DVD burning (Sagetv vs Beyondtv) n00b

[videonerd]

Hello.. first post here! Right now I'm building my HTPC and looking at software. To be honest, I'm going between SageTV and BeyondTV. I will most likely trial both once all my hardware is in place in the next couple weeks.

The angle I'm looking at this is my parents using the system and coming from a digital cable box PVR into DVD recorder (getting rid of cable.) Inputs to the HTPC are ATSC and DVD. I want them to be able watch live TV, watch DVDs, schedule recordings, and burn to DVD, all controlled by the Harmony 880 remote. The three are taken care of by both Sagetv and Beyondtv. However for that last point...

Beyondtv seems to support DVD assembly and burning within their environment (http://www.snapstream.com/products/b.../features7.asp) SageTV says, "Recorded video is fully DVD/CVD/SVCD compliant and ready to burn with your third-party software" (http://www.sagetv.com/stvfeatures.html?sageSub=tv) What does Sage mean by 3rd party? Sagetv outputs an ISO? Then switch out of Sagetv into say, Nero, and burn an image that way?

[reggie14]

Originally Posted by videonerd

SageTV says, "Recorded video is fully DVD/CVD/SVCD compliant and ready to burn with your third-party software" (http://www.sagetv.com/stvfeatures.html?sageSub=tv) What does Sage mean by 3rd party? Sagetv outputs an ISO? Then switch out of Sagetv into say, Nero, and burn an image that way?

No, that's not what is means. It means SageTV can produce video files that are basically DVD-Ready. Meaning, you can burn those video files onto a DVD without having to transcode them to a different video format. But, you have to have a program that can author and burn DVDs. Nero can do it.

[VCRUser]

So, does that mean I can simply fire up my DVD-burning program, tell it to put my selected files on the DVD, and that's it, it will work on a DVD player (after finalizing, of course)? There won't be menus without an authoring package, so will the DVD player know what to do with it?

[evilpenguin]

You'd need a DVD creation program that can make videoDVD's, not just regular data DVD's. I recommend VideoRedo TVSuite as it has a bunch of other useful features in addition to creating DVD's.

[tmiranda]

It depends on your DVD burning software. You can't simply burn the MPG file to the disk and have it work in a DVD player. You must first "author" the DVD which means getting all the right files in the right places. Generally you feed the MPG into the authoring tool and it does the rest.

BeyondTV does all of the authoring and burning for you, Sage does not but it has "add ons" that do. If you want ease go with BeyondTV. If you want flexibility go with Sage.

[videonerd]

thanks all, I think I'll still download Sagetv once my 2250 tuner gets in... although the external app to burn a DVD is a real downer, since I must approach this with a STB mentality so that my parents can work it as well.

[evilpenguin]

If DVD burning is something you see happening a lot then BeyondTV is probably the way to go as their solution is nice and remote/user friendly.

But if its just a "Nice to have, but not sure if we would ever use it" or "At most we'ed use it once a month" then you're probably better off forgeting about DVD burning and going with SageTV with all its other benefits.

[reggie14]

evilpenguin

You have/had a plugin for SageMC with DVD burning capabilities. I never tried it, since it sounded like there were still some bugs/limitations, but it looked pretty impressive. Are there any plans to update it?