Tuesday, September 14, 2010

The Story of the GeekTonic iPad

It wasn’t supposed to happen this way.  Five months ago I decided to purchase an Apple iPad.  My aim at the time was to do a little GeekTonic review of the iPad with a focus on it’s capabilities as an eReader and Media Player.

GeekTonic's Apple iPad

I went to the trouble of purchasing my Apple iPad from Best Buy which allowed for a return within 14 days with no restocking fee.  Well even with such good intentions I ran into a few problems:

  • I became busy – really busy those next couple of weeks.  And didn’t find the time to write up that iPad review.  Not even time for a quick look or anything.  Never mind the fact everyone was likely sick of iPad articles due to the all-to-frequent Apple Gazing we see on the internet.
  • I lost the dang receipt.  Yes, even though MrsGeekTonic probably still doesn’t believe this part of the story I really did intend to return that iMirror device.  I liked it some, but it wasn’t a must-have for me.  Unfortunately for my pocketbook the receipt was nowhere to be found and I haven’t found that thing even now.

So what’s a absent minded geek to do?  I did what any right-minded geek would have – I started using the iPad.  At first it was to try out some of those iPad-specific apps that used that extra screen real estate.  But after a while I found myself checking my RSS Feeds each night and morning using the iPad.  I then began using it to watch a little Netflix streaming. 

After a while I realized I used this iPad a great deal – way more than I ever intended. 

Today I’m not going to get into why this happened.  And I’m not going to say the Apple iPad is the greatest device you could get.  But I am going to explain what I like and dislike about it over the next few months.  And I’ll show you the apps and uses I think you would like about the iPad.  Other tablets will be here soon – likely with Android inside.  But for now I plan to share my iPad experiences just a little along with the HTPC and other media gadget stuff I enjoy. 

To be continued - Stay tuned.

In Depth Look at the Fall 2010 TV Season – Seen in HD Podcast

Seen in HD Podcast

I joined Phil and Matt for the “Seen in HD” Podcast again this year.  We spent most of the podcast reviewing this Fall 2010 TV Season including a rundown of what TV Shows are new and returning and our picks for winners and losers for this year.

If you’re a casual or hard-core TV watcher, this is one podcast you’ll want to give a listen to.

If you want to follow along as you listen, open up the Fall 2010 TV by-Day Schedule at GeekTonic.

Check out the Seen in HD Podcast at this link or at iTunes or Zune.

Goodbye Old Friend – Snapstream BeyondTV Withers on the Vine

BeyondTV

As I mentioned last year, Snapstream, maker of HTPC software BeyondTV and Enterprise TV Search Service changed their focus more and more towards the enterprise side of their business over the past several years.  During this time a continual defection of HTPC enthusiasts moved away from BeyondTV to other alternatives for various reasons whether it was need/want for new features, need for an update to fix an issue or just lack of attention.  I’ve continued to follow along on their forums over this time, but the activity there has almost entirely died out.  So today I have officially removed Snapstream from my web bookmark favorites.

I’ll continue to drop in every couple of months or so just to see if there’s anything new, but for now there just isn’t anything happening there.  Nine times out of ten, when I visit the Snapstream forums I am the only registered forum member there.  Worse is the fact that the number of unregistered, guests is usually less than 20!

Here’s other signs of BeyondTV’s end:

  • The Snapstream.com website page has nothing about BeyondTV on the front page – nothing!  You can select Products and from the drop-down menu BeyondTV is still listed and yes, you can still purchase a copy of BTV if you don’t know any better, but the focus there is obviously the Enterprise – Search product.
  • The last full version update of BeyondTV was BTV 4.9 back in November of 2008.  The last build release with any update of any kind was 4.9.2 in early June 2009.  Release Notes of BeyondTV
  • An excerpt from a forum post last year posted by Snapstream:
  • “There have been a number of threads on the forums and emails directed to me recently about the future of Beyond TV and where SnapStream is headed.
    As such, it seems like a good time to clarify our position going forward for consumer and beta releases.

    What's SnapStream's focus these days?
    Our focus (by which we mean "what we are working on now") is on polishing our technology to work in the enterprise space in support of our Television Search Appliance. In terms of current new development, this means a new backend tailored to expandability/reliability and writing a ground up new api.

