Kickstarter Campaign begins for SageTV XBMC Plugin

If you are still using SageTV as an HTPC or still have a server license for SageTV there’s an interesting project that just started a KickStarter Campaign that should interest you.  Here’s a message from the project manager:
Love your SageTV server as much as we do?  Have you been waiting, hoping, praying that Google would release a follow up after swallowing up our beloved SageTV?

Amazingly two years later SageTV is still the best home Media Center solution out there. A true testament to how far ahead of the competition SageTV truly was. For those of us running SageTV we want to keep the good time rolling for as long as possible.
Unfortunately with official development done there is dwindling hope for new features such as Netflix and Hulu plugins,  or integrated support for online media, or new extenders to replace your aging HD300s.  That's where the SageTV XMBC plugin come in... with this plugin you can continued to leverage the rock solid SageTV backend and leverage the new and ever growing modern XBMC front-end which includes an extensive library of plugins (Playon, Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, Spotify), support for internet video and multiple small form factor clients (Rasberry Pi, Ouya, Android...).

Please support our effort to make the SageTV XMBC plugin a reality by making a donation to our kickstarter effort:  http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/380901157/xbmc-sagetv-pvr-plugin

Snapstream’s DVR for Business

 

Remember that little ole HTPC software called BeyondTV?  Maybe the name “smartskip” will ring a bell for some of you.

 

ars technica has a nice article providing an update on our old friend, Snapstream.  Snapstream is the company that created BeyondTV, the second HTPC program used in the GeekTonic home just before switching to SageTV.  Rakesh Agrawal made the decision to transition the company away from the consumer business and towards an “enterprise” focus.  Basically they sell a product that records certain or all channels and then uses the captioning to allow for searching for keywords or phrases.  You can also automatically save clips with those words/phrases for use later.  Companies, governmental agencies, politicians, TV shows and others use this technology so they can curate media clips based on relevant themes.

The business filled a very specialized niche from the start and has obviously been a success.  Check out the article to learn more.

Google Fiber Install – The Wait

One of the things I plan to share with everyone is our experience with Google Fiber.  I’m assuming a good number of people who still visit this blog have pretty much tried to ignore much of the talk about Google Fiber once they realized they aren’t in the first cities to get it.  For those of you curious about the experience though I think I’ll have quite a bit to share.  To get things started I’ll talk about one of the most exciting, yet frustrating parts of being on the “I’m getting Google Fiber” list – the wait.  Don’t get me wrong, I know I’m very fortunate to be in the first city getting Google Fiber, but the wait has been long since that announcement.

Here’s the timeline:

June 18, 2011 – Google purchased SageTV, one of the best Home Theater PC (HTPC) systems available.  This created some excitement among my fellow SageTV users, but a lot of fear over what would happen to SageTV and its community.

July 10, 2011 – GeekTonic speculated that Google purchased SageTV for it’s powerful DVR and set-top-box ecosystem.  The popular sentiment in the tech blogging community was that DVR was about placeshifting to help the Google TV product.  We now know that SageTV IS Google Fiber TV and nothing to do with Google’s languishing Google TV product.

July 26, 2012 - Google along with the mayors of Kansas City, KS and Kansas City, MO announce that Kansas City (both cities) would be the first Google Fiber City.  We learned at that time that there was a very fast, fiber internet connection as well as a TV component.  I also happened to get  a visit from Mr. SageTV himself, the head of SageTV that day which confirmed that SageTV was in fact the new TV product being packaged with Google Fiber.

At this point there was a pre-registration process where google separated the core of Kansas City urban areas into “fiberhoods”.  They would use the number of signups per capita to help them decide which fiberhoods to start with and in some cases which neighborhoods to skip for now. 

September 12, 2012 - 180 out of 202 fiberhoods made the cut and were ranked in order of when their sign-up and installs would be.

I had just moved into a neighborhood that was selected as #26 on the Missouri side of Kansas City.  Very exciting for me to say the least, but I also saw that the install timeline put my new fiberhood at around Spring/Summer 2013 which meant a long, one-year wait!  Still, I was ahead of much of the Kansas City area not to mention the rest of the U.S.

I registered for the complete Internet/TV package with two TV boxes.  I’m pretty sure I registered in the first hour I could do so.

May 2013 – I moved into a new loft that we had just purchased.  It was in the same neighborhood so I was able to switch my Google Fiber registration to the new place fairly easily.  Plus install time was getting closer all the time!

Summer 2013 – Installs were happening around several urban neighborhoods, but I knew very few people who had actually gone through the process.

Late Summer 2013 – I began seeing the trucks and equipment that actually install the fiber in the streets and on power lines.  I’ll show some photos of that process in a future post.

July 2013 – Our building management toured the condo building with Google’s engineers so they could develop the engineering install plan for the building

This poster was posted in a common area in our building.  Notice the notes written on it expressing everyone’s excitement with Google Fiber as well as their opinion of Time Warner Cable :)

 

July 2013 – Fiber is installed in the streets of downtown Kansas City, MO

August 2013 – Fiber is installed in the streets of my neighborhood.

Early September 2013 – Our building’s HOA reviewed the Google Fiber Installation Plan for our building.  This included choosing between a few options on running the cable through the hallways and what types of cabling to run through the units themselves.  At this meeting we were told actual install could be as soon as October, but could take as long as December 2013!!!!!  The pace of install throughout town does seem to be picking up, but it’s definitely taking some time. 

More on Google Fiber soon.  Let me know what questions you have about Google Fiber in the comments.

Google Fiber TV–Is It’s HTPC DNA SageTV?

Google had their official unveiling of Google Fiber last week in Kansas City and I was watching very closely.  I expected this to be an interesting announcement with it’s fiber-to-the-home bringing gigabit internet (up and down) along with a rumored TV service.  I’m thrilled about both of these services, but especially curious about the TV-side of the announcement.  Now that I’ve delved a little more into this I think the Google Fiber TV just might be bigger than some people realize.

