Streaming Services (e.g. Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, etc.)

[NetworkGuy]

I was thinking about how streaming services could be incorporated into SageTV. (No this is not a request to have SageTV recording streaming services. I use PlayOn for that and it does a good job.)

If you are using a HD300, you need to switch to another device (Android TV, Roku, etc.) to be able to view streaming services. And after switching to another box, I need to pick the right app. If the movie I want is on Amazon Prime, I load that app. To watch House of Cards, I load the Netflix app, etc. Most people have more than one streaming service.

I was thinking, it would be nice if there was a single interface that kept track of ALL my favorites. When I added a favorite, I would first select the source and then the series. It would notify me of new shows on different services and let me know which ones I had watched.

I was wondering if SageTV could be used as this master favorites list? You can browse and play YouTube videos through SageTV right now. Why not create other plug-ins that would allow you to access other streaming services? And at the same time allow you to mark shows as favorites in the SageTV catalog. Then when I want to watch a specific show or movie, I do not need to know the original source. SageTV could be an aggregator of OTA, cable and streaming services.

This would be especially usefully for people using an extender like me. Now I switch to a Cable Box, Roku, or Android TV based on the setup. It would be great if SageTV did all of the integration and I just needed a single box to access SageTV.

Thoughts?

[wayner]

I believe there are phone apps that can do this - let you know when something on your "Favorites" list shows up on a streaming service. Or at least they can search across a variety of services. Hopefully someone else will chime in.

This has come up in a few threads in the last few days - I think that AndroidTV is really the platform to use going forward as it has apps for the streaming services, plus SageTV, Plex, even an HDHR app to watch LiveTV, or you can get streaming "live TV" services like SlingTV. Everything you would need on one source. Believe it or not I am an iOS guy - I have almost no experience with Android other than AndroidTV on my MiBox.

It would be great if the search in AndroidTV could be universal and could search all of the apps that you put on a Whitelist, plus SageTV, Plex, etc.

[davidb]

I am not sure how useful this would be as you would still have to switch from using the HD300 to another device to to watch the streaming content.

David

[wayner]

Originally Posted by davidb

I am not sure how useful this would be as you would still have to switch from using the HD300 to another device to to watch the streaming content.

Not totally the case if you are using the AndroidTV SageTV app but you would have to switch apps which is just as disruptive. This could be somewhat overcome with the right HA software but it would be hard to maintain.

This is why we need a Spotify for video.

[NetworkGuy]

Originally Posted by davidb

I am not sure how useful this would be as you would still have to switch from using the HD300 to another device to to watch the streaming content.

David

I am suggesting that a plug-in could be created to watch streaming content using SageTV, in the same way you can watch YouTube with SageTV,

[wayner]

Originally Posted by NetworkGuy

I am suggesting that a plug-in could be created to watch streaming content using SageTV, in the same way you can watch YouTube with SageTV,

I don't think that is very easy to do with content that has more DRM attached which is the case with services like Netflix. I think YouTube is a lot less strict with DRM than Netflix is.

It might be possible to have an application that managed your favorites and then switched to the right app on a PC or box. But it isn't easy to directly play what file you want as these service don't seem to have open APIs that make it easy to play a specific title. You might be able to do it but it would be klugey and prone to break whenever the UI changes - not unlike the SageTV YouTube plugin which breaks on a regular basis - or at least it has in the past.

[tmiranda]

YouTube is one of the few streaming services that provides a useful API and allows you to download videos. And even with that there are still things that are incompatible with Sage and often need "fixing". If the other streaming services provided an API I'd attempt to make a plugin for Sage.

[NetworkGuy]

Originally Posted by tmiranda

YouTube is one of the few streaming services that provides a useful API and allows you to download videos. And even with that there are still things that are incompatible with Sage and often need "fixing". If the other streaming services provided an API I'd attempt to make a plugin for Sage.

It seemed like a good idea at the time.

[wayner]

Originally Posted by NetworkGuy

It seemed like a good idea at the time.

It is still a great idea it is just that these systems are too closed.