    As a consumer user, where does that that leave you?
    Beyond TV is a mature DVR product that provides a simple user interface to a powerful recording engine. We still believe that if Beyond TV's feature set meets your needs, you will be a happy user. However, if you are not happy with Beyond TV as is, it means that you will probably not be excited about the changes from our upcoming work…”

  • A dialog on Twitter between a BeyondTV user and the Rakesh Agrawal, the founder of Snapstream tells us that no updates are coming:

User: “@RakeshAgrawal I want to ask you straight out - are we ever going to see an update to BeyondTV? Win7 and HD-PVR are driving me bonkers here.

Reply from Rakesh: Sorry for the late reply... The Beyond TV update you're looking for probably isn't coming. Our focus = TV search.

This conversation was last month.  Obviously this isn’t anything all that new – Snapstream has openly said over time that their focus was the Enterprise Search product but they always hinted that they still might offer some “trickle-down” updates to BeyondTV and they never ruled out returning back to BeyondTV updates some day.  But now it seems Snapstreams Search product is doing well enough they have no incentive to return to the consumer HTPC business.  That leaves names like Microsoft MediaCenter, SageTV, and MythTV as the three primary DVR-capable HTPC products.  It’s sort of sad for me to say goodbye, but I’m doing that today.  Snapstream thus far continues to provide guide data for BeyondTV as well as some Q&A type of support on the forums.  Beyond that it’s a “mature” program in their eyes that will get no attention.

Good luck to Snapstream as they continue to thrive with the Enterprise Search product.  And goodbye old friend – thanks for the HTPC memories BeyondTV.

Monday, September 13, 2010

SageTV HD300 Extender / Media Player Shipping Today

Multiple reports across the internet are confirming that the SageTV HD300 Extender/MediaPlayer is is shipping today, September 13th.  Update: Confirmed by SageTV

Check out the GeekTonic review of the SageTV HD300 for more info

Boxee Box Gets an Inside Look

Ganesh at AnandTech has a great writeup about the coming-soon D-Link Boxee Box.  He goes into more detail about the hardware than I’ve seen thus far so it’s a must-read if you’re at all interested in Boxee and their new extender.

Boxee D-Link Box

Speaking of the Boxee Box, it just arrived on the Amazon site this week.  It isn’t yet available for preorder, but there is a “send an e-mail” link for when it’s available. UPDATE: Looks like preorders once live will price it at $229

AnandTech spends some time talking about what the move from NVIDIA's Tegra 2 to the Intel CE4100 means.  Here’s a little taste of what Ganesh had to say about the Boxee Extender:

For AnandTech to recommend a media streamer, it must strive to enable the consumer to watch whatever content he wants wherever he wants. Boxee Box seems to have taken this philosophy to heart, unlike some of the other recently announced media streamers.

Read the complete article about the Boxee Box at AnandTech

Fall 2010 TV Season by Day Schedule

Some of the new premieres have already arrived, but most of the Big U.S. TV Network premieres are just a week away.  So I’m offering up one more tool to help you decide what shows you’ll be watching and/or recording.  This one focuses on the more common networks with a snapshot of shows airing each day of the week.

The shows I’ll be recording are highlighted in blue.  The new shows I’ll be recording on Monday are Lone Star, The Event and Mike & Molly.  Those first two I’ll be recording and watching later and the “Mike & Molly” is a comedy MrsGeekTonic thought was funny from the season premiere clips we saw.

Note: You can download a copy of this by-day Fall 2010 TV Schedule by clicking here

Monday Fall 2010 TV

Tuesday has a couple of new ones on Fox, but nothing new that I’m interested in.

Tuesday Fall 2010 TV

Wednesday brings Survivor and Modern Family which I’ll be watching and I’m recording Terriers as the first episodes were pretty good.

Wednesday Fall 2010 TV

Thursday is Fringe day for me.  Lots of shows on this day as always, but I”m not sold on My Generation or Outsourced.  Blank my Dad Says looks bad – really bad.

Thursday Fall 2010 TV 

Friday has Good Guys, Blue Bloods and Outlaw all of which are new.  Outlaw doesn’t look very good.  Blue Bloods actually looks worth checking out.

Fri/Saturday Fall 2010 TV

Sunday has many popular shows as always.  If you have HBO check out Boardwalk Empire – it looks very good.

