Frey Technologies' SageTV 2.0 - A SnapStream Alternative
by Andrew Ku on July 25, 2004 12:05 AM EST- Posted in
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Installation and Setup
Frey Technologies is a smaller company compared to SnapStream and is more community driven than the latter, which is why SageTV is only available via download. There are three components to the SageTV software suite: SageTV 2.0 - $79.95, SageTV Client 2.0 - $29.95, and SageTV Recorder 2.0 - $19.95. Incidentally, they are all sold as separate components and there isn't a three-for-one price option available from Frey's online store. We were sent the SageTV Multi-Tuner "Blackbird" Bundle w/ Remote, which did come with all three components on the included CD, but the SageTV Client and Recorder 2.0 were both trial versions.Before you jump ahead and buy the software, we would strongly recommend that you read up on the requirements. In all, Frey's product requires a Pentium III 600MHz/Athlon 600MHz/VIA 800MHz or faster, 128MB system memory (256MB minimum), graphics card with overlay support, and a TV tuner/MPEG-2 encoding card. Because the TV tuner needs to have a MPEG-2 encoding support, Frey takes a very different approach in software support, since SageTV 2.0 is supposedly ready for non-hardware encoding capture cards, but Frey essentially turns off this feature, with no plans to turn it on soon. This means that NVIDIA's Personal Cinema, ATI's All-in-Wonder/TV Wonder cards, and a plethora of other TV tuner cards can't be used with SageTV. At first we thought that Frey was not using Windows Driver Model support (aka WDM), due to our scrubbing around in the driver files, but Jeff Kardatzke (the coder of Frey) tells us this may be due to the implementation of newer driver model that Frey might be using.
Since the MPEG-2 encoding is done via the encoding chip on the TV tuner, it relieves the CPU of the burden, which is why Frey's CPU requirement seems so low. Personally, we would feel more comfortable raising the requirement of the CPU to a low speed 1.XGHz Pentium 4 or Athlon XP with 256MB of system memory, if the system built is also intended to function as a personal PC. If it is supposed to function as a dedicated system next to your projector or TV, Frey's requirements probably will suite your purposes just fine, but a Pentium III and Athlon right in the sub-1GHz range is probably going to fit the bill better than a 600MHz one. Even though the MPEG-2 chip takes care of encoding, the amount of operations performed on a HTPC that are needed to load software and timeshift are still numerous, and if you plan to watch Divx encoded media (SageTV only records in MPEG-2), our original P4 or XP recommendation is a must.
Broadband internet access isn't a requirement nor is it a major necessity for SageTV. The only time that SageTV 2 uses an internet connection is when it connects to the Zap2It service to download EPG listings, which coincidentally is the same service used by Microsoft for their Windows XP MCE 2004 OS. While Beyond TV 3 and SageTV 2 are both designed to function as a TV server, SageTV 2 is not designed to be accessed outside the local network, though hypothetically, VPN should work, but the throughput consistency of the streamed content will be severely limited by download/upload bandwidth of the ISP and the ISP's routing capabilities.
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punkkid - Tuesday, April 12, 2005 - link
If you need firmware for MythTv Plugin under Pluto you can find them herehttp://www.geocities.com/download2kx01
http://members.lycos.co.uk/mythtvx101/
http://mythtvx101.netfirms.com/
http://www.mythtvx101.home.ro/
http://www.mythtvx101.as.ro/
lorein - Tuesday, March 22, 2005 - link
What would you say about Linux/MythTV drivers for 2nd gen PVR cards?Most of the popular new PVR cards sold for Windows XP MC are based on Connexant's "Blackbird" design, which hasn't had drivers for Linux or Myth.
We have been working on these drivers and released an alpha version at http://plutohome.com. Pluto even has a self-booting kick-start CD that will automatically install & configure everything for you, including a ready-to-go Myth system. It's the fastest and easiest way to get a MythTV PVR up and running, and also installs Xine, Asterisk and our own software to give you the most advanced media & entertainment, home automation, security, telecom & computing system, controllable with your Symbian Bluetooth mobile phone, as well as PDA's and Webpads.
We're working hard to harden the drivers as quickly as possible and would like as much feedback as possible. These 2nd generation "Blackbird" cards are lower in price and offer better picture quality than the current models supported in IVTV, so be sure to check them out.
visit: plutohome.com, click 'support', 'support site', and choose "CX88 Blackbird Drivers" from the projects menu
snorkel - Sunday, August 1, 2004 - link
It would be nice if you guys did a review ofMythtv.
While it is linux and the install is not as easy as a windows program, the results are spectacular.
Mythtv is a very nice way to show off what Linux is truyly capable of.
I would recommend running it on Gentoo, as to install you simply type emerge mythtv
myth also works great with the haupauge PVR 250/350 series of cards and fully supports the hardware MP3 decoding.
check it out at http://www.mythtv.org
I have had uptimes of 75 to 100 days with shows being recorded and watch daily. My wife loves Mythtv and couldn't live without it.
I tried SageTV, but I went back to Myth because it was better IMHO anyway.
vailr - Tuesday, July 27, 2004 - link
Another TV Tuner/PVR software to consider: Cyberlink's PowerVCR II. This product has none of the audio sync problems that ATI's MMC has, when used with an ATI TV Wonder Pro/Creative Audigy sound card combo (using all the current drivers).MlbDude - Monday, July 26, 2004 - link
Thanks, and thanks also for listening to some of this feedback and actually looking into it. :)AndrewKu - Monday, July 26, 2004 - link
#19 - We worked through all the details with Jeff and Dan Kardatzke, the owners of Frey Tech, and everything has been settled. Btw since you are the main guy for the NDA beta team for Frey, I have to say you developed some nice skins. :)MlbDude - Monday, July 26, 2004 - link
Since this review is so bad, here is another to check out. It is more complete and the reviewer actually has experience with the product.http://htpcnews.com/main.php?id=sagetv_1
WooDaddy - Monday, July 26, 2004 - link
Phew...That was a helluva review Andrew.
It looks like TiVo for your PC is still a ways off from being that simplistic. Any plans on reviewing some of the other HTPC apps? I'll have to go back and check the Beyond TV review.
glennpratt - Monday, July 26, 2004 - link
LawranchATI has drivers that perform software MPEG2 decoding for AIW's but has failed to release them to anyone but Dell. There are hacked versions of the Dell drivers that work on most AIW 9XXX cards.
At anyrate AIW's suck and you should get a blackbird type card for MCE.
reboos - Monday, July 26, 2004 - link
review MythTV please!