Finally shut down my Sage Server after 7 yrs

[Skybolt]

Originally Posted by Skirge01

I just want to point out that many of us are still getting full HD in Sage today. Nobody has forced me to move on at all.

Of course they didn't, no one "forced" me either. Most of the ways to get HD with Sage either have issues or can't be had anylonger. I used the word forced because there is no good reliable way of getting HD on all channels.

Just to clairify, I sub a gold package with cable and CC isn't fully supported by Sage with all channels. HD-PVR and Collosus, did not work well for me.

[Skybolt]

Originally Posted by reggie14

Did you ever return your Echo? I did back in February.

As I did. Ceton has there head up there butt's with that device, IMO. As a result it has gone no where, they even closed the AVS thread because of bantering. Fisrt "Official' thread I've ever seen closed over there.

Do you have blu-ray rips? If so, what are you doing to play them back? Did you transcode them or do you have a different box to play them back on?

Yes, many. I pretty much gave in to setting up an HTPC in my HT. I have a silent HTPC with an AVR style case and LCD (in case) for the EQ rack. I use an HDMI splitter to three locations and still have four Xboxs as clients. I leave it on 24/7, and have a 1TB recording drive and move the recordings off to the server nightly with MCE Buddy. Works great, and I have all of my rips just like when I used Sage. Media Browser does a good job handleing all of that. It took a lot of tweaking and configuration to replace Sage, don't get me wrong. MCE out of the box, isn't that good.

It's funny but I use the Ceton app to control things from around the house. It works better then Remote Potato, IMO. Motz has done a real nice job with that.

[Skirge01]

Originally Posted by Skybolt

Of course they didn't, no one "forced" me either. Most of the ways to get HD with Sage either have issues or can't be had anylonger. I used the word forced because there is no good reliable way of getting HD on all channels.

Just to clairify, I sub a gold package with cable and CC isn't fully supported by Sage with all channels. HD-PVR and Collosus, did not work well for me.

Understood. For people who might come here looking to buy licenses from former users, I didn't want them to get the impression that something was broken in Sage which wouldn't allow HD any longer. There are quite a few of us who have extremely reliable, full HD systems using the HD-PVR.

[Skybolt]

Originally Posted by Skirge01

Understood. For people who might come here looking to buy licenses from former users, I didn't want them to get the impression that something was broken in Sage which wouldn't allow HD any longer. There are quite a few of us who have extremely reliable, full HD systems using the HD-PVR.

Yeah, and to be fair, I had one working great, but more then one, not so much. But there are many threads on that ...

[BobPhoenix]

Originally Posted by Skybolt

Yeah, and to be fair, I had one working great, but more then one, not so much. But there are many threads on that ...

That's too bad. I was able to use 2 HD-PVRs. I even virtualized my SageTV server with ESXi that have my HD-PVRs connected. I only had a multiple vs single problem when I used the MB USB ports. Every other recording was bad it seemed like when I had two connected to same MB hub. When I switched to using a NEC USB 2.0 card all problems stopped. Well almost - still get an occasional bad recording every 3 months or so. When they get more often it has always been a bad power brick so far - gone through 3 for each HD-PVR so far. Now Colossus is a different story for me. I get at least one unplayable recording a week on it. Would try a HD-PVR2 but as far as I know they don't support 5.1 audio yet. Am going to switch STBs in near future to see if my problems recording from HDMI are STB related or Colossus related. I don't believe they are HDCP related because I bought the HDMI splitter that was reported elsewhere which didn't help. If I make multiple recordings of the same show I can eventually get a good recording off of Colossus when I do get a bad one. I can't use CC with or without Sage because of the cable company's lineups. They just don't have the premium channels in HD that DirectTV does. Only one HBO, no CineMax, one ShowTime, one Movie Channel, one Starz and no Encores. They do have allot of the non-premiums so I may try a hybrid approach and get CC to add more tuners for them. Hoping the recordings will be better quality and small also.

[Skybolt]

Originally Posted by BobPhoenix

That's too bad. I was able to use 2 HD-PVRs. I even virtualized my SageTV server with ESXi that have my HD-PVRs connected.

I tried that as well, but with Hyper-V. I used an IP based external usb hub which sort of worked. I could only get one stream at a time recording though.

I only had a multiple vs single problem when I used the MB USB ports. Every other recording was bad it seemed like when I had two connected to same MB hub. When I switched to using a NEC USB 2.0 card all problems stopped. Well almost - still get an occasional bad recording every 3 months or so.

I think this is where my system failed. I should have tried that card. But even so, I would have been left with only two tunners. I have six with CC (two primes).

It's too bad about your cable co. I am lucky in that regard I get all available channels, like with SAT. The only issue is they are prety much all CopyOnce.

[Skirge01]

Originally Posted by Skybolt

Yeah, and to be fair, I had one working great, but more then one, not so much. But there are many threads on that ...

