Thinking about buying Sage TV

[rramacha]

Hello All

I am new to this forum and looking for some information. I would like to get a Sage TV HD to use in standalone in mode.

I have an Apple TV already and ROKU HD as well . I use ROKU in my second room setup and Apple TV in my primary room.

I am planning to move my Apple TV also to secondary room.

I need something in my primary room that will let me watch movies I have ripped as ISO images (which apple TV cannot do) and also youtube videos (which both Apple TV and Sage TV will let me do).

I am looking to see if this will also let me watch netflix and if yes what is the quality of those videos compared to ROKU.

Thanks again and sorry for the long post.

Cheers

[d2tw4all]

I just got one, been playing with Sage for about a week and finally bit the bullet and paid for a combo with the HD200 and a server license. No netflix that I see, and it won't mount DVD ISO files natively but there is a script in the forums that will let you mount them through a server (though I can't seem to get it working for ISO's shared on a network share). I'd highly suggest setting up a backend so you can do live TV, etc but from what I'm seeing as far as video quality for this unit, it is playing back everything I've thrown at it and doesn't even break a sweat! I'm very impressed.

Tom

[davephan]

Originally Posted by rramacha

Hello All

I am new to this forum and looking for some information. I would like to get a Sage TV HD to use in standalone in mode.

I have an Apple TV already and ROKU HD as well . I use ROKU in my second room setup and Apple TV in my primary room.

I am planning to move my Apple TV also to secondary room.

I need something in my primary room that will let me watch movies I have ripped as ISO images (which apple TV cannot do) and also youtube videos (which both Apple TV and Sage TV will let me do).

I am looking to see if this will also let me watch netflix and if yes what is the quality of those videos compared to ROKU.

Thanks again and sorry for the long post.

Cheers

Why would you want a stand alone system in each room, when one SageTV system can cover both rooms? If you used one SageTV server, all your video content could be available in both rooms. You could then watch in ether room, instead of being forced to watch content in one room or the other room. The best way to setup SageTV is with one headless server and HD-200 extenders at each TV.

You didn't mention which operating system you plan to use for SageTV. There is a free trial for Windows, there isn't for Linux. I don't know if there is a trial for the Mac version.

You didn't mention tuners. What type of video content do you have besides DVD rips and Netflix (cable, satellite, over the air). I have no experience with Apple TV already and ROKU HD, so I do not know how they compare to SageTV. You can rip DVDs to directories, and the ripped DVDs can be played back directly with SageTV.

The nice thing about SageTV is that you can start off small and build your system up over time as you want more capacity. I have 5 tuners and am building up to 9 TB now. The problem that you will most likely face if you build too large is that you will never have the time to watch more than a small percentage of your video content available.

I also highly recommend deploying disk imaging or some other form of system backup. If you and others become dependent on SageTV, you will want the ability to quickly recover to a point in time in the past when SageTV was working perfectly if something bad happens to your computer system.

Dave

[1oser]

Tom, I'm curious how you access your ISOs on a network share. I run the HD200 standalone, and I've never had a problem with playing ISOs on a network share (the closest thing to an "issue" I had was when I accidentally renamed an ISO to IMG... I renamed it back, and the HD200 played it fine).

I do not go through the Videos though. I select Folders and go through the File Browser.

[paulbeers]

Originally Posted by 1oser

Tom, I'm curious how you access your ISOs on a network share. I run the HD200 standalone, and I've never had a problem with playing ISOs on a network share (the closest thing to an "issue" I had was when I accidentally renamed an ISO to IMG... I renamed it back, and the HD200 played it fine).

I do not go through the Videos though. I select Folders and go through the File Browser.

I'm assuming he is using full clients or placeshifter. The HD200 can play DVD ISO's, but full clients/placeshifter can not (natively).

[d2tw4all]

I was using full client but just got an HD200 Friday and hooked it up last night. I'm excited to find out it supports native ISO playback, this is huge for me.

Tom

[autoboy]

You can watch netflix if you get a PlayOn account. PlayOn will run on a server and will transcode Netflix on the fly to play on the HD200. You can't get HD Netflix like you do with the Roku box since PlayOn is treated like a computer and Netflix won't let HD onto computers.

You can also hack your AppleTV to run Boxee or XBMC to watch your ISO files as long as they are not in HD they will play fine. Then you can just get another Roku Box with the $ you saved.