to be bricked. The extender WAS one of the main reasons I liked SageTV.

6. I'm afraid my DVD/Blu-Ray rips are going to be a thing of the past. I love the fact that I don't have to put the disk into the box to watch something. I also like skipping everything, which isn't always possible with a physical player.

7. I greatly fear that we will lose our 30 second skip, like we did with Tivo. Plus all of the other controls we use to jump around.

[fresnoboy]

If anyone wants to sell their HD300's at a large discount to beat the rush, PM me and I'll take them off your hands while you can still get pennies on the dollar for them.

[madpoet]

Pennies on the dollar no but I would sell mine for a discount

[davephan]

It's hard to say about SageTV's future after Google acquired it. It could be better, worse, or maybe go away. It's also hard to say what happens to all the plugs-in, which aren't owned by SageTV. It would be helpful if the SageTV customer base was informed more about the future of SageTV.

The Google acquisition could improve drastically improve the product. It also may prevent other companies like Comcast buying it just to kill it. I think there is hope that the product will improve from all the 'smiling faces'. If the SageTV was acquired by Google just to be killed, I think there would be absolutely no response, only silence.

Google efforts with Google TV seems to be a failure so far. Maybe the SageTV acquisition could drastically change that. Google has the resources to replace cable and satellite TV in the US as we know it today. They could also replace all the telephone companies in the US. They could also offer high speed wireless for a fraction of the price and completely dominate as an Internet provider. Google could become many times larger than they are today.

Since SageTV's future is unknown at this point in time by the current customers, then it becomes more important than ever to have a way you can recover your system. The SageTV computer should be imaged and the files could be copied as a redundant recovery path. The backups should also be stored on a hard drive that can go offsite or cloud storage. In the longer term, it would be a good idea to not be on Windows XP since support and patching will go away in about a year. WHS is another bad OS for recovery, since there isn't a way to recover it, other than a scratch rebuild.

It would be a sad day if the SageTV forum was also shut down. If that happened, maybe people could meet on Facebook or somewhere and start a new forum somewhere.

Dave

[reggie14]

Originally Posted by davephan

The Google acquisition could improve drastically improve the product. It also may prevent other companies like Comcast buying it just to kill it. I think there is hope that the product will improve from all the 'smiling faces'. If the SageTV was acquired by Google just to be killed, I think there would be absolutely no response, only silence.

I don't think there are many, if any, people that think Google bought Sage with the intention of killing it. I can't fathom a reason for doing that. There's no way Sage would be a credible threat to GoogleTV if Google put any effort behind it. I don't mean to suggest that Sage couldn't compete technically with Google, its just that Google has the resources to reach a much, much wider audience than Sage ever could.

I think the concern is that Sage could just disappear. There are a lot of projects going on at Google that management thinks are just interesting projects that never really turn into a real product. Many probably don't even reach the public. The Sage team could work with Google for years on concept ideas for GoogleTV, without anything particularly interesting making it out to the public. That's my concern.