Not only am I very interested in a “better” TV/DVR than what you can currently get from the cable companies – I also live in the downtown Kansas City area where I felt my odds were good for getting Google Fiber.  So yes, I’m likely more interested in this than those outside of the Kansas City area.  But I’m even more excited about this because I suspect there is quite a bit of SageTV Home Theater PC inside of Google Fiber TV. SageTV is a Home Theater PC or Home Media company that Google purchased just over a year ago and it seems that this is what the SageTV team has been working on since being acquired.

I stopped by the Google Fiber Place where they have a large “showroom” to demo some of the ways you can use Google Fiber in the real world.  As you can imagine I spent a lot of time in the Fiber TV section where they had the actual Fiber TV hardware running and where I could see the EPG (TV Guide), menus and settings page.  We switched channels, displayed a guide that looked awfully familiar to this SageTV user and went through some of the menus.  When we were on the settings page I think I caught a glimpse of the words “SageTV” on the page.  The TV show page had similar info and details pages available just like I see on SageTV.  It certainly wasn’t exactly like the last version of SageTV, but it was pretty similar.  Add to this experience you can check this Google + thread where a little confirmation of SageTV involvement was mentioned:

I had a chance to try out the Fiber TV app on the Nexus 7 tablet and that has similar functionality to the 3rd party SageTV web app I’m used to using but in a much improved UI

One last thing to note before I close today – Fiber TV is a Media device with a server/client architecture, just like SageTV is.  It includes music and movies and Google is integrating Netflix and their own Google-brand of instant movies.  The ability to stream your movies and music and ge the super-powered DVR with tuners that work on all content (Read: not blocked for certain channels or requiring CableCard setup) makes this HTPC enthusiast very, very happy.  I don’t know how much SageTV is inside Fiber TV, but I’m pretty confident it has quite a bit inside.

Lots of questions from the HTPC crowd to talk about here such as: what about plugins, DRM on movies, commercial skip etc.  I’ll have more to say about Google Fiber TV soon.  Stay tuned.

Convert Your SageTV Extender Into Squeezbox Music Player

Have you given up on the abandoned (thanks to Google’s purchase of SageTV) SageTV HTPC system?  Still have a SageTV Extender laying around waiting to be sold on EBay?  We'll here’s another use for it, convert it into a Squeezebox networked music player for free!

A SageTV enthusiast has created a download package to make the process fairly easy so you’ll be streaming music across your network to your SageTV HD200 or HD300 in no time.

Here’s his initial announcement from the SageTV Forums:

“All,
I'm very proud to announce that after weeks of painful research, coding, cross compiling and testing, I finally managed to "transform" (not in the physical sense of the term of course) an HD200 and an HD300 to a fully working headless squeezebox client connected to a squeeze server...
Why?
Well, the inspiration came after trying the excellent "SageTV Slimplayer" plugin. Despite the plugin did work very well, my requirements were a little bit different, for instance I didn't like the idea of switching my TV on to listen music, also the limitation of one extender at time was a big no-no for me. I currently have 5 extenders in my household and all of them are connected to a separate sound processor and in one instance the extender is hooked up to a Yamaha sound projector which in turns is connected to a video projector, so if I want to listen music in the lounge with the fireplace on, the last thing I want is to turn on the video projector as well. The ideal solution for me would be a Logitech Duet with one Squeeze Remote or some other software solution (Smartphone/iPad/Android), but that would mean buying five of them for a job that an extender is perfectly capable of (wireless connection included).”

If you’re interested head over to the SageTV Forums for more

Logitech Quitting GoogleTV

It’s been widely accepted that GoogleTV’s launch was premature and much less than successful.  So this latest bit of news won’t surprise many of you – Logitech’s CEO Guerrino De Luca announced his company is dropping GoogleTV for the time being.  Here’s an excerpt from his talk at the Logitech “Analyst and Investor Day”

He begins talking about GoogleTV with the admission that Logitech had extremely high expectations in terms of sales:

“…I would definitely want to have Google establish Google TV, but with a significantly smaller and more prudent approach. It’s always the case people will tend to overestimate the short-term and underestimate the long-term.

More on Logitech’s (and Google’s) over-reaching expectation that Television and the internet integration would be accepted (and work) overnight at launch:

Google TV or a child of Google TV or the grandchild of Google TV will happen. The integration of television in Internet is inevitable. But the idea that it would happen overnight in Christmas 2010 was very misguided and that also caused us dearly. As you know, we dramatically reduced the price of the box to what we thought the consumers valued it and actually doing fine.

Here he goes on to discuss how Logitech misinterpreted consumer behavior.  And how that misinterpretation caused Logitech to make a $100 Million mistake in operating profits on the GoogleTV/Revue:

Our third mistake is actually of a different nature and it’s probably more significant. We had paid much less attention to our product portfolio than we should have. Over the course of the last two or three years we just, we thought that quantity could replace quality and we just did not fully understand what the consumer behavior is at the point of sale, and how to create exciting proposition that made somebody take it and roll up and give us demand. So also because we weren’t focusing on certain things particularly in the living room and Google TV there was an underlying opportunity out there and which we did not focus in other things were happening and we are closer and more real and more existing to when I’ve always been a fan of going to something that already exists, I suppose to completely getting out into the stratosphere of what might happen.”

If you’re wanting to pick up a Logitech Revue watch for even more price drops as Logitech is working to sell the remainder of their inventory by March 2012 (end of their fiscal year 2012) if not sooner:

“We brought contracts to match their preview they mentioned about substantial price drop. The products are selling we believe that we will be out of their inventory by the end of fiscal ’12 and that’s kind of a cautious statement, we may be out of inventory even somewhat sooner than that date. We have no plan to build another box.”

