Entered CNET Catalog: 03/09/2005
SKU: CNETSAGETV
Manufacturer: SageTV
CNET editors' review
- Editors' Choice: No
- Reviewed on: 03/16/2005
SageTV comes in all shapes and sizes. The SageTV Single Tuner Bundle we reviewed includes the SageTV software, the Hauppauge WINTV-PVR150 TV tuner/MPEG-2 encoder card, and a remote control. SageTV is also available in a dual-tuner bundle ($254.95) or as a downloadable, standalone program ($79.95). SageTV Client ($29.95 per license, one license per PC) installs the application on a remote networked PC, which accesses the host to view and record live TV without the need for an additional TV tuner card (similar to MCE 2005's Extenders for sharing recorded TV, photos, videos, and music across your home network). If you choose the software-only option, you'll need a TV tuner with a hardware MPEG-2 encoder.
Installation on our MPC Millennia 940i test system began smoothly enough. The Hauppauge installation, which includes Ulead's DVD MovieFactory 3.0 SE for burning DVDs, took all of five minutes to complete. (The TV card hardware must be installed, drivers and all, before loading the SageTV software.) Installing the SageTV software was also a breeze, thanks to the installation wizard that prompts you choose which TV tuner card to use, tuning options (cable, satellite, antenna), and your local cable/satellite provider information. You'll need an Internet connection to access and download the programming guide for your area, which you select from a list determined by your zip code. Frey has released a Linux version of SageTV, but it currently does not offer a version for Macs.
Our first hiccup came when we tried to view a TV program from the LiveTV Guide menu and were met with a blank screen and a rendering error message. After an exhaustive and unsuccessful trial-and-error session that required tweaking video rendering and acceleration settings in the advanced setup menu, it was time for some tech support. Unfortunately, there is no tech support available by phone (all support is e-mail-based), and the troubleshooting tips offered on the SageTV Web site and in the SageTV community forums did not address our problem.
We filled out a support form, including our error warning, on the company's Web site, which warns that it could take up to 72 hours for a response. We were pleased to receive a response the following day, including a link to a beta version (version 2.2) to download, which did the trick. Our Hauppauge remote control, however, was rendered inoperable as a result. A subsequent support request was answered the following day, which included a zipped INI file. We replaced the current irremtoe.ini file with the new one and were back in business. Our e-mails to tech support were answered promptly and fixed the problems we encountered, but the process could be daunting for the typical home user.
SageTV looks a lot like MCE 2005, with large menus that you can navigate with the remote control from 10 feet away. In addition to an input for a TV signal, an audio-in port, and a remote IR receiver, the Hauppauge WINTV-PVR150 card has an S-Video port that lets you use your PC as a TiVo replacement and connect it to a TV. We think it works better in reverse, where you bring TV to your PC monitor. SageTV's time-shifting capabilities allow you to pause and rewind live TV on the fly, and you can view program information and enable parental controls with the press of a button. The programmable commercial-skip button lets you zip pass commercials or entire commercial breaks. The LiveTV Guide allows you to select multiple programs to record within a 14-day time frame, but you'll need dual-tuner functionality to simultaneously record two different programs. Since the WINTV card has a compression ratio of 100-to-1, recorded programs use approximately 2GB of disk space per hour, so you'll want a decent amount of hard drive space (160GB or higher) if you plan on doing a lot of recording. Recorded TV looked nearly indistinguishable from live TV.
You can schedule recording using the Search menu, where you can search by program title, person, category, or description. The Favorites Manager is handy for recording your favorite shows automatically. You can configure it to ignore reruns, and you will also be alerted to scheduling conflicts if you've scheduled two or more programs at the same time. SageTV also uses an AI engine that tracks what you watch and record, and when you do it. It then sets up a recording schedule based on these habits. For example, if you watch or record Judge Judy every day through SageTV, it will schedule a recording for that channel and time and also check the guide for other airings of that show and add them to the schedule. Sound a little too HALish? You can disable this Intelligent Recording feature if you'd prefer to do the legwork yourself.
