Trying to figure out how to move on from SageTV

[electron]

I'm guessing I'm not the only one, but for years now, I've been trying to move on from SageTV since the platform is mostly abandoned. It still works extremely well, however the players are so outdated/limited, I'd like to make my existing Roku devices the primary players so we no longer have to mess with input sources on our AV equipment.

Privacy is a big deal to me, which is why I've been so resistant abandoning all the SageTV hardware I have, since it's all local. Roku has its own privacy issues, but I have some filtering in place, and in the end, I needed some sort of streaming solution. Using the Roku platform means I'm most likely limited to:

Plex: very mature as a product, but just doesn't match my security/privacy requirements.
Jellyfin: this looks like it may do the job, but I can't get it to show only folders/shows which have content, which makes it impossible to just focus on what's available.

So I'm curious now if I'm missing something, and I'm also wondering what products SageTV users have moved on to. I use SageTV to access content from my NAS based dvd/blu-ray library, TV recordings via HD Homerun , and downloaded media.

Thoughts?

 

[pete_c]

Never used SageTV here. Started with Microsoft Media OS the to XBMC (X box Media Center) to KODI.

Many folks went to Plex and those same folks now going to Jellyfin.

Here continue to utilize Kodi as my main media player and NAS for videos and music.

Kodi's DB of videos is via a variety of IMDB services which download movie info and trailers.

I still have two HD Homerun tuners on line it works well but do not record much these days.

Privacy? There is none with Roku or just about any streaming service. Many folks use VPN services which doesn't do much when you register your streaming service.

I have read good stuff about Jellyfin. It is open source and the clients are also open source and free.

Really too it is what OS you are most comfortable with? Windows or Linux or Mac.

 

[George M]

I'm with ya. Been using sage for least 20 years. I just hope it keeps going. I've tried to find a replacement in the past but never could.
I still think its the best system out there.

 

[samgreco]

Well, I was with Sage for about 18 years. As it became apparent the Sage was not going to go much further as open source, I especially didn't love the Android client, I started searching. I ended up going to Channels DVR. Mostly because they had TVE capability. Which is now getting whittled away by the content providers. Same old story. I just upped for another year, but this will probably be my last.

So I started trying others again. Tried Jellyfin. Promising, but their clients are just not there yet. Certainly not as flexible as Sage was.

Then I tried Emby. Basically the same as Jellyfin, since that's where JF came from.

Tried TVHeadend with Kodi frontend, which wasn't bad, but fiddly. I think this one may still have potential.

Then I tried NextPVR, again with Kodi as the frontend. Much easier to setup than TVHeadend. And it supports M3U (which may not last long either, and is fiddly) This still may be where I ultimately end up.

Finally Plex, which I really wanted to like. I paid for it for 2 months to really see what it could do. I love the Universal Watchlist. Aggregates all of your online stuff into a single watchlist and fires up the correct app and goes to the correct page. Except Amazon and anyone else that doesn't like deep linking. So that kinda of puts a big dent in the universal watchlist. And I really don't like their DVR. So...

Kodi, with a good PVR backend, could be the closest to Sage from a UI perspective. But it certainly has it's issues as well.

Killer is, if Google had released Sage to the OS community right after they purchased it, while Sage still had a lot of steam, it may have done much better. I do miss Sage....

 

[electron]

Never used SageTV here. Started with Microsoft Media OS the to XBMC (X box Media Center) to KODI.

...

Really too it is what OS you are most comfortable with? Windows or Linux or Mac.

Comfortable with anything, from Raspberry Pi to ProxMox/ESXi, I'm just hoping to find something which is stable and/or doesn't require too many modifications.

I'm with ya. Been using sage for least 20 years. I just hope it keeps going. I've tried to find a replacement in the past but never could.
I still think its the best system out there.

You made me look up when I ordered my license key. Looks like I'm at 15 years (at least, without doing some more digging). Incredible stable ecosystem for sure. I ended up buying a bunch of spare players just in case.

Well, I was with Sage for about 18 years. As it became apparent the Sage was not going to go much further as open source, I especially didn't love the Android client, I started searching. I ended up going to Channels DVR. Mostly because they had TVE capability. Which is now getting whittled away by the content providers. Same old story. I just upped for another year, but this will probably be my last.

...

Killer is, if Google had released Sage to the OS community right after they purchased it, while Sage still had a lot of steam, it may have done much better. I do miss Sage....

Well this answers many of the questions I had, thanks for taking the time to post this! Based on pete's and your feedback, it looks like I may have to revisit the Kodi option as I didn't realize this was still actively developed. Since I only care about OTA recording via HD HomeRun, and NAS playback, this may be a good fit.

 

[samgreco]

Well this answers many of the questions I had, thanks for taking the time to post this! Based on pete's and your feedback, it looks like I may have to revisit the Kodi option as I didn't realize this was still actively developed. Since I only care about OTA recording via HD HomeRun, and NAS playback, this may be a good fit.

I'd look at NextPVR for the backend. Runs on both Windows and Linux. Seems stable and the community reminds me a bit of the Sage community. I'm fairly certain that that's where I will end up.

 

[pete_c]

Run Kodi 20.0 (Nexus) on Kodi OS CoreElec off of a microSD card on a cheapo Android TV box.

Write the OS to the microSD card then boot to CoreElec. Kodi is well supported.

Current Android TV box is:

Amlogic S905X4 TV Box Android 11.0 TV Box HK1 Box 4GB RAM 64GB ROM Dual-WiFi 2.4GHz/5GHz BT Quad Core 64 Bits 3D/8K 1000M Smart TV Box

Purchased on Amazon for $68.99.



A side note: For NAS music, video and picture sharing from the NAS box I use NFS rather than Samba.

You can share one database between multiple Kodi boxes.