Plex as a front end for Sage

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by tmiranda

Warning. Totally OT post



When did people start using "prolly" instead of probably? The first few times I saw this I figured the person typing it was a bad speller, bad at grammar, or both Then I realized this was slang (hey what can I say, I'm slow to catch on.) Where did "prolly" come from and is it really that much easier to type than "probably"? Inquiring minds want to know.

Considering it's a proper spelling for how it's commonly pronounced, it shouldn't be that surprising..

[emveepee]

Originally Posted by tmiranda

Where did "prolly" come from and is it really that much easier to type than "probably"? Inquiring minds want to know.

After buying a Boxee Box at Best Buy, best bet is boys get bored typing the B's

Martin

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

Considering it's a proper spelling for how it's commonly pronounced, it shouldn't be that surprising..

I thought I lived in the sticks but nobody I know pronounces probably that way. It seems to be something out of a Jeff Foxworthy skit, "If yer neighbors pernouce probably with silent B's, you just ....."

Now off to have some adult beverages... Happy New Year all.

[wayner]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

Yes, DVR's add greatness to sports, because you can start watching late and catch up towards live (watching an NFL game in 1.5 hours is awesome), but I'm guessing the limitation here is that it can't watch a show at all while it's recording, which means you can't START watching the game until it's over. If plex can correctly handle a video who's length changes as it's being watched, then this is a non-issue. I don't know that that is the case.

This might require alternate measures like breaking up sorts into 30 or 60 minutes segments to get around this issue. The other problem is that we have to get Plex to recognize sports recordings since they are not in TVDB.

[Fuzzy]

True, this would require a different metadata service - not unlike the was SRE grabs sports data from various sources.

That said, I fully intend on just continuing to use sage... plex is a nice front end, but really the only thing it adds for ME is the theme music, and that's only on about 30% of my shows... I can live without that, or even look into implementing it into sage at some point... if I really feel it's important (which as of now, I don't).

[Torkild]

Seems stupid to me.
One app to record and one for all video playback <- Thats going back in time!

Sage got it right - one app to do it all.

[wayner]

Sage got it right but unfortunately it is in the past tense. But there are a few things that Sage didn't do, or at least not do well, such as online content. And this is where the world is going in the future, or so it appears.

[wayner]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

True, this would require a different metadata service - not unlike the was SRE grabs sports data from various sources.

Perhaps, or you could just break up any show that is longer than 1 hr into various parts.

Even if it did require a different metadata service Slugger has already written mc2xml which appears to be more customizable. So perhaps this could be done throught that app and the different segments of a game could be treated as different episodes in a season since that concept isn't really used for sports.

[emveepee]

Originally Posted by wayner

Sage got it right but unfortunately it is in the past tense. But there are a few things that Sage didn't do, or at least not do well, such as online content. And this is where the world is going in the future, or so it appears.

I disagree wiz.bin was dumb.

Martin

[wayner]

Why is wiz.bin dumb and what would you have done instead?

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by emveepee

I disagree wiz.bin was dumb.

Martin

They probably went this way to prevent plugin developers from tinkering too much with the database. I'm not a DB guru but I imagine if they used a "real" database it would be pretty easy for users to corrupt it. Just guessing.

[emveepee]

Originally Posted by tmiranda

They probably went this way to prevent plugin developers from tinkering too much with the database.

That's what I think is dumb. While I respect that SageTV is a commercial product, tinkering can also provide some real benefits, and they could have limited what they encrypted to their own data. Proprietary formats tend to become harder to maintain with time, SQL calls are generally easier to maintain. (that being said maybe it is something standard inside?) It is also why I dislike iTunes and Microsoft ehome databases hiding my data from me.

As for damage, wiz.bin corruption is certainly a possibility without tinkering. I've seen enough threads on this to consider it a concern.

Martin

[Fuzzy]

Any database is best written and read from a single process layer, with managed api's to access that data.. the way sage did it. This is the best way to maintain it trouble free. The only thing they did poorly in this regard, is that it's backup scheme is not very robust.

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by emveepee

That's what I think is dumb.

Me too. I was only speculating on why they would spend a lot of time and effort to create their own database when many good products are already available. Maybe the products available were too slow, or maybe they lacked some feature that was necessary, or, or or... only Jeff knows for sure why this decision was made.

