SageTV Mac 6.3.5 Release Canidate

It's a good sign that the Sage can see the HDHomerun, but according to the Sage forums and the company's specs page the software doesn't yet support the HDHomerun.

Are you thinking you can fiddle with plist files to get it to work? I figure I'll just wait-- I'm happy enough with EyeTV, save for its lack of commercial skip.

Has SageTV fixed the stuttering video in this lastest Beta? The last Beta I tried worked just fine with my HDHR, but it was unwatchable due to the stuttering.

Ahh, thanks for the clarification David. Well, when their HDHomerun support gets more stable, I'll definitely give it a whirl.

Excuse my ignorance but what is the difference between the Sage and an HD Homerun? From what I can tell they do the same thing.

Thanks

Right on David, thanks for the update. Say, does anybody know if Sage supports DD5.1?

Live TV though?

Yes indeedy, I was running an EyeTV Hybrid for a year or so, and got interested in alternative EPG support. I had just become dissatisfied with the Programming and recording functioning in EyeTV. The built-in TitanTV-fed Program Guide in EyeTV is just not extensive enough, only forecasts a week in advance (although the Titan Online guide does 2 weeks), and doesn't allow automatic (intelligent) recording.

Then I discovered that SageTV has just released a beta version of it's HTPC Media Center for Mac OSX with hardware support for the Hybrid and HDHomeRun, and I have to say that it totally rocks. I can use my Apple remote stick to navigate easily around all menus, browse the awesome program guide, watch and record shows, and schedule recordings. Everything you would generally want to do is easily accomplished. Even searching for shows in the guide using the on-screen keyboard - which I thought would be a lame joke at best - was way more powerful than I expected.

One word of caution - the install defaults to menu animations ON, and there is a bug in the latest beta that makes the menus look like an XML circus from hell in full-screen mode. If you go out of full-screen mode and turn off menu animatins in Detailed Settings, you will not have this problem.

Also, the black levels in the video look a touch high when doing a side-by-side compare to EyeTV and VLC playback, but to be fair, their tech support responded immediately to my bug report, and they say the next rev will fix the black levels. I also saw a little stuttering initially after installing and channel scanning, but that seemed to go away completely after a short while.

Otherwise, I am really happy with this. It was much simpler to navigate and way more intuitive than the EyeTV interface. It passed the wife test immediately.

We'll see how it stands up to daily use.

MCB

Overall, I'm hopeful for SageTV. It's already got better features and usability than it's closest competitor (EyeTV). However, there's still a few things stopping me from using it regularly. Anybody know when the next beta (6.4.5?) is coming out? Here's my laundry list of issues I've seen with the latest Beta (posted on the SageTV forums too):

1) HD video quality from the HDHR is still not quite as good as using other software (VLC, EyeTV).
2) No DD 5.1 from ANY source. Ripped DVDs, actual DVDs or from ATSC OTA. This is huge for me.
3) Playing VIDEO_TS DVD rips in non-fullscreen mode works. However, in fullscreen mode, all I get is audio and a blank screen.
4) Guide data is incomplete (No Data) for some broadcast stations.
5) ALL ATSC sub-channels (i.e. 11-2, 11-3, etc) display nothing (No Signal) even though the HDHR shows the tuner as active and other software can tune in the sub-channels.

FYI: I have not seen any issues in full-screen mode with animations on. That works fine!

Geez, how'd you get a response out of them? I've posted bugs using their online form and on their forums and all I hear are crickets...

Right on, at least you've got an in!

#2) I have S/PDIF selected in their preferences and the Mini is set to use the digital out only. Indeed, I only have an optical connection from the Mini to the amp. EyeTV puts out DD5.1 from the ATSC broadcasts and DVD Player/Quicktime/VLC/FrontRow put out DD5.1 from DVDs and rips. I get sound from SageTV, just not DD5.1. Their explanation doesn't make sense to me.

#3) Interesting. I've just starting ripping my collection using MacTheRipper and have only done a couple, but both them acted this way. I'll have to try some more.

#4/#5) I'm ATSC only and the mapping is correct for all channels including sub-channels. The sub-channels aren't THAT big of a deal as they're usually crap anyway. However, it would be nice to have guide data for 5-1 (NBC). I can watch 5-1 OK, just no guide data. I get guide data for the sub-channels, but no picture!

Thanks for the update from your sources! It's nice to have someone to discuss these issues with. I can't wait for the next release!

Regarding the SageTV video quality: I was able to take the mpeg recorded by SageTV with my EyeTV (Hauppage) Hybrid and open it in both VLC Player and in SageTV Media Center simultaneoulsy. I picked a good picture reference frame and paused it in both apps. Toggling back and forth revealed washed-out blacks in the Sage playback, where the VLC playback blacks were nice and deep without blocking up. Furthermore, Sage's HD playback drops frames (looks like stuttering) whenever there is lots of activity on screen. VLC and EyeTV never have this problem. So on my rig, the Sage decoding and display of the same exact image is running in last place.

To be fair, I did receive an email reply from their tech support regarding my bug report about this issue in the Mac OSX beta, and they said that the video playback was definitely something they were focusing on.

I can't get over the fact that my wife can navigate easily thru Sage's interface and all of its great and friendly functions using nothing but the little white Apple Remote, and never need to pick up our bluetooth keyboard.

She's buying me SageTV for Christmas! YeeHaaaah!

MB

Sounds like she's buying herself SageTV for Christmas! Seriously though, that's good data on the PQ. I nevert thought to open up SageTV's recordings with VLC. Good idea!

No more test data from me; my 30 eval period is up. I guess it's time to pony up the $80 and take it on faith that they'll fix the problems. :/

Well, if your SageTV developer buddy is still watching this thread, I'd like to request that the cursor fades out at the same time as the on-screen program data. Currently (at least in my build 6.3.1?) the cursor is always visible. Also, when will Sage allow saving off of clips (defined segments) the same way EyeTV does? That is huge for me. I like condensing my recordings down without commercials.

On the video playback front, I still have questions about whether the Intel Core Duo GMA is being used to it's fullest capability, and whether SageTV is trying to optimize the use of it? Just wondering. Just sayin.'

MCB

Does SageMC (and all the other addons) work with the Mac version?

I just installed this on my Mini HTPC, and I must say, I'm impressed! Not sure if I can justify the purchase fee yet, but it did look good.

I would like to see a frontrow-style option for the media center section, and integration with iPhoto and itunes, plus support for AAC, even if it's just unencrypted, self-ripped songs that would be a huge improvement.

The visual interface is beautiful and it incorporates all of the "must haves", but some more options are necessary.

This is, by far, the best media server I've used on the Mac to date.

David, thanks for speaking for us all!!! We couldn't have a better ally!

Any idea how to reset my trial period? I installed the latest beta, but it won't run without a key. I'd like to see what problems this latest beta fixes.

Thanks!

What I really would appreciate in SageTV is a display of filesizes for each recording, as well as a calculation at the bottom of the recordings listing reflecting how much free drive space is available. That would be very helpful when I want to manage (delete) my recordings without having to go outside of the app.

MB