Tuff decision , I want more HD than Sage offers.

[autoboy]

course I'd rather spend $550 on a R5000 for Dish than $500 for a component capture card. With the R5000 you get a perfect capture, vs some component capture device that would suffer analog and generational lossy encoding losses.

I'm not too concerned that you are using component cables. I tend to use them over HDMI when possible because they have less problems. However, I had forgotten about the re-compression problems and the quality that you would lose there. You would also lose the broadcast flags that tell the decoder whether the content is film or video. This would result in significantly worse quality without a high end video processor.

As for going Dish, I guess it is too late for me. I had comcast because I could get QAM, and I never really considered changing. Eventually Comcast should have the same HD channels. They have plenty of bandwidth. I don't need 100 channels. I just need the ones I watch and comcast already gives me most of them with a few exceptions like Comedy Central and Food Network for my girlfriend.

[korben_dallas]

Originally Posted by stanger89

I keep harping on it, but I still say, most HTPCrs greatly overestimate the size of the HTPC market. Here's just one example. Broadcom announced a PCIe card with their HD DVD/BD SOC on it for PC use. Price was listed as $40 in lots of 1000. archibael on AVS worked very hard to secure some of these for the community, but the best price he could get was five times that, $200. That's just an example of something that's cheap to start with, but the HTPC market is too small to make viable.
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showp...&postcount=209

Now imagine a card with component costs of closer to say $200.

That would be awesome.

I tried to press Amir & some of the other MS guys on AVS on a component VC-1 encoding card. Best of all worlds: it's analog, it's high-def (as long as ICT isn't enforced), it's better compression & higher resolution than MPEG-2, and low cpu decode. But I think MS is treading too carefully in the HTPC space to try something like that.

It wouldn't surprise me if a small company or upstart did a component VC-1 encoding card, kinda like Silicon Dust has done with the HDHomerun for clear qam. At least I can hope..

[stanger89]

Well Fujitsu already has an H.264 encoder SOC. Theoretically all you'd have to do is stick that on a component capture card and you'd be golden. Nobody seems to want to do that though.

[MrD]

Of course when Dish adds SciFi HD, I'll just get get an R5000 or two

directv has it now

[Apap]

Originally Posted by MrD

directv has it now

I still have not seen any HD content on this "HD" channel.

Has anybody else seen some?


Curious
Apap

[mistergq]

I don't have SciFi HD, but I was under the impression that Battlestar and SG Atlantis is taped in HD.

[Apap]

Originally Posted by mistergq

I don't have SciFi HD, but I was under the impression that Battlestar and SG Atlantis is taped in HD.

I have seen both shows in HD on HDnet and UHD but not on SciFi HD. I figure it's just a matter of time before they get it together. I just checked Directv's program guide for tonight(friday) and it doesnt have the HD symbol next to SG Atlantis yet. I will check it live when it airs tonight though.(one can hope)

I dont even have my H20 receiver hooked up to Sage yet. I am still considering switching to Dish and getting a r5000 modded box just for HD content. I just hope a less expensive solution will emerge eventually.(one can hope)


Hopefull
Apap

[MattHelm]

Originally Posted by mistergq

I don't have SciFi HD, but I was under the impression that Battlestar and SG Atlantis is taped in HD.

I read somewhere that this years shows are all SD but widescreen (for DVD). They said ALL next years shows will be filmed in HD.

[phelme]

Originally Posted by MattHelm

I read somewhere that this years shows are all SD but widescreen (for DVD). They said ALL next years shows will be filmed in HD.

I think Battlestar Galactica's "Razor" movie was broadcast in HD on SciFi (I downconvert DirecTV's HD channels through Sage so I'm not really sure. it definitely was widescreen).

BG Season One is being released this week on HD-DVD. I'm pretty sure I read in some HD pro video mag a while back they've been filming in HD from the beginning.

I get my broadcast HD off an HDHomeRun, but the bulk we watch is DirecTV. I've given in to just watching downconverted HD off DirecTV because I like SageTV so much (and I need three room sharing) i'm willing to give up the quality...for now. Rumors persist that DirecTV will release a multi-room streaming DVR at some point. If that happens, I'd be hard pressed to stay with Sage.