[tmiranda]

Back on topic. I'm not sure why so many are focusing on replacing the front-end of Sage. I'm much more concerned with the back-end. There are lots of good (or even great) front ends out there but they all have one glaring weakness, the don't have all the PVR back-end functionality. We all ended up using Sage not because it's front end was pretty, but because the back end and the overall "platform" was outstanding.

That's why I still think nPVR has the best potential as a Sage replacement if/when that becomes necessary. nPVR has a very solid PVR core and it's developer friendly.

[dinki]

My interest is in watching my sage recordings on my roku. I'm not looking to replace my hd200 but merely allow another tv to be able to access the same content. Others may want to do similar.

[wayner]

Originally Posted by tmiranda

Back on topic. I'm not sure why so many are focusing on replacing the front-end of Sage. I'm much more concerned with the back-end. There are lots of good (or even great) front ends out there but they all have one glaring weakness, the don't have all the PVR back-end functionality. We all ended up using Sage not because it's front end was pretty, but because the back end and the overall "platform" was outstanding.

My view on this is that the front end can quickly become stale and can can can very behind in terms of functionality. There is also the issue mentioned above about adding new clients. One backend server is enough for a household but you can easily grow the number of frontends that you need as you get a bigger house, have growing kids, etc

The back end is likely to continue to work find until there are some new tuners that can't be integrated into Sage. I don't know when that will happen but it is unlikely to be in the near future - look how long it took HD to be fully adopted. Therefore I don't see my backend ever becoming obsolete, unless my HD-PVRs die and I can't replace them. But prudent planning can help take care of that.

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by wayner

My view on this is that the front end can quickly become stale and can can can very behind in terms of functionality. There is also the issue mentioned above about adding new clients. One backend server is enough for a household but you can easily grow the number of frontends that you need as you get a bigger house, have growing kids, etc

The back end is likely to continue to work find until there are some new tuners that can't be integrated into Sage. I don't know when that will happen but it is unlikely to be in the near future - look how long it took HD to be fully adopted. Therefore I don't see my backend ever becoming obsolete, unless my HD-PVRs die and I can't replace them. But prudent planning can help take care of that.

I see your point, but I feel about the opposite. I'm not interested in the front end UI flavor of the month (no offense meant) simply because there are so many good things available I'm fairly certain I can find something I like. As Diamond and Phoenix showed there would always be developers working on enhancements to Sage's front end as well.

I want things like support of newer capture cards, the ability to record DRM'ed shows, more integrated online streaming support, support for Java updates (64 bit would be nice), support for newer CPUs (more multithreading for example), support for newer graphics (for those who use PC Clients), newer extenders, native support for streaming to tablets and smart phones, etc. IMHO it's the lack of these things that will eventually obsolete my system.

[mistergq]

tmiranda:
I have to disagree. if this was 2007/2008, I would agree, which is why I abandoned BTV. But with the ability to record from the HD PVR and Cablecard (although not natively), I have the ability to record what I need to record from STV. Also, with the Fios Remote app for the Iphone/Android, i even have access to VOD (although the setting up what to watch is painful because of delay - if you could use a web browser to which STB, life would be perfect, but that is on Verizon).

So I have the ability to record, now to the question is how to get the content to tvs. If I owned 4 or 5 STV client licenses, then I would be set. I could just replace the broken computer with a new computer. But I set up my system for Extenders, which did not require client licenses. So once the Extenders break, I am in trouble, like many others.

But I am optimistic that there will be alternatives, or an NPVR will develop enough that I can switch to that.

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by mistergq

tmiranda:
I have to disagree. if this was 2007/2008, I would agree, which is why I abandoned BTV. But with the ability to record from the HD PVR and Cablecard (although not natively), I have the ability to record what I need to record from STV. Also, with the Fios Remote app for the Iphone/Android, i even have access to VOD (although the setting up what to watch is painful because of delay - if you could use a web browser to which STB, life would be perfect, but that is on Verizon).

So I have the ability to record, now to the question is how to get the content to tvs. If I owned 4 or 5 STV client licenses, then I would be set. I could just replace the broken computer with a new computer. But I set up my system for Extenders, which did not require client licenses. So once the Extenders break, I am in trouble, like many others.

But I am optimistic that there will be alternatives, or an NPVR will develop enough that I can switch to that.

I have a strong feeling that once google officially says their plans for sage, there will be more client licenses available again. The internet will always win out over such things..