Sage 6.0 has got some interesting stuff.

[IVB]

Just came across this post on avsforum, check out what the latest SageTV6.0 has got in it. Much of it is irrelevant to the CQC crowd, as it's stuff that would be shown on the UI, and in our dream world, we rarely see the actual SageUI (well, maybe if we opted for extenders). But, there are some interesting engine enhancements. And, for those of you using SageTV directly, there's tons to be excited about.

http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20298

Lots of cool new features:

Major Features
1. Integrated Google Video search and playback (also works on extenders)
2. Media Extender DVD playback with DVD menus and 5.1 audio for hard disk based DVDs
3. Thumbnails are now generated and shown for all video files (except for WMV9 or DRM protected content)
4. WMA, AAC (iTunes), FLAC, Ogg/Vorbis music files are now supported for playback with full tag parsing
5. MOV (Quicktime), 3GP, MP4, H.264 Playback
6. DVB-T/S/C Capture devices are now supported on Windows (BDA drivers required)
7. CAM/CI support for DVB-C on Windows
8. EPG Data from DVB capture devices is integrated into SageTV
9. EPG Data from ATSC capture devices is integrated into SageTV (i.e. DTV subchannel data)
10. Enhanced EPG Data for US/Canadian customers includes Series Information and TV Editorials
11. NEW Enhanced Picture Library has improved navigation and also supports lossless rotation/flips of JPEG images
12. NEW Enhanced Music Library has significantly improved tag parsing and much better navigation
13. NEW Enhanced Video & DVD Library has new detailed media format information and improved navigation
14. Database now cleanly separates music, video, pictures, DVD and television content and APIs have been updated to allow many operations to operate on specific types of content (referred to as a MediaMask)
15. Aspect Ratio correction is now fully implemented for all content types
16. Proper aspect ratio configuration is now supported by allowing the user to specify what the aspect ratio of their display is
17. Watched position for imported video files are now remembered
18. Conversion of files (transcoding) is fully integrated into the UI; as well as managing the transcode jobs. Any format SageTV can play it can transcode with the exception of WindowsMediaVideo9 and WindowsMediaAudioLossless.
19. Support for converting files to play on a PSP, iPod or cell phone (3GP/MPEG4)
20. Support for compressing HDTV recordings to MPEG4 while preserving the AC3 surround sound
21. Support for converting any imported file to MPEG4
22. Support for playback of progressive download Flash content (used for Google Video, can be extended to other things with the Studio)
23. Video Playlists can now be easily setup by the user
24. Song Information can now displayed on the screen as an alternative to music visualizations
25. Picture Slideshow Screen Saver is a new option
26. Significantly improved audio quality for the transcoder
27. Significantly reduced delay between playing back consecutive files on the Media Extender
28. Official support of Full Screen Exclusive mode on Windows
29. Improved conflict resolution user interface
30. OpenGL rendering is now supported with newer GPUs on Linux

Minor Features
1. The network adapter that the media extender server binds to can now be specified in the properties file
2. Audio stream can be selected when playing back content with multiple audio tracks (this is new for non-DVD content)
3. New command to toggle through the different aspect ratio modes
4. MS-DRM detection - SageTV can identify that a file is protected with Windows Media DRM.
5. DVD folders will now display their size in detailed information
6. Placeshifter clients no longer need to restart their buffering when seeking forward within the bounds of their current buffer

Studio Features
1. Re-use property editor windows in the SageTV Studio
2. Add scaling insets to Image widgets to allow specifying what regions are stretched when the image is scaled
3. Add ability to mark a widget as a background, this is now available in the property editor for Text, Item, Panel, Video, Image, Table and TableComponent Widgets
4. Image Widgets should have a property for automatically repeating their event if they're clicked on and the button is held down.
5. Setting the inactivity or screen saver now only resets the corresponding timer instead of both.
6. Added a drop-down list of previously used expressions to the expression evaluator
7. The results of an expression evaluation can now be copied to the clipboard by selecting the text
8. EXPERIMENTAL: There's a Launch Another Studio Frame option underneath Tools now. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK. DO NOT OPEN MULTIPLE STV FILES WITH THIS. It is safe to use if you have the same STV open in all of the windows and you can drag & drop between the windows. There's also a Refresh option under Tools to refresh a frame if you change another and then the others fall out of sync.
9. Added LayoutStarted hook (much more useful for animations than RenderingStarted since LayoutStarted fires before the layout calculations are done)
10. Added context variables to Tables of:NumColsPerPage, NumRowsPerPage, HScrollIndex, VScrollIndex
11. Added Ctrl+R as the keyboard accelerator for Set Primary Reference in the Studio
12. Added a 'Recent Files' submenu to the File menu in the Studio.
13. Added HScrollIndex and VScrollIndex vars for scrolling panels (they're floats in Panels). They'll go between 0 and NumPages.