Unlike SnapStream's competing Beyond TV 3.0, SageTV goes beyond its television duties and gives you control over the photo, music, and video files on your PC. The Music Jukebox lets you select songs by artist, album name, and song title, or you can select random play. The Media Library and DVD menus play slide shows of digital images, play video clips, or run DVD movies from your PC's optical drive. With all of these actions under a single interface and accessible via the bundled remote, it's easy to access and control your digital media files. We found a free plug-in in the SageTV user forums that provides a Web interface for remotely scheduling recordings, which is a great feature if you're away from home and suddenly remember you didn't set SageTV to record Arrested Development.
We installed the SageTV Client software ($29.95) on a second networked PC and were disappointed when the required Java Runtime installation repeatedly failed. After downloading a fresh version of the Java Runtime Environment from Sun's Web site, the client software worked flawlessly. We were able to view live TV, change channels, and access video, audio, and picture files stored on the host. Unfortunately, the client does not support watching DVDs played on the host system.
Frey Technologies handles its tech support entirely online. There were times during our rocky installation when we yearned for a phone number, but our e-mails to tech support did receive high-quality answers within 24 hours. The SageTV Web site also offers a troubleshooting section, a FAQ, a few tips and tricks on another page, and forums where you can trade ideas with other SageTV users.
User opinions
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User Rating: 
9/10
This thing ROCKS!
Pros: Easy set up (Cnet said buggy...but not any recent versions), takes only a few minutes to learn
Cons: advanced features set up such as remote access from outside your home network require router port forwarding and other advanced setup issues might require an email to support...which is responsive
We tried the the other softwares this rating compares and this one is by far the most stable, easy to set up and allows you to watch locally or from your stored shows elsewhere. Look at USER ratings!!!! Everyone who sees it in action is blown away..
User Rating: 
7/10
Good Program for XP Home and Pro users
Pros: This program install perfectly. I used the program for days without a problem. Good Picture quality and sound. Solid Program. Good Customer Support.
Cons: I started to have problems when I tried to use this program with muliple user. The remote looks cheap, doesn't have radio feature, more expensive than BeyoundTV.
User Rating: 9/10
My favorite PVR software
Pros: Has the best TV recording features.
Cons: Supports a limited set of hardware. Not as strong for viewing photos or playing music.
User Rating: 
2/10
If you're using a Hauppauge PVR-350 or Intel motherboard, beware!
Pros: Attractive UI; Intelligent Recording feature works well
Cons: Hangs often!; Quirky UI aspects; many buggy features
I built a computer based on an Intel motherboard with a newer chipset. It turns out that the SageTV/PVR-350 combo is extremely unstable on this platform.
Some of the problems I've had:
FF/REW operations reliably hang the software.
You ABSOLUTELY CANNOT output the SageTV menus through the TV. Attempting to do so will immediately hang Sage and/or the Hauppauge drivers. (This is an advertised feature, yet neither Frey Technologies nor Hauppauge discloses that this feature is unusable with certain configurations.)
Sage should auto-delete programs after a time based on whether or not they've been watched. This functionality cannot be trusted. I've had many programs get deleted before I've had a chance to watch them, while other already-watched programs are never deleted, until I explicitly delete them. (This is not user error: I've verified my configuration many times. The software is buggy in this area.)
The UI is quirky; When you exit menus and return to previous menus, the input focus is usually not where you expect it to be. This causes you to have to hunt around to return the focus to where you were.
The device driver often hangs my system, either by causing a blue screen crash, or making the system unresponsive so that even the mouse cursor won't move.
Often, after a crash, Sage is completely unusable, and requires reinstallation, or hacking. (Tech support has been abysmal in this area. I have found technical solutions to resolving such a state myself after tech support indicated that reinstalling the software would be necessary.)
