SageTV 2.1 Feature Requests

[Datalux]

Perhaps you could consider the following:

1. Interrupt the Windows shutdown process if a recording is in progress and warn the user as such. Give the option to continue or cancel the shutdown. Also change the SAGETV tray icon color to red when it is active during recordings.

2. I want to page-up and down (channel up/down) while watching LiveTV but I don't want it to change channels until I confirm (enter) - I just want to see what is on other channels without having to go to the Guide. I like using the timeslip function for LiveTV - I have small children and they require alot of attention

3. I want a hot key to go directly to color calibration instead of going thru a dozen menus. Either that or add it to the options screen.

Love the product - Thanks

[remmy925]

I kinda like the idea of changing the color of the default tray icon when recording. have seen at least one STV change the Icon all together for recording so I sure this can easily be done. I think simply changing the color is quite a nice and subtle way of letting the user know its recording. Great Suggestion!

[Hector]

This is definitely a design choice. Sage works the way my DSS box works, Tivo works the way you suggest (and I also prefer).

Obviously a benefit of a PC based PVR is that it could be optional.

The recording icon idea is a great one. Also in addition to a windows shutdown, Sage should warn you if you try to exit Sage itself.

peace . . .

Originally Posted by Datalux

2. I want to page-up and down (channel up/down) while watching LiveTV but I don't want it to change channels until I confirm (enter) - I just want to see what is on other channels without having to go to the Guide. I like using the timeslip function for LiveTV - I have small children and they require alot of attention

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by Hector

Sage should warn you if you try to exit Sage itself.

Of course if you're running the service, you can exit Sage and your recordings continue

[Datalux]

Originally Posted by Hector

This is definitely a design choice. Sage works the way my DSS box works, Tivo works the way you suggest (and I also prefer).

Yes, My DSS STB works like yours, but my cable box will scroll channels and wait for a confirmation before changing. I liked that, thus the suggestion.

Originally Posted by Hector

Also in addition to a windows shutdown, Sage should warn you if you try to exit Sage itself.

Another good suggestion!

Stanger89 - Did you just change your Avitar sig or was it like that the last time I called you StRanger89??

[heffe2001]

In MCE2005 if you're recording a show and try to shut down, it'll warn you. You can also hover on the minimized icon and it'll tell you what all is recording. Both features would be cool for Sage, I'll definitely agree with that.

[AJ Bertelson]

Better volume support.

I don't like it when sage changes the hardware volume. Is there a way to have sage interface with the volume like winamp does?

[Datalux]

Originally Posted by heffe2001

In MCE2005 if you're recording a show and try to shut down, it'll warn you. You can also hover on the minimized icon and it'll tell you what all is recording. Both features would be cool for Sage, I'll definitely agree with that.

Sage already shows what is recording if you hover over the tray icon. - That's one down and one to go

[heffe2001]

Actually, with MCE, if you AREN'T recording, it doesn't show anything in the tray. And if you're running in service mode, there isn't a tray icon to show what's recording is there?

I know if you're using network encoders you can see what they are doing when they have been sent to the tray by hovering also (which just made me notice that both of my network encoders were down, not sure if I remembered to restart them on the last reboot, need to watch that and see if it's a bug or what...).

[mightyt]

I love the idea of a shutdown or restart interrupt to give you a warning that Sage is recording. I have mistakenly rebooted myself several times forgetting to ensure I was not recording and ended up with a hole in my recording ...

As for the channel up and down ... This is currently in the MlbDude2 STV and many like it. We are pretty much begging Nielm to also add it to his next STV.

And with the Color Collaboration, well today the best you can to is add the Setup Wizard it to your top level main menu with Nielm's XML menu. At least that is less than a dozen.

T.

[Datalux]

Originally Posted by heffe2001

Actually, with MCE, if you AREN'T recording, it doesn't show anything in the tray. And if you're running in service mode, there isn't a tray icon to show what's recording is there?

I know if you're using network encoders you can see what they are doing when they have been sent to the tray by hovering also (which just made me notice that both of my network encoders were down, not sure if I remembered to restart them on the last reboot, need to watch that and see if it's a bug or what...).

Good point - Service mode does not show the tray icon but it would be nice if it did; "Only" when recording and only if the main viewing application is not already running.

Originally Posted by mightyt

I love the idea of a shutdown or restart interrupt to give you a warning that Sage is recording. I have mistakenly rebooted myself several times forgetting to ensure I was not recording and ended up with a hole in my recording ...

As for the channel up and down ... This is currently in the MlbDude2 STV and many like it. We are pretty much begging Nielm to also add it to his next STV.

