SageTV acquired by Google

[jasoninva]

Well, I wasn't expecting this, but this does remind me of the Meedio acquisition (as some have alluded to. Yahoo ran Meedio into an early grave. I'm wondering if Google will finish off what HDTV started for SageTV. I stopped growing my investment in SageTV when more and more stations supported HDTV broadcasts. In the end, the diy solution for getting hd video was either too expensive or too clunky. At this point, let's hope Google has the intent of pushing Sage technology further. If so, they're large enough to force a non techie approach to cablecard support.

[Olias]

Originally Posted by nick_l

Crap, just crap.

What he said.

[pez]

SHS, do you know how much of Hauppauge's market is driven by SageTV? Is this purchase going to have significant ripple effects on the encoder market?

I would expect WMC to be a bigger less of an enthusiastic audience.

[SHS]

Originally Posted by davenlr

Am I correct in assuming that even without EPG, we will still be able to program manual time slot recording?

Yes that rigth

[waynedunham]

Wow, just WOW! This has been a VERY distressing 12 hours for me personally.

First I see the news that the EPG data for my beloved ReplayTV's will be shutting down at the end of July. I still have 4 of these chugging away diligently recording the Analog SD versions of my network favorites. On many an occasion they have saved my butt when either SageTV (rarely), the HD-PVR's hooked to it (did I remember to reboot the HD-PVR's today?), or the HD-HomeRun's (again rarely) miss/screw up a recording.

Now this news about SageTv. I just installed the RC candidate this morning after I'd read through the forums.

I would like to congratulate the whole SageTv team for their well deserved "payday" and thank them for the years of great work and support they have given us.

Like many here have said, I love Google and use a lot of their products, but I too fear that the openness, innovation, and responsiveness we've all gotten from the SageTv team will be a mere shell of itself.
This may be our best hope of getting the HD-HR Prime and Ceton cards working properly as well as getting Netflix, and several other services integrated. Of course it could also mean the end of any such hopes depending on how Google plays this. (hoping for the former, fearing the latter)

If this is the end of the SageTV *I* know and love and it becomes something where all of the things I love disappear and all of the things I hate coming to the forefront I will still not feel "ripped off" having spent thousands on software/hardware for my SageTV HTPC. I have had many years of great use for minimal SageTV software $$'s. Plus the thousands of times watching something at a friends house and saying "Gee, my TV doesn't have commercials" (I'm sure Google can/will "fix" that! BOOO!!)

I do however fear the unknown in the case that I do end up having to look elsewhere for my next iteration of HTPC. WMC, NO! But what, I have no idea.

[korben_dallas]

Are SageTV software keys static or online-verified?

I was about to rebuild the PC where my SageTV Client resides, but I don't want to lose the client if online key verification stops working..

[hb4]

I don't think we'll have to worry about the EPG. It will be free..... with a little advertising on the side.

Kind of ironic....
Up until today, I thought I was ahead of the curve.... Started with Replay TV and SD Dish, then added Sage when OTA HD became available. So far so good. Then last month I decided to switch to Comcast HD and moved everything over to Sage - except Comcast local SD which I hooked up to the old Replay TV. Great! all bases covered.

When Replay was sold, all development stopped and DNNA picked up the subscription revenue and provided EPG. With a dedicated user group it remained a viable and solid recorder.

In the last week, Replay announced that they are shutting down EPG (basically bricking it) and now Sage announces that they are selling to Google. Behind the curve all of a sudden.

Since I'm invested in a dedicated TV server, I figure I'll hang in there with Sage until the future becomes a little clearer.

I don't think Google has much of an incentive to develop a product that is compatible with the current Sage environment (especially hardware), so maybe a switch to Windows Media Center makes the most sense.

[SHS]

Originally Posted by pez

SHS, do you know how much of Hauppauge's market is driven by SageTV? Is this purchase going to have significant ripple effects on the encoder market?

I would expect WMC to be a bigger less of an enthusiastic audience.

Your rigth MCE less of an enthusiastic audience due all major diff and thing we loss out on.
That most likey slow things down a bit but it that should have no major ripple effects in the long but then agine I could be wrong, I key thing is finding a good alternate to sagetv as we know WinTV 7 an't gong cut it.

Option are
nPVR (GB-PVR)
Media Portal
WindowsXP/Vista/7 MCE
MeediOS (I petty sure there very to no support for Hauppauge Colossus and min other capture device)
MythTV (No support for Hauppauge Colossus and can be real a pain to work with becuases it Linux)
TotalMedia 3.5 (Very poor hardware support)
XBMC (There no build TV support but is plug-in)
I my self have not tested any of them in years so it going be tougth call which one to pick all them have up and downs.
There alway the Possable Beyond TV may come back that not going happing.
The problem is I do need PC Client support and min here do need Extender support.

For me I going wait and see what happing, hopely soon we know that if jeff say anything and hope will get some info.

[SHS]

Originally Posted by korben_dallas

Are SageTV software keys static or online-verified?

I was about to rebuild the PC where my SageTV Client resides, but I don't want to lose the client if online key verification stops working..

I think the keys code are static but not 100% sure.

[baudfather]

Well, congratulations to the SageTV team, you know you've made it when Google buys you!