I understand Microsoft and Google not wanting to make the hardware for HTPC/ConnectedTV devices.  The problem is it’s a huge risk for a consumer electronics company to be that hardware maker for an unproven, alpha/beta product.  Google needs only to look at Microsoft’s extender debacle to see what direction they ended up with.  Microsoft’s only extender device is their very own XBox 360.  The first key to making this connectedTV platform succeed and be widely adopted is to produce your own hardware where you control the firmware updates and the hardware.  Make it work extremely well for the consumer and then your platform it’s built on will succeed.  Google can look to their newly purchased SageTV to see the success of this model on a much smaller scale.

via theVerge and SeekingAlpha

Boxee Adding LiveTV–A DVR Short of Useful

The big HTPC news this week was that Boxee is adding support for an OTA & cable unencrypted USB TV Tuner.  My first reaction was positive as there really aren’t many DVR options remaining for DVR/HTPC fans these days now that BeyondTV and SageTV are out of the game for new entrants.  But then I realized this was only for liveTV and no DVR support.

Sorry but true DVR functionality is a necessity for my HTPC.  And factor in that you can only use this for over-the-air and unencrypted cable TV.  I want fully-functional DVR and the ability to tune those encrypted cable channels.  Otherwise it’s not enough for 99.9% of my TV use.  Yes this is welcome news because it’s better than no DVR support, but not enough in my opinion.  I’m still hoping for something good coming from GoogleTV and AppleTV.  Otherwise HTPC as we know it will die as Microsoft lets their MediaCenter product whither on the vine.

Read more about the coming Boxee 1.5 Update with LiveTV support at GigaOM

SiliconDust HD Homerun PRIME - Review on MissingRemote

By: Clift

Andy (babgvant) has reviewed the Silicondust HD Homerun PRIME on missingremote.com. He notes that "Its unique capabilities including explicit network support, advanced tuner sharing and excellent form factor position the PRIME for success in the Digital Cable Tuner market."

The PRIME has been made compatible with SageDCT, the link that connects CableCARD tuner devices to SageTV. As a testament to the developer community that continues to support SageTV even after their acquisition by Google earlier this year, Andy sates in his review:

"On the PRIME’s product page SiliconDust explicitly calls out Copy-Freely support for the device in MythTV, but SageTV is understandably not listed because DCTs are not officially supported by the company and unlikely now that it is owned by Google with future development as a standalone product in question. Fortunately, they provide a way for third-parties to enable otherwise unsupported capture devices, so SageDCT was recently updated to recognize and interact with the PRIME, bringing its capabilities to the SageTV platform."

So for those lucky ones with Cable Providers that have copy freely channels, this is another great alternative.

SageTV Poll–Who uses SageTV?

I’m preparing some articles about SageTV and looking for some input to help me decide how much work I should put towards SageTV articles and what my focus should be given the fact that SageTV is no longer available to new users.

So if you’re using SageTV for your Home Theater PC give me a shout in the comments and answer the following questions in your comment:

1. What HTPC software do you use for DVR functions?  SageTV or something else?

2. What HTPC software do you use for Movie playback – non-TV movies?

3. What do you use for music in your home?

4. If you use SageTV do you use the default menu or something else?  Phoenix, Diamond or something else?

 

Thanks in advance for your response!

SageTV App for Boxee Progressing

Boxee is about to get some SageTV goodness.  Since GoogleTV “stole” away the SageTV team to work on their fledgling GoogleTV the SageTV user group – many of whom tend to lean towards the developer-crowd has been trying to find ways to make the most of the situation.  A group of these developers recently started a project to make a SageTV for Boxee app that will at least help the situation.

Sample Logo pictured above was created by Karl Ricker – one of many possible logos to be used in the final app.

I’ve been following the discussion of this project since July 19th when a thread about making a SageTV for Roku app evolved into this Boxee app discussion.  Two of the big issues with Google’s purchase of SageTV – at least for SageTV owners include:

1. No new licenses – You can’t purchase a new license for SageTV.  This means no new users, and no expanding to additional computers beyond what you already have licenses for.  They did offer free upgrades to the latest version of SageTV if you already owned an older version however.

2. No new extenders – SageTV sold their own awesome SageTV extender/media player devices which was one of the appeals of SageTV.  But the moment Google purchased the company, those extenders were no longer for sale.

One of SageTV’s strengths is it’s DVR functionality.  It would just so happen that one of Boxeee’s weaknesses is the inability to “do DVR.”  In just a matter of days, a fairly large number of developers who have worked on various SageTV 3rd party apps have joined together to build a SageTV for Boxee app.  They even have a proof of concept version of this app available to download!  This boxee app should work on both the Boxee computer software version AND the Boxee Box!

The proof of concept already has the standard SageTV UI which bodes well for getting the awesome 3rd party add-ons (Phoenix and Diamond anyone?) on Boxee.  Some video playback works great already, but the Boxee box is more limited in playback capability compared to the SageTV HD300.  Longer-term they plan/hope to get LiveTV working as well.  It’s not as good as seeing SageTV HD300’s go up for sale again, but it’s pretty good news for most of us using SageTV still.  Plus you get the online video awesomeness of Boxee as well.  This is just one example of how devoted and talented the SageTV community is.  I hope Google recognizes this is part of what they were getting when they purchased SageTV – whether they realized it at first or not!

Recordings Screenshot of next update:

Where to find out more:

• GigaOm Story
• SageTV for Boxee Google Group
• Boxee Box as SageTV Extender Thread at SageTV Forums
• SageTV App for Boxee Thread on Boxee Forums

How I See It… From the Non-Geek Geek

Reflections on the Google purchase of SageTV by MrsGeekTonic

In the middle of June Sage TV announced that they had been acquired by Google, and shock was heard round the world. JK! 99.8% of the world has no idea what Sage TV is. The tech world is not quite as big as most enthusiasts would believe. Even amongst the tech world, my guess is that most do not bother with HTPC systems. Therefore, the HTPC “circle” (using Google’s latest word) is fairly small.

Google TV to revolutionize your television????

In May 2010, Google announced they were developing Google TV. In September Apple followed with a similar announcement. Google TV was launched in October to mass hysteria and a run on the partnering devices. Again, just kidding! Google’s own website claims that there are 5 billion TV views in the world, so of course it is only natural that they want to create a product that all 5 billion of those people HAVE to have. Sorry, but GTV is not the internet’s answer to Blu-Ray. Here is what I believe their big mistake was…. They market the product as a way to bring the internet (which they know A LOT about) to your TV (which they obviously know nothing about). They discount the idea that people have TVs to, I don’t know, watch TV?

