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SageTV 2.0 Review
Page: 1/3
(1703 total words in this text)
(88334 Reads) 
Official Site: SageTV
Feature list: SageTV Feature list
Review by: Erik Pettersen (pettersen AT byopvr.com)
INTRODUCTION:
I know what a lot of you are thinking about SageTV 2.0: "Why would anyone pay for PVR software when there is an abundance of solid free and open source PVR / HTPC software available?" There are many compelling reasons to choose a free and/or open source PVR solution, and being the cheap bastard that I am really hadn't given SageTV much thought. That is until I heard a rumor that the beta of SageTV2.0 supported menus/OSD through the Hauppauge WinTV PVR350's TV out (you can read my review of the PVR350 for the full skinny on why this is so important). When SageTV 2.0 went out of beta and was available publicly as a 15-day trial I gave it a shot. I was so blown away I had to get my copy registered to continue to use it after my trial expired. That's right; Captain Frugal of the USS Cheapo is using commercial PVR software… Read on to find out why the change in heart.
REQUIREMENTS / TEST BED
SageTV 2.0 is coded in JAVA and requires that you have installed the current SUN J2RE (JAVA 2 Run Time Environment) and DirectX 9.0b. One important note: SageTV 2.0 only works on tuner/encoder cards that have hardware based encoders. Sorry ATI All in Wonder and cheap software tuning card owners, no SageTV for you. See SageTV's ever expanding supported card list for specific supported tuner cards.
I loaded SageTV on the VIA EPIA M10000 mini-itx box, with 256 MB of crucial RAM, Athenatech case, and of course a Hauppauge WinTV PVR350 tuner/encoder card.
INSTALLATION:
I installed SageTV 2.0_19 on a fresh Windows XP Pro SP1 install. Here's the first reason why SageTV was worth the money, installation was just like installing any other windows program. A very straightforward wizard steps you're the process.
  
Yes I agree to your terms yadda-yadda license agreement...
Do I want this program to be available to all winxp users or just me?
Which drive and directory do I want to install SageTV to?
Do I want to enable support for pvr350's remote control? Sure... why not?
  
View a pdf manual? (RTFM? nah… lets uncheck that =))
A quick warning about needing to restart the Hauppauge IR helper app, fine…
Lets watch the little blue install progress bar go to the right… >
 
Oooh it's successfully installed! Darn, I didn't get to open one config file in my trusty text editor.
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