Any ideas on when we'll hear a new announcement?

[mechling-burgh]

Are you using a cable card tuner? I have Comcast in Pittsburgh and with a cable card tuner (HD Prime) I can get all the basic cable channels I subscribe too (HBO and such are Copy Protected). If not you may want to try that first. The cost is just a little more than the HDpvr but you get 3 tuners and only about $7.00 extra month for the cable card compared to the cost of an extra box.

[jhughesjr]

most widely used boxes are Cisco/SA and Motorola and the satellite providers (Bell, Shaw) use the same boxes as some of the US satellite providers.

Any recommendations as to a cable box make/model I should request from my cable provider to make it easy to work with SageTV over Firewire?

In the US you can not BUY a set-top box that will work with cable companies, you can only rent them monthly.

This infuriates me to no end - it's like when the phone companies had a land line monopoly back in the day and forced you to rent phones from them.

Are you using a cable card tuner? I have Comcast in Pittsburgh and with a cable card tuner (HD Prime)

I currently have a dual tuner HDHomeRun and can get the networks major networks as they are broadcast in clear QAM - I need to get the encrypted QAM channels I believe.

[mechling-burgh]

Don't confuse clear QAM with copy protect. Just because Comcast is not transmitting there signals in clear QAM it does not mean they are copy protected. In Pittsburgh only the over the air channels are sent clear QAM. With a cable card tuner I'm able to record in Sage all my HD channels. Depending on the box you already have you may be able to setup firewire tuning and record that way, it would not cost you any extra. I did that for years before I went to the cable card tuner. I love the cable card tuner and have had very good luck with it.

[Naylia]

Originally Posted by ckewinjones

They sell Android.

Not exactly. There are licensing fees associated with it, but those are mostly due to patent infringement determinations and that money goes to everyone except Google. Google provides Android for no cost, although I believe there is a device certification program to be allowed leverage their advertising, the android robot imagery, etc.

[Naylia]

Originally Posted by darcilicious

In the US you can not BUY a set-top box that will work with cable companies, you can only rent them monthly. US cable companies will not activate set-top boxes that are not in their "inventory" somehow.

(Unless something has changed recently with cable providers).

You can buy a Tivo. It may be a very full featured cable box, but it is a cable box, and one that with CableCARD works with pretty much every provider.

Here's a quote from a post from the comcast forums by a comcast rep:

You can certainly purchase certain cable boxes at retail or online today and Comcast will authorize them via cablecard.

Below are some examples:

Panasonic DVR
TiVo Series 3 and Series 4
TiVo HD
Sony
Moxi (no longer being made new, but used devices are available)
ATI (All in Wonder HD, ATI TV Wonder™ Digital Cable Tuner)

Note: ATI models use a CableCard in one-way mode

Motorola does not currently make their converters available for individual or retail purchase. That is a decision made by Motorola.

Since Motorola doesn't sell their cable boxes at retail, Comcast's assumption is that you are trying to put stolen property on their network if you have a unrented Moto box.

[darcilicious]

Originally Posted by wayner

Same thing in Canada - you buy the box from the cable co although the boxes are sold through third party retailers like Best Buy, etc as well as directly from the cable company.

Except of course, in the US, you can't buy them at all, you can only rent them. And you can only rent them directly from the cable company.

[mguebert]

Originally Posted by darcilicious

Except of course, in the US, you can't buy them at all, you can only rent them. And you can only rent them directly from the cable company.

You can purchase and use a Tivo as a stb using cablecard. Which will provide copy protected content. Not sure about on demand though.

[darcilicious]

Very true but as you said, it requires a CableCARD from your cable company (instead of a set-top box from your cable company).

[nycjoe]

Originally Posted by Skybolt

Google Fiber IS what they have been working on.

As already stated, it may never get out of the Google Fiber relm, And if it does, GF is still being beta tested. My guess, if this is going to go public outside of KS, it will be atleast a year. And by then something else will have come along I am sure (hope).

Have you seen this?
http://bgr.com/2013/03/15/google-tv-google-io-379696/
I think it's pretty clear that google fiber tv will become available nationally as will be announced at the next Google I/O this spring.

[samgreco]

Not so sure that's what this means. So far, Google TV and Google Fiber have had completely different paths/base.

Now, do I hope you're right and that it means they will be taking the Google Fiber platform and merging it with what was Google TV. Yes. I hope that's right

If I were a betting man, I might put some money on it happening. I think most of us here know what a winner the SageTV component part of Google Fiber is. The question is, do they?

[tvmaster2]

problem is, what makes Sage so awesome (file format manipulation) will likely never be allowed to exist on the same scale with Google, thanks to Hollywood and their need for $$$$.

[ripplingj]

When google bought sagetv it appears that all development stopped. Is there going to be more development and future releases or is there another product like sagetv that will continue development?

[RedR]

Originally Posted by ripplingj

When google bought sagetv it appears that all development stopped. Is there going to be more development and future releases or is there another product like sagetv that will continue development?

I think if you take a look around these forums, you'll find that just isn't true.

[valnar]

I don't need to know any deep, dark top secret plans within the mind of Google, but it would be nice to know what Jeff's crew is doing, just so we're in the loop on what the brainchild of Sage is up to. I can't believe that is too much to ask.

[Brent]

Originally Posted by valnar

I don't need to know any deep, dark top secret plans within the mind of Google, but it would be nice to know what Jeff's crew is doing, just so we're in the loop on what the brainchild of Sage is up to. I can't believe that is too much to ask.

I can tell you what I know which isn't a lot. Jeff is working on the TV part of Google Fiber TV. I believe he is the lead on that part of the project. When I get Google Fiber later this year I'm expecting the TV stuff to be very, very familiar.

[dstanley]

I just REALLY miss getting new updates to SageTV from Jeff ... Getting them installed and exploring what changes were made. The journey over the last few years of SageTV 6 and then 7 was a joy for me (Yeah ... I am a geek).
I really hope that we get to actually see and use a SageTV 8 -even here in Canada!
That said ... My SageTV 7 is and has been awesome!
I love this software ...

[Evil_Attorney]

Originally Posted by nycjoe

Have you seen this?
http://bgr.com/2013/03/15/google-tv-google-io-379696/
I think it's pretty clear that google fiber tv will become available nationally as will be announced at the next Google I/O this spring.

Wired doesn't seem to think that's the case.

[hawkmoon]

Maybe Jeff is able to release the source code for SageTV

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by Evil_Attorney

Wired doesn't seem to think that's the case.

I think he was talking about the broadband based tv service (the sagetv system), not the actual fiber network.