HD100 -- congratulations

[salsbst]

SageTV,

Congratulations on a great product. The HD100 isn't perfect, but it sure beats the headaches of managing a PC client. I've been strident in the past over issues of PC-based rendering, but I'm now a convert to the extender approach.

What's great about the extender?

a) It renders the UI almost as quickly as a decent PC. It's a bit better than I expected.

b) It is better at rendering "tough" HD streams than any PC I've managed to put together and configure. This is huge for us, since we use firewire via Windows to capture from digital cable -- these streams present nothing but problems to PCs, and the extender just renders them (though sometimes it can't get the thumbnail).

c) It's a lot quieter than even a laptop.

d) Nice that the remote has SageTV functions logically mapped (though layout isn't the best on the remote).

e) I like its ability to automatically adjust resolution to content under HDMI, especially important due to lack of VGA output.

What's to be improved?

a) It would be nice if the UI was snappier (speedwise). It certainly feels slower than my 2.6GHz processor SageClient PC. See below comment on IR, though, as I'm not sure where the slowness lies.

b) I have experienced the need to restart my server to get the extender unstuck from "black screen mode" (it goes to black upon attempting to connect to the server). I know this may be a substantial architecture change, but it would be ideal if each client could be served by its own process on the server. Restarting the main Sage server to correct a client problem is kind of a client/server no-no....

c) I do feel like the IR receiver is weak. I haven't figured out whether the pain I experience navigating on the extender is due to:
i) directionality of IR remote/receiver
ii) weakness of signal/reception in IR remote/receiver
iii) general sluggishness of the extender as compared to a true client

I suspect it is a combination of all three. With a hardware revision, I hope (i) and (ii) can be fixed. I have a feeling (iii) may be more software-architecture and complicated.

All I know is that after using a client, the extender feels a tad sluggish.

The fact that the remote is unwieldy compared to a first-generation MCE remote may have something to do with this, though. Those first (or is it 2nd) generation MCE remotes just fit perfectly in the hand and have thumb-friendly buttons in the right places.

Anyway, it's sometimes hard to tell where the slowness is, and what are the particular pain points, but I guess what I'm trying to say is that it could feel better to navigate on an extender, and I think it should be improved over time.

d) Did I mention that I don't like the remote? It is nice to have a remote that has all of the Sage buttons marked for Sage, though. My wife loves the (possibly malore) feature whereby she can press Delete and have a prompt as to whether to delete it as watched or delete it as don't like (I like that, too).

e) I really wish there was something developers could do with the USB ports. I especially want to put a USB-UIRT in there and gain control of my TV. It's a pain in the but* to have to turn on/off our TV with a separate remote (especially since it's a bedroom installation). That's the only reason we have to let that remote float around. I know the typical solution is to use a programmable remote, but if SageTV could support the USB-UIRT (via an API for Java and the Java-compatible Studio language), that would be spectacular -- the whole home-automation thing is missing from extenders unless they can communicate with the outside world.

f) I really wish it had VGA out. I think a lot of us have HDTVs that run at resolutions other than (and higher than) the standard HDMI resolutions. I suspect we'd be better off scaling in the extender and sending VGA to the TV from there at its native resolution. However, this is mitigated by the fact that the extender can switch resolutions on the fly based on content. At least we don't need to do an extra scaling step in the process.

To sum it up, all in all, the HD100 is making us really happy, and we look forward to even better products from SageTV in the future. Thanks.

[autoboy]

I love my extender too. It really is a nice box. I agree with the comments above. A few of my own.

1. Sluggish UI compared to my 2ghz single core PC client. This is made worse by having to use the sluggish Logitech remote because the layout on the Sage Remote is really bad. Sorry guys, but it really is. I think some are just being too nice. It sucks truck nuts compared to the MCE remote. Made sweeter only by the addition of the specific buttons. Please please please allow the extender to learn the MCE remote buttons! Please!

2. Worse scaling / deinterlacing than the best video cards on the market. This is fixed by allowing native output, letting the Reon in my AVR do the scaling. Awesome. Great job there. I don't expect Reon class scaling in this device.

3. Extender shuts down randomly. Hmm, can't quite figure out why. It never happens when I am watching something.

4. Did I say the remote sucks?

[evilpenguin]

Originally Posted by autoboy

Please please please allow the extender to learn the MCE remote buttons! Please!

I couldn't agree more

[Lucas]

Originally Posted by salsbst

a) It would be nice if the UI was snappier (speedwise). It certainly feels slower than my 2.6GHz processor SageClient PC.

I had the same experience with the MVP extender. All my MVP sluggishness disappeared when I overcloclocked the CPU of my SageTV server from 2.8Ghz to 3.36Ghz.....

The MVP response times are now as good as my C2D SageTV PC client.

This may be worth a try if the HD100 uses the same approach for rendering the UI.


When SageTV decides to make the HD100 available to us non-US based customers, we will join in congratulating SageTV!!!

The MVP connected to an HD TV set just doesn't cut it!

[CarlR]

Originally Posted by autoboy

I love my extender too. It really is a nice box. I agree with the comments above. A few of my own.


3. Extender shuts down randomly. Hmm, can't quite figure out why. It never happens when I am watching something.

Firmware version 20071226 was released to fix this problem, though I haven't had a chance to load it yet, so I'm still getting the random shutdowns also.

[nebulink]

I really don't like the remote eigther. I would like to either use my mce remote or have a remote that is somewhat similar to the mce remote.

The mce remote fits well in the hand and all the necessary keys for quick navigation can be easily found by feel in the dark.

[Jesse]

b) I have experienced the need to restart my server to get the extender unstuck from "black screen mode" (it goes to black upon attempting to connect to the server). I know this may be a substantial architecture change, but it would be ideal if each client could be served by its own process on the server. Restarting the main Sage server to correct a client problem is kind of a client/server no-no....

This is a serious problem. I tried to solve it by just putting sage to sleep and leaving the extender on all the time. After a couple of days the response to the remote became extremely sluggish. Powering the unit down and rebooting will solve the problem. The problem is that the extender generally will not reboot and I end up having to restart the server....

I have taken my extender out of service because of this. Any chance the latest RC will cure this?

Jesse

[johnnytyler]

I just wanted to reply to the original poster. While I agree with most of his post esp with the remote, I do believe that the HD extender infact deinterlaces very well and upscales very well. I have compared the extender with my server with NVIDIA and FFDSHOW as well as with upconvesion with Toshiba A30 and can say that the extender comes on par with the NVIDIA/FFDSHOW and BEATS (yes I said beats) my A30 hands down. Now I don't know what chip the A30 has but I can say for the price this is amazing and am very happy. I am confident Sage developers will iron out the other bugs as well as have a fix for the IR issue. In the mean time kudos to Sage for delivering such an amazing product that beats anything else on the market as an extender!!!