 

[Digger]

I am using Sage 5 and other than Live TV it seems to work fine. I have recorded tons of tv shows. Picture quality is excellent.

Live TV does not work and I constantly have to reboot the extenders and defrag the drive. Not major issues for me .

 

[Mike]

Hmm interesting. I never watch live tv (or if I do I do it as HD) so I did not notice that.

My biggest issue for the MCE skin is refreshing media. I need to go see if there is a new one.

Great news on watched position for imported videos.

 

[Smarty]

Just a word or CAUTION.

If you plan to use the MVP wireless media extenders (Sage sells them or so does Haupauge...they are the same), they still do NOT work with Sage 5.04 (current release) or the new 6.0 beta release. I was SO hoping that the the new beta would fix the widespread wireless MVP issue.

I do think Sage has some neat features, and if you can hardwire it, it IS WORTH a look.

 

[Mike]

Well I picked up an extender and went for the latest 6.x beta version. Works great so far (limited testing, but looks good). I can see all my shows, and full video support of hard drive based dvd's.

I did at one point think I heard my theater doing the clicks of the ui movement in the other room (when I was controlling the extender) but I did not test to confirm that.

$100 well spent so far. Of course perhaps I will eventually finish the component video distribution and get a few more tv's but for now it is a great addition.

 

[SkyBolt]

... I did at one point think I heard my theater doing the clicks of the ui movement in the other room (when I was controlling the extender) but I did not test to confirm that. ...

You Did! when controling sage remotely from an MVP the sounds play on th elocal box as well, when using the MCe skin. inside of the Sagetv\stvssagetv3\sagemce rename the "Sounds" folder and this will stop.

Also in the Sage.properties file there is an entry of "force_full_content_reindex=false" set that to true and sage will reindex your library as well.

 

[Mike]

That is great. Thank you. I will try that.

 

[SkyBolt]

Mike - I forgot to explain the the reindex thing is only once and then resets it self to false again. Also This is for the main or server side app. Good luck.

-Skybolt

 

[electron]

What's the max. # of extenders Sage TV will support? I am considering taking another look at SageTV since MCE extenders are at least $300 (xbox360).

 

[SkyBolt]

Thats a good question, I know it's at least 5, but thats 5 at one time not the total system. If you hve a license for one MVP but have three hooked up,you can operate any one of the three at a time on the same license. I am not sure if they changed this in the latest beta or not but for know i is working that way for me.

-Skybolt

 

[IVB]

I just upgraded to SageTV V6, and I also just installed my wireless MediaMVP extender. I had the extender working with V5, but there was some stuttering over wifi and my homemade ethernet cable wasn't working. Rather than trouble-shoot it knowing that V6 will allow me to do DVD playback, I opted to upgrade Sage first. Tomorrow-ish i'll see why my hardwired ethernet cable doesn't work even though it cable-tests ok. Hopefully then i'll be able to report back that both TV & DVD playback on an extender using my custom SageStudio skin is working fine.

 

[CollinR]

Wifi will always have problems with video, it may be a rare non-issue or a major PITA.


This is due to the way video is compressed and how TCP/IP retransmits errors in transmission.


Some times it works great, but as I say... No promises.


IVB, those MVPs need to be rebooted whenever you mess with the cabling. Make sure you try that first. If that doesn't fix it reboot your DHCP server, then connect the MVP, then boot it.

 

[IVB]

Ok, I just got my MediaMVP working with SageV6. Works fine, I just checked CT, and co-incidentally I was thinking the same thing Collin posted - Just run the hardwire as it was easy to run even though I bought the wireless unit. (only took me 3 hours and 1-2dozen mistakes to make a dang 15' RJ45 cable)

I can confirm that it works fine to playback DVDs if you navigate to each VOB file; i'm now looking into how SageTV does playback and the cover-art browsing therein. I had this working 12+months back when I was messing around with it, haven't looked at it since then.

I can also confirm that I forgot how crappy SD PQ is; I was watching a DVD, and it was nearly painful compared to watching it on the plasma. It's not really for me though - this is more for the kids, also so the wife can watch her god awful Sage'd reality shows and chick flick DVDs and let me have the plasma.

One more bit of equipment out of the parts closet and into "production". Gotta like that.

 

[Smarty]

IVB,
Sage6 still has not fixed my wireless connectiivty issues. Your choice to go wired was SMART! With my present house wired is NOT an option (wired does work for me) .

I have been in weekly contact with Sage support, and they say that they are working on a "flash" upgrade fix to flash the boot information onto the Hauppauge MVP (that is where my wireless unit - and others, tends to fail). Odd part is, the MVP works fine (wirelessly) with the Haupauge software.

Should have waited and just bought the HD wired extender when it is available later this year for the new house (where I will have wired runs EVERYWHERE).

 

[Digger]

One more bit of equipment out of the parts closet and into "production". Gotta like that.

You should never let the well run dry......