Time to move on from Sage

[ranger]

I've been testing 2 alternatives recently (but still using SageTV)

Kodi & NextPVR - Works good, a bit of effort to get it working the way I wanted. Plugins and utilities in NPVR that just complicate the setup with interdependancies. I want the filenames to include season / episode information and a few other small items. Seems pretty reliable otherwise and directly supports HDHR Prime for non-DRM content. Personally I don't care much for the default KODI skins and my favorite one (Amber) doesn't play well with the PVR plugin. Client / Server capability

JRiver Media Center - While heavily audio centric, the latest version (20) has enough TV and video features built in to make it worth a look. Very flexible Theater mode menu system. The interface isn't as exciting as KODI or SageTV with Gemstone but it does what I need. Direct support for HDHR Prime (non-DRM). Client / server capability. Single purchase allows you to install on all PCs in your house (Windows / MAC / Linux). Client mode runs well on ECS Liva low power PC.

[7up]

@mikejaner: 2 seconds sounds great. what hardware are you using for Kodi client? Any lag loading EPG?

[samgreco]

We've now been using XBMC/Kodi on an Amazon FireTV for about 4 weeks and so far I am quite happy.

I have WMC/ServerWMC for the backend DVR and use the Mimic skin on Kodi. I am very please with Kodis media handling and Mimic's layout.

My only complaint is that the EPG is VERY slow to load and the TV stream is slow to start. But we watch so little live TV that it really doesn't matter.

I turned off SageTV 3 weeks ago.

For $99 for the FTV plus $20 or so for the Flirc to use an IR remote with it, it's quite the bargain.

[7up]

Its the slow and laggy EPG which is what stopped me from using Kodi/serverWMC with FireTV as client. I'm guessing using NextPVR as backend has same issue but I never tried it.

[wayner]

I have been hearing a lot of good things recently about Android boxes running Kodi. They seem to have all of the advantages that we are used to in a Sage extender - reliable no-fuss clients that are built to play video.

I personally prefer the client-server architecture of Plex and I have started to use it a bit but it seems to have trouble playing back SageTV recordings either OTA or HD-PVR. I have never taken the time to try to resolve these since I will continue with Sage for as long as I can.

[nyplayer]

Originally Posted by wayner

I have been hearing a lot of good things recently about Android boxes running Kodi. They seem to have all of the advantages that we are used to in a Sage extender - reliable no-fuss clients that are built to play video.

I personally prefer the client-server architecture of Plex and I have started to use it a bit but it seems to have trouble playing back SageTV recordings either OTA or HD-PVR. I have never taken the time to try to resolve these since I will continue with Sage for as long as I can.

There is a Kodi Plex Plugin.

http://kodi.wiki/view/Add-on:PleXBMC

[mikejaner]

Originally Posted by 7up

@mikejaner: 2 seconds sounds great. what hardware are you using for Kodi client? Any lag loading EPG?

Right now my experiment is running on a $200 Dell laptop with a celeron dual core and 4 gigs of ram. NextPVR is running as the service, and Kodi is launched on the desktop. I also have a separate Core i7 laptop running as a wireless client, and a Lenovo Q190 which is essentially the same hardware as the $200 laptop. I also have a pair of Amazon FireTV Sticks with Kodi installed. The Fire TV sticks are a little sluggish when a video is playing, and you try to bring up the GUI. As for the low powered PC's, it runs great. The powerful laptop has no issues either obviously.

[Dargason]

Does Kodi (via ServerWMC) keep a database of what is recorded and what has been watched? I like that I can tell Sage to record only stuff I haven't seen before.

Is there a feature list for Kodi somewhere?

[samgreco]

Originally Posted by Dargason

Does Kodi (via ServerWMC) keep a database of what is recorded and what has been watched? I like that I can tell Sage to record only stuff I haven't seen before.

Is there a feature list for Kodi somewhere?

Yes, there is a recorded database. But it is actually WMC that deals with it through ServerWMC. But you can mark stuff watched or unwatched through the Kodi interface.

I would check here: http://kodi.tv/about/ for a start.

[emveepee]

Originally Posted by 7up

Its the slow and laggy EPG which is what stopped me from using Kodi/serverWMC with FireTV as client. I'm guessing using NextPVR as backend has same issue but I never tried it.

Kodi is designed as a fat client so there definitely is an initial database load issue even with the default of the 3 days especially on the RPi, but once loaded I didn't see any lags on any platform. Now that the EPG art feature is enabled I expect it will seem laggy when you don't have the horsepower.

I solved the load problem by having multiple users and I only have live tv addon enabled on the master. I play a lot more captured files in the video libraries much more than surf the guide.

Martin

[SHS]

Kodi is just the same rebadged XBMC which I found the whole thing to very painful to set up and not intuitive at all.
There might be loads of videos out there on how to set it up its still a very difficult process.

Media Browser is much easy to deal with.

[farscapesg1]

So far we haven't touched any of the SageTV extenders in 3 weeks. I just dropped our TV package to local channels only last weekend and sub'ed to Netflix and Amazon Prime. It's not a huge savings, but it saves us @ $20 a month this way over what we had, and most of our shows we watched are either over the local channels or we are so far behind that they are already on Netflix/Amazon/Hulu. With that savings I can buy a season or two of shows if I want. Even if we decide that a Hulu+ sub is worth it, we still come out cheaper per month with the added flexibility that the streaming sites provide (watch on any device, old shows that I don't have to waste storage on, etc.).

