Pandora Radio Plugin for SageTV

While the throngs of iPhone and iTouch users were trying out the new Pandora Radio, one of the most popular free iPhone application releases, I was testing out a new Pandora Radio Application on my SageTV Home Theater PC.  Pandora radio is one of the more popular internet radio applications that is a perfect match for the HTPC and is a very welcome addition to my Home Theater PC abilities.

PANDORA WHO?

Pandora has a database of more than 600,000 songs each marked with musical characteristics that helps Pandora personalize a station/playlist based on songs you like or dislike.  The Pandora web app is one of my favorites and the iPhone and now SageTV applications that work with Pandora extend that excellent internet radio interface to the media players that get a lot of use in this house.

PANDORA RADIO PLUGIN FOR SAGETV

The new SageTV, Pandora Plugin was developed by Craig (known as cncb on the SageTV forums)

The plugin allows users to extend their personalized radio stations from their Pandora username onto their SageTV HTPC.  Select a station to listen to and as you're listening to a song you can give it a thumbs up or a thumbs down to help “teach” the station your preferences.  Songs you don’t want to hear can be skipped without giving them the thumbs down just like in the Pandora web application.  It’s a fairly simple interface, but very easy to use and extremely functional. 

SCREEN-CAST

I did a quick, one-minute walk-through to give you a feel for the interface:

One quick note about the plugin.  In it’s current form, you cannot use it on an extender without a hack (more on that in the forum thread below).

For more about the plugin, check out the following links:

SageTV Pandora Plugin Forum Thread

SageTV Pandora Plugin Download

Microsoft Fiji Release Has Been Released

Update 3:  It's been confirmed link.  Windows Media Center TV Pack aka Fiji has been released, but only to OEM's as of last night, 7/16/2008

UPDATE 2:

And then an observant GreenButton member noticed that the Microsoft Help & Support page “outed” the Windows Media Center TV Pack 2008 in one if it’s help documents by saying this:

 

So Windows Media Center TV Pack already exists as of July 16th and it also looks like it’s available only to OEMs right now and possibly never available to non-OEM's.  It's also been rumored that the install requires a complete re-install - not just an update.

You can read the MS Help Document this screen-shot was taken from here

 

The original post follows:

Rumblings are spreading that the Microsoft Fiji beta is NEARLY complete and is being released (at least for non-US OEM's).  Microsoft Fiji is the codename for the next iteration of Microsoft Media Center and is being released as “Windows Media Center TV Pack 2008.  Here’s a screen-shot of an e-mail reportedly received by a beta tester:

 

Whether this supposed e-mail is true or not is in question as the beta testers for Fiji are still under a NDA.  Still, the big question is what will be included in this long-awaited release.  There has been much unrest among the Microsoft Media Center users (see Chris Lanier's Post and EngadgetHD's Post) that some of their most-anticipated features will not be included when Fiji is finally released. 

Here’s a rundown of the features and the “consensus” on what will and what will not be included:

• H.264 Support (and therefore DirecTV tuner support) – NOT included
• HD-PVR support (also related to the fact H.264 support is missing) - NOT included
• 16x9 thumbnails - Included
• Native QAM support- Included (this will be a popular new feature)
• OTA Channels flexible numbering- Included (another popular new feature)
• DVR-MS replaced with WTV- Included  (not sure if this is really a good thing)
• HD recording preferences- Included
• Favorite Channels Listing (in EPG)- Included
• Non-US tuner support- Included (this includes DVB-S (not S2) for several countries including Australia)
• Teletext support (non-US)- Included

Another tidbit about this release is that it is OEM only which makes it much more difficult to obtain.

Note that these feature inclusions/exclusions are not yet confirmed

The e-mail mentioned above came from a user on the Australian XPMediaCentre.com.au site and is not confirmed so take it with a grain of salt.  More talk (read speculation) on the topic can be found in that forum thread as well as this GreenButton Forum Thread.  Time will tell whether the reported release is really here and which features end up included – and I'll report/confirm those facts as soon as that information is confirmed further.

The lack of H.264 and therefore the lack of DirecTV tuner support and Hauppauge HD-PVR support would be a major blow to Vista Media Center users hoping to go beyond CableCard as their only source for accessing all encrypted TV channels.  If H.264 support is in fact missing from this release it would likely not arrive until Windows 7 which could take as long as 2010 to arrive.  Add to that the growing fear that this release is and will be an OEM-only release and the firestorm Microsoft has created will take a long time for Media Center enthusiasts to get over.