Sunday Fall 2010 TV

If you haven’t already seen it – check out the other GeekTonic Fall 2010 TV Season Features:

If you follow GeekTonic for the TV Premieres and news, you’ll want to click here if you would like to get a regular e-mail for GeekTonic TV Premieres & News.

What shows are you looking forward to?

Sunday, September 12, 2010

The List of all SageTV 7 Plugins

There are a lot of SageTV HTPC plugins for SageTV 7 available already.  I just compiled a list of all of them along with a short description of what each one does.  Each of these plugins are easily available and installed using the SageTV Plugin Manager new to version 7.

I’m working on a big update to the Ultimate SageTV Guide that will be helpful to new SageTV users as well as long-time SageTV enthusiasts alike.  Stay tuned.

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Below is a comprehensive list of all SageTV 7 plugins as of September 12, 2010.  When available (if none is available there will be no hyperlink), there will be a link to the plugin spotlight article providing more in-depth information about the plugin including screen-shots and sometimes demo videos.  Also included will be a link to the forum thread when available.

First off is the list of general SageTV 7 plugins.  These plugins typically add functionality in some way to SageTV:

  • Commercial Detector - One-stop, simple commercial detection - Plugin Spotlight - Forum Thread
  • Custom Events - Adds custom events for notifications system such as recording space low - Plugin Spotlight - Forum Thread
  • External Status Socket Interface Plugin - Plugin provides external interface for LCD Smartie Plugin to retrieve the current SageTV status - Plugin Spotlight - Forum Thread
  • GKusnick's Studio Plugin Framework - A tool for SageTV plugin creators - Plugin Spotlight - Forum Thread
  • GKusnick's Studio Tools - Another plugin for SageTV plugin creators - Plugin Spotlight - Forum Thread
  • InControl JAR - A required plugin for the InConrol UI Mod - Home Automation - Plugin Spotlight - Forum Thread
  • InfoPopup / Caller ID - CallerID and Messaging dialog prompts for SageTV - Plugin Spotlight - Forum Thread
  • Jetty Web Server - A required plugin for most SageTV web applications including Web Server and Moblie Web Server - Plugin Spotlight - Forum Thread
  • Media Streaming Services – A plugin that goes with the new SageMobile.  This streaming plugin has no functionality at this time but will in the future.
  • Metadata Tools for SageTV - Web Interface - The web interface fo Batch Metadata Tools Plugin - Plugin Spotlight - Forum Thread
  • Ortus Core API – Used for other plugins – no need to install by itself
  • Ortus MQ – Used for other plugins – no need to install by itself
  • Phoenix Core Services - Handles metadata/fanart lookups from IMDB, TMDb and TVDb - Plugin Spotlight - Forum Thread
  • PlayOn for SageTV: Netflix/Hulu Queue Importer - Imports content from your Netflix & Hulu queue into SageTV as imported videos and/or TV. Requires PlayOn - Plugin Spotlight - Forum Thread
  • Podcast Recorder – A behind-the-scenes plugin (dependancy).  To install go to “UI Mod’s” and install Podcast Recorder UI
  • Sage Artifact Delete (SAD) - Listens for commercial skip file leftovers like edl, properites files, log files etc and deletes them after media file is deleted - Plugin Spotlight - Forum Thread
  • Sage Job Queue (SJQ) - A powerful plugin that fires off various "tasks" at different times. Can be used to power commercial detection and much more - Plugin Spotlight - Forum Thread
  • Sage Recording Extender (SRE) - Watches for live events and extends the recording when necessary - mostly for sporting events that run past scheduled end time. - Plugin Spotlight - Forum Thread
  • SageAlert - Listens for SageTV events & sends notifications to e-mail, text message, Twitter & other platforms. There is a free & paid version - Plugin Spotlight - Forum Thread
  • SageMyMovies API – A “dependant” plugin for MyMovies – install directly from “UI Mod” section
  • SageTCPServer – A TCP interface used by MLSageTV, taSageTV, tiSageTV and CQC Sage MediaServer/Player
  • SageTV Mobile Web Interface - A mobile web interface for SageTV that allows for controlling your SageTV server as well as streaming to iOS devices like the iPad, iPod Touch and iPhone - Plugin Spotlight - Forum Thread
  • SageTV Web Interface - The main SageTV web interface for SageTV - Plugin Spotlight - Forum Thread
  • Sagex-services - SageTV Remote API Services - HTPP & RMI services for SageTV including JSON/JSONP & xml formats - Plugin Spotlight - Forum Thread
  • Scrobbler - A last.fm scrobbler plugin - trains Last.fm to learn what music you like based on what you listen to - Plugin Spotlight - Forum Thread
  • TVBrowser-API – A dependant plugin for TV Browser – Install from the “UI Mod” section
  • TWiT.TV Video Podcasts – Add TWiT.TV video podcasts to your list of online services menu in SageTV.  This Week in Tech, Windows Weekly, MacBreak Weekly etc.  Forum Thread
  • Web Feed Encoder (WFE) - Server - For web-based streaming TV & radio on SageTV extenders - Plugin Spotlight - Forum Thread