In November of 2010 a blog (Home System Integration) had an article, “Can Google TV take down a HTPC?”, in which the author ruminates “This unit seems targeted at the general consumer who probably has never considered having a keyboard in the Living Room, let alone performing everyday tasks like checking email or banking from the comfort of their own couch!”

Guess what? I don’t want a keyboard in my living room!

The average TV watcher is struggling with the 3 remotes (minimum) they already have. Not everyone has picked up on the universal remote concept yet. I actually had to buy a coffee table with drawers to house our plethora of remotes. Furthermore, has the author ever heard of the laptop… or iPad? Our family of 3 can watch our favorite show AND compute (our own interests not the person who controls the remote) at the same time. Now, granted the average family doesn’t have a laptop for everyone in the house, but still…. I am also getting older (eyes aren’t what they used to be) and I need my computer screen to be a little closer than the TV. I have a hard enough time reading the “guide” let alone try to type a document from the” comfort of my own couch.” Even the early reviews said “This much is clear: Google TV may be interesting to technophiles, but it’s not for average people” –NYTimes. I contend that it doesn’t really interest technophiles either, because it has a LONG way to go. Add to this most networks have blocked GTV from accessing their content… Sooo basically it is a computer for the living room. GACK!

So how does Google fix its GTV problem without completely throwing out the concept? Well they could have spent time and money developing their own system that will do what the HTPC folks had already accomplished or buy a Linux based system that has some additional perks and devices that they can learn from. Enter Sage. (Oh, and because they are Google they also buy one of the companies that blocked their content – HULU). I don’t know what it was about Sage that they wanted. I am sure many of you have been speculating about that. For all I know, it could be just for the UI, but the reality is it is probably for something that was still in development/negotiations that Sagies haven’t even had access to yet.

 

Here is what I think will happen in the future. (Mind you I know nothing! Remember, I am not even a geek… I am just married to one).

1. Sage will continue as it is for awhile – although no new sales of extenders and licenses will be available
2. Google will integrate the best Sage has into GTV2 (this could take some time so no need to panic yet).
3. Google will then release GTV2 to the mass market.
4. Google will shut Sage down to force you all to buy their product (which will fail because it will not be as intuitive.
5. Google will allow 3^rd parties to write add-ons for GTV. (This is a HOPE more than anything.) They do have 3^rd parties writing “apps” for GTV now… Hopefully, that would be allowed for the TV side of things.

The unfortunate part of this whole buy-out is that the W in WAF, in Google’s world, is not “wife” it is “world”. They will dumb down a pretty good system for the masses. Hopefully, they will not lock it down so that those who know what they are doing can still use it.

My suggestion is that all of you Sagies get on the board and start a thread of the MOST important things Sage has to offer that would have to show up on GTV for you to, even in a million years, consider buying it. You know someone at Google is reading that forum.

So “Can Google take down a HTPC?” The answer is, yes and no. They have taken Sage, but I believe others will pop up as well. Remember, Google’s goal is 5 billion TVs. Enthusiasts will make smarter systems for their own personal use, but buy the new and improved GTV for their mom.

This is a companion article to the Why Did Google Buy SageTV & What it Means for GoogleTV written by MrsGeekTonic.

Why Did Google Buy SageTV?

It’s been three weeks since Google gobbled up the tiny Home Theater PC company, SageTV.  The tech blogs, mainstream media publications and even former competition have weighed in on the acquisition.  Now that the dust has settled it’s time to review what we know.  There are many things about SageTV that might have been appealing to Google.  Google is a company looking to acquire technology where they can inject quick & tested technology for it’s vision of home media.  Read on for my take on the reasons Google acquired SageTV.

 

How Did Google Find SageTV in the First Place?

Before we jump into why Google made this purchase, lets step back and ask a question less often considered – how did Google find out about SageTV?  It might be helpful to understand Google’s recent strategy of buying smaller companies like SageTV.  Here’s a quote from Eric Schmidt in the NYTimes article, Google’s Deal-Making Math:

“Last year, as part of our policy, we agreed to accelerate our rate of acquisition of small companies,” he said. “Because it’s the fastest way to fill out some of these broader strategies.”

SageTV is a company that’s been around since 2002.  Home Theater PC software (HTPC) was relatively new at that point – especially as a commercial business.  There was Snapstream’s BeyondTV started in 2000, SageTV started in 2002 and several other apps available for free at first.  The concept for these HTPC ventures was very similar – make the computer the hub of home media.  For SageTV that meant a more DIY version of TiVo with movie, music and photo playback built-in.  This HTPC technology became popular with the techies and Microsoft jumped in shortly after highlighting BeyondTV software at a CES event.  MediaCenter was born and everyone thought Microsoft would make HTPC’s relevant to all consumers – not just the tech-savvy crowd.  Well that didn’t really happen in the broader sense at least.  Snapstream ended their consumer, BeyondTV & BeyondMedia products to focus on TV search for businesses, Microsoft bundled their product with the OS & spent less & less money developing and marketing the Media Center feature and SageTV prospered as a very small company that focused on the very small niche of HTPC enthusiasts.

It is certainly possible that Google had SageTV on their radar for longer than five months, but I suspect they really became aware and interested in SageTV’s capabilities when Google joined forces with Sony Electronics, TiVo, Best Buy, Mitsubishi Digital Electronics, Nagravision and SageTV in February of 2011.  There have been multiple meetings of these member companies working on the FCC to push AllVid – which they hope will be the replacement for CableCard.  SageTV CTO Jeff Kardatzke was very involved in the AllVid Tech Company Alliance and I suspect that this was the beginning of Google’s awareness of SageTV and it’s capabilities.

Read on for why Google purchased SageTV – And for what this means to GoogleTV

Google Didn’t Purchase SageTV For These Reasons:

There are plenty of reasons why Google was interested in SageTV, but these probably aren’t among them.

