SageTV Client and XBox Media Player

[Berg]

Hello everyone,

Well this is my first post as a convert to SageTV from SS.

I was wondering if anyone was using a modded XBox running XBox Media Player (http://www.xboxmediaplayer.de) as a client to SageTV.

More importantly, if any one, including the Frey crew, had given any thought about having a Sage Client that could run on a modded XBox.

An modded XBox (may MS lighting not strike me ...) running XMP or something like that is quite a powerful "digital media" machine for a very reasonable price. It would be a perfect companion for Sage TV.

I would love to hear your comments/thoughts.

Cheers.

[justme]

I posted about this several weeks back. And yes I am using SageTV with my modded Xbox. As you probably already know there are many legal concerns about software on the Xbox. The main being the need to use the XDK to compile the source code. I doubt Micro$oft would allow Sage to use the XDK, and even if Micro$oft did the cost per user would likely be too high.

I just use RelaX to serve the recorded shows to my xbox. This works great for me. It's not as good as a SageTV client for the Xbox, but it is much better than Sage being sued by Micro$oft.

[tachi]

Hi all,
Personally, I think the Xbox would be the Ultimate SageTV client hardware. It's cheap ($179), has the power to handle all the duties SageTV client would require it (re: MPEG-2 decoding) requires, it's small, it doesn't sound too loud PLUS you can be the first to play Halo 2!

Now justme raises some important issues regarding the XDK, and saves me the trouble of writing about it. Now for the solution to the problem.....SageTV Client for Linux. I'm sure most of you have heard that people have gotten Linux running on the X-Box. There are even several different distro's now (Debian, GentooX). With Linux supports comes Java support, with Java support comes SageTV. Thanks to Java they can easily support other OS's and while they'll have to dump all the Directshow stuff from the client, I imagine they'll be able to get MPEG-2 playback working quickly with all the open source players lying around (Xine, mplayer, VideoLan,etc).

I think multiple OS support is on their roadmap, so it is not a question of if, but when. Personally I think it will be a while as they still have a lot of things to do with getting the Windows version upto snuff (like skin support : ) plus the flood of users that will hopefully be coming in fall when the listings service expands.

Well, thats enough speculation for a first post.

[dkardatzke]

We are already looking at offering a Linux version of both the SageTV Client and Server. But we are in the very early stages of development so I can't expand much on it right now.

We will definitely keep people posted as to our progress though.

[justme]

We are already looking at offering a Linux version of both the SageTV Client

Cool Thanx.

Now for the solution to the problem.....SageTV Client for Linux

Great point tachi, I forgot all about linux on the Xbox

[Narflex]

Did you know Sony sells a Linux conversion kit for their PS2?

[tachi]

I remembered about the Linux kit for PS2 but I didn't put 2 and 2 together.

Although with the new PSX coming, and probably a similar featured xbox on the horizion this may be less of an issue.

[Omegadsl]

Wow, you might want to talk to Sony about supporting their next PS2. It's going to have a dvd recorder, 120GB HD, ethernet port, USB 2.0 port, and a *TV tuner*. Here's a link:

http://msnbc-cnet.com.com/2100-1043_...&subj=cnetnews

[EDIT]: Pics: http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/av/do...0528/sony1.htm

[Omegadsl]

Originally posted by EncoderHouse
that would be DOPE if the PS3 worked.

It's actually not a PS3. It's a revision of the PS2. I'm guessing that MS will do a similar revision of the XBox as well. It would be great to see Frey land a deal with some major company like Sony.

[syversen]

I wouldn't get too excited about the PSX guys... I checked out the playstation web site and they said it's going to bristle with the latest in DRM (digital rights management). http://www.us.playstation.com/news/l...03_05_29_1.asp

Something tells me that this means media companies will get to tell you if you can/can't skip commercials, record movies off HBO, etc. Look at the trouble ReplayTV had because of their ability to share shows and skip commercials. I'd be much more interested in a Linux port, then you don't have to worry (as much!) about the big media companies telling you what you can do and when.

