Chapter 1: Introduction

Thank you for choosing SageTV. SageTV is the most innovative and intelligent Media Center software and service for the PC. SageTV offers more features than any standard PVR, as well as features not offered with any other PC-based PVR software. We hope you enjoy SageTV and all of its functionality. If you need any help during installation and setup please utilize this Guide and the online discussion forums at forums.sagetv.com/forums.

Throughout the manual, the following formatting is used:

Commands are displayed in red. Clicking on the text while viewing the manual in PDF form will jump to the description of that command. Example command: Select.

Cross references to menus and other links are displayed in blue. Click on the text to jump to the referenced location. Example reference: Chapter 1: Introduction.

Links to web sites and email are displayed in blue and underlined. Example site: www.sagetv.com.

How to use this Document
Rather than trying to read or browse this entire document at once, it is suggested that new users start by simply reviewing this chapter and Chapter 2: Installation and Setup, which will provide an overview of the installation process and how to start SageTV. Chapter 2 also contains the SageTV Quick Start Guide, which will cover the basics of using SageTV.

For additional help during the initial setup, see Chapter 5: Configuring SageTV.

Information regarding setting up or using a Media Extender or the Placeshifter client is covered in Appendix M: SageTV Media Extenders and Appendix N: SageTV Placeshifter Client.

Later, for additional information about SageTV usage, use the Table of Contents to find details about the various menus (Chapter 3: SageTV Menus), playback (Chapter 4: Media Playback), and assorted appendices at the end of the guide.

A list of the changes in the latest version can be found in Chapter 8: Version History.

Minimum System Requirements
Intel Pentium III 600 MHz, AMD Athlon 600 MHz or faster or VIA 800MHz MPEG4/DivX encoding card or USB device. (As of version 3.0, SageTV is now able to use both hardware and software encoders; check the list of compatible cards and devices in the Appendix.)  PCI/AGP bus graphics card with overlay. NOTE: While it is recommended that your graphics card drivers support DirectX9 for optimum performance, it is not required.
 * Windows 98SE or later operating system
 * Recommended minimum 256MB RAM
 * Genuine
 * Installed compatible TV tuner MPEG-2 or
 * DirectX v9.0 or higher available from www.microsoft.com/windows/directx
 * Java Runtime Environment v1.8 or higher available from java.sun.com/getjava
 * Analog or Digital Cable, Satellite, or Broadcast TV for recording television
 * Internet Connection (for Programming Guide Data Service)
 * 20 MB Free disk space for SageTV application, database, and documentation
 * Recommended minimum 20 GB Free disk space for video storage, i.e. Great Quality
 * Setting takes about 2 GB per hour of video stored
 * For best results, SageTV recommends that you use a dedicated disk partition for video storage.
 * Version 9 of SageTV (and later) has built-in support for the Schedules Direct EPG service. This is a subscription service which most users in the US use.  Check the wiki page on GitHub for details on how to use the new EPG data source.
 * Prior to version 9, SageTV provided electronic programming guide data service (the "EPG Service") for the US and Canada to End Users at no charge. End User acknowledges that SageTV reserves the right to discontinue provision of the EPG Services or may separately charge End Users for provision of the EPG Service.

Product Overview
SageTV is a computer software application and service for your PC that interacts with a TV tuner/MPEG-2 encoding card allowing you to receive television programming through your PC. With SageTV you can pause live TV or rewind and fast-forward while recording. The SageTV EPG service adds an approximately 14 day integrated programming guide that lists all upcoming programs based on your service provider. This service also gives you a Favorites ManagerTM, One-Touch Recording and Intelligent RecordingsTM (a SageTV exclusive), which records programs based on your prior viewing habits. SageTV also supports the playback of most standard non-proprietary media file types including your Music, Photos and Video collection. In addition, SageTV will support multiple tuner devices to record more than one show at a time. With the addition of SageTV Client, you can extend the same functionality of SageTV to any PC on your network. With SageTV Client you can also stream Live and Recorded MPEG-2 Video and Music. SageTV Extenders can be used to extend your viewing to any TV on your local network without the need for additional PCs. Use SageTV Placeshifter to access your home SageTV content from any remote location via the internet. More information about SageTV, SageTV Client, SageTV Placeshifter, and SageTV Extenders is available on our website at www.sagetv.com.

Navigational Tips
Before you use SageTV there are a few Navigational Items we want to point out when using the application:
 * SageTV uses the Left and Right commands to allow you quick navigation through menus. Most menus can be exited by using Left and most items can be selected by using Right. Two places where this doesn’t hold true are in the Live TV Guide and during Media Playback. When using SageTV with a mouse, the left arrow icon in the upper lefthand corner of the screen is for Back. Instead of implementing a right arrow icon, items can just be selected with the mouse by left-clicking on them.


 * SageTV uses the TV command to allow you to jump quickly between the currently playing media and the last menu you viewed. This command is linked to the “Back”, “Exit”, or “TV” buttons on the supported remotes (see: Appendix E: Remote Controls) and to “Ctrl-V” with the keyboard.


 * Throughout many of the menus in SageTV are different viewing options to display video preview windows, change sorting options, and to provide options menus when media is playing. The Options command provides quick access to these menus and is linked to “Ctrl-O” on the keyboard and right-click on the mouse. The linked remote codes are shown at the end of this document in Appendix E: Remote Controls.


 * When playing back Music, the Channel Up and Channel Down commands are used to switch tracks. When playing back a DVD, the same commands are used to switch chapters.


 * Clicking on the SageTV logo at any time will bring you to the Main Menu.