• Buy It to Eliminate Competition - There is no way Google was threatened by SageTV.  SageTV didn’t really threaten any other company except perhaps Snapstream which left the consumer business long ago anyway.  SageTV’s market reach while notable for a small company – isn’t even in the same world as Google, Microsoft or Apple.
• CableCard and/or a PlayReady License – Yes, SageTV did purchase a PlayReady license.  Some speculated this was because SageTV wanted CableCard.  While I would have loved to see CableCard as an option for SageTV, I don’t think it was ever a consideration for SageTV to add CableCard tuner capabilities.  AllVid was the next great hope for SageTV and that is where their focus was in terms of getting encrypted content to SageTV (Note: You can already access encrypted content on SageTV via the Hauppauge HD-PVR and Colossus tuning devices, but they both require an external cable box to do so.)
• SageTV Studio – Studio is the application used by 3rd party developers to create customizations and plugins for SageTV – some truly amazing things have been created for SageTV with this product and I imagine GoogleTV users would love to see some of that move under the GoogleTV platform.  This is probably not something Google is interested in though.  I’m told by 3rd party SageTV developers building an app for Android would be much easier than with Studio.

 

What Does Google Want with SageTV?

So what was Google’s motive to purchase the mostly unknown, little company called SageTV?  I think there are many possibilities and I’ll add a few of my own ideas as possibilities.

• DVR Technology – As it stands today, GoogleTV connects to your Cable box and hopefully controls it with an IR blaster.  SageTV brings with it one of the smartest and most powerful recording engines available.  Web video is nice and all, but most of the world still consumes TV from either over the air signals, cable or satellite – which means you need a DVR with one or more tuners built in.  Giving GoogleTV a way to tune and record TV content – even if it’s only the unencrypted content positions them ahead of Apple.  There is a market for a smarter over-the-air DVR device in the U.S. even if they don’t tackle the complicated & messy cable & satellite encryption issues yet.  Google is obviously very interested in AllVid which would give them the non-CableCard entry-point they want for TV tuning.  In the meantime, they have purchased a company that arguably has the most advanced DVR capability on the market today.  Yes, DVR can be complicated – but mostly in the setup of the system.  Setting up a recording, favorite etc is as easy as a google search and clicking “save”.  Sounds google-like if you ask me.

Rakesh Agrawal and GigaOm both argued that it is unlikely that Google would mess with DVR.  I would agree that Apple would not go this route, but I don’t buy the argument that Google wouldn’t.  If Google wasn’t interested in DVR they wouldn’t have any reason to invest time and political capital on the FCC’s adoption of AllVid

• Whole Home Media Network (Server/Client Architecture) – SageTV was designed from the start to serve media from one server doing all the tuning, recording, everything for the entire system.  Record & store your media once, play anywhere with the ability to stop playback on one device and pick up where you left off at another device.  You only have to set up recordings once – and you access those recordings and their underlying settings from all connected devices.  This is where the market is going – just check out U-Verse and others like Time Warner all moving this direction.

• Placeshifting – SageTV placeshifter software can be installed on any laptop or other computer and allows you to view your home media with the same user interface and capabilities over the web – simply extending your media system to anywhere you have an internet connection.  Add to that mobile device control and streaming capability that some speculate the SageTV team was working on and you have something akin to Sling, but more powerful. 
• Set-Top Box Upgrade – SageTV was years ahead of the pack when it comes to media player/extender devices.  Just check out the video reviews of GoogleTV devices and compare their capabilities to the SageTV HD300.  SageTV has a more powerful set top box software they can easily embed into devices – especially since it uses Google-friendly java.  Rakesh Agrawal (CEO of Snapstream a former competitor to SageTV in the consumer HTPC market before they abandoned consumer software for a business-centric TV-Search & record technology) speculated that perhaps Google wanted SageTV to bring over it’s expertise writing STB middleware like their Sigma-based extender/media player reference design for set-top-boxes to provide a cheap reference design for those consumer electronics companies wanting to sell a GoogleTV device.
• Mastering the EPG data – SageTV has made great strides in leveraging the TV-guide data used for TV tuning, recording and searching.  SageTV can pull in season and episode number data for each TV show, screen-shots, fanart, links to data from IMDB and TV.com websites and more.  The SageTV software has the “smarts” for fairly complicated TV search “favorite” settings – much like TiVo and dare I say, much like Google Search.  You can search for all season premieres & finales, series premieres & finales, specials, anything that has the  words “Kansas City” for your specified channels, all shows with a certain actor, producer or director.  The list goes on and on.  And the data is all accessible – something Google might find very useful since their typical end-goal is to drive ads to the user/viewer that are relevant.
• Team Value – Even if Google does nothing with the existing SageTV product they just purchased (which I doubt), Google still obtains some value from the small SageTV team.  In particular Jeff (CTO and co-founder), Jean-Francois (Known as Demo on SageTV Forums) and Quian (Senior Software Engineer known on the forums as Donkey on SageTV forums) have some very valuable knowledge of the Home Media Technology world.

Look over the list above and think about which of those things could Google have easily done on their own?  Placeshifting, acquiring talent (SageTV employees), even the nice handle on EPG data that SageTV has is something Google could do simply and quickly on their own without tossing money at SageTV.

Jeff Kardatzke, the CTO and co-founder of SageTV had this to say two years ago when I interviewed him for GeekTonic.com:

"So by simplifying that part of the process we can sell what essentially are appliances for home entertainment, this would enable us to expand the market from something that is currently relegated to those willing to take on the setup of a full-blown Home Theater PC to someone who needs more of a powerful plug-in-and-go system.  We want to help make HTPC and whole home entertainment setup as easy as a DVD Player."