[mikesm]

Originally Posted by phelme

I think Battlestar Galactica's "Razor" movie was broadcast in HD on SciFi (I downconvert DirecTV's HD channels through Sage so I'm not really sure. it definitely was widescreen).

BG Season One is being released this week on HD-DVD. I'm pretty sure I read in some HD pro video mag a while back they've been filming in HD from the beginning.

I get my broadcast HD off an HDHomeRun, but the bulk we watch is DirecTV. I've given in to just watching downconverted HD off DirecTV because I like SageTV so much (and I need three room sharing) i'm willing to give up the quality...for now. Rumors persist that DirecTV will release a multi-room streaming DVR at some point. If that happens, I'd be hard pressed to stay with Sage.

I know the guys at DirecTV. Multi-room is coming, certainly if you have the DVR's all hooked together with CAT5. Other stuff will take awhile longer.

Thx
Mike

[mohanman]

Do you think direct tv will also have something like download tv shows such as tivotogo? Will the multiroom be faster than tivo transfers?
Just curious if you have more nfo

Thanks
Mo

[mikesm]

Originally Posted by mohanman

Do you think direct tv will also have something like download tv shows such as tivotogo? Will the multiroom be faster than tivo transfers?
Just curious if you have more nfo

Thanks
Mo

Their vision is for multiroom sharing BETWEEN the directv DVR's, not exporting to the PC. Tivo is really the only one who is going in that direction...

Thx
Mike

[samgreco]

Originally Posted by mikesm

Their vision is for multiroom sharing BETWEEN the directv DVR's, not exporting to the PC. Tivo is really the only one who is going in that direction...

Thx
Mike

THAT could flip me over to the dark side. Until now, that has been the killer app part of Sage. Having a centralized DVR as it were. If DirecTV is headed that way, I may have to jump.

[Djc208]

They're slowly catching up, I saw this one in Popular Science the other day. I think it's shown up here before, but they do offer extenders, and the cool part is they communicate over existing cable lines so no ethernet cables required.

They'll never be as flexible as Sage but with a stranglehold on the content and improving feature set it's going to get more difficult to hold onto our HTPCs.

On the down side Cox just increased the DVR service fee $2 on top of the rental fee and the digital cable fees. One more advantage of Sage, you'll want to upgrade and expand but at least you'll never be charged more for what you already have.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by Djc208

They're slowly catching up, I saw this one in Popular Science the other day. I think it's shown up here before, but they do offer extenders, and the cool part is they communicate over existing cable lines so no ethernet cables required.

Moxi has been out for years. As near as I can tell, the cable companies have no interest in deploying something like that.

[waynedunham]

Originally Posted by stanger89

Moxi has been out for years. As near as I can tell, the cable companies have no interest in deploying something like that.

Yes, heaven forbid that a company would actually provide a service to a customer. "Hey, take this CRAP, pay us through the nose.... AND LIKE IT!" (typical media company attitude)

[md2020]

Originally Posted by stanger89

Moxi has been out for years. As near as I can tell, the cable companies have no interest in deploying something like that.

Moxi was the reason I decided to build my own HTPC. The interface was so slow and buggy that there was no way I could tune a three-digit channel. Plus, I could only get about 10 hours of HD content recorded on it before it would start deleting programs. I can't imagine anyone being pleased enough with the main box to want to get an extender.

Frankly, I'm surprised there still around.

[samgreco]

And they just announced a software version. Hmmm.

[sam99]

how many rooms does multi room mean to Direct TV? I have a client and two mvps and will be adding a fourth tv location in the basement gym/bar area. So I hope multi-room really begins to become multi-room and not just 1+1 or something. Two of my locations are currently capable of 1080i and 1080p respectively, and a third will probably become at least 1080i in a month or so. So I hate the current model of 1 hd + 1 sd. My house viewing locations are all home runs back to the basement, so they can be tied together any way I would need through either Cat5e or RG6 cables. Just bring it on!