SageTV purchased by Google.

[mistergq]

Hi all.

I am a current SageTV user. i am not sure I will be switching, but figured I should register and come on over here to begin the contingency plan. Just to give you a background, I was a BTV user from 2003 to 2007. In 2007, I switched from BTV to STV when I realized that BTV was not going to integrate media center into DVR software.

I think to get a mass conversation...besides Google abandoning the STV project, you are going to need to get extender support. The extenders have made our lives so much easier and the idea of going back to a computer client just makes me, and others, cringe. So whether that is the popcorn, Hauppuage HDPVR, WD Live, or something else, we need extender support.

I understand the hesitation of plugins, but many of us have gotten used to headless servers that require no tinkering once it is setup. You can install many of the plugins from the extenders onto the server. This is something that should be considered.

Do you have a web interface for scheduling recordings, managing favorites, and managing recordings?

[mvallevand]

I understand the hesitation of plugins, but many of us have gotten used to headless servers that require no tinkering once it is setup. You can install many of the plugins from the extenders onto the server. This is something that should be considered.

In SageTV plugins are installed by the Server that is running as LocalSystem which has the appropriate permissions to install plugins correctly into "\Program Files\SageTV"

Do you have a web interface for scheduling recordings, managing favorites, and managing recordings?

Yes it is maintained by UJB and informally called NEWA http://www.nextpvr.com/nwiki/pmwiki.php?n=Manual.NEWA

Martin

[BrettB]

I think to get a mass conversation...besides Google abandoning the STV project, you are going to need to get extender support. The extenders have made our lives so much easier and the idea of going back to a computer client just makes me, and others, cringe. So whether that is the popcorn, Hauppuage HDPVR, WD Live, or something else, we need extender support.

NextPVR does have extender support on a few NMTs. I use a Popcorn Hour A-110 almost exclusively as my interface.

[martint123]

Yeah, I use a pair of older Popcornhour A100's for main viewing, an even older Hauppauge MVP for an old CRT and all these work extremely well.
I quite often use a PC client for scheduling as I sit in front of it plenty of the time and like using a proper keyboard rather than a remote for searching and scheduling shows.

[tmiranda]

Hello all. Add me to the list of SageTV users who want to get up to speed on possible alternatives. After doing some reading it seems as if nPVR has more in common with Sage then other alternatives.

Sage is still the primary PVR in my house but I want to be prepared for the future.

For me the "must haves" are:

- Reliability. In my house the kids don't even know what live TV is. I don't want to be getting support calls from the kids or wife while I am at work because "the TV stopped working". And you would not want to be around me if the PVR missed a Formula 1 recording

- Either an extender or the ability to be run in a totally silent PC. I really like the Sage extenders because they are totally quiet, relatively cheap, play almost everything, and dead easy to setup. The thought of going back to a Windows/linux/Mac client is very unappealing.

- Commercial detection and skipping.

- And probably the most important thing: WAF. If the spouse doesn't like the UI or can't figure out how to use it the software will be a non-starter.

Nice to have:

- A plugin manager. This makes installation of plugins so much easier for "normal" users. As a developer it also helps to drastically improve the user experience since I can make fairly complex plugins install with just a single click of the mouse.

- Intelligent recording. Most of what Sage records, and my family watches, are "Intelligent Recordings".

- Built in EPG. The Sage EPG support is very good and even includes channel logos and some limited fan art.

What I like about nPVR:

- An active and friendly community.

- Developer friendly.

- Client/Server architecture. (I think!)

Tom

[johnsonx42]

Reliability. In my house the kids don't even know what live TV is. I don't want to be getting support calls from the kids or wife while I am at work because "the TV stopped working". And you would not want to be around me if the PVR missed a Formula 1 recording

Reliability is pretty good. For some it's rock-solid. I've still got some reliability issues where the recording service crashes when a certain combination of channels is recorded at a certain time, but I'm working to get sub the crash dump data he needs to hopefully fix it.

Either an extender or the ability to be run in a totally silent PC. I really like the Sage extenders because they are totally quiet, relatively cheap, play almost everything, and dead easy to setup. The thought of going back to a Windows/linux/Mac client is very unappealing.

NPVR supports the Network Media Tank (NMT) type extenders; these include the PopCorn Hour A100/A110, EGreat M34a, a few others. There is pretty good support for the old Hauppauge MVP, but they're Standard-def only. NPVR will also run on a PC as a client, it's up to you to make a totally silent PC. the new AMD E-350 platform should make that a solid reality.

