Home Made PVR vs Sky P*us

[Razzle_Dazzle]

I recently built a PC for SageTV. It probably cost about £700, and that's with a little room for improvement remaining w.r.t. picture quality. Having completed this project I wanted to show my friends. They were all impressed, but thought I had basically made an overly expensive Sky+ box. I fear they may be right.

Sky+ is about £400 one off and then no monthly charge as long as you subscribe to some premium channels - otherwise it is £10 a month. Btw, they are doing an offer for about £100 at the moment.

So, here is my question:

Is a SageTV PVR better than Sky+ ?

ie, is £700 + extra features attached to home-made PVR + extra hastle of setting up the box >= £400 (or £100 at the mo) + minimal fuss + Sky restrictions ??

FWIW, I guess extra features of SageTV include:
o Sage is fully customisable, eg .STV's
o Sage PVR can be networked
o Rip DVDs onto PVR and play whenever
o Possiblilty of 3+ tuners, I think Sky+ only comes with 2
o Music library features, which are improved by Nielm's customisations
o Not lining the pockets of a certain Australian media mogul

Please add any input.... if only to make me feel I haven't wasted my money !!!

[Lucas]

A valid question.
It is one I asked myself before making the decision to proceed HTPC vs Sky plus.

In addition to you have already stated I also reasoned that:

With HTPC I can reduce my Sky sub down to a family pack(everything minus the sports and movie channels) and watch movies by renting from a video club and rip. I save around 200 quid a year through this arrangement.
And I say this even though I am an ozzie!

My HTPC Hard Disks are upgradeable..... I already have 400+ Gb...
Sky+ ..... is geared towards timeshifting with its limited hard disk since once you record something, you can't afford to have it taking space on the disk for too long.

Ability to centralise all my viewing/listening through one interface.

Write off VCR, DVD, CD Players....... No need to buy one of these anymore just to be able to catch the latest trends.

I have had SageTV for 3 months now and I havent looked back since.

[ukmgranger]

Good question!

I think that for relative techies like us the idea of tinkering the the HTPC is quite appealing.
For your average consumer that is not into mesing with PC's Sky+ is probably the answer.
I have to keep convincing my girlfriend that Sky+ is not the better rout and that the thousands of pounds spent on our HTPC is all worth it!!

[edgley]

I really want to say that Sage is better (which it is in most repects), I just get the feeling that the total reliability of Sky+ might win me over...

[mls]

As I had mentioned in another thread some time ago, cost is actually not even a consideration. When you add up the cost of a box, plus all the subscriptions fees over the lifetime of the unit it will end up costing exactly as much as building a computer version.

Now, if you want to figure in your own time/effort as part of the cost... well that could sway things one way or the other depending on your computer skills and knowledge level.

The real decision is made more on a personal pride of being able to build something (which takes time/effort) verses buying something that just plugs in and works (with little/no effort).

Any later improvements or upgrades would again likely end up costing exactly the same. So, as far as I'm concerned, cost has nothing to do with the choice of one over the other. I just happen to like working with computers, others don't.

[robd]

There is/was a discussion in another forum about what features SageTV should have. Some people want it to be able to burn MP3 CD's, be a full on Music player and basically do everything so you never have to leave SageTV, others think that Nero etc do it better so why reinvent the wheel? This plays into the whole sky+ thing - I suppose the question is what is SageTV (what is their market niche)?

Personally speaking I want SageTV to be all the things in my living room, i.e. TV, VCR, Sound System, CD/MP3 Player, DVD player - email? web browsing?. I want to sit on my sofa and do it all with the remote control. And this is probably a lot more than Sky+ can do - selling point perhaps?

I reckon SageTV (and Snapstream etc...) will ony ever be used by a relatively small number of enthusiasts willing to buid a HTPC. I work in IT so it's relatively easy for me to build one - but your average person - could your parents or grand-parents do it?
Until the day that Sage sells a £300 all in one "plug and play" box i.e. something like my shuttle XPC, Hauppauge card pre-installed with the correct drivers, SageTV pre-installed setup with brilliant clear TV picture and a fully working EPG outside the US, i.e. plug it into the TV, switch on and you're away, I don't see how it can really compete with the likes of Sky+.

I think SageTV is great and HTPC's in one form or another are the future, I suppose the question is what is SageTV's niche given Sky+, TIVO and Windows Media Center edition?