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 7 The Getting Started Guide – Part 2

If you’re wanting to get your feet wet and give SageTV a try this is your guide.  I’ll take you step-by-step through the installation and basic setup of SageTV along with many screen-shots as possible.  This will be a multi-part article with the first part starting with the basic installation of SageTV 7 which was just released from Beta last week.
Earlier this week in Part 1 of SageTV the Getting Started Guide we covered what SageTV is, the basics of what it can do with extenders and multiple HTPCs, why choose a HTPC and the first steps of installation.
The last step we covered in Part one was adding the recording directory (or directories if you have more than one) where the TV will be recorded to.  I should note that I currently use two drives for recording TV.  You can set your disk space usage rules as “use only, use all, leave free” along with the specified amount of Gigabytes. 
Notice on the first drive below I’m limiting recording space to 250GB for now, but the second drive can be filled up with recordings.  Like most things with SageTV this is up to you.  SageTV will record to both drives and by default balance between the two when possible to optimize disk read/right activity as well as available space between multiple drives.

SageTV Basics - How To Install Hauppauge HD-PVR with SageTV

Want to record any channel from your Cable or Satellite TV provider?  Better yet, want to be able to detect commercials on those recordings and control how you use & store those recordings?  Well the Hauppauge HD-PVR is your device.  The HD-PVR from Hauppauge records directly from the component out port of any device and uses the “analog hole” to bypass any restrictions put on the content by the provider.  SageTV has the best (read most reliable) solution for using the HD-PVR and today I’ll show you how to install and set up the Hauppauge HD-PVR for use with SageTV’s HTPC software.
Hauppauge describes the HD-PVR this way:

HD PVR is the world’s first High Definition video recorder for making real-time H.264 compressed recordings at resolutions up to 1080i.  HD-PVR records component video (YCrCb) from video game consoles and cable TV and satellite set top boxes, with a built-in IR blaster to automatically change TV channels for scheduled recordings. Audio is recorded using two channel stereo or optical audio with five channel Dolby Digital.

If you’re using the HD-PVR for recording TV content to SageTV you’ll need either a Cable box or a Satellite box with a component video output and preferably an optical output for audio.  Added bonus if your cable/satellite box has an active firewire port because if it does I’ll show you how to connect your cable box to your HTPC to change channels more quickly and accurately than using an IR Blaster.

Read on for the complete how-to on setting up the HD-PVR with SageTV

SageTV 7 The Getting Started Guide – Part 1

If you’re wanting to get your feet wet and give SageTV a try this is your guide.  I’ll take you step-by-step through the installation and basic setup of SageTV along with many screen-shots as possible.  This will be a multi-part article with the first part starting with the basic installation of SageTV 7 which was just released from Beta last week.

My goal in the multi-part series is to provide those curious about SageTV all of the basics they need to get started, learn more about what makes SageTV different, what SageTV can do and finally a review of SageTV 7.
SageTV 7 - The Getting Started Guide:
SageTV 7 The Getting Started Guide - Part 1
SageTV 7 The Getting Started Guide – Part 2
SageTV 7 The How to Install Hauppauge HD-PVR with SageTV
List of all SageTV 7 Plugins
Setting up SageTV 7 Commercial Skipping

Before we get started though lets go through some basics:

What is SageTV?

SageTV is a Home Theater PC (HTPC) software that performs DVR functions (recording TV, time-shifting TV), playback of movies (DVDs, Blu-rays, ripped movies on hard drive etc), music, photos and more.  SageTV works with Windows, Windows Home Server, Linux and Mac (V6 only). 

Want to Avoid a Big, Noisy Computer in Living Room?  Extenders are for You!

Want a small, silent box (extender) instead of a computer in your living room?  SageTV offers an excellent extender for just that purpose.  But to use it as a full-fledged TV recording HTPC, you’ll need at least one computer with SageTV installed.  This computer will be your HTPC server.

Computers can be Extenders Too

Want to use multiple computers in the house like an extender?  You can do that with SageTV.  You’ll still have one HTPC server, but can then have as many additional HTPCs in the house that work just like extenders (softsled for those of you who followed MediaCenter a few years ago).  These additional HTPCs will use SageTV Client.

Why HTPC instead of TiVo or Cable DVR?