Commercial detection and skipping.

you just use comskip for detection, and once you have the comskip .edl file the skipping is automatic; you run comskip in the parallelprocessing.bat or postprocessing.bat scripts. I have a somewhat complex batch file for that but really all you need is:

Code:

cd \path\to\comskip
comskip %1

- And probably the most important thing: WAF. If the spouse doesn't like the UI or can't figure out how to use it the software will be a non-starter.

WAF is high. It's very simple to use. the UI is simple but attractive.

- A plugin manager.

there's been talk. that's it. I'm not on the dev side at all, but from what I've seen I'd say it'll probably happen some day. not today.

- Intelligent recording.

nope. sub's not going to do something like that, and while it would certainly be possible for a plugin to do it (sub has said everything is available that such a plugin would need), I've not seen any plugin dev say 'hey, that's neat, I'll work on that'. then again, sometimes I'm the last to know.

- Built in EPG. The Sage EPG support is very good and even includes channel logos and some limited fan art.

NPVR has integrated Schedules Direct support, and as you're in the US that will be your best bet. You can also provide epg data in an XMLTV file; you put your XMLTV grabber commands in UpdateEPG.bat and NPVR calls that when it udpates the EPG each night. channel logos are done manually right now, but SystemShark appears to be updating his ChannelLogoTool for NPVR. There's a couple of tools that download show/movie artwork or posters.

[mvallevand]

NPVR will also run on a PC as a client, it's up to you to make a totally silent PC. the new AMD E-350 platform should make that a solid reality.

I disagree. babgvant a respected SageTV user/dev wrote (he also wrote the anandtech review) on the SageTV forums "It works, but the CPU is a bit underpowered to be a recommended solution unless budget is the primary concern."

I expect from a client perspective if a client works for SageTV it will work with NextPVR.

nope. sub's not going to do something like that, and while it would certainly be possible for a plugin to do it (sub has said everything is available that such a plugin would need), I've not seen any plugin dev say 'hey, that's neat, I'll work on that'. then again, sometimes I'm the last to know.

I partially disagree, I think sub's recording options are intelligient in that it they can hunt out shows across tuners, times etc, much like SageTV can. There are Advanced rules against the database and NEWA/SearchLite can use that today (ie recordings that search for words in the descriptions, subtitles etc).

From what I've seen on my SageTV importing, the missing features are genre and and cast searching and UJB's Schedules Direct extensions could be enhanced to record them with not too much difficulty. A plugin could do it and I was moving that way but I had zero response from North American users to my genre searching enhancements to SearchLite so it won't be me.

but SystemShark appears to be updating his ChannelLogoTool for NPVR. There's a couple of tools that download show/movie artwork or posters.

I expect my SageTV routine will also import logos from SageTV, so this should be a moot point. As soon as you start recording my imageGrab utility can be configured to automatically get art when programs are scheduled and/or recorded.

Martin

[tmiranda]

Thanks to both. I'll have to look a little more into the NMT boxes for sure. Is the performance (as in UI responsiveness) good on that hardware?

As for Intelligent Recording, it sounds like most of the pieces are there and it just needs to be neatly packaged together. Maybe not a bad way to start learning about nPVR.

BTW - How to you refer to the product? I've been using "nPVR" because that's what appears in the Windows title bar.

[steeb]

Thanks to both. I'll have to look a little more into the NMT boxes for sure. Is the performance (as in UI responsiveness) good on that hardware?

As for Intelligent Recording, it sounds like most of the pieces are there and it just needs to be neatly packaged together. Maybe not a bad way to start learning about nPVR.

BTW - How to you refer to the product? I've been using "nPVR" because that's what appears in the Windows title bar.

Hiya Tom,

there is at least one great shot on youtube as to how the NMT responds, IMHO it is very sharp and fast, but I have never used Sage let alone with an extender. I have no doubt those with the link to hand will give you that info

I still like to call it NextPVR. The common short for it is NPVR. the nPVR in the title bar I believe sub is sorting from a thread I saw the other day but requires a bit of work so won't be tomorrow!

cheers

steeb

[mvallevand]

There are two active threads on SageTV and NPVR so I couldn't find it at first but here is a link with links to some youtube videos of the NMT and NPVR in action.

http://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.php...post413559

Martin