A few weeks ago, my coworker purchased an ATI HDTV Wonder board; it included TV scheduling software. He paid roughly half of what I paid for the Sage bundle. He reports that it all works flawlessly: it downloads schedules, records on demand, etc. He's even able to view the software menus through the TV. (Imagine my envy upon hearing that.) Granted it doesn't have the so-called intelligent recording capability of Sage, but I'll trade features for stability any day. (I'm not affiliated with ATI, by the way.)
All in all, I thoroughly regret the Sage/PVR-350 purchase, and cannot recommend it.
User Rating: 
8/10
Better than anything else out there
Pros: great interface, fantastic recording and playback
Cons: ability to customize is too guarded, non tv functions need improvement
Configuration was not extremely difficult. After installation I was able to watch tv etc with no trouble whatsoever. There was some issues with the remote that comes with my Hauppauge pvr 150. This turned out to be a software problem with the hauppauge card. They do need to provide better support, including a comprehensive knowledgebase and faqs. The forums are excellent but are primarily user forums, and this means that your question may or may not get answered.
I do have to address a comment about the comment that major computer manufacturers are not using sagetv, but mce 2005 due to the ease of use etc.. This is not the case, major computer manufacturers are not using sagetv in their systems because Microsoft owns the market. Sagetv could perfect all of their flaws and still would not be found in major computer manufacturers configurations. Microsoft provides greater discounts, support, and free advertising than any smaller company could ever compete with. So when hp, dell, and gateway decide to go with MCE it is a sales decision not a quality decision.
User Rating: 7/10
Good - but not great.
Pros: Non-MS solution
Cons: Daunting install/configuration
Things I miss from the tivo - Real multi-level Fast-Forward and Reverse - only supports 10 second (programmable) skip. Yes, SKIP.
It is reasonably reliable and the community support is incredibly good - answers much faster than 24 hours - normally a good answer is available in 4-6 hours.
Another bad thing is that it runs on top of windows. All the bad things that windows comes along with. I really don't see the linux side as being a serious benefit, hardware support is a recurring question. (and I like linux - but we're talking about reasonably custom hardware).
It is faster than my old Series 1 Tivo with 200G on it.... (it should be, the tivo was a 54mhz powerpc with 16 meg of ram).
A last thing I will say before I shut up - Because of the large file size disk fragmentation is a pretty big issue and when the drives start to fill up it can get a bit choppy. Defragmentation doesn't work because generally the drives are too full to defragment.
I tried lots of PC based solutions (MS Media Center was NOT one) and Sage was the best out there, but it's not ready for grandma or the wife yet.
User Rating: 8/10
Great PVR software but lacking in all areas other than recording tv.
Pros: Multiple tuner support, client and network tuner support, great recording features.
Cons: Music module is horrible. Custom STVs needed for good experience.
User Rating: 
6/10
Most people are better off with MCE
Pros: Stable, Active community forum, good hardware support, Easy installation, Price is fair,
Cons: Relies HEAVILY on 3rd parties for customizations, uses JAVA, no Dolby Digital sound, No huge Mfgrs designing stand alone clients for it like MCE has
The fact that 2 big competitors offer a way for anyone to create their own skin and sagetv only offers a select few people this ability is a huge drawback, Especially since most people that will be in on this whole initial HTPC concept are people that are already computer gurus - everyone else will just go get a tivo, replaytv or just get the cable company dvr.
There is a reason that The big computer mfgrs like Dell and HP sell Microsoft MCE computers and not SageTV MCE computers.
User Rating: 9/10
This program is hands down the best on the market.
Pros: Relatively low price, easy to use, customizable, works as it should, customer service is usually pretty good at listening to customer base's requests
Cons: Support takes a bit of time to get back to you (but always responds), lack of information from company about what's happening with updates/future releases
User Rating: 9/10
Best PC DVR available
Pros: It's intelligent recording feature works like Tivo's, without telling anyone what you're watching. Also, it is rock-solid and will rarely crash; even after weeks without a reboot.
Cons: Setup _can_ be problematic for some users, but once setup, the system is rock solid and can be left on for weeks on end without crashes.
User Rating: 8/10
solid and pretty
Pros: doesnt screw up.
Cons: unactive user community