- Jason

[justme]

Big bummer

The DRM kills it usablilty. Especially if they are going to go farther than the current industry standards, as stated in the article. Why buy a device like that if it is crippled. Even M$ had to relaxe it's DRM on MCE, to get better user acceptance. And those MCE DRM features were already easy to circumvent before they were relaxed. Also look at the Xbox, despite all the talk of M$ going after people they owe alot of their sales to Xbox modders. They(M$) talked about an official Media Center long ago, but they have yet to do it. Why, because they don't have to. They are relying on unofficial third parties to provide these features. This way they avoid the legal issues, but still reap the benefits.

As for Replay, it wasn't really the commercial skip, it was the internet part that got them into trouble. Tivo(like SageTV) has for all purposes acommercial skip(the 30 second skip). Yet they made a smart deal to add support for those little "Thumbs up to record" feature. I love it, it lets me know of shows I may want to record similiar to the show I'm currently watching. I've even seen requests on this board to see if SageTv could support this feature. Lets face it the days of seperate commercials are coming to an end. Product placement and subliminal(unobvious, not mnd control) ads are where the future for advertising is.

You're right the only level of true freedom we will have soon is with Linux, the open source community, and smaller companies like Frey. Just my 2 cents worth.

[laurenglenn]

Originally posted by Omegadsl
It's actually not a PS3. It's a revision of the PS2. I'm guessing that MS will do a similar revision of the XBox as well. It would be great to see Frey land a deal with some major company like Sony.

I'd like to see Frey land a deal with a major company, but not Sony. I don't know, but they just seem like a company that will rely on some sort of copy protection which would make it pointless for me to switch from my PC to PS2.

My general feeling on copy protection is that it only stops regular users from copying it for their own use. The hackers can always circumvent it, and if you lose either the CD key, code wheel, or that code sheet that was made impossible to read to prevent photocopying (my personal pet-peeve), then you have to buy another one or download a hack. If you have to download a hack, then why buy the software?

Anyway, Sony did DRM with their early MP3 players (actually, ATRAC3 players) and I think they failed, so I imagine they'd do it with PS2 also. It's like why I don't copy-protect my own WMA files - if you lose the key, you can't listen to the files anymore. Make a backup and it fails? No more songs. Not to mention it's a hassle to get the portable player to use them (if you can get it to accept secure songs)....

It would be nice to have Sage on the PS2, and I'd probably get it if I could copy the shows off it. Just my 2 cents....

Lauren

[clavinniu]

Linux is definitely the way to go. Open Source Rules. Hauppauge PVR250/350 drivers are maturing nicely. MythTV and Freevo have already added support. Freevo also supports the Hollywood Plus hardware decoder(dxr3). This card would be perfect for a Sage Client setup. MPEG2 hardware capture to MPEG2 hardware decoder would lower the minimum system requirements significantly.

I love linux. Rock solid. No blue screens of Death. Complete control of your operating system. I've been using unix since I was 16(1993) which was two years before I got my first WinBlows machine. I usually have a dual boot configuration. XP with myHTPC and SageRecorder and some form of linux with Freevo or MythTV. At one point I had 3 OS installed (XP, Linux, and XP Media Center Edition) but MCE only lasted a couple of weeks. The only thing holding me back from dropping Windows all together is lack of DirectX support(ie games, tv, DVD). Just about everything else I would prefer to do on Linux(code, webserve, etc). I take that back. The only thing keeping me from switching to linux completly is lack of developers making games, tv applications, drivers, etc that also support linux.

As far as the consoles go http://www.broadq.com/ might turn out to be the only legal way to playback recordings on a PS2 or XBox for that mater. QCast is a media player that gets files from your Windows, Mac, Linux machine. It doesn't support MPEG-2 as of yet and has a limit on the resolution that can be rendered. Can't figure that one out yet. How can a PS2 playback a DVD but not a MPEG-2 file? I almost bought one of the PS2 Linux Kits but my monitor will not work with it(you need a sync on green monitor).