SageTV STX-HD100 HD Media Extender pictures

[bialio]

You have valid points - however to me they don't matter that much. If Sage had a remote that could control my TV volume / video input and an external DVD player along with the extender, I'd use it. But they don't, so universal is the only option available to get down to one remote. I don't mind giving up buttons that I never use - like Watch and Don't Like - if it simplifies things down to a single remote.

btl.

[MH2006]

I want 3 units...now! I'm actually glad theres no card reader, optical, or internal HDD storage or anything that would add significantly to the cost/price which isn't necessary to its primary purpose, which is a sage client (not an HTPC). The remote blows me away - I never even anticipated a custom Sage Remote with custom buttons...awesome! edit: the price is 199$ which is great. x264/mkv support is the biggest non-standard feature that is still up in the air for me. It would be amazing if it was supported, if it isn't - i'd still buy it, but wouldn't be as awesome.

Why is x264/mkv important? Its becoming the de facto open source standard for HD video compression, analogous to what xvid/divx was for SD material.

[evilpenguin]

Originally Posted by bialio

You have valid points - however to me they don't matter that much. If Sage had a remote that could control my TV volume / video input and an external DVD player along with the extender, I'd use it. But they don't, so universal is the only option available to get down to one remote. I don't mind giving up buttons that I never use - like Watch and Don't Like - if it simplifies things down to a single remote.

btl.

I think losing HIP/MCE remote is going to be the hardest part of all of this. Oh well, as long as the STX can playback everything I throw at it, i'm willing to make the sacrafice

[Fluffdaddy]

Originally Posted by camTexas

I'll second props for HawgGuy. Without his work I would have struggled to get my R5000 as good as I have it at the moment. Seeing he's been banging tests on the new extender gives me higher confidence to pull the trigger on purchasing at the start. Otherwise I was going to wait until someone had a chance to verify it worked.

Ditto on both counts.
I was also going to want for a few R5000-HD/Dishnetwork user reviews. But now I'm down as soon as they are available

[autoboy]

I agree on the remote. I thought the MCE remote was a great product and I designed my bedroom system around it. It is very comfortable and the programmable TV power and volume are awesome. With the variable sound out from the TV I am able to control the volume of the 2 channel amp that powers my speakers in my 2.1 setup, and I can turn on and off the TV. Nothing more is needed. It was brilliant. Now I am not so sure. My primary reason for wanting the extender was to replace the client in the bedroom because while the fan noise was inaudible even at 3 AM, the laptop drive clicked every 7 seconds and never shut off. It is quiet but bugs me a bit. Nothing I tried got the drive to spin down permanently except standby which screwed up the FSE.

Now I have to get another remote to replace the MCE remote and program it for one remote operation. I was never really happy with my Logitech because it is so much slower to respond than the MCE remote. Button presses have a noticeable lag that makes me press it too many times while the MCE remote is instant. I've played with the settings, but never got it any faster. This is a PITA for me and I only use the Logitech for turning on and off my system and for other devices. Getting the PS3 for BluRay has mucked it up again because now I need three remotes hanging around.

I'll be on the lookout for a good simple programmable remote for the bedroom for sure. I might just keep the client in the living room for awhile until I sort this out.

[polen]

Have any of you considered the the MCE remote might just work with the STX. You might need to modify some of the key binds with the Sage Settings config, but why wouldn't it work?

-Polen

[Humanzee]

It would have been nice to have an ir extension port. If I get one of these it would be for a wall mounted flat screen. So I'd likely mount the extender behind the TV, or in the room behind the wall. I'll have to get a repeater or something.

DVI would have been nice too. I have an early flat screen that doesn't do hdmi, but I guess there is still component.

I just hope that it works well.

[Jabroni]

Originally Posted by Humanzee

It would have been nice to have an ir extension port. If I get one of these it would be for a wall mounted flat screen. So I'd likely mount the extender behind the TV, or in the room behind the wall. I'll have to get a repeater or something.

DVI would have been nice too. I have an early flat screen that doesn't do hdmi, but I guess there is still component.

I just hope that it works well.

There are DVI -> HDMI cables out there

[HawgGuy]

Originally Posted by jasongrimme

HawgGuy,

Can you share what to h.264 parameters I need to encode my mpeg-2 video for playback on an HD extender?

Not sure about that as I'm just playing the stream as it's sent out by Dish networks. The Dish h.264 HD stream is very tricky as they use PAFF interlacing which AFAIK in the PC world are only playable using Cyberlink & CoreAVC decoders (maybe Elecard as well).