Next are the User Interface Modification Plugins.  These change the way the user interface looks or acts in some way.  It can be as simple as changing the layout or look of the UI or sometime change the way functions are accessed:

  • 24 Hour Clock - Display times in 24 hour format - Plugin Spotlight - Forum Thread
  • Adobe Photoshop Elements Catalog Viewer - Browse Photoshop Elements Catalogs from SageTV - Plugin Spotlight - Forum Thread
  • All Titles for Video Menu - Include all imported videos for titles option in video menu - Plugin Spotlight - Forum Thread
  • Always Show SubMenus - Changes main menu default to always show submenu of focused item instead of defaulting to most recent view - Plugin Spotlight - Forum Thread
  • Audio Stream Toggle - Allows for switching between audio streams during vide playback - Plugin Spotlight - Forum Thread
  • Auto Aspect Ratio - Allows for switching between aspect ration automatically based on airing title, channel, recording device & other parameters - Plugin Spotlight - Forum Thread
  • Automatic Aspect Ratio Mode Switcher - Another version of the Auto Aspect Ratio plugin above - Plugin Spotlight - Forum Thread
  • Basic Sleep Timer - Adds a sleep timer to options menu. Set up to automatically shut off after certaim amount of time - Plugin Spotlight - Forum Thread
  • Change Channel to Record - Allows user to change the default action when there is an upcoming recording causing a conflict - Plugin Spotlight - Forum Thread
  • Commercial Detector UI - For use with the CommercialDetector plugin - makes the "Run Comskip" buttons compatible - Plugin Spotlight - Forum Thread
  • Comskip Playback - A simple UI modification that adds support for reading edl or txt files generated by comskip or showanalyzer - Plugin Spotlight - Forum Thread
  • CPU Meter - A simple CPU meter showing how hard your CPU is working at any given time - from the SageTV menu - Plugin Spotlight - Forum Thread
  • Custom Main Menu - Enable or disable any of the main menu items in SageTV - Plugin Spotlight - Forum Thread
  • CVF - Custom Video Folder - Video folder enhancements including adding season & episode number to description - Plugin Spotlight - Forum Thread
  • Display Aspect Ratio Switcher - Provides for auto-display aspect ration switching for people who have multiple monitors with different aspect ratios - Plugin Spotlight - Forum Thread
  • Display Recordings Menu On Startup - Brings up Recordings Menu instead of SageTV main menu at startup - Plugin Spotlight - Forum Thread
  • DVB / TTX Subtitles Playback - Always playback of DVB and Teletext subtitles - for recording made with DVBViewer Recorder or LM DVB Smart Recorder - Plugin Spotlight - Forum Thread
  • Enable/Disable Favorites - Allows series favorites to be enabled and disabled without removing the favorite from your list - Plugin Spotlight - Forum Thread
  • Encoder Names - Display friendly names in the Parallel Scheduled Recordings View - Plugin Spotlight - Forum Thread
  • EPG Back-On-Guide - Changes behavior of Guide button when in EPG so that it goes back to previous screen - Plugin Spotlight - Forum Thread
  • External Apps - Adds button on video options menu to run any external application - Plugin Spotlight - Forum Thread
  • Favorite Excluder (Anti-Favorites) - Allows user to mark Intelligent Recordings and Favorite Recordings as "Watched" & "DontLike" by defining special "Anti-Favorites" - Plugin Spotlight - Forum Thread
  • Favorites Filter - A way to filter viewing of favorites three levels. So you only see "level 1" favorites first, then hit the 2 button to see "level 2" etc - Plugin Spotlight - Forum Thread
  • Fuzzy’s Malore Tweaks – A collection of UI adjustments for the Malore menus including banners in the show list, remove banner from the description panel.
  • Guide on top, info and preview on bottom - Moves the EPG to the top of the screen and info and preview window at the bottom of the screen - Plugin Spotlight - Forum Thread
  • Hide EPG scroll bar - Hides the program guide scroll bar - Plugin Spotlight - Forum Thread
