Will an extender solve my WAF problems?

[bretm]

Hello,

I'm new to SageTV (and HTPCs in general), and so far I'm extremely frustrated. I'm still using the trial version, but after 2 weeks of tinkering I'm beginning to despair.

Most of my problems are related to media playback performance/quality. I'm running everything from a single PC (server & client) and I just can't find a good set of decoders/filters for my graphics (Intel G35) that handles all the video formats that I want to play. The sound is a mess, too -- SD content is super loud, DVD/HD is way too quiet, and after countless hours of tweaking with AC3Filter I just can't get reliable output via my Coax SPDIF. And getting my Logitech Harmony 880 remote to play nice with UIRT has been a nightmare too. It's making me crazy!!!

So here's the question: will a Media Extender magically solve all (or most) of my problems? I only have a single TV, so I'm not really "extending" to another room or anything. I'm just hoping that a media extender will natively playback all of my formats without any fuss, and I can stop worrying about trying to find the perfect drivers/decoders on my HTPC. Am I dreaming?

[gblinckmann]

You're not dreaming. This has worked for me! I was the only one in the house using my PVR systems before Sage came out with an extender.

[Addict]

Originally Posted by bretm

will a Media Extender magically solve all (or most) of my problems?

Yes.

Originally Posted by bretm

Am I dreaming?

No.


Spend your time , not building a client.

[reggie14]

An HD extender would certainly improve things. Mpeg2 playback is pretty much perfect. I have noticed that digital TV is still quiet compared to analog, but I don't think its quite as bad. You still have to adjust the audio levels, but I have to do that pretty often just moving between different analog channels. It would be kind of nice if we could adjust the recording audio level for analog captures, but I would think Hauppauge would have to do that.

Imported videos are a little less solid. Most people here have had very good experiences playing back divx/xvid/H.264/etc video files. And, playback quality is quite good. But, its not as solid as mpeg2 playback. I've run into various problems playing back mpeg4-asp files and things in MKV containers. I'm apparently a unique case, but I'm sure there are still some lingering problems.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by bretm

Hello,

I'm new to SageTV (and HTPCs in general), and so far I'm extremely frustrated. I'm still using the trial version, but after 2 weeks of tinkering I'm beginning to despair.

Most of my problems are related to media playback performance/quality. I'm running everything from a single PC (server & client) and I just can't find a good set of decoders/filters for my graphics (Intel G35) that handles all the video formats that I want to play. The sound is a mess, too -- SD content is super loud, DVD/HD is way too quiet, and after countless hours of tweaking with AC3Filter I just can't get reliable output via my Coax SPDIF.

Last time I dealt with AC3Filter on a stereo system, all I had to do was disable the "normalize matrix" option to get normal levels from 5.1 content. What exactly are you outputting to? My audio is all reasonably close to the same level (stereo is a bit hotter than DD though). I use nVidia's decoders for everything, or I did when I was using Sage Client.

And getting my Logitech Harmony 880 remote to play nice with UIRT has been a nightmare too. It's making me crazy!!!

Having tried a harmony, I really don't think much of them, especially with PCs, they're just to limiting, too hard to get to work like you want them to.

[perf]

Originally Posted by stanger89

Having tried a harmony, I really don't think much of them, especially with PCs, they're just to limiting, too hard to get to work like you want them to.

You are wrong. Nothing is better for WAF than a Harmony if you need to control several devices.

/Per

[sam99]

An extender definitely reduces the "tinker factor" by a ton. Most people got their HD100 extender up and running in minutes. Some had to do some extra tweaks for what they wanted to do, others still have lingering problems.

My HD100 was plug and play for watching live/recorded tv, listening to my music, viewing my pictures and watching imported videos. I used DVDFab to store only the main movie (tho menus have worked for me when I loaded them too) from my vast DVD collection. I don't do anything special with MKV containers and whatever else people have issues with, just record the video at 100% quality along with all english audio formats (surround and stereo) for when viewing on the non-surround system tvs in the basement and kids rooms.

So to sum up, yes, the extender will more than likely very much improve the WAF factor. Also, first thing my wife asked when I got our first one was if that meant I was going to move the "ugly" pc out of the great room. Ugly pc?!?! It is an Antec NSK2400, what I considered to be an absolutely beautifly face for our pc client, sigh.

Also, we use a Home Theater Master MX-700 programmable remote, best purchase I ever made. I was wrestling with the uirt with it, but only because I never took the time to truly learn Girder. It worked great when just programming the buttons directly in Sage. Since I added the HD100 extender and a wii to the mix, both in December, I have had to have 3 remotes on the end table. The extender remote simply for the power button (since it seems to power off in the middle of the night about twice a week) and the tv remote to switch to the input I was using temporarily for the wii. Taking care of little odds and ends yesterday, I added the power on and off hard buttons to the mx-700 and hooked the wii in thru my receiver and set the mx-700 to enable the hook up I used. So back to one remote again, so wife is extremely happy (and no more 3 year old grabby hands running around with the other remotes), tho the nsk2400 is still sitting there

[bretm]

Originally Posted by sam99

An extender definitely reduces the "tinker factor" by a ton. Most people got their HD100 extender up and running in minutes. Some had to do some extra tweaks for what they wanted to do, others still have lingering problems.