I lost 10 min. out of the middle of ER the other night because I shut down then decided to do something else - Wife wasn't too happy with me.

[Freegoo]

Couple things I would like to see:

1. A dialog box that pops up warning me of conflicts with a Favorite recording when creating a new manual recording. It already does this for conflicts with manual recorings, and any active recording but scheduled Favorites are disregarded. I have to take care when adding programs with Sage, whereas with Tivo and Snapstream I could just hit record and the PVR would tell me what shows conflicted - allowing me to quickly add shows and determine recording preference.

2. Enhancement to the Keyword favorites to allow the keyword to be applied only to Title, Description, Category, etc. For instance a "Title Keyword: Survivor" would tape Survivor: Vanuatu but not The Early Show, Tony Danza show, etc which has survivor in the description due to a guest.

3. Delete oldest files first, irregardless of watched, manual or favorite, or other status (with exception of IR). With more than one user watching shows one person can miss a program that the other had watched. I'm aware of the various workarounds for this (setting auto-delete off, manually deleting shows yourself) but each requires too much work that could be automated. This could be an optional feature for those that like the way it currently works.

As a side note, I wrote a little program that mostly fixes #3. It monitors the drives free hard drive space and deletes oldest files in a selected directory when it drops below a certain level (35 gigs on my computer). If anyone wants it PM me - but use at own risk. While it's worked good for me, I've only used it on my own PC.

[mightyt]

Hmm ... Recently I noticed that a couple of movies I already recorded were recorded again by one of my kids.

With that, another cool thing would be if Sage let you know that you already recorded a show that has not been deleted when scheduling it again.

This would at the least save some hard drive space ...

T.

[Hector]

Heh, if I run Sage as a service a lot of things happen but recordings isn't one of them

Originally Posted by stanger89

Of course if you're running the service, you can exit Sage and your recordings continue

[oajungen]

I would be very nice if you could give a start and end time for a favourite. Between the start and end time the favourite is valid and should record all shows. Outside this timeframe the favourite isn't valid and no show should be recorded. With the new power (standby and hibernate) option this would be a great function to prevent unnessary records and startups.

[abasu2003]

Originally Posted by Datalux

Perhaps you could consider the following:

1. Interrupt the Windows shutdown process if a recording is in progress and warn the user as such. Give the option to continue or cancel the shutdown. Also change the SAGETV tray icon color to red when it is active during recordings.

2. I want to page-up and down (channel up/down) while watching LiveTV but I don't want it to change channels until I confirm (enter) - I just want to see what is on other channels without having to go to the Guide. I like using the timeslip function for LiveTV - I have small children and they require alot of attention

3. I want a hot key to go directly to color calibration instead of going thru a dozen menus. Either that or add it to the options screen.

Love the product - Thanks

maybe i shouldn't tempt on cayar's behalf but he is currently working on an STV that will do #2 (the first part of it).
http://forums.sage.tv/forums/showpos...2&postcount=72

This is the functionality that Mlbdude's skin had wtih 2.0.

What is timeslip?

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by oajungen

I would be very nice if you could give a start and end time for a favourite. Between the start and end time the favourite is valid and should record all shows. Outside this timeframe the favourite isn't valid and no show should be recorded.

While this isn't currently part of the default STV that gets installed with SageTV, some custom STVs can allow you to assign a 1-hour timeslot to a favorite. (I know MalDude2 does this for 2.1.) SageTV will remember the timeslot setting, so you could switch to a different STV once the timeslot is set, if you prefer.

- Andy

[sleonard]

What I would like to see in Sage is letterbox detection and removal. My client displays on a 16x9 HDTV so 4x3 shows end up with black bars on the sides. This is normal and OK (and a result of the TV not Sage) but more and more shows are in a 16x9 format and end up with the black bars on the sides AND on top and bottom. If sage could remove the top and bottom black bars, 16x9 shows would scale to the entire size of the screen. I can manually edit the recorded files to remove the top and bottom letterboxing to achieve this but it would be nice if Sage did it automatically.

[stanger89]

While it's not automatic, you can configure Sage to crop the bars off on playback. Just set the 16x9 AR to about 130% vertical zoom (you'll have to play to get it just right) and the bars get chopped off on playback. I've got my remote set up so I can toggle to and from 16x9 mode with a button press so it's rather painless to switch. (But automatic switching would be cool). FWIW, I don't think there's any way to automatically do it before playback, at least not easily.

[cassis6]

Is there a way to define both the 16x9 with 130% AR and the normal/default 16x9 for viewing wide screen DVDs and toggle between them with a button press?