  • Hide Exit on Main Menu - Removes exit from the main menu - since it's not needed with extenders - Plugin Spotlight - Forum Thread
  • Hide F/A/M/W/HD/1 Icons in Lists - Hides the icons in lists to unclutter the UI - Plugin Spotlight - Forum Thread
  • Hide Footer Panel - Hides the footer panel to unclutter the UI - Plugin Spotlight - Forum Thread
  • Hide Options Menu when tuning a Live TV show. - Hides the options menu when tuning a live TV show - Plugin Spotlight - Forum Thread
  • Hide Volume Area from OSD - Hides the volume icon and slider from the on screen display - Plugin Spotlight - Forum Thread
  • IMDB Search - Search for, display and save information from IMDB (Internet Movie Database) - Plugin Spotlight - Forum Thread
  • Import/Export Channel Lineup - Import your custom channel lineup. Export your "enabled" channels from a lineup - useful when switching to new HTPC - Plugin Spotlight - Forum Thread
  • InControl (Connects SageTV/HomeSeer) - Integrate your Home Automation controls with SageTV's UI - for HomeSeer Home Automation Software - Plugin Spotlight - Forum Thread
  • InfoPopup STVi - Caller ID and Messaging dialog for SageTV - Plugin Spotlight - Forum Thread
  • Install Disk Usage - Adds a small bar graph in the menu indicating amount of drive space remaining on SageTV Install drive - Plugin Spotlight - Forum Thread
  • Intelligent Suggestions - Provides suggestions for upcoming shows based on your viewing behaviour - Plugin Spotlight - Forum Thread
  • J. River Media Center / Jukebox Explorer - A J River Media Center plugin - uses JRMC behind the scenes for your music and other media within SageTV - Plugin Spotlight - Forum Thread
  • Java Heap Monitor - Shows how much Java Heap Space available - if it's running low it could affect SageTV responsiveness - Plugin Spotlight - Forum Thread
  • Left-align EPG time header - Modifies EPG time header from center-align to left-align - Plugin Spotlight - Forum Thread
  • MiniGuide - A miniguide based on default UI style - Plugin Spotlight - Forum Thread
  • Move Imported TV Shows to SageTV Recordings - Will move TV Shows you've imported into SageTV over to SageTV Recordings list and out of Videos - Plugin Spotlight - Forum Thread
  • Movie Showtimes - View Movie times and movie trailers for movies now showing and coming soon - based on your location - Plugin Spotlight - Forum Thread
  • Movie Trailers - Adds a movie trailers button to the video options dialog. View movie trailers for any of your movie collection - Plugin Spotlight - Forum Thread
  • Multi Function Stop - When you hit stop during media playback, asks if user wants to resume, restart from beginning, delete etc - Plugin Spotlight - Forum Thread
  • Multispeed Skip – Transforms the Fast Forward & Rewind buttons so they work more like VCR ff/rew buttons.  Gives continuous FF/REW functionality with speeds varying from 2x to 128x.  Forum Thread
  • Music Tweaks - Some modifications to the music browser - recognize the ID3Tag for browsing multi-disc albums - Plugin Spotlight - Forum Thread
  • My TV for V7 - Adds a MyTV Menu showing last 4 recent recordings, 4 upcoming recordings - Plugin Spotlight - Forum Thread
  • No Default Action in Main Menu - Changes navigation in main menu to always expand the submenu instead of jumping to the last action - Plugin Spotlight - Forum Thread
  • Ortus Trailers - Download, browse and view Apple Movie Trailers - Plugin Spotlight - Forum Thread
  • OSD Clock and Play Time - Displays clock and how long current media has been playing - Plugin Spotlight - Forum Thread
  • OSD Enhancements -
  • Phoenix Fanart for Malore Menus - Uses Phoenix API to display Fanart on Malore Menus - Plugin Spotlight - Forum Thread
  • Phoenix Fanart for SageTV V7 - Uses Phoenix API to display Fanart for default SageTV UI - Plugin Spotlight - Forum Thread
  • Picasa Web Albums - Browse Picasa Web Albums in SageTV - Plugin Spotlight - Forum Thread
  • Pixel Test - Test for dead pixels on your display - Plugin Spotlight - Forum Thread