Well I could devote an entire article to this topic.  But the big reasons to use an HTPC over the cable box and/or TiVo are as follows:

• Complete control over your content.  You record it, save it as long as you like, convert it for playback on your mobile device etc.  You can even stream your media to your iPad/iPod/iPhone!
• Commercial Skip.  With a simple installation of a 3rd party commercial skip program your HTPC can detect commercials and you can skip them with a click of a button or even automatically.
• Expandable.  Want to watch 1 show and record 5 or more at the same time?  You can do it with the right number of tuners in your HTPC server.  Want to save a seasons worth of your favorite shows and watch them in the summer when you have more time?  It’s up to you on how big and how many hard drives you include on your HTPC.  Bottom line is you can expand your HTPC as you want.
• Evolve as new features come along.  You won’t have to wait for your cable company to come out of the stone ages – your HTPC gets new features all the time with new updates.  Online streaming of content, Picasa plugins and much more is available to you with an HTPC.

Read On for the Full SageTV Installation Walk-Through

How To Set Up SageTV 7 – SageTV Basics

Our friend Andy (known as Babgvant to many) has just posted a very, very detailed guide to setting up SageTV 7 at MissingRemote.  It goes into so much detail it seems a bit overwhelming but much of that is because of the hundreds of screen-shots he included of the setup process.

I should note that several of the steps he included are good to do when you’ll be using SageTV on your HTPC, but you can skip a bunch of them if you’re just going to use an extender (HD200 or HD300) for playback.  For the newbies and those wanting to give SageTV a spin this is a great guide to check out.

Guide: Installing SageTV V7 at MissingRemote

 

Another excellent “Getting started with SageTV Guide” can be found at Destiny’s Darlin’

Join GeekTonic on the SageTVCentric er HTPCentric Podcast

This month I joined Adam and Jere on my favorite HTPC podcast – HTPCentric.  We covered the ins and outs of SageTV (yes the good AND the bad) and discuss what’s new and coming for one of the most popular HTPC software programs – SageTV.

If we missed anything you wanted us to cover let me know in the comments.

HTPCentric Podcast – SageTV

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.

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.

Commercial Skipping The Easy Way – SageTV Commercial Detector

One of the big advantages of using Home theater PC’s (HTPC’s) as a DVR over your cable box DVR or even TiVo is commercial skipping.  Matter of fact, the first HTPC feature I shows guests is commercial skipping.  As a commercial begins on any TV show we’re watching time-delayed, we can simply hit the right-arrow button to skip to the end of that commercial.  It makes TV viewing so much better.

The problem is with most HTPC programs installing and setting up commercial skipping is less than easy and often requires multiple programs, time, and some techy know-how.  I’ve just experienced the 2nd easiest commercial skipping installation ever!  (BeyondTV is the easiest by far since commercial skipping is built in – unfortunately BeyondTV is a dead software PVR product.)

Let me introduce you to a dead-simple SageTV 7 plugin that allows you to install all commercial skipping and detecting software and set up that software in a few simple steps – all from the user interface.  CommercialDetector is the plugin that makes all of this possible.

About CommercialDetector

CommercialDetector is a SageTV7 plugin that automatically launches Comskip or ShowAnalyzer after a show has recorded or optionally while the show is recording. CommercialDetector produces the “.edl” files that can be read by the Comskip Playback plugin (also available in the UI Mod section of the plugin manager.)

The CommercialDetector plugin automatically installs Comskip (free version) for you when you install it through the SageTV Plugin Manager.  It replaces the more complex (and more sophisticated) programs such as SageJobQueue, DirMon2 and DVRMSToolbox for commercial detection.  The goal for CommercialDetector was to integrate tightly with SageTV, focus on commercial detection, configure & maintain easily within the SageTV UI.

Installation for Windows on the SageTV Server is very simple

1. Go to Plugin Manager and install the CommercialDetector (Setup>SageTV Plugins>All Available Plugins>General>”Commercial Detector”
2. In the Plugin Manager, Select and Install the “CommercialDetector UI” [Setup>SageTV Plugins>All Available Plugins>UI Mod>”Commercial Detector UI”]

That’s it for the installation – two steps all from the SageTV User Interface!

Tweaking & Configuring the Commercial Detector Settings

To Configure how CommercialDetector works by adjusting the settings in Setup>SageTV Plugins>Installed Plugins>CommercialDetector

Here you will find the following configurable settings right in the SageTV UI:

• Set number of commercial detecting jobs to run at once (I set this to 3 since I have a quad-core.
• Location of comskip.exe & comskip.ini programs (this can be left alone unless you install comskip somewhere other than the default location
• Modify comskip speed (to free up your CPU & disk as needed)
• Other comskip parameters
• Cleanup – Comskip tends to leave a mess of text, log and other files behind so you can use this setting to tell it what to remove once the commercial detecting process takes place
• Configure which channels to comskip or not – You may not want to use up CPU to commercial detect HBO for instance.
• Begin commercial detection when recording begins (instead of default-after recording complete)  So you can get your commercial detection marked even on liveTV.

