SageTV Extender work with different formats?

[egglick]

Hi, I recently came across the SageTV Extender while looking at other SageTV software, and thought that it looked extremely interesting. Unfortunately, seeing as how it's a hardware product, it's impossible for me to evaluate it in order to learn more.

I was wondering if someone with hands-on experience with the SageTV Extender could elaborate on some of it's functions. Is the SageTV Extender capable of playing multiple video file formats, such as Divx, Xvid, Mpeg4, WMV, etc?? I'm concerned because the product page only lists Mpeg2 under formats supported, and if everything needs to be in Mpeg2, then this device would be much less useful.

Also, what particular software packages are necessary to use the extender?

[Alfiegerner]

hi egglick, welcome to the forum.

you're right, only mpeg2 video is supported by the mvp's native hardware decoder. However the other video formats you specify can be transcoded on your sage tv server and then played back through your mvp. Basically, if you have a beefy enough sage server (say approx > athlon 2600 ) and you install one of the latest betas you should be able to play these formats back through your mvp.

Allin all you would need a full sage tv license for your server and one extender license to use for each mvp or placeshifter client you will use.

[egglick]

Thanks for the response Alfie. My server is a Sempron64 2800+ (1.6ghz) S754 with 1GB DDR400, so hopefully it can do the trick.

I notice that you mention the Hauppauge MVP rather than the SageTV Media Extender. Is the MVP a better choice?? Also, it sounds like support for the other video formats are still in the beta stages.....I've got a very wide range of different formats and resolutions, is this going to be a problem?? Are their any formats that definately DON'T work??

[PGPfan]

Hi egglick,

The Hauppauge MVP and the Sage MVP are exactly the SAME hardware. Sage sells their MVP as a 'bundle' with the needed client software license for the same price that you can buy the Hauppauge MVP elsewhere. If you buy from a place other than Sage, you will need to get the client license for $30 from Sage to use the MVP with Sage.

Hope this helps.

-PGPfan