HD-200 --> HD-300 upgrade. Is worth the upgrade for me?

[mkanet]

I just saw the specs to the HD-300 compared to the HD-200. Im curious how much of a real-life advantage do I get upgrading from an HD-200 to an HD-300 in terms of overall performance? What types of scenarios would I see a significant noticeable difference; for example, menu rendering/core animation.

Maybe PluckyHD can answer this... The only thing I can think of now that the HD-200 cant handle too well is my favorite addon, My Movies, at it's default settings with all visual effects enabled. Im curious if I get the HD-300, if it would be powerful enough to handle full blown effects for My Movies comfortably. Or, is the bottleneck network throughput? My sageTV server is connected to my Ethernet switch at full duplex/1000 based T with it's entire file system (OS, SageTV, images, cached images, etc) sitting on a high end SSD disk for instantaneous read access (if not already cached in physical memory. From what I can see in the HD-300 specs, network throughput hasnt changed (still connecting at 100based T).

PS: Any other advantages to the HD-300 besides builtin audio decoding?

PPS: How does the HD-300 standalone mode compare the the latest generation Western Digital media box or the new AppleTV.

Thanks,
Michael

[mistergq]

Originally Posted by mkanet

I just saw the specs to the HD-300 compared to the HD-200. Im curious how much of a real-life advantage do I get upgrading from an HD-200 to an HD-300 in terms of overall performance? What types of scenarios would I see a significant noticeable difference; for example, menu rendering/core animation.

Maybe PluckyHD can answer this... The only thing I can think of now that the HD-200 cant handle too well is my favorite addon, My Movies, at it's default settings with all visual effects enabled. Im curious if I get the HD-300, if it would be powerful enough to handle full blown effects for My Movies comfortably. Or, is the bottleneck network throughput? My sageTV server is connected to my Ethernet switch at full duplex/1000 based T with it's entire file system (OS, SageTV, images, cached images, etc) sitting on a high end SSD disk for instantaneous read access (if not already cached in physical memory. From what I can see in the HD-300 specs, network throughput hasnt changed (still connecting at 100based T).

PS: Any other advantages to the HD-300 besides builtin audio decoding?

PPS: How does the HD-300 standalone mode compare the the latest generation Western Digital media box or the new AppleTV.

Thanks,
Michael

I am pondering the same question, so thank you for posting. Unfortunately, I have not found a satisfactory answer yet.

I have 2 x HD200 and 1 x HD100. I think I may buy an HD300 to replace the HD100 (which is really moving one of the HD200s to the HD100 and putting the HD300 on the main tv). But if the decision is just replacing the HD200, I am not sure I would do that until either a native netflix or hulu was available only on the HD300.

[stanger89]

Might want to try this thread:
http://forums.sage.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=50555

[nebulink]

I have 3 hd100's and 2 hd200's. I am replacing them all with the hd300's. I have three reasons for making the change:

1- Ir Receiver - can easily hide device behind tv
2- DTS decoding. No more converting DTS to AC3.
3- It's suppose to be faster and smoother.

As far as the unit only supporting 100mbit is really not an issue since there is no video out that would consume that much bandwidth. If you are having congestion problems then I would recommend doing two things:

1- run dual nics from the server
2- Get a switch that supports QOS on video streaming such as the D-Link DGS-1024G

Hope this helps.

[KarylFStein]

The only reason I'm moving to the HD300 right now is to support Sage. I use IR blasters and an RF remote, so the IR extender doesn't do much for me, (although I hope I can just plug a cable from the blaster into the HD300 instead of sticking a transmitter on it). My receiver doesn't decode HD audio and besides the kids don't have any Blu-Rays around anymore, (my movie "collection" is just kids stuff and I rip those so they don't have to touch anything but the remote--I wish I could do that for Wii games). One of these days we'll go Blu-Ray and upgrade the receiver, and an HD300 will make more sense, (although at this rate there'll be an HD400 out by then).

I'll upgrade to v7 when it's official, but that has more tangible benefits with the UI and plug-in manager. Hopefully they'll port their WHS add-in to work in WHSv2 as I'd like to upgrade to that when it's out too.

I just think it's really cool how Sage has listened and delivered two (I imagine) major efforts addressing many people's concerns. Plus, (as far as I can tell), including the community during development. So, even though my HD100 and v6 products do what I want now, I'll upgrade--even if it pushes out more noticeably impactful purchases like Blu-Ray, receiver, and speaker upgrades.

[autoboy]

I might upgrade a single HD200 to the HD300 for the DTS fix. I asked for it and they built it. Thats awesome. But, I'm going to hold off on the 2 others until CableCard integration. How's that for a carrot Sage?

[alterna]

Originally Posted by KarylFStein

... (my movie "collection" is just kids stuff and I rip those so they don't have to touch anything but the remote--I wish I could do that for Wii games).

FYI, you can have this wonderful setup for your Wii. Visit wiihacks.com and you can learn how to softmod your wii to allow you to use a usb hard drive to store and load all of your games. No more kids switching (scratching) discs. I did this after my kids ruined sports resort. So much better.

Back on topic, I guess I'm convinced to get the HD300. Better performance, and continuing support for the product that has revolutionized my TV/movie/music experience at home.

[rtrski]

One quick caveat: How are your HD200's attached to the TV? If you are currently using component, the HD300 only has a breakout multipin connector with a pigtailed cable assembly, so you may have to replace what might be nicer quality component cables with the included assembly. I'm finding my picture seems a bit darker on the HD300 than it was on the HD200, with (very minor) ghosting due to some internal reflections somewhere in the path and probably a bit higher signal attenuation. (I don't want to adjust the TV signal 'brighter' as that makes everything else - Wii, direct-connected DVD, etc. too bright, so I'm just living with it until I can upgrade and use HDMI).

If you are using HDMI, then this caveat does not apply whatsoever. In all other ways (e.g. exclusive of only offering component via multipin) I bet the HD300 is better. Athough looking around the forums there have been a few reports of audio issues I suspect they'll be sorted via firmware in due time.