There are many, many additional settings available including debug settings, ShowAnalyzer settings etc.  But the bottom line is this – you don’t HAVE to set up anything if you don’t want to.  It just works!  Hats off to the developer of this great plugin – tmiranda.

For more information about setup and settings, head to the Commercial Detector Plugin Wiki

The SageTV Forum Thread is the place to go to discuss and keep updated on new versions of Commercial Detector

Related Articles:

Manage Commercial Skip & Transcoding with Sage Job Queue

Commercial Skipping With SageTV – Comskip and Dirmon2

SageTV with Comskip and Comskip Monitor

Windows 7 Commercial Skipping – with DVRMSToolbox & ShowAnalyzer

Guide to ShowAnalyzer Commercial Skipping Settings

SageTV Basics – Custom Themes

Since SageTV 7 was released to beta this year there have been several custom themes created to change the look of your SageTV user interface.  Today we’ll take a look at each of the currently available themes and run through the basic steps for installing custom themes.

Themes versus UI Replacements

Before we get started I wanted to review the difference between a custom theme and a full UI replacement:

Full UI Replacement and/or Add-on = Thes not only change the backgrounds and icons, but also change the way the user interface works and even modifies the layout.  We’ll take a look at these in a future article.

Custom Theme = A theme changes to appearance of the user interface.  This can involve different backgrounds, different fonts, icons etc.  The menus still work the same way and the layout remains the same.  This is our focus today.

 

Themes Available to SageTV 7 Today:

In this article I’ll only show a few screen-shots to give you an idea of the theme.  I’ll do a more in-depth look at each theme individually with screen-shot and demo videos in a later article.

Standard SageTV 7 Theme

This isn’t really a custom theme.  It’s the theme that comes bundled with SageTV7 and is what you see when you install SageTV 7.  Keep in mind though that the standard UI could change a bit in SageTV 7 once it is released from beta.

 

Serenity

This theme is my favorite of the bunch and the one I use most of the time.  The backgrounds are easy on the eyes, the highlight showing the focus of the menu is a bolder orange that makes it easy to see where you are in the guide or menu (a feature MrsGeekTonic really likes).

Serenity Theme Forum Thread

 

Opaque Panel Theme

This theme basically takes the standard SageTV theme and makes the panel backgrounds opaque.  Not a big difference, but some users found the new semi-transparent panel backgrounds hard on the eyes so this plugin was developed to address those requests.

Opaque Panel Theme Forum Thread

 

MBDiamond

MBDiamond Theme Forum Thread

 

BlueTwo Grey

This one was just added to SageTV 7 this week and will be familiar to many long-time HTPC users.  BlueTwo has been around older versions of SageTV, XBMC, Media Portal and others.  This is a version updated for SageTV 7.

BlueTwo Grey Theme Forum Thread

 

Plucky’s Theme

This theme goes along with Plucky's Menu Mod plugin (more than just a theme) which does the following:

1. Modifies the main menu to a horizontal orientation
2. Adds the ability to remove items from the main menu which you do not use.
3. Adds the ability to rename any main menu items to a name of your liking.
4. The bar can be moved to the top,middle or bottom of the screen.

Here’s a video showing it in action:

Plucky’s Menu Mod Plugin & Theme Thread

 

How to Install New Theme:

The steps to download & install a new theme are fairly easy.

1. Go to the Setup>SageTV Plugins>All Available Plugins> page

2. Select “Theme” from the Plugins menu

3. All available themes will be listed like you see in the screen-shot below.

When you select any of the available themes, you’ll have the option to view plugin details including version history and you can also view any screenshots the plugin developer provided – right from the UI.

4. Select the theme you want to install by pressing the enter key on your remote control.  It will download from the SageTV.com server & then ask you if you want to load the new theme – select yes if you want the theme to load and replace the theme you have been using.

5. The status bar will indicate that the new theme is loading

6. Once the new theme is installed (should take a less than a minute) you’ll see the changes to the background, icons etc.

That’s it.  Pretty easy!

How to Change The Theme After Installing

Lets say you have several themes installed already in SageTV and you want to switch to a different installed theme.  Here’s how you do this:

1.  From the SageTV Main Menu go to Setup>Detailed Setup>Advanced>Select the User Interface Theme>

2.  You’ll see a screen like the one below:

3. Select the theme from the list (this will only show themes you’ve downloaded & installed from the Plugin Menu.

That’s it.  Again pretty simple.

Uninstalling or Updating a Theme

If you want to upgrade a theme that has been updated or uninstall a theme, head back to the Plugin Menu at: Setup>SageTV Plugins>Installed Plugins> page.  Here you can update or uninstall any of your themes.