Will seting up HD ever be plug n play

[davefred99]

I have been a Sage user for a little over 2 years now. I am reformed BTV user. The reasons I became a Sage user was because I wanted an all in one integrated easy to set up PVR/Media experience. For the most part Sage has met my needs but for one thing. Setting up HD is a royal pain in the rear. I have managed to set up over the air HD with a Divco fusion card and the HD homerun using the network encoders form silicon dust. Now we have BDA drivers for the Hauppage-1600 and the HD HomeRun or even firewire recording.
I have read most of the threads on these forums about all the problems converting to the BDA drivers and upgrading to the Latest 6.2.7 Rc and it makes my head swim. I consider myself a fairly advanced user but still dread makeing the switch. I keep asking myself why cant it all just be a simple plug n play conversion. I know many power users probably enjoy the challenge but I bet that the average user is not amused at the shear complexity of it all. I wonder if this is not driving many potential Sage users away. Using a Satellite or Cable HD PVR starts to look oh so much easier especially for premium HD content of which we may never get in Sage.
Just some random thoughts as I contemplate upgrading from 6.1.9 setting up BDA for HD. Wondering how many others are starting to get overwhelmed with it all.
Dave

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by davefred99

I have been a Sage user for a little over 2 years now. I am reformed BTV user. The reasons I became a Sage user was because I wanted an all in one integrated easy to set up PVR/Media experience. For the most part Sage has met my needs but for one thing. Setting up HD is a royal pain in the rear. I have managed to set up over the air HD with a Divco fusion card and the HD homerun using the network encoders form silicon dust. Now we have BDA drivers for the Hauppage-1600 and the HD HomeRun or even firewire recording.
I have read most of the threads on these forums about all the problems converting to the BDA drivers and upgrading to the Latest 6.2.7 Rc and it makes my head swim. I consider myself a fairly advanced user but still dread makeing the switch. I keep asking myself why cant it all just be a simple plug n play conversion. I know many power users probably enjoy the challenge but I bet that the average user is not amused at the shear complexity of it all. I wonder if this is not driving many potential Sage users away. Using a Satellite or Cable HD PVR starts to look oh so much easier especially for premium HD content of which we may never get in Sage.
Just some random thoughts as I contemplate upgrading from 6.1.9 setting up BDA for HD. Wondering how many others are starting to get overwhelmed with it all.
Dave

Your head is swimming because you're reading and watching what is happening through a beta cycle. Both Sage and SilconDust are working and improving their products. These issues are to be expected. What you need to do is be patient and wait until Sage 6.2.7 or .8 or whatever it will be is released. When that occurs the process to upgrade should either be minimal or well documented enough not to cause any issues.

Gerry

[SprDtyF350]

I think you are right on when you say setting up HD is a pain in the rear. I don't understand the logic involved in any of it. What geniuses thought up the great idea of having not just one channel number but multiple channel numbers? Why does my TV receive an HD channel at one location, and my HVR-1600 gets it at another. Where is the standard?

I understand TV networks want to make money.. But when did making money mean doing everything in your companies power to make the end user miserable? Why is it that I can get all my analog channels in the clear with no cable box but the exact same channels need to be encrypted when they are sent out digital? What's the difference? Pretty much the same crappy feed.

I wish the brainiacs in charge of all this foolishness would just understand that DRM is only harming the honest end user. The music industry seems to be slowly figuring this out. Why does the Movie/TV industry feel the need to re-invent the wheel? HBO, Sports, PPV.. Encrypt them, I don't care... That makes sense.. Encrypting normal TV just because doesn't.

There are an awful lot of Lemmings, Sheep, whatever fuzzy animal you choose that like to follow each other around blindly and amazingly are just thrilled to get the garbage the cable companies feed them. I picked up one of the HD-DVR boxes from Comcast last week just to see if it was worth a darn. After numerous calls to there Tech support to get it to do On-Demand, display the guide, and to even show the analog channels I got fed up and got rid of it. They have know idea how there own stuff works. Not to mention that was the most annoying, slow box I have ever used.

Digital TV has a lot of potential that will probably be ruined by greedy companies. Consumers that put up with it just feed the monster. How many people realistically are going to take all the TV shows they record on there DVR and upload them all over the internet? Who cares if they do? Just greedy TV companies....

Sorry to turn your post into a rant.. It just kinda makes me mad....

[scavenge]

I bided my time before moving up to HD, watched the forums, made my decisions, upgraded my PVR machine (just a little ... it was a p3 750 w. a 6300LE [worked great for SD!], it's now a P4 2.5 w. 7600GS), and set to it last week.

I picked up a HVR 1600 about a month ago (BTW CircuitCity where's my rebate check? and finally set up HD via clear QAM last week.

Following forum instructions and taking it step by step it all went pretty well. QAM scanning takes ages and then re-mapping your (alternative) program guide is also a chore but ... it works ... kinda.

I have my alternate program guide set up and am now tuning HD via clear QAM.

HD playback ... that's another issue, I still have the dreaded stuttering on Sage playback of recorded HD...

Interface wise Sage is also a bit clunky with HD ... there don't seem to be any HD vs. SD recording/favorite preferences ... tuner priority needs to be set in a preferences file rather than from within the interface.

I must admit setting Sage up for HD was no more challenging than setting it up for SD originally (notwithstanding stuttering (which may be my lowly equipment)). I started with v3, and getting my pvr150 digitizing via svhs from my cable box with serial control was no picnic. I think of Sage as an enthusiast product, it's never been "plug and play" in my experience.