Help! Sage won't install (or is already installed) and won't run.

[Mugsy]

I'm trying to get Sage to install/run under Ubuntu 20 (my goal is to watch OTA TV on the same PC Sage is installed to.) I have a USB tuner.

I downloaded/installed both the Sage9 Client AND Server, but when I'm done, the only app on my PC is the "Sage Mini-client" which opens "SageTV Placeshifter Servers Manager". Not terribly useful. Selecting the Default setting and clicking "Connect" does nothing obvious.

Beyond that, there are no other apps to run to get the SageTV app (I have it installed and running under Windows, so I'm familiar with how it should look/work.)

I tried the CLI "install" commands at the start of this thread, but it does not do anything.

What am I missing? TIA.

Setup: 64bit Ubuntu 20.04 LTS
Ryzen 3 3100cpu with 16gb of memory
nVidia GTX670
kWorld-485 USB tuner

[Tiki]

I don’t run Linux, but it is my understanding that there has never been a full Client for Linux. There is only the Server and the Placeshifter/Mini-Client.

I don’t know how great the playback experience is with the Linux Placeshifter. I know the Windows Placeshifter is not great.

I think that most of the people using Linux (or UnRaid), run Sage as a headless server and use something else for playback (either an HDx00 Extender, an Android Mini-Client, or a Windows Client).

Maybe I’m wrong and some people do use Linux for playback too - hopefully they will chime in.

Anyway it sounds like you are launching the mini-client but it is not Finding/connecting to the server for some reason.

[Mugsy]

Originally Posted by Tiki

I don’t run Linux, but it is my understanding that there has never been a full Client for Linux.

Thx for the reply.

If SageTV does not have a viewer for Live TV , then can anyone recommend a program to watch TV from Linux?

[Tiki]

Originally Posted by Mugsy

Thx for the reply.

If SageTV does not have a viewer for Live TV , then can anyone recommend a program to watch TV from Linux?

Just to clarify, a mini-client can playback video, I’m just not sure how great the experience is in Linux..

The big difference between a mini-client and a full client is how things work under the hood. With a full client, the server does very little work when it comes to playback, menu navigation, etc. The client is responsible for doing all this and uses native code (code compiled specifically for the Hardware and operating system being used) for video playback.

With a mini client, the server handles all the menu navigation - the mini client renders the screens but it doesn’t really know what it is rendering. When you install a plugin through a mini client, it actually gets installed on the server, and all the properties are stored up on the server too. Video playback is handled a little differently for each mini client. For Android, they make use of a third party video player (actually 2 different ones that the user has to choose between: IJK or Exoplayer). I think the Windows and Linux Mini clients use something called MPlayer. The HDx00 extenders have their own native video playback code and hardware decoders.

[wayner]

Originally Posted by Mugsy

Thx for the reply.

If SageTV does not have a viewer for Live TV , then can anyone recommend a program to watch TV from Linux?

An HD200 or HD300 box. You can buy them cheaply on the used market now and they run busybox Linux.

[Mugsy]

Originally Posted by wayner

An HD200 or HD300 box. You can buy them cheaply on the used market now and they run busybox Linux.

Why buy a new tuner when I already have one? (two actually.)

[Mugsy]

Originally Posted by Tiki

Just to clarify, a mini-client can playback video, I’m just not sure how great the experience is in Linux..

A nice GUI is secondary. If there's no way to record video from my tuner, then it doesn't matter whether or not I can play back the video. There are much better apps for video playback.

[wayner]

Originally Posted by Mugsy

Why buy a new tuner when I already have one? (two actually.)

It is not a tuner - it is a playback device. The reason to buy one when you have a PC is that it is WAY easier to use one of these boxes which are plug and play, compared to futzing around getting SageTV playback to work in Linux.

[Tiki]

Originally Posted by Mugsy

A nice GUI is secondary. If there's no way to record video from my tuner, then it doesn't matter whether or not I can play back the video. There are much better apps for video playback.

I just noticed your previous post mentioned a kworld tuner? I’ve never heard of this so no idea if you will be able to make it work with Sage.

[jchiso]

The good news is that the kWorld tuner works in Linux, as you may already know. The bad news is that desktop playback on Sage v9 does not work. You would have to view the (mpeg2) captures on an external player, such as VLC or Totem (Ubuntu's default), but that reduces Sage to simply being scheduled recorder ...

[Galaxysurfer]

I run Linux server & Playshifter on Mx Linux 19.2 The playshifter is good for managing the recorder from the server but you won't be able to successfully playback video in Sagetv directly. Sagetv runs a modified version of mplayer. I haven't been able to get it working on my linux pc ( all i get is a blackscreen).

For playback I use either VLC on already recorded files or Kaffeine which will work for live playback on a dedicated tuner as well as file playback. For that to work the tuner needs to be dedicated to either Sagetv or Kaffeine use. You can't run it with both programs, must be one or other. Kaffeine will work with Hauppauge tuners (pcie cards) not the network ones such as HDHR ones. Otherwise use a full client on a Windows PC or an Android miniclient ( I use Firestick 4K) for playback.

For those with an HDHomerun network tuner you can play live tv from a HDHomerun gui available on their site for Linux as well. It works with VLC & your browser. For remote clients you are better off with Android devices or a Win 10 client PC. Hope this helps. There are some that have gotten playback on Ubuntu but I don't use that so can't weigh in on that subject. Good Luck! I don't have any experience with tuners other than Hauppauge pcie cards or HDHomerun network tuners.

https://info.hdhomerun.com/info/linux Talks about the gui.
https://www.silicondust.com/support/linux/
I havent tried kodi for tv viewing & recording since I prefer Sagetv. The gui is handy for tweaking your antenna position as well.

[Galaxysurfer]

Kaffeine will record shows too. It is pretty simplistic compared to Sagetv. It grabs epg data from ota feed so max 12 hrs ahead. It saves file in a format that only it can play. It is more like the old Win Media Center to a degree. Good for one off recording not for scheduling favorites etc.

Unfortunately, You are kind of crippled if you don't use either HDHomerun or Hauppauge pci tuners in my opinion, with SageTV. I can't comment on other media software.

https://apps.kde.org/en/kaffeine