SageTV Media Center, now open source, was a proprietary, commercial DVR (Digital Video Recording) and HTPC (Home theater PC)

software Software is a set of computer programs and associated software documentation, documentation and data (computing), data. This is in contrast to Computer hardware, hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work. ...

for

Mac OS X macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and lapt ...

Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for ...

and

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which i ...

. It requires that the host computer have a hardware-based

TV tuner card A TV tuner card is a kind of television tuner that allows television signals to be received by a computer. Most TV tuners also function as video capture cards, allowing them to record television programs onto a hard disk much like the digital ...

. The SageTV software has an integrated Electronic Programming Guide (EPG) that is updated via the Internet. The program provides a television interface for DVR, music, and photos on Windows and Linux. SageTV Media Center typically records in standard MPEG2, making it possible to transfer recordings to laptops or other devices. It also has a built-in conversion feature to transcode files into other formats compatible with iPod, PSP, cell phones and other portable devices. A "lite" version is commonly shipped as part of an

OEM An original equipment manufacturer (OEM) is generally perceived as a company that produces non-aftermarket parts and equipment that may be marketed by another manufacturer. It is a common industry term recognized and used by many professional or ...

software bundle. Both the lite and regular versions offer a

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's mo ...

API An application programming interface (API) is a way for two or more computer programs to communicate with each other. It is a type of software interface, offering a service to other pieces of software. A document or standard that describes how ...

. SageTV Placeshifter allows the user to watch TV from any high speed internet connection, similar to the

Slingbox The Slingbox was a TV streaming media device made by Sling Media that encoded local video for transmission over the Internet to a remote device (sometimes called placeshifting). It allowed users to remotely view and control their cable, satelli ...

. As of Version 6, the SageTV Placeshifter is available for Windows, Linux and Macintosh platforms. The SageTV Media Extender set-top allows other TVs to connect to SageTV over a home network. There is also the ability to use the Hauppauge MediaMVP with SageTV by purchasing a MediaMVP Client License. On Saturday, June 18, 2011, Jeffrey Kardatzke, CTO & Founder of the company, announced in a SageTV forum post that his company has been acquired by

Google Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...

and an official press release followed later that same day, and since then the SageTV products have no longer been available for purchase. On Monday, March 9, 2015, Jeffrey Kardatzke announced that SageTV will be open-sourced "in the near future (i.e. months, not years)". Then a few months later, SageTV became open source, hosted on GitHub.

Google Fiber

After the acquisition of SageTV, LLC by Google, they began modifying and updating it to work with Google's upcoming

Google Fiber Google Fiber is part of the Access division of Alphabet Inc. It provides fiber-to-the-premises service in the United States, providing broadband Internet and IPTV to a small and slowly increasing number of locations. In mid-2016, Google Fiber ...

TV service. SageTV v8 was the initial platform used for the Google Fiber Storage Box (DVR) and TV Box (Client). It has since been replaced with an in-house developed software.

SageTV Media Center for Linux

SageTV Media Center for Linux is compatible with most major Linux distributions. Information on a Gentoo distribution tuned for Media Center usage is available from the SageTV website. It runs on low cost PC and consumer electronics hardware including embedded processors (embedded only available for OEMs).

SageTV Studio

SageTV software also includes a SageTV Studio Development GUI that allows the customization of the user interface and development of add-ons. The company provides documentation so that these customizations can use a Java API. Built-in EPG support is available only for North America; however, the developer community has developed plug-ins that allow unsupported regions to access EPG info through sources such as

XMLTV XMLTV is an XML based file format for describing TV listings, which has been introduced in 2002. IPTV providers use XMLTV as the base reference template in their systems, and extend it internally according to their business needs.SearchSOA.com XML ...

and ICETV in Australia. Additionally, there are

IMDb IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, p ...

and commercial skipping plugins.

Other PVR software

Comparison of PVR software packages This is a comparison of digital video recorder (DVR), also known as personal video recorder (PVR), software packages. Note: this is may be considered a comparison of DVB software, not all listed packages have ''recording'' capabilities. General ...

References

External links

sagetv.com
- SageTV official homepage, now closed since SageTV was acquired by google, now it only links to th
SageTV Forums
for community support.
SageTV Source Code
{{Home theater PC (application software) Digital video recorders Discontinued Google acquisitions Google acquisitions Television placeshifting technology Television technology