Time to move on from Sage

[toony]

I've been a faithful user of Sage for many years. I've bought used extenders just incase the existing ones failed, I've built an Intel NUC extender, but I've been using Pled lately and the simple fact is it works, and works well accross all platforms.

My non tech gf uses it without issue as easy as Netflix from anywhere.

I trully hope Google fiber comes to Canada, I'm sure they will, but I think it will be a long long time.

I have cut the cord from cable and really see little advantage using Sage anymore. To be perfectly honest it's becoming more and more a pain. It's having troubles playing newer downloaded files, must be a codec thing, but Plex plays them fine.

Thanks to everyone who has helped me and those that have and continue to develop for Sage. I'll still be watching the forums for any news, Sage will still run on the server until it's time to upgrade hardware.

Honestly it's like saying goodbye to an old friend. I really am going to miss Sage.

All the best.

[pjpjpjpj]

Originally Posted by toony

I have cut the cord from cable and really see little advantage using Sage anymore.

Because you don't want to (or can't due to location) record OTA?

Either way, sorry to hear of another member leaving...

[samgreco]

I just shut down my Sage Server last night after using Sage for a surprising 10+ years now. A bittersweet day.

If there had been a plugin for live TV & recordings for either XBMC or Plex, I would have kept the server. But I got an Amazon FireTV, sideloaded XBMC, added ServerWMC and fired up WMC. It works surprisingly well. And it cost me a total of $79 on sale.

So one less PC running, and cheap "extenders" in the future. Plus I can watch Netflix, Prime and others in HD without having to fire up a browser using a mouse and keyboard.

[SHS]

Originally Posted by samgreco

I just shut down my Sage Server last night after using Sage for a surprising 10+ years now. A bittersweet day.

If there had been a plugin for live TV & recordings for either XBMC or Plex, I would have kept the server. But I got an Amazon FireTV, sideloaded XBMC, added ServerWMC and fired up WMC. It works surprisingly well. And it cost me a total of $79 on sale.

So one less PC running, and cheap "extenders" in the future. Plus I can watch Netflix, Prime and others in HD without having to fire up a browser using a mouse and keyboard.

You should take look at Media Browser

[samgreco]

Actually, I am looking at it. But I didn't see an Android client that supports live TV yet.

Unless I'm wrong...

[SHS]

It dose see the What's New part
https://play.google.com/store/apps/d....android&hl=en

[mdnttoker]

Originally Posted by SHS

It dose see the What's New part
https://play.google.com/store/apps/d....android&hl=en

Is SageTV a supported Media Browser "liveTV provider"?

What's New
2.0 is packed with new features, some of the biggest are
- Live TV. You can watch TV, schedule and manage recordings. (requires a tv-tuner card and a Live TV provider installed on the MB Server)

[nyplayer]

Originally Posted by mdnttoker

Is SageTV a supported Media Browser "liveTV provider"?

What's New
2.0 is packed with new features, some of the biggest are
- Live TV. You can watch TV, schedule and manage recordings. (requires a tv-tuner card and a Live TV provider installed on the MB Server)

No it is not.

These are

NextPVR
MediaPortal
WMC (serverwmc)

http://mediabrowser.tv/community/ind...um/97-live-tv/

[nyplayer]

Originally Posted by samgreco

I just shut down my Sage Server last night after using Sage for a surprising 10+ years now. A bittersweet day.

If there had been a plugin for live TV & recordings for either XBMC or Plex, I would have kept the server. But I got an Amazon FireTV, sideloaded XBMC, added ServerWMC and fired up WMC. It works surprisingly well. And it cost me a total of $79 on sale.

So one less PC running, and cheap "extenders" in the future. Plus I can watch Netflix, Prime and others in HD without having to fire up a browser using a mouse and keyboard.

I started with SeverWMC now I am moving to NextPVR for the backend. For several resaons.

1. NextPVR uses 1 tuner for shows back to back on the same channel and keeps padding on both. WMC does not do this. Nor does SageTV
2. NextPVR with imggrablite plugin renames the shows correctly for KODI. WMC does not do this nor SageTV
3. It can record 2 or more shows with 1 tuner at the same time for example it can record channels 2.1 2.2 and 2.3 of 1 tuner.. WMC does not do this nor SageTV.
4. Also NextPVR if you use their Interface you can do Picture in Picture. (My Favorite when watching Football)
5. NextPVR has a Samsung Plugin for Smart Tv etc...