Since the HD Extender can play the difficult-to-play Dish streams, I'll bet it can handle yours as long as they're not too non-standard.

[HawgGuy]

Originally Posted by Jabroni

And will it play MPEG4 steams too?? (since dish started moving all their HD channels from MPEG2 to MPEG4)...

Right now im not aiming at the R5000, but rather a solution with genpix + mytheater (onces they release a version with mpeg4 support)

Dish mpeg4=h.264. All the Dish HD channels I watch are h.264 streams, with the sole exception of ESPN, which is still mpeg-2 last time I checked (ESPN2 is h.264).

[sixdoubleo]

Originally Posted by mayamaniac

First, the logitech remotes sometimes cost more than the HD Extender itself. You can justify the price because you think it's totally worth it as it is the ultimate remote that controls everything in your entertainment area. But what you are not factoring in is the TV in the bedroom, or any other TV outside of the main HDTV. Many of us cannot afford to buy multiple logitech remotes for those other TVs. And on a side note, I think the button layouts on most of the logitechs suck, the hauppauge and MCE remote's layout is much better.

FWIW, I use one Logitech Harmony remote to control two different rooms. There are activities defined for my Living room and also my Master Bedroom. One could conceivably buy 2 Harmony remotes, program them identically to control everything in the house and then leave them laying around just like you do cordless phones.

[hemicuda]

As if I didn't have enough things to get excited over

Only thing I can see is getting used to the mute button being next to the channel instead of volume. everything else I have has it next to the volume button.

Now I can tie all my devices into the LCD via HDMI and use the LCD optical out to the stereo for 5.1. no more swapping out the spdif and optical to go from live HD to MVP to XB360 anymore

now to find a good deal on a pair of HDMI cords....

[Fluffdaddy]

Originally Posted by hemicuda

now to find a good deal on a pair of HDMI cords....

http://www.monoprice.com/products/su...02&cp_id=10243

[Whitey]

Originally Posted by HawgGuy

Not sure about that as I'm just playing the stream as it's sent out by Dish networks. The Dish h.264 HD stream is very tricky as they use PAFF interlacing which AFAIK in the PC world are only playable using Cyberlink & CoreAVC decoders (maybe Elecard as well).

Since the HD Extender can play the difficult-to-play Dish streams, I'll bet it can handle yours as long as they're not too non-standard.

Looks like Sky HD/BBC HD channels in the UK should work too then

Whitey

[garyellis]

I noticed on the back that the Ethernet port only says "Ethernet", thus I assume it is 100/10 based...Would be a nice surprise if its 1000 based...


Gary Ellis

[Djc208]

Originally Posted by garyellis

I noticed on the back that the Ethernet port only says "Ethernet", thus I assume it is 100/10 based...Would be a nice surprise if its 1000 based...


Gary Ellis

Don't know that it needs to be, it's just streaming media in real time, no internal storage so it shouldn't be bandwith limited. The HDHRs have no problems feeding two HD streams over a 100 Mb connection so one feed to this should be simple enough.
Now if you're going to run a few extenders at the same time then having a gigabit capable server and switch might be a good idea to keep everything fed.

[CarlR]

Great to see that this finally going to become reality. I was happy with my 3 ReplayTVs for years, but the ability to record and play back HD content is what finally got me to retire them and switch to SageTV. I finally made the switch back when the "mid-November" date was announced, and have been looking forward to this ever since.

As with a lot of other posters, I'm liking the $200 price, and I'm happy that the feature set was streamlined to keep the price down. I'm in for 2 - I'd love to be able to pre-order!

[valnar]

I know everybody will hate me for this, but I'm a little worried that the price is so low.

The old Hauppauge extender didn't require much "intelligence" since it only had to output composite or s-video. The new HD extender, I assume, outputs all HD compatible resolutions so it would also require a better scaler as well as a deinterlacer. There are many grades of scalers. Now, I don't expect it to have the Silicon Optix, but at $200 for the whole unit, it's probably the cheapest one around.

Depending on our HTPC's that we may be replacing, it could be a step down in quality, although an obvious step up in convenience.

-Robert

[Brent]

Originally Posted by garyellis

I noticed on the back that the Ethernet port only says "Ethernet", thus I assume it is 100/10 based...Would be a nice surprise if its 1000 based...


Gary Ellis

The box says "Wired Lan: 10/100 Mbps Ethernet RJ45 Connection"

So no Gigabit.
Unfortunate, but probably okay.

[Diginerd]

Routing Packets Vs Switching them will require a decent router... But if you have the gear then I don't see why it won't work, I do the same thing with machines on different subnets at home. I do have some nifty Cisco gear though!