Except for the impressive SageTV extender/mediaplayers, Jeff was never able to make this “HTPC as easy as a DVD Player” happen while at SageTV.  But his vision does make a lot of sense when you talk about a souped-up GoogleTV.   I see the TV/DVR Recording engine, transcoding on-the-fly capability along with the client/server architecture that SageTV is built on as the strongest assets that Google could use in a GoogleTV platform.  Yes, as Rakesh from Snasptream argued, Google IS all about storing your stuff in the “cloud”, but they are also pretty good at taking a step back after failure (GoogleTV, Wave, etc) and revising what they do for the next version and I see them adding actual TV Tuning to the mix.  When you do a search on your GoogleTV device you’ll be searching for content on the web and on your home hard drive seamlessly.  Google will simplify things (read: it won’t be nearly as customizable as SageTV is/was) and it will be end-user friendly.

 The Google vision will be: Search all media from the cloud and your home, watch that media on any Google device, share that viewing experience with your friends via Google+ and Google wins by learning more about their customers so they can offer similar media, relevant advertisements and products we might like.

Google is in this game to win and the competition will be Apple and possibly Microsoft.  Don’t listen to Steve Jobs saying AppleTV is a hobby – long-term all of these companies are serious about home media tech.  Yes, it’s possible this was a purchase that will cause the SageTV technology to whither away and die forever.  But my bet is on something much improved for GoogleTV.  It’s my opinion that this purchase can only be good news for GoogleTV fans.  Unfortunately it’s bad news for those of us who have relied on SageTV & become used to frequent updates and new features is this:  While those of us that already own a SageTV HTPC setup, SageTV as a brand is gone forever.  Best of luck to the new Google team members.

  Related Articles:

• What’s Next for SageTV Customers?
• SageTV Offers Free Upgrade to Existing Customers

What’s Next for SageTV Customers Post-Google?

 

Since receiving word of Google’s acquisition of leading MediaPC company, SageTV this past Saturday fear and speculation has been the norm for the existing SageTV user base.  Saturday I reached out to SageTV and Google representatives to gather as much information as possible.  Keep in mind the transaction very likely had just been finalized so it takes some time to sort through all of the details including sales of existing products, supporting existing users etc. etc. 

Today I received some answers for many of my questions – most of these are focused on what happens next for SageTV users.  We won’t be receiving any official information on Google’s plans with the future of SageTV + Google for now, although I plan to share my thoughts on that soon as well.

Note:  In the responses below, “we” typically means “SageTV/Google” since they are now one and the same company.

Answers from Google/SageTV are in bold below:

EPG Data

If you already use SageTV and rely on it for your TV recording and viewing needs, the first thing you want to know is what happens to the Electronic Programming Guide (EPG) data that is used for seeing what shows are scheduled on your TV – it’s an essential part of your DVR. 

SageTV’s EPG data will continue to remain active for at least one year.

Existing SageTV Keys & SageTV Beta Status

The most recent version of SageTV was in a public beta so I asked what happens to that beta?

The beta versions do not expire. SageTV/Google does not currently have plans relating to posting a final release of V7.1; the current release candidate is of 'release' quality based on SageTV’s prior standards. 

 

Existing, Purchased SageTV Product Keys

Purchased keys from SageTV products will continue to be valid. There is no time limit on them.

 

SageTV Software as we know it – Is There a Future?

I asked the obvious question, Will the software & hardware we know as SageTV exist in any form post acquisition?  The answer, as expected is “we cannot comment at this time.”

That isn’t as good as “yes”, but it’s better than a flat out no.  I’m not surprised to get the no comment answer on that one for now.  We’ll have to see what happens at Google Labs and/or GoogleTV – could be a while.

 

SageTV Forums & Downloads

I asked what would happen to the existing SageTV forums & downloads currently hosted by SageTV?  Will users continue to have access to these resources important to the SageTV software? 

Yes, the forums will remain open and we plan to make current version downloads available to current customers.  Plans are to continue making the 3rd Party plug-in downloads available as well.

SageTV HD300 (Extender/Player) Warranty/Service

I asked if the warranty for those who recently purchased SageTV HD300’s will be honored.

Google will be honoring the 1 year warranty policy on the HD300.

Will HD300’s Be Available for Purchase?

Many SageTV users have been wanting to purchase another HD300, but the SageTV store has been closed since the acquisition.  So I asked if they had plans to sell any of the existing HD300 stock or perhaps even sell new ones.

Unfortunately the answer here was “we can't comment at this time.” 

Google Beta Testing?

I threw this one in hoping to get a “feel” for the SageTV/Google future:  “Does Google need an awesome group of beta testers (aka SageTV beta group)?  I many SageTV users would love to contribute.

Yes, Google will be interested in beta testers in the future. We will inform the community of any related opportunities.

Role for SageTV 3rd Party Developers?

I asked if there was any chance the existing group of 3rd party developers most of which worked on these projects for "fun" could contribute towards similar 3rd party add-ons with Google's future GoogleTV?

No comment related to Google TV. But we do want the developer community to remain alive and strong. They've been an integral part of SageTV's success and we value them greatly, as does Google.

Software-Only GoogleTV/SageTV Future?

I threw out this one as a long-shot:  Does Google plan to provide any software-only installation of GoogleTV/SageTV in the future like SageTV allows for today?

The answer was as expected:  “We can't comment at this time.”

GoogleTV DVR Capability?

Another long-shot question from me:  Any hope for DVR capability in GoogleTV with this acquisition?  That was one of SageTV's strengths over the competition.

The answer again was as expected:  “We can't comment at this time.”

There you have it – existing SageTV will still have SageTV available to us along with the EPG data, downloads, 3rd party plug-ins etc at least for the next year.  Forums will continue to be hosted and maintained as well.  Beyond that though we just don’t know.  I saw no indication or even hope of new licenses or hardware being available making it difficult if you need to upgrade your HTPC system with an additional TV for instance.

As far as what Google plans to do with SageTV I think there are some things we can read from the above.  I get the feeling they really do plan on doing something with the SageTV assets directly with the next iteration of Google TV.  Does that mean DVR capability, placeshifting of some kind or something else?  We don’t know yet – I have my thoughts/educated guesses and will share it with you soon.  I don’t think much of the tech media really understands this acquisition yet – but they will soon.