I also have Plex running and there is a Plex plugin for KODI

[SHS]

Sorry mdnttoker it seem that only dot net apps are support

Originally Posted by nyplayer

No it is not.

These are

NextPVR
MediaPortal
WMC (serverwmc)

http://mediabrowser.tv/community/ind...um/97-live-tv/

There also DVBLink Live TV Plugin to

[farscapesg1]

It's sad to see another user leaving.. but my household is on the cusp of shutting SageTV down also. Been playing around with Plex planning on moving to it and just found MediaBrowser... so back to some more testing. There is a Phoenix plugin for Plex that I think I finally have working to play back existing recordings... but there isn't an option to integrate scheduling or anything into it.

I need to check with Comcast to see what $$ I would save dropping TV all together (have to still use them for Internet since I work from home 60%). I know at one time it seemed more expensive to just go with Internet than to get Internet + Basic TV, but I don't know if that changed. OTA is a no-go where I live (far from the towers, lots of other houses, radiant barrier in the attic, and a wife that says no to an outside antenna... even if the HOA would allow it). If I have to keep basic, I may be looking into moving to WMC and using a combination of Plex and Mediabrowser since I like Plex's interface better.

[SHS]

Originally Posted by farscapesg1

It's sad to see another user leaving.. but my household is on the cusp of shutting SageTV down also. Been playing around with Plex planning on moving to it and just found MediaBrowser... so back to some more testing. There is a Phoenix plugin for Plex that I think I finally have working to play back existing recordings... but there isn't an option to integrate scheduling or anything into it.

I need to check with Comcast to see what $$ I would save dropping TV all together (have to still use them for Internet since I work from home 60%). I know at one time it seemed more expensive to just go with Internet than to get Internet + Basic TV, but I don't know if that changed. OTA is a no-go where I live (far from the towers, lots of other houses, radiant barrier in the attic, and a wife that says no to an outside antenna... even if the HOA would allow it). If I have to keep basic, I may be looking into moving to WMC and using a combination of Plex and Mediabrowser since I like Plex's interface better.

Here an another option that most never think about is mount a tv antenna in the attic if have you good room for it.

[farscapesg1]

Originally Posted by SHS

Here an another option that most never think about is mount a tv antenna in the attic if have you good room for it.

Yeah, I have plenty of room in the attic... but I have Radiant Barrier installed in the roof. It's used for insulation and basically is a sheet of aluminum and other material coating the inside of the attic. Plays havoc with signals, including HDTV and cell. It's so bad in my house that my old Verizon phone would only get 1 bar but as soon as I walked out the door it jumped to 3 bars.

[SHS]

Originally Posted by farscapesg1

Yeah, I have plenty of room in the attic... but I have Radiant Barrier installed in the roof. It's used for insulation and basically is a sheet of aluminum and other material coating the inside of the attic. Plays havoc with signals, including HDTV and cell. It's so bad in my house that my old Verizon phone would only get 1 bar but as soon as I walked out the door it jumped to 3 bars.

I see and I know what talk about
I never try this my self last option is dipole style antenna along roof cap with the use of electric fence insulators

[TechBill]

i been thinking about replacing SageTV one of those days but my issue is Closed Captioning.

DirectTV + Colossus is no problem since DirectTV STB docodes the Closed Captioning and overlay it on video before it is recorded so Closed Captioning become Open Captioning and is always displayed no matter what device it playing back on.

But for OTA I am using HDHomeRun and currently SageTV is decoding the Closed Captioning so it not being burned into or overlay on the recording which make it hard to find a device that is capable of playing back recording and decoding the Closed Captioning imbedded into the recording file itself.

I noticed that the latest Plex had a CC button added to it but I couldn't get it to play back any of my OTA recording with CC when the CC is enabled on Plex.

So I am looking and trying to find a PVR that would allow me to watch Live or recording from my HDHomeRun with closed captioning enabled before making the switch.



Bill

[emveepee]

Originally Posted by TechBill

i been thinking about replacing SageTV one of those days but my issue is Closed Captioning.

Although CCExtractor has been a viable alternative for recordings I agree for livetv this has been a big issue on most devices for a long time. The good news is that very recently one of the Kodi dev's decided to do work to get this working in Kodi http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?...100#pid1851100 and there is some support for EIA 708 in the Kodi 15 nightlies which you can know try.

