Ceton Datasheets for "Echo" and "Q"

[d2globalinc]

http://www.engadget.com/2012/04/30/c...extender-beta/

Meanwhile - no new SageTV news, no built in Cablecard support, and no 1st hand extender store or new hardware announcements, etc..

Sigh..

[reggie14]

Originally Posted by d2globalinc

Meanwhile - no new SageTV news, no built in Cablecard support, and no 1st hand extender store or new hardware announcements, etc..

Sure, but the Echo isn't exactly right around the corner either. It looks like the Echo beta isn't starting until July/August. We'll be lucky if the Echo is commercially available in October.

That's really disappointing to me. I'll looking to buy a house fairly soon, which would 1) increase then number of TVs from 2 to 3, and 2) probably involve a switch from Comcast to FiOS. I have an HD100, an HD200, and an HD300, so I guess I could drive all three TVs if I really had to, but I'd rather not use the HD100. I stopped using it before because it was just too slow in the menus, plus it wouldn't play back my blu ray rips.

But, the bigger problem for me is I'd really like to avoid trying to put together my Sage system all over again with Verizon equipment. It was a pain to get firewire working with my Comcast equipment. I have a USB-UIRT sitting around that I've never used, so I'd probably have to switch to that. In any event, I'd really like to just avoid going to that trouble, particularly if I'm planning on changing after a few months anyway.

I'm not sure what I'll do. Maybe when the time comes I'll liquidate my SageTV equipment and try to buy some cheap XBox360s on Craigslist.

[cncb]

Originally Posted by reggie14

That's really disappointing to me.

Me too. Also, apparently you have to buy the extender if you are a beta tester and there are still no details on what online "extras" it will bring like Netflix, etc. or if it will even be available in the Echos without the 'Q'. Will it even support MKVs and DTS-HD, etc.? Still a lot of unanswered questions. I was hoping to be able to decide soon whether or not to buy some SSDs for my small client PCs and just be done with it...

[tmiranda]

Will the Q Beta be available the same time as the Echo?

[PeteCress]

Seems like the Sage team has been there awhile now.

Has anybody heard of offerings in the pipeline - or even some general idea of what they are tasked with?

I just stumbled on to http://cetoncorp.com/products/echo/ , which looks to me like it is going tb a fuctional analog of my HD200's except aimed at Windows Media Center.

[PeteCress]

Originally Posted by rhinoman

I... the echo will overcome all of my reasons for moving over. Sage is much harder to configure than WMC ...

WMC's UI makes me crazy.

Specifically, nowhere near as much information on a screen as Sage allows and no folder presentation for movies.

Am I the only one?

[Skybolt]

Originally Posted by PeteCress

... no folder presentation for movies.

Am I the only one?

This is the single worst part of 7MC. Period. Other than that I have no problem with WMC at all. In some cases it can prove to be as good as Sage was, but there in lies the problem doesn't it?

[Dargason]

I've been under the assumption that Ceton has taken a license from MS to do their stuff, but that doesn't necessarily mean that the Q and Echo are going to look exactly like WMC, does it?

Sage is a great example of how the UI can be very different even when built on the same underlying technology.

[wayner]

What do you guys mean by "no folder presentation for movies"?

Do you mean that you can't browse movies from a folder view? If so then this is also true with the Diamond UI. I didn't like this at first but I now see that it makes sense.

[PeteCress]

Originally Posted by Skybolt

In some cases it can prove to be as good as Sage was...

How about the abbreviated lists? I can't cite off the top of my head, but it seemed like when a screen had to present a list of something the list would have far fewer entries than the corresponding list in Sage with it's entries set to the allowed max.

Or are there alternative UIs that can be layed over top of MC analogous to SageTV 7?

[PeteCress]

Originally Posted by wayner

What do you guys mean by "no folder presentation for movies"?

If one rips a movie to, say, five .MPG files as in:

- Main Movie

- Main Movie with Director's Comments

- About the making of the movie

- Deleted scenes

- Actor's interviews

Those five files not only trash up the list of movies by a factor of 5, they also must be named in such a way as to be identifiable with the movie and sort properly.

Putting them in a folder named for the movie and having only the folder's name appear in the high-level list gets around that.

Likewise, one might have several versions of a movie. Pelham 1-2-3 was made at least three times. Having all three versions living under a single entry on the main list helps a lot in the context of 300-400 movies.

Ditto "Miscellaneous" and/or "TB Reviewed" folders tb used as temporary holding places.

Not having a folder presentation isn't exactly the end of the world.... but it's a beeeeeeg step down once one is used to the convenience.

Why rip to .MPEG, one might ask. Why not just leave everything as DVDs and let the DVD menu act as the containing folder?

Two reasons for me:

• Aesthetics. I can get rid of all the stern warnings, unwanted trailers, and advertisements.
  .
• Convenience. There is no waiting for a DVD menu to come up and having to navigate from there.
  .
• Portability. The HD200 can be used in remote locations over the WAN and one of mine gets that use regularly. For some reason, playing a DVD over the WAN just doesn't work.

[PLUCKYHD]

um you can do folder presentation with media browser works quite well and is a great wmc addin

[Skybolt]

Originally Posted by PeteCress

How about the abbreviated lists? I can't cite off the top of my head, but it seemed like when a screen had to present a list of something the list would have far fewer entries than the corresponding list in Sage with it's entries set to the allowed max.

Or are there alternative UIs that can be layed over top of MC analogous to SageTV 7?

There is something called "Media Browser" which supposedly will give a "Folder View". There are also some other sources which can create/edit themes for MCE. But none of these options are as easy to use as Sage, could be I am just so use to Sage I find it easy, though.

EDIT: Opps - Sorry PLUCKYHD, didn't see your post.

http://www.mediabrowser.tv/