So long XBOX 360, hello SageTV + HD200

[jetradio]

Well, after countless hours of turning Google inside out and reading virtually every XBox and Microsoft forum in every English-speaking country in the world, I have determined that there is no simple way to create a network-based DVD library (with full menus) using the XBox 360 as a Media Center Extender and Windows Vista as the Media Center server. At best, one can play the main video file (after renaming the .VOB file to .MPG), but if the movie was encoded in DTS, forget it. A friend of mine has been raving about SageTV for months, and I know that for what I want to do the HD200 and SageTV server are incredibly overpowered, but I figured I would take the plunge, accomplish my primary goal and then explore and add new functionality as I go along. I'm looking forward to having instant access to my entire DVD library, regardless of encoding scheme, at my fingertips - without splitting the atom!

I do have a couple of quick questions:

1. For you HD200 owners out there - is anyone able to control the HD200 with the Logitech series of universal remotes?

2. Is it possible to bind the SageTV service to multiple network cards in a server? The machine I intend on using for my SageTV server (Windows Vista SP1) is connected to two subnets.

I'm looking forward to receiving my system next week. Too bad I can't play networked DVDs on my Mac though :-( I read in some other threads that it's not working currently.

[toricred]

I can state that the Logitech remotes work very well with the HD200.

[jetradio]

Originally Posted by toricred

I can state that the Logitech remotes work very well with the HD200.

Thank you very much. I decided that I didn't want to get pummeled for not searching hard enough, so I ran a search and saw that the remote is in fact in the Logitech dB. I was about to edit my post when I saw your answer - thanks again!

[voorhees]

Originally Posted by jetradio

1. For you HD200 owners out there - is anyone able to control the HD200 with the Logitech series of universal remotes?

I use the Logitech Harmony 550 with my HD200 and it works great.

[rasp]

Originally Posted by jetradio

I'm looking forward to receiving my system next week. Too bad I can't play networked DVDs on my Mac though :-( I read in some other threads that it's not working currently.

I had never notice that before, on my mac using placeshifter I get an error about not finding a media player. But since it's all got to be networked anyhow, why not just share the folder with the dvd's and play them back with either dvd player or vlc.

[jetradio]

Originally Posted by rasp

I had never notice that before, on my mac using placeshifter I get an error about not finding a media player. But since it's all got to be networked anyhow, why not just share the folder with the dvd's and play them back with either dvd player or vlc.

Thanks! It worked!

[jetradio]

Thanks to all for their answers today.

Does anyone know if the HD200 can serve as a player for Squeezecenter? I have a laptop connected to my AV receiver right now and it would be great to get rid of that if the HD200 can take over that function.

[brewston]

Originally Posted by jetradio

Thanks to all for their answers today.

Does anyone know if the HD200 can serve as a player for Squeezecenter? I have a laptop connected to my AV receiver right now and it would be great to get rid of that if the HD200 can take over that function.

There's a slimserver plugin, but I don't know if it works on extenders or not. Search the forums for more details

{edit} just did a search and it doesnt work on extenders - sorry

[jetradio]

Originally Posted by brewston

There's a slimserver plugin, but I don't know if it works on extenders or not. Search the forums for more details

{edit} just did a search and it doesnt work on extenders - sorry

Thanks - darn the luck - perhaps I'll look into the smallest squeezebox device and plug that into my receiver. Too bad I can't get a squeezebox player going between my Wii, Xbox 360, PS3, or HD200. Oh the humanity!

[jm9843]

Originally Posted by jetradio

Thanks - darn the luck - perhaps I'll look into the smallest squeezebox device and plug that into my receiver.

Do you have an iPhone, iPod Touch, or Windows mobile smartphone? If so, why not get a (relatively) inexpensive Squeezebox Reciever and control it with the aformentioned device? It'd be much easier than turning the TV on.

[jetradio]

Originally Posted by jm9843

Do you have an iPhone, iPod Touch, or Windows mobile smartphone? If so, why not get a (relatively) inexpensive Squeezebox Reciever and control it with the aformentioned device? It'd be much easier than turning the TV on.

Yes, I have an iPhone and I currently use iPeng as my SqueezeCenter remote, and it's fantastic. I was simply hoping to get rid of the laptop that I currently use as my Squeezecenter client in this setup. I'll keep the laptop for now and probably get the cheapest Squeezebox they make sometime in the future.

[mbowe]

If you have a capture card, you can use whats often refered to as 'The Loopback Hack' for play back on an extender. If you look through the Netflix threads its covered in pretty good detail. Also, I think the Slimplayer thread in the SageMC customiztions section has pretty good coverage. That would allow you to eliminate your laptop, but it has its own limitations, namely that you'd run into sync issues if you wanted multiple zones in sync.

[jetradio]

Originally Posted by mbowe

If you have a capture card, you can use whats often refered to as 'The Loopback Hack' for play back on an extender. If you look through the Netflix threads its covered in pretty good detail. Also, I think the Slimplayer thread in the SageMC customiztions section has pretty good coverage. That would allow you to eliminate your laptop, but it has its own limitations, namely that you'd run into sync issues if you wanted multiple zones in sync.

An earliet post said that the HD200 can't handle being a Squeezecenter client. I don't have a capture card - someone may give me a paper cut and pour lemon juice on it for saying this but the primary function of my HD200 (for now) is to serve as a playback device for a network-enabled DVD library. I'm sure I'll get hooked on its numerous other super-powers, but this is phase 1 for me.

[mbowe]

I hear you jet, it can be a bit of a fire hose out of the gate. I'll try and bring some clarity to the current state of the union with internet streaming on the extenders. As you've learned, native support doesn't exist yet for streaming audio (internet radio, pandora, squeezecenter/slimplayer, etc) nor video (netflix, hulu, etc.) to extenders. But, if you take the video and/or audio OUT of your Sage Server and pipe it back into a capture card, you can tune extenders to a channel with that capture card as the source, resulting in something along the lines of...

Server is playing some content (slimplayer, netflix, etc.) through composite AV out -> tuner card -> new stream captured by sage and assigned to channel X

Meanwhile, on the extender, you direct what's being played on the server with the Netflix, Pandora or SlimPlayer plug-in, but behind the scenes, it's actually tuned to channel X for audio or audio/video playback, resulting in slimplayer or netflix or ??? on the extender.

Here is a direct link to a post in a thread where a plug-in developer that goes by Morgon111 provided an update to his SlimPlayer plug-in that allows this loopback hack to function for slimplayer streaming to the extender.

http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/show...&postcount=157

If you decide you want to pursue it, you'd probably want to start at the beginning of that thread to better familirize yourself with the ins and outs. Also, adding another layer of complexity, his plug-in is built for SageMC, an alternative UI for Sage, that you may not have come accross yet here in the forums.

Another good example of this loopback hack, exists in another plug-in by Morgon111 designed to stream Netflix WatchNow to Sage, but enabled for use on an extender, the thread for this exists at.

http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=30603

It is also designed for SageMC, but both reference plug-ins and loopback hacks for the default UI as well. I hope that helps a little, it at least gives you something to read if you're interested. Feel free to PM me if you'd like, I've gotten valuable help here in these forums, I just want to try and contribute back.

[wayner]

I love my Sage HD-200s but I wouldn't say goodbye to your Xbox360 as it isn't easy to play Rock Band on a Sage extender!