Yep... I'm pretty sure I even participated in some of them. I currently have 2 HD-PVRs working flawlessly, just as BobPhoenix has, under ESXi (5.0u1 for me). I recently rebuilt my entire server (all new hardware, top to bottom) to virtualize everything and had to reinstall all the OS's, Sage itself, and move all my recordings, but the HD-PVRs were reinstalled and working like champs in no time. I admit I was a little concerned with the rebuild, given all the problems people have reported and my own initial woes with my very first HD-PVR, but I suspect that once you have a quality HD-PVR (hardware-wise), you're in pretty good shape.

[BobPhoenix]

Originally Posted by Skybolt

I would have been left with only two tunners. I have six with CC (two primes).

It's too bad about your cable co. I am lucky in that regard I get all available channels, like with SAT. The only issue is they are prety much all CopyOnce.

That is why I'm thinking about a hybrid approach and getting cable back for the non-premiums as I do record quite a bit from them and I could use a prime for them without having to pay twice for the premiums as well. Got to wait for my finances to stabilize to try it out - maybe in the fall.

[SHS]

Originally Posted by routerunner

Has anyone of you had the chance to try THIS new Stephane's DVR solution?

Thanks
Eddy

A waste of time it only support BDA DVB-T / DVB-S / DVB-C Capture cards

[MickBurke]

Didn't one of the guys (or THE guy) that owned Sage say a while back that he 'is working on sagetv every day and it is far from dead' despite Google's purchase of it?!?! Did that get updated at some point? I know it was several years ago, but I still haven't seen anything better than sage out there...

[mechling-burgh]

Jeff (Narflex) and the sagetv team are hard at work on sage everyday but unfortunately its for Google fiber right now and not for resale to the general public. We all hope that sooner or later they will be allowed to sell it again but no one knows when or if that will ever happen. The fact that they keep the forums open and the guide data updated is a good sign in my book that they plan some day to bring it back.

[MickBurke]

Gotcha, thanks for the follow up.

[bialio]

Originally Posted by Skirge01

I'm not going to attempt to convince anyone that a PC client is better than an extender, since it's very much like pro-choice and pro-life arguments: no side will ever convince the other. However, I did want to highlight one thing about extenders versus PC clients, specifically the "hassle free" point. A PC client may take a little more time to get set up (and does much more, which, in my opinion, is a big plus) and an extender may be nearly plug and play, but the extender is hassle free only until it dies. Then, the hassle now becomes "do I potentially pay big bucks for a new one?" or "do I change my entire DVR solution?" The headaches involved in either of those decisions weigh more heavily on my mind than any I had to deal with on the PC client.

I'm firmly in the extender camp personally, but I have a new PC that I just put together to replace my failing desktop in my office - it was $220 for motherboard / cpu / memory, and I've never had a PC that played back recorded HD content so flawlessly as this one - with ALL default settings in Sage. It just works!

For reference, it's an AMD FX-6300 (6 core 3.5GHZ) on a Gigabyte board with built in ATI Radeon 3000 graphics.

btl.

[Evil_Attorney]

I am in the extender camp but I can see how I may be forced into the PC/client camp in the future, even if my extenders keep working. At some point, I suspect Directv will degrade or turn off my HD component outputs. That will likely force me to use the HDPVR 2 to capture tv. The only issue with the HDPVR 2 is that when watching "live TV" on the HD300, some channels don't have detected sound (this is apparently a Sage bug). However, PC clients don't have this "live TV" limitation and would therefore play better with the HDPVR 2.

My biggest complaint with PC clients is the lack of native resolution. I tried setting up Reclock for this in the past, but just couldn't get it working correctly.

[BobPhoenix]

Originally Posted by Evil_Attorney

At some point, I suspect Directv will degrade or turn off my HD component outputs.

They practially have now. The H25 unit uses a dongle for component but the H24 still has discrete connections for component. Both the H24 and H25 no longer have optical HD Audio output so to connect to original HD-PVR you have to convert from the coax output to optical. I'm waiting on my converter from monoprice now myself. Also it appears the H25 doesn't have an ethernet port so no HTTP tuning.

[Evil_Attorney]

I thought there was some network kit you could buy to for connecting ethernet to the newer tuners.

[BobPhoenix]

Originally Posted by Evil_Attorney

I thought there was some network kit you could buy to for connecting ethernet to the newer tuners.

Probably is. I just didn't see an ethernet port on the specifications and no addons like that were listed. But that doesn't mean they don't exist - just too lazy to search for alternatives. I got a H24 because it used the discrete ports for component. Didn't notice no optical audio until after I got it.

[Evil_Attorney]

I'm still using old H21 models, so it's only a matter of time before they die and I'll be faced with similar problems.

[BobPhoenix]

Originally Posted by Evil_Attorney

I'm still using old H21 models, so it's only a matter of time before they die and I'll be faced with similar problems.

I've got a HR21, H21 & H23 besides the H24 I just bought to replace a SD box. Only have one SD box left and that will likely be replaced soon with a HR2x that my brother had replaced when the HD died. I took it out cleared the drive and the pending sectors and gave it back to him. But he already had it disabled and got a new one from DirecTV so it is just sitting around collecting dust. Luckily for me it is not a leasted one like all of mine are so they didn't want it back.