Thanks to both the SageTV team and Google for responding to these questions!

SageTV Acquired By Google

Updated with an Official (but short) Statement from Google:

Huge news for niche Home Theater PC company, SageTV today as the CTO and founder of SageTV announced that the SageTV company was acquired by Google.

No this is definitely not a joke.  Jeffrey Kardatzke, CTO and founder of SageTV, LLC announced today on the company forums that Google acquired their company.  Here’s the announcement from SageTV:

We are thrilled to announce that SageTV has been acquired by Google.
Since 2002, we’ve worked to change the TV viewing experience by building cutting-edge software and technology that allows you to create and control your media center from multiple devices. And as the media landscape continues to evolve, we think its time our vision of entertainment management grows as well. By teaming up with Google, we believe our ideas will reach an even larger audience of users worldwide on many different products, platforms and services.

We’ve seen how Google's developer efforts are designed to stimulate innovation across the web, and as developers have played a core role in the success of SageTV, we think our shared vision for open technology will help us advance the online entertainment experience. We look forward to joining Google, and while we don't have anything specific to announce at this time, we encourage interested developers to email sagetv-dev@google.com.
Full speed ahead!
The SageTV team

Jeffrey Kardatzke, CTO & Founder of SageTV, LLC

I’m very happy for Jeff at SageTV, but this in my eyes is a very bad thing for SageTV users.  I hope I”m wrong about this but I remember the Meedios days when Yahoo purchased them.  I’ll definitely have much more on this topic very, very soon.  In the meantime, you’ll notice the SageTV website has absolutely nothing for us other than the official statement.  The store is down as well which to me is a sign of the end of SageTV as we know it – sigh…  Or… perhaps the HD300 or something like it is the new Google TV.  We’ll just have to see what Google does with things and hope they don’t pull a Yahoo (Yahoo purchased Meedio and essentially destroyed the potential that was there).

Updated with an Official (but short) Statement from Google:

“The SageTV team has developed the latest in media management software, and we look forward to working with them to take this technology to the next level.”

Quick gut reaction from me based on the above statement from Google is this:  I see this as a small, but positive sign that Google plans to at least use some of the good stuff (technology) SageTV excelled at.  But I also think we’ll never see another SageTV update going forward outside of some GoogleTV device.  I’m in the process of asking additional questions to GoogleTV since Jeff is not able to discuss at this time.  Let me know any questions you have in the commets and I’ll see what I can find out.

SageTV 7.1 Release Candidate Arrives

While I was away, SageTV released another update to their SageTV HTPC software, SageTV V7.1.8 and just this week the 7.1.9 Release Candidate.

7.1.8 included several bug fixes and a few new features including:

• New Security API for dealing with security profiles and permissions
• Change the storage of title/episode information for imported Video, Picture, DVD and BluRay Content so the show title field now holds the actual title instead of the relative path plus title.

 

7.1.9 brings the first “release candidate” which means we are very close to 7.1 being released from beta. 

• One significant update in this version is the option to edit the title, episode and description for imported videos.

Additional details of all updates and the download link can be found at the SageTV forums

SageTV HD Theater 200 External IR Mod (Part 2)

By: Clift

Okay this post a little later than I thought it would be. But better late than never, right? Sorry for the delay.

Read Part 1 of this how-to here

Last time we were talking about the mod instead of doing the modding. This part will focus on the actual mod, with lots of pictures to help along the way. When we're done, what we'll end up with a stock looking IR jack.

So, again, here's the list of parts you'll need (slightly modified from part 1):

• IR receiver (I used a Hauppauge one)
• 3/32" stereo Jack (radio shack part number 274-0245)
• 3 pieces (about 6" each) of 20-22 gauge wire (optionally different colors)
• solder
• Electrical Tape

This is the tools list:

• Hand held drill, with 5/32" drill bit
• Number 1 philips screwdriver
• anti-static wrist strap
• Soldering iron
• Wire stripper/cutter
• pen/pencil and paper to take notes

The first step is to get everything you'll need within arms reach. Then you'll want to start warming up the soldering iron. Begin the mod by disassembling the HD 200. There are two screws on the bottom and one in the back:

Once you've got those off, just slide the upper portion of the casing off. Now you will be looking at the HD200 internals. You may want to ground yourself at this point if you haven't done so already. Remove the four screws holding the main board to the casing:

This is what the IR receiver looks like (The connections we will tap are on the underside of the board):

!! WARNING: Warranty Voiding Point of No Return !!

So now you have to solder the 3 leads to the board underside. We'll call them pin 1, pin 2, and pin 3, as shown below (important: click on the picture to enlarge):

I electrical taped over the solder points, just to be sure that may soldering skills didn't leave too much of a bead that would ground anything out.

Screw the main board back into the HD 200. Take the stereo panel jack and attach the other end of the leads to it, but do not solder. Make sure everything is in the correct order.

At this point it's a good idea to connect the external IR receiver to the jack, put some electrical tape over the HD 200 IR sensor, plug in the HD 200 and check to make sure the unit will power on with a remote control command directed at the external IR receiver. Make sure you have the built in IR sensor covered and turned away to avoid any false positives. If everything works, then it's time to move on to the next steps. If not, troubleshoot what you may have done wrong: check the solder points, connections, and wire order.

Okay, now we have to remove the four screws holding the main board and remove it again. Set it in a safe place. On the back of the HD 200 casing, measure approximately one quarter inch from the top of ethernet jack. Drill a 5/32" hole as shown:

(disclaimer: this hole is 1/4". I used a 1/8" panel jack and IR receiver jack instead of 3/32").

The next step is to solder the wires to the panel jack, if everything checked out okay during the test. After that's done, unscrew the retainer ring from the panel jack as shown in the next picture, insert through the hole in the back of the HD 200 casing, and screw the retainer ring to hold the panel jack in place.

Screw the main board back into the casing, and test the IR receiver again, to make sure everything works. If it does, then put the casing back together and screw everything together. Clean up, and you're done. Now it's time to congratulate yourself and figure out where you will relocated the HD 200 to if you haven't already. Here's a video demo:

See this thread on the SageTV forums if you have issues.

