What next

[michaeldjcox]

I think the world has moved on and sagetv hasn't really.

Every now and then I toy with the idea of quitting SageTV: 2012, 2017 and now 2018.

With all the alternatives possible how can I get the things I love about sagetv:

• Freeview HD and Freeview SD upscaled to HD
• Potentially unlimited tuners (currently 4 and that's fine)
• Potentially unlimited recording space (currently 3TB its enough)
• Potentially unlimited media storage (currently 12TB)
• Excellent recording scheduling software: Conflict resolution, favourites, padding
• Network Media centre: DVDs, home video, photos, music
• TVs plus small setup boxes
• One interface to access everything
• 4 week EPG (Digiguide)
• Start watching in one room. Pick up where you left off in another (multiroom?)

And add all the things I would want:

• Better features to find and play media - sorry but sagetv is just awkward
• No host reliability issues - viruses, reliability issues, Windows OS, activities of other user on the host etc
• No SageTV unreliability issues - corrupt wiz.bins, clients cannot find the server on the network even though its running etc
• No need for the painstaking manual re-tuning to Freeview signal
• No need to fix flakey EPG import
• Not having to tell SageTV to record programme + 5mins (all channels start and stop the programmes later than advertised)
• Browse the internet would be cool
• UK online content: Iplayer, 4od, itvplayer, etc
• Netflix amazon prime
• I'm sure there's other stuff now you can do with your TVs...

I felt I couldn't get there in 2012, and early 2017.

Is there some magic hotpotch of technologies and boxes that might get me to my dream setup?

Michael

PS Feel free to point me at any existing thread that recently covered this topic

[wayner]

I don't know that there is anything that totally fills your needs but I think an AndroidTV box comes the closest, especially pared with SageTV as it can run a SageTV client. And it should be able to run all of the streaming services that you want - I would assume that iPlayer, etc have AndroidTV apps. It can also run Plex, Kodi, etc if you don't want to use SageTV for some of your local content.

But I don't know what options you have for AndroidTV boxes in the UK - I assume the Nvidia Shield is one option but it is rather expensive. In the USA you can get the MiBox3 which is much cheaper.

The AndroidTV client also can have problems with some MPEG-2 content - it is much better with H.264 content. I don't know if that is an issue for your TV content in the UK.

I have been running SageTV for about 9 years and I haven't had any issues with viruses, reliability, clients can't find server, etc. About a year ago I switched my server to unRAID and run the docker version of Sage - I think that helps solve some of these issues as well. At least it does regarding Windows and viruses. unRAID is also very useful to act as a server for other docker containers and as a host for VMs - I run dockers for Letsencrypt, Unifi, Plex, etc. and a run an Ubuntu VM.

[michaeldjcox]

There's something called HDHomeRunHD Quattro can record UK freeview TV and dumps recordings to a NAS and supports plex DVR

https://www.silicondust.com/product/hdhomerun-quatro/

[michaeldjcox]

For a moment there I thought of a plex solution but it seems that i would have to convert all my DVDs and Bluerays to a format plex can stream

[wayner]

Originally Posted by michaeldjcox

For a moment there I thought of a plex solution but it seems that i would have to convert all my DVDs and Bluerays to a format plex can stream

This is an issue as well with the SageTV client for AndroidTV - assuming that your DVDs/BluRays are just ripped into file structures like VOB files.

You might want to think about a long term solution for converting them as this structure is likely to be less supported in the future - I think there are scripts that can automate this process.

In terms of Plex DVR or HDHR DVR (HDHR has their own DVR software) my understanding is that these are WAY less sophisticated than SageTV

[michaeldjcox]

That's a good point about the DVDs/Bluerays.

Actually my RAID5 NAS had a double disk failure so I lost all my online copies of movies so I'm just beginning the process of getting the disks back out of the loft and copying back onto NAS.

So this would be the time to do it.

Is there a preferred format do you think?

Will any such format allow the full picture quality?

Right now my TVs just have the two speakers but I might update in the near future to five. I expect I have to choose the audio format at the point of ripping.

[wayner]

I am not at all an expert on this but what format you use can depend on a bunch of things. One of the main reasons that people keep the original DVD rip is for the extras that come alongside the movie. If you don't care about those then the decision becomes somewhat easier.

You would generally want to rip to an MP4 or an MKV file encoded in H.264. But more recently folks have started to use H.265/HEVC. The latter is more efficient so that you can better quality with the same or lower file sizes. But it is not as well supported yet - SageTV extenders will never support it. But it should be supported on phones and AndroidTV devices. And it will take a lot longer to rip to H.265 as it is a more complex codec

Resolution is also a question although most folks would want to rip to 1080p, unless they are starting with 4K source material.

I am not sure about audio formats but I would think you want to keep a multi-channel track like 5.1, just in case.

The other thing that would be tricky is language if you have foreign language films - what language tracks do you keep and do you make subtitle files?

Handbrake is one of the best tools for ripping - but you will first want to play around and figure out what audio and video formats you want. Here is a link to using Handbrake for batch conversion - it is a bit old as it is over three years old but much of the stuff you find on this issue seems even older.

https://www.howtogeek.com/199993/con...ith-handbrake/

[MCE-Refugee]

I think that recording Live TV has had its day. Catch up TV like the exceptional BBC iPlayer is so much more convenient & reliable. Every home had a VHS recorders but how many have a Freeview recorder? There are also so many other sources for TV shows & movies both legitimate (Netflix, Amazon Prime Video etc) & illicit (torrents, Usenet, Kodi etc).

When I lived in France & craved UK TV I used to have a complex SageTV setup & spent hours setting up the EPG loaded from Digiguide & XMLTV for recording from DVB-S.

Nowadays I just download shows I want to watch & store all the files on Google Drive & use Plex to catalogue & view my media library.

[wayner]

In my opinion the only reason to continue to pay for TV is if you are a sports fan. If you are not then there are lots of other cheap ways to get your content.