It would be great if you could play a netflix movie with (assuming that you were already authenticated) http://www.netflix.com?action=play&title=terminator but they don't want to make life easy for us.

[wayner]

Another way to theoretically get this stuff into SageTV would be to run the streaming software on a PC and connect the HDMI output of the video card into something like a BM-3000. But that is likely more hassle than it is worth.

[trk2]

What could be done though is use Sage to control and display media from a streaming device using HDMI capture. I do this now in Sage with Chromecast and Colossus and a custom menu item I created. Currently this is only practical with Chromecast or other devices that you can control through stream casting since the delay makes remote control operation difficult. However, I'm sure Sage could be better optimized for applications that would simply be passthrough, particularly if Sage knew what to expect in terms of resolution and audio/video format. The Hauppauge HDMI capture devices probably add too much of a delay to be usable for this application but perhaps the BM1000/3000 devices could work? Finally you would need a way to control the streaming device and integrate that into the STVi.

[wayner]

Originally Posted by trk2

What could be done though is use Sage to control and display media from a streaming device using HDMI capture.

Great minds think alike! Posted at the exact same minute!

[trk2]

Originally Posted by wayner

Great minds think alike! Posted at the exact same minute!

[tmiranda]

When I look at the "big picture" I just have to laugh. A few years ago we were complaining that we didn't want all the crap offered by the big cable companies and instead wanted the ability to pick and choose what channels we wanted. Now we are complaining that we can't get all the channels we want on one place

[wayner]

Originally Posted by tmiranda

When I look at the "big picture" I just have to laugh. A few years ago we were complaining that we didn't want all the crap offered by the big cable companies and instead wanted the ability to pick and choose what channels we wanted. Now we are complaining that we can't get all the channels we want on one place

I have said this before - I think the best model is where we have landed (at least for now with music). An all-encompassing streaming service like Spotify (or Apple Music or whatever).

I don't bother about owning music anymore since I can find 99% of what I want on Spotify and play it on almost any device. But Spotify isn't a creator of content, they just distribute it. In video we have Netflix which was just a distributor but has increasingly become a creator of content. I wish that Netflix, or some similar service, had 99% of the video content that I would want, including TV, movies and sports. For that I would pay $100/month as I would be replacing cable, BR purchases, Netflix sub, etc. But that ain't going to happen.

[trk2]

Originally Posted by wayner

I have said this before - I think the best model is where we have landed (at least for now with music). An all-encompassing streaming service like Spotify (or Apple Music or whatever).

Unfortunately I think we are moving in the opposite directions. Networks and studios have seen the success of Netflix and are setting up their own streaming services to distribute their own library of media. I think you're going to see more fragmentation rather an a single all encompassing service.

[wayner]

I think you are correct. The fragmentation doesn't look like it is going away.

I am not advocating piracy when I say this, but it is very hard to get all of the video content that you want legally. But if you don't mind breaking the law then you can find pretty much whatever you want online and have it downloaded and playing in a handful of minutes. Video content today is like music before the iTunes music store came along.

In music Steve Jobs addressed this when he said, "why go through the bother of pirating music when you can buy any song instantly for $0.99". Nowadays why bother pirating music when Spotify has what you want on any device you want and it is only $10/month.

The movie/TV world doesn't look like it is going in the same direction. And this may not last in the music world either.

[KarylFStein]

Originally Posted by trk2

Unfortunately I think we are moving in the opposite directions. Networks and studios have seen the success of Netflix and are setting up their own streaming services to distribute their own library of media. I think you're going to see more fragmentation rather an a single all encompassing service.

Well, if the Disney / FOX thing goes through and is a taste of things to come I see three subscriptions at least to get most content then maybe something else to get sports. Maybe Amazon will gobble up Netflix studios and other content creators not covered by the others. I think it'll get worse for consumers.

[tmiranda]

The fragmentation is driving me crazy. It really irks me that I need to pay for CBS all access just to see Star Trek (and the new one isn't worth it, I'll probably drop my subscription) and I have to pay MotoGP to see motorcycle races.