Finally found my replacement, maybe (Cogeco is getting TiVo)

[Slugger]

I'm not definitely jumping ship this winter, but this is the first thing that's made me ponder a move away from SageTV.

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=213265

I think if Sage were still under development and if I were still heavily tweaking with my various plugins, etc. I wouldn't even consider the move, but other than the EPG service, I don't tinker with anything anymore, it's basically just an appliance at this stage. The fact that it is an appliance speaks volumes to its reliability, but it also means it's no longer a hobby, which it hasn't been for some 2+ years now, except for my ongoing EPG efforts.

If the price is right then this might be where I'm heading. The more interesting thing is TiVo is entering the Canadian cable landscape, which is noteworthy on its own, imho.

I suspect I won't be able to swallow the anticipated cost, which I expect to be somewhere around $25/mth for the first tv then $10-12/mth for each additional. I don't think I'm willing to invest that kind of cost considering I have a Sage setup functioning, but if there's a 6 or 12 month promo that I can live with, I'll probably give it a shot.

[tvmaster2]

Tivo's great for recording and playback, and SAF. Being tied to whatever hardware/software they supply is frustrating at times, but compared to ANY companies DVR, I've never seen any as easy and reliable as Tivo.
I have Tivo Premieres, which were flawed, but the Roamio platform seems better.
One thing about Tivo units, if there's something you don't like out of the box, try rarely fix it, instead releasing NEW boxes. And then there's the 'Lifetime' concept.....

PS...are you making enough money to keep developing the Sage EPG for years to come?

[Slugger]

Originally Posted by tvmaster2

Tivo's great for recording and playback, and SAF. Being tied to whatever hardware/software they supply is frustrating at times, but compared to ANY companies DVR, I've never seen any as easy and reliable as Tivo.

Yeah, I have family in the US that have TiVo so I've used it and it's one of those things that "just works", for the most part. I mean I can read the hard core user forums and read up on all the issues (legit or perceived), but for the most part, it does just work. None of the current cable/sat pvr offerings are even worth a moment's consideration given that I'm in a Cogeco serviced area -- I think Rogers NextBox platform looks solid (though I've never used it) and I've been somewhat impressed with the Telus Optik/Bell Fibe platform (which I have used) (MS I think?) but I wouldn't switch to it -- it's pretty, but lacking on features, imho. Cogeco's current "PVR" is garbage along with Shaw Direct's offering. Bell's satellite PVR is only slightly better than those and Fibe isn't available in my area. If I had to, I could see myself switching to TiVo. It's more of a possibility because, as I said, Sage is no longer a hobby, it's just an appliance. And because of that, I've been slowly throttling back my deployment. My NAS server was taken offline a few months back -- couldn't justify running an extra server 24/7 so I don't archive things anymore. I don't even use RAID on my recording drive (which is now 1 2TB drive instead of RAID 1 pairs, etc.). Unless the price is right, I'll probably hold off until there's a need to switch -- the death of my extenders or a server crash would be enough. IOW, I don't think I'll just jump ship when I can, but rather I simply won't rebuild/repair/upgrade my Sage setup any further; once it dies, I'll probably go to TiVo.

I will miss things like comskip, SRE, etc., but I think I can live without just as I've learned I don't need RAID 1 mirroring of my recordings nor TBs of NAS storage, etc. But if I'm wrong, I can always switch back.

I have Tivo Premieres, which were flawed, but the Roamio platform seems better.
One thing about Tivo units, if there's something you don't like out of the box, try rarely fix it, instead releasing NEW boxes. And then there's the 'Lifetime' concept.....

Yeah, thing is, if I'm reading it right, Cogeco is actually replacing their existing, antiquated, garbage "PVR" offering with TiVo so there won't be a monthly TiVo fee, but I'm sure Cogeco will be jacking up the price of their rental fees accordingly. This is where they might lose me. I'm not sure what I'm willing to pay per month for whole home TiVo. Pretty sure the answer is $0 as long as my Sage h/w holds up, but I think there's a number where I'd be ok with it in lieu of trying to replace failed extenders or a failed motherboard. They'd have to offer me a sweet promo either way to get started.

PS...are you making enough money to keep developing the Sage EPG for years to come?

If I were developing the epg plugin for money, I'd have stopped long ago (or more accurately, I'd have never started).

I'll say this, the epg plugin for Sage is tied directly to the sdjson project, which is the Java client to the Schedules Direct service that I maintain. As long as I stay involved with the sdjson project, you can pretty much be sure I'll keep the Sage epg plugin functional. If I were to switch to tivo (or something else) then what would likely happen is I wouldn't continue new development on the Sage plugin, but would maintain existing functionality as long as I stay involved with the sdjson project. So that basically means I'd keep the plugin loading epg data, but would halt new efforts like fanart, new upstream features, etc. Ideally, an active Sage user would just take over the plugin code base and run with it. If I stop/lose interest in the sdjson project then I'd be done with it all. That's unlikely to happen as long as I'm using Sage since it's what I use for EPG data, but would undoubtedly happen eventually if I no longer am using Schedules Direct. Again, however, I would hope someone would just grab the git repo and run with it.

