Bittersweet News

[bama]

Well after buying a new house and starting an upgrade path that would eventually result in an upgraded SageTV7 server that can record HD, a new NAS, a GigE wired household, and multiple HD300 extenders, I find myself at a decision point with how I complete my home media network.

Now that I am almost complete with my infrastructure of new hardware, the original plan was to purchase a 7 upgrade and the first extender as an upcoming birthday present (lucky or unlucky that I have waited this long remains to be seen). I guess I now have about two months to sit back and listen to SageTV and Google convince me to stay with a product I have trusted for reliability, originality, support, and being able to handle anything I could throw at it.

Football season is quickly approaching and I will be anxiously be waiting to make a selection.

[pieroxy]

I'm in exactly the same boat as you are, except I don't have a single license at all. From my point of view:

1. SageTV is dead, at least as we know it. This includes extenders.
2. We will see nothing coming out of the acquisition for at least several years.
3. I need something by the end of the summer
4. Proprietary software is out. Actually, it was out before but the adequation of SageTV to my need made me jump ship. I see now that I shouldn't have. The reminder is crystal clear.
5. Thus, Windows Media Center is out
6. Remains MythTV and MediaPortal AFAIK
7. MythTV is much more "geeky" than I'd like my system to be, although it is configurable to no end.
8. MediaPortal it is then. I'll buy several Mini ITX boxes for my extenders. Much less versatile than the HD300 from a connectivity standpoint though.

As far as luck/unlucky, I think the answer is lucky of course. Bitter today, but I believe for the best. We get to choose a setup that will stay with us for a while.

[bama]

@pieroxy I agree with everything you said of course and I believe this is lucky for me as well - our household has just been very happy with SageTV as a product and more importantly the community as a whole. Jumping to something else triggers an end. Not sure what new direction I will be heading in yet.

[APillowOfClouds]

Originally Posted by bama

@pieroxy I agree with everything you said of course and I believe this is lucky for me as well - our household has just been very happy with SageTV as a product and more importantly the community as a whole. Jumping to something else triggers an end. Not sure what new direction I will be heading in yet.

I'm sitting here this morning after reading the "insider" news on a another thread that would seem to indicate what we all knew already, Sage as we knew it is most likely dead. Still a rumor, but looks to be a fairly credible one. Like I say we all knew it anyway, we've just been fooling ourselves that maybe it's not over..

I have a functioning system, but how long before youtube quits working, the guide data maybe changes format and stops or something, etc. I am going to take an old Sage server and a previous video card and load up MediaPortal. Other than having to replace my single MediaMVP with a eee, it looks on paper like MediaPortal will be a decent replacement. I used a previous version long ago to play DVD's when I was on BeyondTV and it worked reasonably well.

I think we all need to kick in and make MediaPortal the new Sage/BeyondTV, one that will never be sold out from under us, one whose company will never decide corporate users are more important (BTV) and one that we can tweak to our heart's content. This is the second company that's decided on me to go in a new direction... I just don't have it in me to have a third do it.

[hoep]

maybe also NextPVR (formerly known as gbpvr) could be an alternative, as it seems to support the mvp and some other extenders like the popcornhour a100/110 ?

[Zippster]

Originally Posted by hoep

maybe also NextPVR (formerly known as gbpvr) could be an alternative, as it seems to sppurt the mvp and some other extenders like the popcornhour a100/110 ?

Pretty promising start of a thread here about doing some Boxee box work with current sage software / apps.