MediaReady 5000

[waynedunham]

Update:

I got a reply to an Email I sent to VWB the other day. In that Email I brought up several issues/questions.

The most important issue was naturally the noise of the power supply fan. They told me that they had a modification going into production that cuts the sound down about 10db which should bring it down to the mid 20's.
I've asked if they can ship me the new fan/power supply and I can install it myself.

I was told in my early exploratory Emails that it would come with a restoration CD, however none was found in the box when I received the unit. In the Email from yesterday I was told that they are sending out restore CD's with current shipping units, but they did not have that ready when the very first units shipped.
I've asked them to mail that to me also.

I asked about client vs server mode. Specifically, if you boot up the PC version of Sage with the -client parameter it will act as a client instead of needing SageClient.(hmmm, does "SageClient" just assume you're passing the -client parameter and is the same file otherwise? They are consistantly only about 40-50k different in size between Sage and Sage Client)
Anyway, they said they are going to explore that possibility. I'm hoping that all it will take is to add the "-client" parameter to the executable on the MR 5000 to give us a SageClient.

They are going to research the bug I found where it's not saving the Remote commands you "teach" it. They are getting lost as soon as you finish getting out of setup and not being saved.

A fairly minor bug, but on several menus pressing the left arrow key backs out 2 menus rather than to the previous menu. There's even one instance where it puts you back at the main menu which is 3 screens from where it was before pressing the left arrow key.
They are going to look into that one also.

[JUC]

keep us posed!! One question though, if you can use this as a client, are the tuners that the MediaReady has installed useless then?
thanks
JUC

[waynedunham]

Originally Posted by JUC

keep us posed!! One question though, if you can use this as a client, are the tuners that the MediaReady has installed useless then?
thanks
JUC

Don't know that yet. They are trying to see if it can be used as a client by passing the parameter.
I'm hoping that once it connects as a client that I'll be able to add the tuner from my Sage Server as a network tuner. I've never tried adding network tuners so I have no idea if it will work or not.

That doesn't concern me as much as getting it to run as a client. If I can get the MR 5000 to be a client to my main Sage server then I can always pull the card from the MR 5000 and plunk it in a blank slot in my server.

[atlantic]

Originally Posted by waynedunham

Don't know that yet. They are trying to see if it can be used as a client by passing the parameter.
I'm hoping that once it connects as a client that I'll be able to add the tuner from my Sage Server as a network tuner. I've never tried adding network tuners so I have no idea if it will work or not.

That doesn't concern me as much as getting it to run as a client. If I can get the MR 5000 to be a client to my main Sage server then I can always pull the card from the MR 5000 and plunk it in a blank slot in my server.

It may just be me but isn't this kind of defeating the purpose of the MR 5000? Seems like a lot of money to be paying for a client.

[JUC]

and networked tuners can only be used if Sagerecorder is run with the client on the same machine (I think). So you wouldn't be able to use the tuner in the MediaReady if it was acting like a client (but as you mentioned, you can just pull it an use it in your server).
JUC

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by JUC

and networked tuners can only be used if Sagerecorder is run with the client on the same machine (I think). So you wouldn't be able to use the tuner in the MediaReady if it was acting like a client (but as you mentioned, you can just pull it an use it in your server).

Recorder isn't needed any more -- the full SageTV is capable of acting as a client & network encoder... I just don't know the full details on how you would go about trying to set this up on a Linux system.

- Andy

[dbfresh23]

Originally Posted by waynedunham

Anyone have any guesses where to look for some kind of autoexec file that is firing up sage before any command prompt or desktop shows up?

It would depend on the default shell that is being used. If it is Bash then there should be a file called .bashrc or for csh it would be .cshrc. I've also seen some linux distros use .profile or .login. I'd bet that they are using Bash as the shell just because it seems to be the most common and most systems seem to default to it. Just go to the home directory of the user that SageTV is running as and type in ls -la and it should show you the files. If you can't find it there, you can also check in /etc for a system default file(instead of user specific). The file being used should start with a dot and be plain text. Not sure if they are on the MR5000, but your boot cd likely has more, less, cat and vi to view and edit the files.

[waynedunham]

Originally Posted by atlantic

It may just be me but isn't this kind of defeating the purpose of the MR 5000? Seems like a lot of money to be paying for a client.

You're probably correct in that, but that's what *I* am looking for. Something with client ability that gives me more output options (audio & video) than say my MVP (have one in the bedroom) plus looks like something that actually belongs in the entertainment center (the MVP doesn't have that look IMHO).

For a lot of people out there the MR 5000 as it is shipped will be just what they're looking for. For my purposes it's just too limited hardware wise. Can't put enough tuners in it, and there isn't enough room for storage capabilities. Plus the processor it's running surely wouldn't have enough horsepower to handle all the tuners I want, plus HDTV tuners if/when they support QAM, or I can get a 200' antenna in the backyard to get high enough to recieve OTA signals.

