Future of recording HDTV

[mikesm]

Originally Posted by stanger89

Agreed, but HD media files aren't really a problem, and aren't really what I was getting at. My point was simply that there are a lot of calls for Sage to do something in the way of "HD DVD/BD support". To me, that means adding support for the handling the logical structure of an HD DVD/BD the way Sage can handle the logical structure of a DVD. Now before I go farther, I would love to be able to pop in an HD DVD or BD (say into a new LG H20L drive ) and hit "Play DVD" in the Media Center menu and happilly play the movie, just like I can with a DVD.

However the reality of the situation is, nobody is making Directshow components to support the logical structure of HD DVD/BD because you can't play retail discs via directshow (Note that there are no "unencrypted" BDs because AACS is mandatory on prerecorded BDs, it's optional on HD DVDs).

I've resigned myself to the hope that somebody (ffdshow or ac3filter) will add DD+ decoding support so there is a dshow filter capable of decoding DD+ other than the one in Sonic Scenarist (which is $$$$). If I can put DD+ audio, VC-1/H.264 video, and chapters in some sage-compatible container, I'll be happy

I don't disagree. However, since you can't get it to just work, the question is what is close enough to be useful. If sage can remember the position in the file where I last stopped watching it, I don't really miss chapters. The most important thing is for sage to be able to play an h.264 or vc-1 HD file properly. We're pretty close to that now actually.

We really can't talk more specifically on this forum. However there are many useful threads that on avsforum and doom9 to do that in.

Thx
mike


I would be more specific, but forum

[mrdrbdt]

I've been waiting and waiting and waiting for a PC card (I'm not going to call it a tuner) that has some form of HD capable input (component, HDMI/DVI, etc.) and does hardware encoding, but I still don't see any on the horizon. Something like a happauge 1600 with component inputs. This would seem like the cheapest and easiest work around for the whole 5C/ClearQAM/etc. problem. Just get the $5/month HD stb from the cable company, a USB-UIRT, and have sage tune the STB. Is a solution like this still not available?

[m1abrams]

Originally Posted by mrdrbdt

I've been waiting and waiting and waiting for a PC card (I'm not going to call it a tuner) that has some form of HD capable input (component, HDMI/DVI, etc.) and does hardware encoding, but I still don't see any on the horizon. Something like a happauge 1600 with component inputs. This would seem like the cheapest and easiest work around for the whole 5C/ClearQAM/etc. problem. Just get the $5/month HD stb from the cable company, a USB-UIRT, and have sage tune the STB. Is a solution like this still not available?

Actually an HDMI capture card exists
http://www.blackmagic-design.com/products/intensity/

However from what I understand it would not work with a cable box. Not real sure on the details though. Just do not know anyone using it for TV capture.

[mrdrbdt]

Originally Posted by m1abrams

Actually an HDMI capture card exists
http://www.blackmagic-design.com/products/intensity/

However from what I understand it would not work with a cable box. Not real sure on the details though. Just do not know anyone using it for TV capture.

Wow, that looks really cool! I hadn't seen that before. I wonder if Sage would be able to record from it. Guess that would be a question for Sage tech support. Thanks for the link!

[ybrew]

Originally Posted by mrdrbdt

Wow, that looks really cool! I hadn't seen that before. I wonder if Sage would be able to record from it. Guess that would be a question for Sage tech support. Thanks for the link!

do a search for that card here and you won't be quite as excited.

Still waiting for something like that myself that I can use with sage. For now, I'm resigned to having an STB in my media room. I'll continue to use sage to distribute non-hd content (still have tons of that).

Hopefully something is on the horizon.

[scavenge]

if I had the money I'd just pony up for one of these and a couple of cablecards from my local cable company:

http://www.weaknees.com/tivo/tivo-hd-1350-hours.php

[GbrNole]

Originally Posted by scavenge

if I had the money I'd just pony up for one of these and a couple of cablecards from my local cable company:

http://www.weaknees.com/tivo/tivo-hd-1350-hours.php

it's just a tivo hd that you can get for 250 on the net with a 1tb drive jammed in it that you can get for ~250 also on the net. for what they're charging you can get 2 boxes!

[eobiont]

So I've purchase my TivoHD and have a three year subscription going.