Don't get me wrong -- I like to tinker, and wouldn't be building an HTPC if I didn't want to roll up my sleeves a bit. But on some nights, I'd like to be able to kick back and enjoy my TV / music / movies, without worrying about whether my shows recorded correctly or if my PC can handle a certain media format without barfing!

Originally Posted by sam99

So to sum up, yes, the extender will more than likely very much improve the WAF factor. Also, first thing my wife asked when I got our first one was if that meant I was going to move the "ugly" pc out of the great room. Ugly pc?!?! It is an Antec NSK2400, what I considered to be an absolutely beautifly face for our pc client, sigh.

! That's the same case I'm using. Unfortunately, it sticks out about 3 inches on our entertainment center (I forgot to take the cables into consideration), so I'm on thin ice right now

Originally Posted by sam99

Also, we use a Home Theater Master MX-700 programmable remote, best purchase I ever made. I was wrestling with the uirt with it, but only because I never took the time to truly learn Girder. It worked great when just programming the buttons directly in Sage. Since I added the HD100 extender and a wii to the mix, both in December, I have had to have 3 remotes on the end table. The extender remote simply for the power button (since it seems to power off in the middle of the night about twice a week) and the tv remote to switch to the input I was using temporarily for the wii. Taking care of little odds and ends yesterday, I added the power on and off hard buttons to the mx-700 and hooked the wii in thru my receiver and set the mx-700 to enable the hook up I used. So back to one remote again, so wife is extremely happy (and no more 3 year old grabby hands running around with the other remotes), tho the nsk2400 is still sitting there

Yep, I've been using my Harmony for several years now (with Tivo), and keeping it in the mix has always been a WAF-requirement. It can sometimes get a little complicated if devices get out-of-synch, but it still beats juggling multiple remotes.


Thanks for the encouraging feedback everyone! I've taken the plunge and ordered my HD Extender. Wish me luck..

[evilpenguin]

Originally Posted by bretm

So here's the question: will a Media Extender magically solve all (or most) of my problems? I only have a single TV, so I'm not really "extending" to another room or anything. I'm just hoping that a media extender will natively playback all of my formats without any fuss, and I can stop worrying about trying to find the perfect drivers/decoders on my HTPC. Am I dreaming?

I'd consider myself a Sage expert and I spent close to 3 years tweaking and throwing money at a Sage Client that never really rose above the level of "works good enough". Then I got an HDextender and in 5 minutes it was working better than my client ever did.

Its not quite perfect: the remote layout/shape is pretty 'eh', not being able to throw in a DVD is a bit of a pain, and it still doesn't normalize digital audio. But I got used to the remote, watch DVD's on my Xbox, adjust the volume when I need to (although, i'm hoping they'll improve this through firmware updates), and am happier than i've ever been with my Sage setup

Addict said it best,

Spend your time , not building a client.

[paulbeers]

Originally Posted by evilpenguin

I'd consider myself a Sage expert and I spent close to 3 years tweaking and throwing money at a Sage Client that never really rose above the level of "works good enough". Then I got an HDextender and in 5 minutes it was working better than my client ever did.

Its not quite perfect: the remote layout/shape is pretty 'eh', not being able to throw in a DVD is a bit of a pain, and it still doesn't normalize digital audio. But I got used to the remote, watch DVD's on my Xbox, adjust the volume when I need to (although, i'm hoping they'll improve this through firmware updates), and am happier than i've ever been with my Sage setup

Addict said it best,

I wouldn't consider myself a Sage expert, but I agree. I spent well over a year trying to get a decent hi-def client and was just never happy. In fact my signature hasn't been updated (until the last week) with what I was actually using in a long time simply because I was constantly changing out parts trying to be happy. I finally just used MVP's and transcoding on the fly by my server to do "psuedo-HD" that was "good enough" and didn't require all the tweaking.

I can't wait for my first STX-100 to arrive on Wednesday and my second to arrive on Friday (I was just going to buy one and deal with it for awhile and then decided that is just stupid and ordered a second one over the weekend).

[Slipshod]

Originally Posted by sam99

Also, we use a Home Theater Master MX-700 programmable remote, best purchase I ever made.

I'll second the recommendation of Home Theater Master remotes. I have both the MX-700 and the MX-900, and they both have a very high WAF. At this point the wife won't accept having to use more than one remote per room.

Having discrete on and off codes is one of the things that sold me on the HD extender.