If you follow through the rest of the thread, you can see it runs down to the RPi so the platform support should be good. I've provided them with a few samples though since FernetMenta is in Germany so he won't have the OTA source needed.

If you really want this to be a success I suggest you d/l a nightly and provide samples and feedback too. I don't know Kodi can replace the quality of the ATI decoder that I see running even on cheap Windows clients (I use NextPVR) but it will be nice to have some lower price options.

Martin

[TechBill]

Originally Posted by emveepee

Although CCExtractor has been a viable alternative for recordings I agree for livetv this has been a big issue on most devices for a long time. The good news is that very recently one of the Kodi dev's decided to do work to get this working in Kodi http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?...100#pid1851100 and there is some support for EIA 708 in the Kodi 15 nightlies which you can know try.

If you follow through the rest of the thread, you can see it runs down to the RPi so the platform support should be good. I've provided them with a few samples though since FernetMenta is in Germany so he won't have the OTA source needed.

If you really want this to be a success I suggest you d/l a nightly and provide samples and feedback too. I don't know Kodi can replace the quality of the ATI decoder that I see running even on cheap Windows clients (I use NextPVR) but it will be nice to have some lower price options.

Martin

Thank you for letting me know about this !

Right now I am trying to pick the right back end PVR and I been thinking about giving NextPVR a try but when I did a search on thier forum to see if it support Colossus cards, they seem to be having same issue SageTV had with the Colossus card and require nightly reboots. But not sure if it been fixed yet or if they have resolved it. One of the post on their forum even referred back to the Colossus post here on SageTv.

I will probably be giving the NextPVR and Windows WMC a try with Kodi to see how it all work out as a replacement. I saw on some forum that WMC can only handle one colossus card but also there a hack to get it to work with dual colossus cards.

I am in the hunt for a stable PVR that will do closed captioning and able to play back on any devices I throw it at.

Yes I have used ccextractor and it a great piece of software but like you said cannot watch livetv using it.

Bill

[emveepee]

Originally Posted by TechBill

Right now I am trying to pick the right back end PVR

My comments is more about trying Kodi with your SageTV files so you can make sure if or when you switch, Kodi work better or you. My recommendation to Win 7 users would be to try ServerWMC before NextPVR but I don't think it is worth paying for WMC to try it on other Win platforms.

Just like the Colossus I've read lots of negative things about the HDPVR too but it is at least as stable my my STB over four year so sometimes it is worth some hands-on testing. On the otherhand I was sucked in by the HDHR fanboys too, it is just an average device AFAIK.

Martin

[TechBill]

Originally Posted by emveepee

My comments is more about trying Kodi with your SageTV files so you can make sure if or when you switch, Kodi work better or you. My recommendation to Win 7 users would be to try ServerWMC before NextPVR but I don't think it is worth paying for WMC to try it on other Win platforms.

Just like the Colossus I've read lots of negative things about the HDPVR too but it is at least as stable my my STB over four year so sometimes it is worth some hands-on testing. On the otherhand I was sucked in by the HDHR fanboys too, it is just an average device AFAIK.


Martin

Even if I get it working with SageTV, I still want to try a different back-end PVR if both of my colossus would be stable on it.

I am motivated to give Kodi a try after reading that it could do livetv on certain back-end PVR like WMC or NextPVR but again my concern is the closed captioning from HDHomeRun tuners since it not overlaid on video itself before written to the file.

My DirectTV STB have local channels on them and I could record from there but it won't be true HD like ones from OTA. Also I feel that using DirectTV to record local channel is like a waste of tuner when it could be recording one of the paid channels.

Right now I have 4 tuners two DirectTV for paid channels recordings and HDHomeRun for local recording. I do not allow any local recording from DirectTV STBs.

Bill

[emveepee]

Originally Posted by TechBill

I am motivated to give Kodi a try after reading that it could do livetv on certain back-end PVR like WMC or NextPVR but again my concern is the closed captioning from HDHomeRun tuners since it not overlaid on video itself before written to the file.

No it's not burnt in but the new setting in Kodi is to automatically display it if you want and recordings works just like live tv. There's a new accessibility options to default some features on or off. What is your concern with this?

Martin