  • PlayOn For SageTV - Browse and play back online streaming content from Netflix, Huiu, Amazon and more when you have PlayOn installed - Plugin Spotlight - Forum Thread
  • Plucky's Menu Mod - Modified Horizontal Main Menu - Plugin Spotlight - Forum Thread
  • Podcast Recorder UI - Manually record podcasts or select podcasts as favorites to record automatically when a new podcast episode is available.  Forum Thread
  • Podcast View – Adds a filtered view for downloaded podcasts in your library.  Adds a new menu item under videos and a new selection item in the options panel in videos menu  Forum Thread
  • Read, Write and Edit Metadata - Display info from .my files in recording and video detail views. Also create .my and .properties files - Plugin Spotlight - Forum Thread
  • Recently Watched - Keep track of shows you've recently watched - Plugin Spotlight - Forum Thread
  • Recipe (Text File) Viewer - Browse, search, view and print recipes as text files - Plugin Spotlight - Forum Thread
  • Recordings List: Show original airdates – Shows the recordings original airdate in the recordings list
  • Remove Padding-Back2Back Manual Recordings Conflicts - Automatically resolve back-to-back manual recording conflicts caused by "padding" settings - Plugin Spotlight - Forum Thread
  • Replace Index Numbers with Season/Episode in Recordings Screen – Replaces the numbers in the recordings group information with the season and episode number
  • Resolve LiveTV Conflict - Allows user to set a default action when a liveTV channel is tuned and all tuners are currently in use - Plugin Spotlight - Forum Thread
  • Restart Sage from Setup Menu - Restart SageTV Server from the setup menu of any SageTV device - Plugin Spotlight - Forum Thread
  • Restrict Access - Prevent unwanted tampering by password protecting most functions with SageTV - Plugin Spotlight - Forum Thread
  • Sage Recording Extender UI - View, add and change Sage Recording Extender Monitoring Status - Plugin Spotlight - Forum Thread
  • SageMyMovies - A feature-rich movie organization plugin that brings in data from MyMovies metadata and fanart database - Plugin Spotlight - Forum Thread
  • Save EPG channel selection on Exit - Remembers channel you last viewed in program guide and takes you to that channel in guide next time you view the EPG - Plugin Spotlight - Forum Thread
  • Season and Episode Number in Details – Adds TV show season and episode number to detailed info
  • Season-Episode display for Malore Recordings - Display season-episode number in Malore Recordings Menu - Plugin Spotlight - Forum Thread
  • Select and Batch Delete - Select and delete multiple recordings in "batch" method - Plugin Spotlight - Forum Thread
  • Signal Strength on OSD - Show the TV Tuner signal strength - Plugin Spotlight - Forum Thread
  • SlimPlayer Internet Radio - Play internet radio from Squeezbox server. Includes Pandora, LastFM, Rhapsody, Slacker etc - Plugin Spotlight - Forum Thread
  • Stock Manager - View stock quotes from Yahoo finance - Plugin Spotlight - Forum Thread
  • STVI Configurator - For SageTV developers - Plugin Spotlight - Forum Thread
  • Tool Assisted Speedrun Videos Online Services - Browse and watch the tool assisted speedruns from TASVideos.org - in case you have no idea what this is: Game Movies - Plugin Spotlight - Forum Thread
  • TV Browser – Combines Imported and Recorded TV into a single TV list.  Sorts TV according to season & episode as available.
  • TwiederTweaks - A large collection of configurable User Interface Tweaks too long to list - definitely worth checking out - Plugin Spotlight - Forum Thread
  • Ughs Simplified Recording + Schedule Menu - Removes extra info from the recordings menu and creates a schedule menu at the top - Plugin Spotlight - Forum Thread
  • Upcoming Movies - A default style upcoming movies panel - selectable under EPG or Schedule Recordings pages - Plugin Spotlight - Forum Thread
  • VideoOut Tools for HD100/200 - Adds a popup menu to choose the output resolution of the extender interactively - Plugin Spotlight - Forum Thread

