SageTV 7 (beta) Arrives Tomorrow

SageTV 7 Main Screen

Huge news broken by Brent over at GeekTonic.  He definitely has connections at SageTV.  He got an exclusive look at the new SageTV 7 UI, the new plug-in manager, and much, MUCH more.  It would appear that the silence from SageTV was certainly time well-spent and I know I’m personally looking forward to trying it out.  To say that SageTV listened to their users would be a tremendous understatement.  Head on over to GeekTonic for the full scoop, but here’s a look at the main menu to whet your appetite…

Many will focus on the new UI, transitions and effects and think that’s the biggest change here – and it is from a purely look & appearance perspective.  But for me it’s also the more subtle, under-the-hood changes that make this version a huge leap forward.  The new plugin manager makes installing and updating add-ons incredibly easy – I can’t stress enough how much of an improvement this is to those that use SageTV.  The changes the SageTV team has made will make the learning curve so much easier.

Other non-UI items that are on the list of things I’m really appreciating here include the improved HD-PVR performance, improved HD200 performance (it handles navigation very fast), no more “pause” between shows when watching LiveTV like I used to experience when watching sports, improved Blu-ray functionality, the embedded metadata in the recorded TV file – those sorts of things will be appreciated by those familiar with SageTV 6.