Ceton InfiniTV4 Price Drops All Around

By: Clift

From Missing Remote, Ceton InfiniTV4 prices are dropping all across the web. The InfiniTV4 retailed just recently for $399. But now, the internal Multi-Stream CableCARD four tuner PCIe card can be found for around $250-$285. Here are the prices around:

• eBay (seller bid$buy) - $282
• Amazon (seller ANTOnline) - $265
• Buy.com - $285
• Erwin Computers - $256

Now might not be a bad time if you're a Windows 7 Media Center user with Cable, or if you're a SageTV user with a cable provider that only flags premium channels with "copy once" or "copy never."

SageTV HD Theater 200 External IR Mod (Part 1)

By: Clift

One of the advantages of SageTV’s latest versatile HD extender, the STP-HD300 over the previous model, the STP-HD200, is the ability to remotely locate the small device and use an external IR receiver. This feature was often cited as a major oversight by some on the HD200. The HD200 is a small device that is just begging to be remotely located. As part of this two part series, I will show how to easily modify the HD200 to add your choice of an IR receiver (within reason). Before we get started it is important to realize that this is a hardware mod that will void your warranty. If, however, you are the owner of an HD200

that is already out of warranty and are still reading, then you’ll want to stay tuned and give this mod a try. That is, provided you feel comfortable modding your darling HD extender and the risks that go along with doing that.

In this first part we will explore some pre-requisite details before performing the mod. In part 2 the execution details and modification steps will be provided. It’s important to know that I have performed this mod on my HD200, so I know it can be done, and that it works. But like all things, your mileage may vary.

Since this is the pre-requisite part of the mod, let’s talk about what we’re going to do, and what we’re not going to do. For one, we’re not going to irreversibly modify the HD200. By that I mean that it will be possible to return to mostly stock. We’re going to open the HD200, solder a lead to the IR receiver trace on the main-board, drill a hole in the back of the HD200 casing, solder the lead to a panel mount stereo audio jack, and finally, install the stereo audio jack.

Tools
To pull this off you’re going to need the following tools:
-A soldering iron. Any basic one will do
-Solder, obviously
-Small Philips screw driver

Parts

You’re also going to need the following parts:

-five to six inches of 3 lead wire. Either purchase something thin with little resistance, or “borrow” some from your stash of computer stuff (and don’t pretend you don’t have a stash…. We all do).
-A panel mount audio jack (search Google, or hit up your local Radio Shack, part number: 274-249).
-An IR Receiver cable. One of the ones you have lying around from that old tuner card you have. It’s probably in your secret stash. Or, you could buy one from the SageTV store – the one they sell for the HD300, ironically.
-(Optional) Some electrical tape. While you’re in there you can FINALLY gag that network activity LED indicator from the inside!

In part 2 of this modification, we’re going to step by step walk through the process of installing. Stay tuned...

Update:  Part Two is Published - check it out!

SiliconDust HDHomerun Prime Gets Cable Labs Certification

By: Clift

According to this post on Engadget, and verified by SiliconDust and CableLabs, the SiliconDust HDHomerun Prime CableCARD tuner has passed CableLabs certification as of May 1st, 2011. What does this mean? Well for one we should see the HDHomerun Prime available for pre-order soon. Secondly, this means that there are now two Cable Labs certified Multi-Stream OCUR (OpenCable Unidirectional Receiver) devices available for HTPC enthusiasts. Unlike the Ceton InifitiTV 4 that can receive 4 streams from one Multi-Stream CableCARD, the HDHomerun Prime can only receive 3 streams from one Multi-Stream CableCARD. Like the Ceton InfiniTV4, however, the HDHomerun Prime will mostly benefit users of Microsoft Windows 7 Media Center, but ther HTPC programs such as SageTV can use M-OCUR devices DRM free as long as programs are flagged as "Copy Freely." Another advantage to the HDHomerun Prime is that it is a networked device like all other HDHomeruns before it.

SageTV can currently access the InfiniTV 4 tuner using a plug in by Andy VT (author of DVRMS Toolbox) called SageDCT.

New SageTV Beta 7.1.7 Bug Fix Edition

Another new SageTV public beta arrived today with a handful of bug fixes and some small updated features as well.

Updates in this one (7.1.7) include:

• Fixed bug where information on which files are being progressively deleted did not retain itself properly after deletion of one of the files in the queue was done. This only manifested itself as a problem if SageTV was restarted while the queue was in that state.
• Fixed a few erroneous system messages
• Fixed bug when watching live TV and a show comes on that requires the parental control code; if the code is entered incorrectly it just repeatedly prompts you for the code.
• Regression fix on the extender for breaking smooth ff/rew on extenders. (rew didn't work properly and ff would end up using the wrong timestamps for the seek when it stopped)
• Fixed bug where very large images (test case was a 100Megapixel image) in a slideshow could cause memory errors on the server in some cases.
• Bug fix for HDHR in Australia
• Fixed GUIDs for DTS and DTS-MA audio formats.
• Miscellaneous Linux Updates
• New feature for Music Browser: can sort Album view by album title or album artist; can sort Folder view by filename or file date.
• New feature Video Browser: can sort Folder view by filename or file date; can sort videos by title, title+date, date, or duration; can sort DVDs/BDs by title, title+date, or date.

There are many additional updates detailed at the SageTV Forums

Since I didn’t mention the last few beta versions here at GeekTonic I should note a few of the more important ones:

• Channel Logos are now provided by SageTV and display on the guide and other menus
• Guide data enhancements:
• Season & Episode numbers
• Improved detection of ‘unique’ airings
• 2+levels of categories
• additional flags for shows including Live, Dolby5.1, Letterbox, etc.
• Images for movies in the guide data – basically fanart
• Added support for Anysee E7 and E30 series tuners
• Added support for DigitalNow Quad DVB-T

 

There were many more enhancements over the past few months so check all of them out at the SageTV forums