To check out all of the custom themes available of SageTV, head to this article.

This list is accurate as of 11/19/2010.  I’ll work to keep it up-to-date and will be adding links to “Plugin Spotlight” articles going more in-depth with some of the more popular plugins for SageTV7.



TV Premieres, Finales & Specials This Week 09/12/2010

Each week GeekTonic covers the TV scene with a complete listing of premieres, finales and specials for the week.  This week is a busy one with many more premieres as we move into the Fall 2010 TV Season.

Don’t miss these other GeekTonic Fall 2010 TV Season Features:

Check out the complete list of finales, premieres & specials below.

Survivor Nicaragua

        Survivor: Nicaragua Premieres this Wednesday

 

NOTE: All Times are Listed for EST – TV schedules subject to change

Sunday, September 12

MTV Video Music Awards (9pm on MTV) – Special

True Blood (9pm on HBO – Available in HD) – Season 3 finale

Over the Limit (10pm on TruTV) – Season 2 premiere – reality series

Hung (10pm on HBO – Available in HD) – Season 2 finale

My Boys (10pm on TBS – Available in HD) – Season 4 finale

Entourage (10:30pm on HBO – Available in HD) – Season 7 finale

 

Monday, September 13

Bachelor Pad (8pm on ABC – Available in HD) – Season 1 finale

90210 (8pm on CW – Available in HD) – Season 3 premiere brings an earthquake to Beverly Hills.  Oh no!

Lie to Me (9pm on Fox – Available in HD) Season 2 finale

Gossip Girl (9pm on CW – Available in HD) Season 4 premiere

The World of Jenks (10pm on MTV) New series - Andrew Jenks, a 24-year-old award winning documentary filmmaker focuses his lens and creates a bond with his subject to tell the story of one person's life, bringing viewers closer to understanding someone else's reality

Rizzoli & Isles (10pm on TNT – Available in HD) – Season 1 finale

 

Tuesday, September 14

Top Shot (7pm on History – Available in HD) – Season 1 finale

One Tree Hill (8pm on CW – Available in HD) – Season 8 premiere

Minute to Win It (8pm on NBC – Available in HD) – Season 1 finale

Life Unexpected (9pm on CW – Available in HD) – Season 2 premiere

Wipeout (9:01pm on ABC – Available in HD) – Season 3 finale

1,000 Ways to Die (9:30pm on SpikeTV) – Season 3 premiere

Parenthood (10pm on NBC – Available in HD) – Season 2 premiere

Sextuplets Take New York (10pm on TLC – Available in HD) – New reality series

Crimes of Passion (10pm on WE) – A new crime documentary series

Covert Affairs (10pm on USA – Available in HD) – Season 1 finale of what I consider one of the best new summer shows.  Definitely entertaining.

 

Wednesday, September 15

Survivor: Nicaragua (8pm on CBS – Available in HD) – The reality juggernaut we know as “Survivor” returns for a 21st season this time in Nicaragua.  The show moves to Wednesdays' this season and will pit the old against the young players.  NFL player/coach/analyst Jimmy Johnson is the best known contestant this season and being 67 years old he’ll be the second oldest castaway ever.

America’s Got Talent (8pm on NBC – Available in HD) – Season 5 finale

MasterChef (8pm on Fox – Available in HD) – Season 1 finale

The Apprentice (9pm on NBC – Available in HD) – Season 10 premiere

Ma’s Roadhouse (9pm on TruTV) – New reality series

Big Brother (9pm on CBS) – Season 12 finale

Outlaw (10pm on NBC – Available in HD) – New series with Jimmy Smits portraying a Supreme Court justice who gives up his judge appointment to run his own private practice.  Everything I’ve seen about this show leaves me unimpressed.

