Frey Technologies' SageTV 2.0 - A SnapStream Alternative
by Andrew Ku on July 25, 2004 12:05 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Mobile
SageTV 2.0 - Watching TV and Playing Music
Watching live TV brings up a simple window. The upper left hand corner window displays the station name, channel name, and two-channel navigation arrow. The show name, air date, and show description are displayed in the upper middle window with the current date/time, and volume in the upper right hand window. The volume icon doubles as a mute button and you can interact with the volume track. All of these panels autohide themselves after a few seconds, but this amount of time between the autohide feature doesn't seem to be able to be edited.All TV that is watched is timeshifted, and this option cannot be changed. The TV displayed in the window is actually about 1 second behind the live signal, and the difference in time noticed, if you put the two side by side, is minimal. From the time that you hit the "watch now" button to actually watching the live TV signal, it is about 2 to 3 seconds, which is reasonable as we like a maximum of 3 seconds when dealing with auto-timeshifted content.
Click to enlarge.
Click to enlarge.
If you have already started to watch a program or programs, the last program being watched will be displayed in a small window within the show detail windows and LiveTV Guide. The window itself is an actual engageble object that can be navigated to, but only within the show detail windows. If you are watching "Tom & Jerry" and click on the window, it will go to the show. However, going into another program's show detail and clicking on the window will automatically change the channel to that program (assuming it is currently on) and switch back the full window mode.
Click to enlarge.
Getting to the full window mode of playing music can't be done directly via the music jukebox, but rather by hitting the back button in the upper left hand corner a few times. Visualizations are automatically on and visible during playback, but they cannot be manipulated in the setup. Like the live TV interface, the panels autohide after a few seconds.
Click to enlarge.
Click to enlarge.
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MlbDude - Sunday, July 25, 2004 - link
Saist - Sunday, July 25, 2004 - link
I only have one comment to make.D-link??? EWWWWW.
Spearhawk - Sunday, July 25, 2004 - link
Nice article. It would be intresting to see a simelar on GB-PVR (http://www.gbpvr.com/), which is freeware. I actuly prefare it before Sage TV.nullpointerus - Sunday, July 25, 2004 - link
Very interesting article! I would like to add one bit of information: while it is true that SnapStream cannot stream hardware-encoded TV files over the network without a fairly lengthy reencoding process, they will be removing this restriction in the next version. Also, they will be adding multiple tuner support, parental controls, and some user privacy settings. Maybe Anandtech will reexamine SnapStream at that time? The HTPC world seems to be in a very "buyer beware" mode right now, and it's good to have such in-depth reviews of each product.coolred - Sunday, July 25, 2004 - link
Still reading, looks good so far. I have been using sage TV 2.0 for about a month or so now, works great. One thing though, I see you mentioned that it is available for download only, and while this may be the case from frey themselves, PC alchemy sells sage TV as both a download or on a CD, thats where I got mine from.I believe one of thier employees, or possibly the owner himself is a member of these fine forums we have.
Keep up the good work. Next we need a "How to build and awesome HTPC" article.