[tvmaster2]

Do you use your plugin for EPG data exclusively now, as opposed to the native Sage EPG? And, is it still possible to have two, independent tuners with different channel maps/content providers?

[Slugger]

I've been using the sdepg plugin exclusively for my epg data for well over a year -- almost 2 years now I think.

You could always use different lineups on different inputs (sure, it was a little buggy at first, but that's long since been ironed out). Originally, this feature required a license to unlock, but I removed that requirement about a year ago when I ended the licensing program altogether, effectively unlocking all my plugins for no cost. The only caveat to that was I also stopped developing all those plugins as well, except I continue to work on sdepg (because of my involvement with sdjson/Schedules Direct).

[tvmaster2]

Originally Posted by Slugger

I've been using the sdepg plugin exclusively for my epg data for well over a year -- almost 2 years now I think.

You could always use different lineups on different inputs (sure, it was a little buggy at first, but that's long since been ironed out). Originally, this feature required a license to unlock, but I removed that requirement about a year ago when I ended the licensing program altogether, effectively unlocking all my plugins for no cost. The only caveat to that was I also stopped developing all those plugins as well, except I continue to work on sdepg (because of my involvement with sdjson/Schedules Direct).

Ah, ok. So it's not a problem to have two sources (cable & satellite), with different zip/postal codes and providers (Cox Cable and Shaw Direct)?

Is it easy to revert back to the Sage EPG if you wish, aka as simple as uninstalling the SDEPG plugin?

[Slugger]

Originally Posted by tvmaster2

Ah, ok. So it's not a problem to have two sources (cable & satellite), with different zip/postal codes and providers (Cox Cable and Shaw Direct)?

Schedules Direct allows you to register up to 4 lineups with your account. This plugin can access all lineups you register with Schedules Direct and assign any of them to any of your Sage inputs. There are a few quirks if you need to copy one lineup to a second input and disable channels on the copy, but not the original, however once you get by the quirk at setup, there's no issues (i.e. the quirkiness is a one time only thing at setup; after initial setup it all "just works") -- and it definitely all works.

Is it easy to revert back to the Sage EPG if you wish, aka as simple as uninstalling the SDEPG plugin?

Yes, uninstall the plugin, stop Sage, remove a line from Sage.properties, restart Sage. That's it. The exact details are in the user guide.

[tvmaster2]

Originally Posted by Slugger

Schedules Direct allows you to register up to 4 lineups with your account. This plugin can access all lineups you register with Schedules Direct and assign any of them to any of your Sage inputs. There are a few quirks if you need to copy one lineup to a second input and disable channels on the copy, but not the original, however once you get by the quirk at setup, there's no issues (i.e. the quirkiness is a one time only thing at setup; after initial setup it all "just works") -- and it definitely all works.



Yes, uninstall the plugin, stop Sage, remove a line from Sage.properties, restart Sage. That's it. The exact details are in the user guide.

Thanks. Let us know how the Cogeco TiVo works. I don't know why every cable company doesn't license TiVo's U.I.

[tvmaster2]

Originally Posted by Slugger

I've been using the sdepg plugin exclusively for my epg data for well over a year -- almost 2 years now I think.

You could always use different lineups on different inputs (sure, it was a little buggy at first, but that's long since been ironed out). Originally, this feature required a license to unlock, but I removed that requirement about a year ago when I ended the licensing program altogether, effectively unlocking all my plugins for no cost. The only caveat to that was I also stopped developing all those plugins as well, except I continue to work on sdepg (because of my involvement with sdjson/Schedules Direct).

Sorry, forgot to ask... do you still need an active subscription to Schedules Direct, i.e. $25 per year, to use this plugin?
thanks

[Slugger]

Originally Posted by tvmaster2

Sorry, forgot to ask... do you still need an active subscription to Schedules Direct, i.e. $25 per year, to use this plugin?
thanks

Yes.

[wayner]

IMHO you will be somewhat disappointed by TiVo as you will be giving up functionality that you have today thanks to some dude who wrote great plugins like SRE. Just wait until you miss the last few minutes of a hockey game!

[emveepee]

Originally Posted by wayner

IMHO you will be somewhat disappointed by TiVo as you will be giving up functionality that you have today thanks to some dude who wrote great plugins like SRE. Just wait until you miss the last few minutes of a hockey game!

I would think that would be a free bonus for Leafs fans

Martin

Go Sens Go!