I am so unhappy and I feel like I've made a terrible mistake.

I had a Tivo from ~2001 until 2004 and switched over to Sage TV at that time.

I really hate the Tivo interface. I hate the way I have to specify a show and a channel to record something. Like if I want to record "Weeds" off showtime, I have to pick Showtime even though recording conflits could be avoided ifthe Tivo jsut decided to record it from the other channel.

Searching for shows is tedious. That onscreen keyboard sucks. I piss the predictive text or k-9 or whatever you want to call it that sage introduced last year. Maybe I should do all my searching via the web interface.

The Sage inteface is so much better than Tivo. I think I want to figure out a way to suck all the shows off of Tivo as soon as they are done recording and insert them into Sage.

Blerg.

[m1abrams]

Originally Posted by eobiont

So I've purchase my TivoHD and have a three year subscription going.

I am so unhappy and I feel like I've made a terrible mistake.

I had a Tivo from ~2001 until 2004 and switched over to Sage TV at that time.

I really hate the Tivo interface. I hate the way I have to specify a show and a channel to record something. Like if I want to record "Weeds" off showtime, I have to pick Showtime even though recording conflits could be avoided ifthe Tivo jsut decided to record it from the other channel.

Searching for shows is tedious. That onscreen keyboard sucks. I piss the predictive text or k-9 or whatever you want to call it that sage introduced last year. Maybe I should do all my searching via the web interface.

The Sage inteface is so much better than Tivo. I think I want to figure out a way to suck all the shows off of Tivo as soon as they are done recording and insert them into Sage.

Blerg.

Funny, I was thinking of going back to Tivo recently when I got my HD TV. Finally decided to go with HDhomerun because my local cable does not really offer much for HD content beyond the locals anyhow (do not pay for premiums). Also the issues with Tivo you mentioned plus the lack of the awesome ShowAnalyzer for comskip.

I use to LOVE Tivo and thought they had the best interface, however as I spend more time with Sage I no longer think that.

[Djc208]

Originally Posted by scavenge

if I had the money I'd just pony up for one of these and a couple of cablecards from my local cable company:

http://www.weaknees.com/tivo/tivo-hd-1350-hours.php

Have you seen some of the Sage servers people around here have built? I wouldn't call a C2Q w/ 2GB of RAM and 1+ TB of HDD space a poor man's solution, that's nicer than my gaming rig right now.

Sage can be cheaper to implement than some solutions, especially if you're using old hardware to run it on like I am. But even that is misleading since it always grows. One tuner card becomes two, which means you need more HDDs, then an extender or two for other TVs, commercial skipping and transcoding warrant a more powerful CPU, etc, etc.

The big reason I think most people like Sage is the flexability it offers. Between Sage's place shifters, extenders, and transcoders; not to mention all the user add-ons like the SageMC interface, commercial skipping, web interface, etc. You can get your Sage content just about anywhere, any time, in any format you please. Try that with Tivo.

Problem is since Sage is so open, and the DRM police are so picky, it's almost impossible to get the newer digital and HD content out of the hands of the few people who control it.

I'm hoping the various companies who make the hardware and software that supports our hobby here will figure something out sooner or later. After all, as more content goes digital and HD, it's going to get harder for them to do business. Unfortunatly right now that also means we're going to give up some flexability in how we can use the recordings we make.

[eobiont]

Ok, now i'm really pissed. If id only waited six months. I'm gonna sell my tivohd if this thing does what it looks like it does...

http://www.hauppauge.com/site/products/data_hd_pvr.html

[m1abrams]

Originally Posted by eobiont

Ok, now i'm really pissed. If id only waited six months. I'm gonna sell my tivohd if this thing does what it looks like it does...

http://www.hauppauge.com/site/products/data_hd_pvr.html

Wow looks like it has been released. I might have to get one, however at $249 I will only be able to get 1. That might be enough since I have a HDHomerun I can record 2 HD locals with it and then have 1 tuner for the other HD channels. Could still keep one of my analog tuners to catch anything else. I have notice over the past few weeks that the analog channels from my cable company have been very poor in quality. They use to be pretty good, I may have to get them out here to check the line.

[Sam]

Originally Posted by m1abrams

Wow looks like it has been released.

On their homepage, it says "Shipping starts May 1"