So far we have a Roku3 for both the living room and game room. I'll be taking the TV and sageTV extender out of my daughter's room and probably won't replace it because I don't know the last time she even turned it on.

Installed Windows Media Center on the same VM that has SageTV, set up some series favorites to test and deleted the favorites from SageTV so the systems don't fight over my HDHR Prime. For now we can access the WMC recordings through the XBOX 360 in the living room. I'll get DVRMSToolbox and MCEBuddy set up this weekend for WMC to try out commercial detection.

It looks like more of our TV shows are starting up in the next week or two, so hopefully within a month I'll know for sure if I can drop SageTV and put some extenders/licenses up for sale to help fund another xbox for the game room and a TV + Roku3 for the master bedroom. Worst case I keep the SageTV server running and one box for the living room.. and ditch the rest.

Still need to tinker some more with MediaBrowser to see if I can get a decent picture from my WMC recordings.. just not a fan of their Roku interface. Unfortunately, I just can't get reliable performance from the SageTV plugin in Plex either with my HD recordings. I guess I need to look into automating the conversion of TV recordings to MP4 format to make them more accessible to the Roku's...

[emveepee]

Originally Posted by SHS

Kodi is just the same rebadged XBMC which I found the whole thing to very painful to set up and not intuitive at all.
There might be loads of videos out there on how to set it up its still a very difficult process.

Two year later, we continue to disagree on that http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/show...4&postcount=68 Are your comments based on those old observations.

Media Browser is much easy to deal with.

... and yet like your real beef with XBMC it still need a PVR backend.

Martin

[toony]

It's been interesting watching this thread. Since dropping cable and switching to Plex the debate raging in my head over leaving Sage has ended. The fact a DVR is not needed now prety much seals Sage's fate.

What really has been interesting is using Apple tv for the Plex extenders. It works flawlessly. My brother, father and gf have recently dropped cable as well. They all log use Plex off my server.
Brother uses his iPad to access my flex then airplays it to his apple tv,
Father uses his phone and airplays it to his apple tv
Girlfriend watches on her laptop or her tv via an hdmi cable.

The Plex sever never hiccups, streaming isn't an issue for any of us. I'm actually quite amazed how well this is working.

[SHS]

Originally Posted by emveepee

Two year later, we continue to disagree on that http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/show...4&postcount=68 Are your comments based on those old observations.



... and yet like your real beef with XBMC it still need a PVR backend.

Martin

Yes but that one 2 year old but it still the same old XBMC that has change nothing when I last look at about 1 year ago when we needed Android/iOS support and I do read there forum from time to time how do think I found out about Media Browser in first place.
Look at what SageTV has Media/TV Server, Client, Online Steaming (Placeshifter) as well as Media Extender
XBMC/Kodi mostly nothing more then 10 Foot Plain Client.
Media Browser on other hand as Media Server, Client and Media Extender support and more and also get PVR/DVR TV & Online Steaming support so there for it close thing to SageTV.

[7up]

Originally Posted by toony

It's been interesting watching this thread. Since dropping cable and switching to Plex the debate raging in my head over leaving Sage has ended. The fact a DVR is not needed now prety much seals Sage's fate.

What really has been interesting is using Apple tv for the Plex extenders. It works flawlessly. My brother, father and gf have recently dropped cable as well. They all log use Plex off my server.
Brother uses his iPad to access my flex then airplays it to his apple tv,
Father uses his phone and airplays it to his apple tv
Girlfriend watches on her laptop or her tv via an hdmi cable.

The Plex sever never hiccups, streaming isn't an issue for any of us. I'm actually quite amazed how well this is working.

When you say you dropped and cable and switched to Plex, aren't you omitting what you are using for source or provider of content?

Maybe I should ask, does this look familiar? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bHH_HVx3Lw

.

[SHS]

Originally Posted by 7up

Maybe I should ask, does this look familiar? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bHH_HVx3Lw.

LoL

[toony]

Originally Posted by 7up

When you say you dropped and cable and switched to Plex, aren't you omitting what you are using for source or provider of content?

Maybe I should ask, does this look familiar? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bHH_HVx3Lw

.

Lol that was good!

No theft of cable or sattelite here lol

[Zervun]

I'd love to find another solution as I know some day sage is going to stop working. The two things that I just can't seem to find good anywhere else are -

1. Good OTA TV support - we still heavingly use this across 4x new silicon dusts
2. Break out boxes - I'm going to cry when I lose an HD300.

I could deal without the HD300's but good OTA support is a must.

[btrcp2000]

hoping to high heaven that MLB removes blackouts from mlb.tv, I've seen hints that it is under discussion for this year. otherwise we have no use for cable anymore. I'm effectively paying about $100/mo to TWC for baseball, which isn't even in season right now. Just got our first Roku3, already had netflix/prime. Need to make sure all of the wife's shows are available somewhere before cutting the cord.

Come to think of it, I still have an r5000 on the shelf. Maybe I'll switch to that for this season, so we can also maintain access to stuff like USA and TBS