I'm sure there's going to be a different focus as to where Sage is going now with el Goog behind the wheel, but I do hope that the core of what made Sage what it is (PVR/MC) with open third party plugin support remains. Hopefully Sage will live on in the same realm that Android has grown to become.

Long live SageTV!

[bunch92]

I am afraid to say that it is not good news for us, SageTV users. Store closed within 24 hours , I have a bad feeling about support or future of the product, even the website or this forum.

Google are clever and got it spot on by acquiring the best product on the market , and I am sure the next GoogleTV will have plenty of SageTV code in it , but it will never be as open and flexible as SageTV is.

I hope I am wrong ....

[g808]

WTF? This is not good.

[Grant]

Oh my God.

I thought hey nothing recording tonight all my drives are backed up. I think I will do that upgrade now. Oh you know it might be good to download the latest stable release of Sage TV. WHAT THE F*&^

Talk about timing.

First thought is well congrats to the Sage Guys I can't blame you.

Second is I hope my EPG isn't turned off anytime soon.

I am also one of those Replay TV guys that decided to come back to Sage TV. I got into SageTV when it was ver 4 then went away for a while because it wasn't much better than my Replay TV's and more work. I came back to it almost 2 years ago. Once I got the HD200 and Windows Home Server setup it has been great. The extender really made the difference. So much so that I added a HD300 and over 15TB of Hard Drives. OK a few problems with HDPVR but hey I can record as much as I want. I can add drives and I can stream my DVD's Music and Blurays and even actually see my Pictures when I'm not watching anything else. Nothing I have found has come close to what I actually want in a home media network besides Sage TV. I just hope Google keeps it alive.

Here's to SageTV

I have been watching the forum for years (I don't talk much) No matter what happens I am sure I can use this platform for at least another 2 years they can't kill what I already have even if I have to get EPG another way it has been done by people outside North America. I'm sure the Devs projects that have been going on will keep going I just hope they get support if they need it. I am optimistic that if Sage goes away that something else will somehow fill the gap but if they don't just disappear we have a good chance that we might actually get something exciting.

--Grant

PS (Google please don't kill the LOCAL server/extender way that Sage works)

[mayamaniac]

Congrats to Jeff and the rest of SageTV staffs and employees. You guys have been awesome for being a great small company providing great service with innovative ideas. So it is awesome that you guys are now rewarded for all your hard work.

Having said that, as a customer and loyal user, I don't feel the future is going to be bright for SageTV. Being bought out by a company like Google has always been my biggest fear. I was saving some money for the Ceton card but now I don't think I will go forward with it. Whatever happens, I don't think it will be the same any more. I love SageTV as a small company doing innovative stuffs and doing it better than anyone. But I have a hard time believing that this innovation will continue under Google. The only way it will be better is if Google listens to the users, especially the ones on this forum. SageTV have always listen to it's users, and so the product became better and better because of it.

So Google, if you want to make SageTV a huge success, just give SageTV money and resource and let them continue to do what they are doing and stuffs that they wanted to do but never had the resource to do so.

In the meantime, hey plugin developers, is it possible to make an EPG plugin that can source the EPG data from Zap2it or other EPG sources?

[GKusnick]

Originally Posted by bunch92

I am afraid to say that it is not good news for us

Why are you afraid to say it? Everyone else is saying it. In fact people seem to be positively eager to say that this is the end of life as we know it.

Personally, I'll wait a few days to see how things shake out before jumping on the Chicken Little bandwagon. Plenty of time to slit my wrists later, once we know the actual facts.

[kltye]

I've used SageTV since version 2 back in 2004, and have steadily upgraded my Sage server through the years (tuners, CPUs, disks, you name it). Like most people have said, I think the SageTV team deserves this buyout - I know I would sell out to Google if it were me.

I've used GrandCentral and Gizmo5 before they were destroyed, er, bought by Google. SageTV's has a very, very similar message to what Gizmo5 had when they were bought. Google basically stopped all development on Gizmo5, and recently the forced us to switch over to Gvoice (read: no SIP, to those VoIP nerds out there). Long story short, I can't help but think this is the end for us. After all these years, I can't believe I'm going to have to look for new HTPC software.

[gmijackso]

My Sage TV server and PCs just made it across country after being separated from them for about 2 years. I just rebuilt the server, and all of the PCs and have installed version 7, with a 6.x licence, and logged on this evening to upgrade the license... Obviously, I can't do that now. So... I either need a way to upgrade my license to 7, or I need a download of a version that my license key WILL work with, hopefully before the trial runs out in the next week or so.
Ideas? I've so missed my Sage, two years is long enough.

[Whitey]

I don't understand why there is all this worry about the epg discontinuing when the rest of world has been happly using XMLTV for years

Whitey

[benjamintm]

I can only congratulate the SageTV team on their acquisition by Google. It's an amazing achievement.

My basic plan is to hope for the best (SageTV will continue in some form and equivalent functionality with a clear upgrade/migration path) and plan for the worst (SageTV vanishes into Google, ala Meedio into Yahoo).

For the time being I'm waiting to see how things play out, but I'm going to start experimenting with MythTV on the side. At least I didn't buy the HD300 I was considering earlier this week :-).

Ben

[starfire]

Don't understand/believe this part of the email that was sent out :

Although we will be shutting down the SageTV store, we will continue to support existing users.

So how do we get support when the support links have been removed? The forum never was official support.