Scheduling Recordings
Scheduling recordings is a snap. In addition to selecting shows from the program guide as previously described, you can also search for programs to record or manually configure a recording just as you would with your VCR.
You can search by title, person, description, search by all of these fields, or browse programs by category. You can also configure a "favorite" using any of these methods. Favorites are a powerful feature that allow you to automatically record any show that meets specific criteria. For example, you can record all shows that contain the word "bigfoot" in the title or description. You can also record any show in which Bill Cosby appears. You can also specify that a particular show is a favorite, Alias for example. You can tell SageTV to record either just first runs or all showings. SageTV will take care of the rest and will even skip recording episodes that you've already seen automatically.
 SageTV will ... even skip recording episodes that you've already seen automatically.
If you don't have any particular favorites, you can let SageTV pick them for you based upon what you've told it are your likes and dislikes. After watching for a month or so, SageTV will have a pretty good idea of the type of show you like and will automatically record shows for you. This feature (called Intelligent Recording or IR) is a great feature as long as you give SageTV enough time to discover your patterns before you turn IR on. I've discovered quite a few shows that are now on my favorite list as a result of this feature.
Viewing Recorded Shows
Figure 4 shows a list of shows I've recorded. Viewing any one of these is as simple as selecting it from the list. Notice that SageTV color-codes shows based on what they are. In figure 4, the shows that are colored with a purple tint are movies.
Figure 4 - SageTV Recordings
None of these shows have been watched yet. Once you watch a show, SageTV will italicize the text for that show both in the list of recordings and in the program guide. That means that you won't ever again have to wonder whether or not you've seen a show that's listed in the guide. If it's in italics, you've seen it before.
SageTV can use a Windows service to record shows. This is a great option because it means that as long as your computer is running, SageTV can record your shows.
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