Hauppauge HD-PVR Review at ExtremeTech

For those of you looking for a review of the Hauppauge HD-PVR (my first take on the device is here) and too impatient to wait for the review that I have 90% complete, check out ExtremeTech’s complete review of the component video recorder. 

I will let you read it as is with one note:  The author of the ExtremeTech review only used the software included with the HD-PVR.  This is okay for some purposes, but if you’re planning to use the HD-PVR with an HTPC you REALLY need to use it with SageTV (working well with HD-PVR) or BeyondTV (in beta although not officially supported yet).  I’m using my HD-PVR with SageTV and love it.  I think if the reviewer had done this he would have had a better impression of the device.

The reviewer really focused on the ability to convert the output from the HD-PVR to use on iPod or PSP which is difficult with h.264 files.  I consider the HD-PVR an viable alternative to the CableCard technology used in Microsoft Vista Media Centers and judge it as such.  I’ll get into that more when I release my complete review of the Hauppauge HD-PVR.

Read the ExtremeTech HD-PVR review

SageTV 6.4.5 Public Beta Released

SageTV, a leading HTPC software company released a new public beta of their flagship HTPC front-end software, SageTV today.  The folks at SageTV have been pumping out new features and bug fixes at a tremendous pace considering we’re now 4 iterations through the 6.4 version of SageTV in just over two months as 6.4.2 was only released in May 2008.  You’ll also find an updated firmware for the SageTV HD100 Extender that corrects a lockup problem some people were experiencing.

With version 6.4.5 comes some attractive new features including Optimized use of tuners so that HDTV tuners can bee set at a higher priority when a show is on both HDTV channels and SDTV channels.  Another nice addition is the ability for SiliconDust HDHR users to tune more than 68 channels.

Some of the most significant additions or SageTV 6.4.0 through 6.4.5 are as follows:

• Hauppauge HD PVR Support
• Automatic STVI Generation in the SageTV Studio
• EXIF metadata/thumbnail support for JPEGs
• New file system & network browser
• H.264 videos from YouTube
• High definition photo display on the STX-HD100
• File transfers to/from Placeshifter clients
• Editing of aspect ratios on the fly for the STX-HD100
• Tons of bugs fixes & performance enhancements

For the complete feature list for SageTV V6.4.5 Beta, check out the Sage 6.4.5 Announcement on the SageTV Forums

Blog Update – Welcome to GeekTonic.com

 

I don’t normally spend much time talking about blogging here, but thought it might be helpful to give everyone a short update on the site.

WELCOME TO WWW.GEEKTONIC.COM

You may have noticed the absence of posts here since July 1st.  This has been because of several things.  Last week I updated the URL of this blog from brentevans.blogspot.com to geektonic.com.  While I’ve called the blog GeekTonic from day one, I never took the time to make it more official.  I’ve owned the geektonic.com domain for a while now and decided to make the switch this month.  Update your favorites to the new url!

WHAT ABOUT BRENTEVANS.BLOGSPOT.COM?

It’s still run by me, Brent Evans, but I like the GeekTonic name much better and it reflects the fact that the blog is more than a “personal blog” – more of a tech-focused blog instead.  Any of the old links with the blogspot addresses should redirect to the geektonic url and your RSS Feed subscriptions should continue to work as before.

WHERE’S BRENT BEEN?

Right after switching the domain, a multitude of happenings and issues have kept me away from daily updates, but I should be back in the swing of things next week.

WHAT’S NEXT?

I’m working on a theme change, a new logo and some other look & feel changes for GeekTonic.  If you have any suggestions or comments please don’t hesitate to share them with me in the comments below or by e-mail.  Coming soon content includes a review of the Divx Connected D-Link DSM-330 HD Media Player, a more complete review of the Hauppauge HD-PVR (my first look & unboxing can be found here), more posts on Home Theater PC’s, technology, gadgets, web applications and more.  Bottom line, I’m still around and hope to make this site better and even more interesting for everyone.

 

If you’re not yet an RSS Subscriber, sign up now – it’s free! ;)