Top Chef (10pm on Bravo – Available in HD) – Season 7 finale

The Real World (10pm on MTV) – Season 20 finale

Dark Blue (10pm on TNT – Available in HD) – Season 2 finale

Chasing Mummies (10pm on History – Available in HD) – Season finale

Top Chef: Just Deserts (11:01pm on Bravo – Available in HD) – New food/reality series

 

Thursday, September 16

A Different Spin With Mark Hoppus (7pm on Fuse – Available in HD) – A new Music/News series hosted by musician Mark Hoppus best known as a founding member of the Blink 182 band.  Weekly interviews and performances will be the norm here plus a music news, discussion panel etc.

The Squad: Prison Police (10pm on A&E – Available in HD) – Season 1 finale

It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia (10pm on FX – Available in HD) – Season 6 premiere

The League (10:30pm on FX – Available in HD) – Season 2 premiere

 

Friday, September 17

As the World Turns (2pm on CBS) – The end of the line for this soap opera.

Ghost Adventures (9pm on Travel – Available in HD) – Season 3 premiere

Generator Rex (8:30pm on Cartoon – Available in HD) – Season 2 premiere

Star Wars: The Clone Wars (9pm on Cartoon – Available in HD) – Season 3 premiere

Real Time with Bill Maher (10pm on HBO – Available in HD) – Season 8 premiere

 

Sunday, September 19

Boardwalk Empire (9pm on HBO – Available in HD) – New series on HBO that almost makes me want to re-subscribe to HBO.  I watched an extended clip from the pilot episode and consider this one of the best bets of the season.  The story is of prohibition-era Atlantic City with the first episode written by Martin Scorsese.  If you have HBO do not miss this series.  And if you don’t have HBO you may consider subscribing or save this one in your Netflix queue.

Real and Chance: The Legend Hunters (9pm on VH1) – A new reality series

Fantasia For Real (10pm on VH1) – Season 2 premiere

The Gates (10pm on ABC – Available in HD) – Season 1 finale

La La’s Full Court Wedding (10:30pm on 10:30pm on VH1) – A new reality series with La La & Carmelo Anthony

 

Monday, September 20

How I Met Your Mother (8pm on CBS – Available in HD) – Season 6 premiere

Chuck (8pm on NBC – Available in HD) Season 4 premiere

Dancing with the Stars (8pm on ABC – Available in HD) Season 11 premiere

House (8pm on Fox – Available in HD) Season 7 premiere

Rules of Engagement (8:30pm on CBS – Available in HD) Season 5 premiere

The Event (9pm on NBC – Available in HD) New series for NBC with a familiar theme – A conspiracy thriller where a regular guy investigates the mysterious disappearance of his fiancée and unwittingly begins to expose the biggest cover-up in U.S. history.  I personally will be recording this one with a wait-and-see attitude.  I like what I’ve seen so far about the show & the lead actor Jason Ritter should be good in this one.  But I’ve been burned too much with shows like this and would prefer to make sure it will continue before investing in it..  You know like Flash Forward for instance.

Lone Star (9pm on Fox – Available in HD) This is another new series to check out in my opinion.  I had the opportunity to watch an extended clip from the season 1 premiere of Lone Star and it was definitely something that caught my eye.  The story of this show involves a smooth-talking con man and his dad both of which have been running scams for years.  The son lives a triple life (two of them fake) and wants to build a new, less dubious life.  David Keith portrays the father in this show which has a premium cable feel to it.  I definitely recommend you check this one out.

Two and a Half Men (9pm on CBS – Available in HD) Season 8 premiere

Mike & Molly (9:30pm on CBS – Available in HD) A new comedy series for CBS.  I watched an extended clip of the season premiere from this show and came away pleasantly surprised.  I expected very little from this one, but found it to be quite funny.  It’s about an overweight cop and a fourth grade teacher who meet at an overeaters anonymous meeting in Chicago and fall in love.  Yeah, that plot didn’t appeal to me either, but it actually looks pretty good.

Castle (10pm on ABC – Available in HD) Season 3 premiere

Chase (10pm on NBC – Available in HD) New series where a team of U.S. marshals hunt down America’s most dangerous fugitives.

Hawaii Five-O (10pm on CBS – Available in HD) New series that is a re-make of the popular show that aired from 1968 to 1980 (wow).  It’s being re-cast with an elete unit/task force set up to fight crime in Hawaii.  I saw a short clip of the premiere episode and it was okay.  Might be worth checking out as it’s following the formula of the quite successful show that preceded it.


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