[waynedunham]

Originally Posted by dbfresh23

It would depend on the default shell that is being used. If it is Bash then there should be a file called .bashrc or for csh it would be .cshrc. I've also seen some linux distros use .profile or .login. I'd bet that they are using Bash as the shell just because it seems to be the most common and most systems seem to default to it. Just go to the home directory of the user that SageTV is running as and type in ls -la and it should show you the files. If you can't find it there, you can also check in /etc for a system default file(instead of user specific). The file being used should start with a dot and be plain text. Not sure if they are on the MR5000, but your boot cd likely has more, less, cat and vi to view and edit the files.

Ok, thanks, I'll take a look at those.

[waynedunham]

Originally Posted by Opus4

Recorder isn't needed any more -- the full SageTV is capable of acting as a client & network encoder... I just don't know the full details on how you would go about trying to set this up on a Linux system.

Hopefully I can get an answer on whether the Linux version will work as a client and can help fill in those details.

[atlantic]

Originally Posted by waynedunham

You're probably correct in that, but that's what *I* am looking for. Something with client ability that gives me more output options (audio & video) than say my MVP (have one in the bedroom) plus looks like something that actually belongs in the entertainment center (the MVP doesn't have that look IMHO).

For a lot of people out there the MR 5000 as it is shipped will be just what they're looking for. For my purposes it's just too limited hardware wise. Can't put enough tuners in it, and there isn't enough room for storage capabilities. Plus the processor it's running surely wouldn't have enough horsepower to handle all the tuners I want, plus HDTV tuners if/when they support QAM, or I can get a 200' antenna in the backyard to get high enough to recieve OTA signals.

Been there myself. Nothing worse than having something you're not totally happy with. Good luck and enjoy.

[cmaffia]

I was told when I called them a month ago that the Windows SageTVClient could attach to the MediaReady5000.... is that the case??

Originally Posted by waynedunham

Don't know that yet. They are trying to see if it can be used as a client by passing the parameter.
I'm hoping that once it connects as a client that I'll be able to add the tuner from my Sage Server as a network tuner. I've never tried adding network tuners so I have no idea if it will work or not.

That doesn't concern me as much as getting it to run as a client. If I can get the MR 5000 to be a client to my main Sage server then I can always pull the card from the MR 5000 and plunk it in a blank slot in my server.

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by cmaffia

I was told when I called them a month ago that the Windows SageTVClient could attach to the MediaReady5000.... is that the case??

Yes, that should be the case, but it turns out that the version installed doesn't match any Windows versions at the moment.

- Andy

[HairBear]

I can't get the Media on Demand feature to work. Does every one else have this problem? When I go to the MOD screen and sign in(I never signed up for anything), Ghostbusters and a James Bond movie are listed but they both give an error.

[Opus4]

Don't worry -- that screen doesn't actually do anything! That was just a "play around" screen for coding experiments & wasn't supposed to remain there, but I guess the linux system went out with that menu still visible. (I've been waiting to hear whether it was still there on that system... )

- Andy

[ke6guj]

tease

[waynedunham]

Originally Posted by Opus4

Don't worry -- that screen doesn't actually do anything! That was just a "play around" screen for coding experiments & wasn't supposed to remain there, but I guess the linux system went out with that menu still visible. (I've been waiting to hear whether it was still there on that system... )

I figured it was something that hadn't been fully implemented yet. I didn't see any details on it in the manual or any other online documentation. I may be wrong, but my WAG was that it was something similar to PPV where you had to pay a fee to recieve content. Either a per use fee, or some kind of subscription fee where you get 'x' amount of content for a certain fee.
It wasn't something I personally would probably be interested in, but I suppose I should have mentioned it at least since it may be of interest to others.

[waynedunham]

Originally Posted by cmaffia

I was told when I called them a month ago that the Windows SageTVClient could attach to the MediaReady5000.... is that the case??

Yes, a client can connect to it, and I've done that. However as Opus mentioned, at present there's a version conflict. When you try to connect a client to it you get the version conflict between client/server message on your client machine.
The version of Sage on the MR 5000 isn't up to the Beta that introduced the ability for a server/client version mis-match as long as they were still compatible. My guess would be that earlier versions simply looked at the versino # during the handshake process and if they didn't match would reject the connection.

Does the current version of Sage keep some type of matrix of compatible versions or simply some kind of "greater than or equal to" test saying if the client is at or above version 'x.xx.xx' then the versions are compatible? (Opus4?)

[waynedunham]

Originally Posted by HairBear

I can't get the Media on Demand feature to work. Does every one else have this problem? When I go to the MOD screen and sign in(I never signed up for anything), Ghostbusters and a James Bond movie are listed but they both give an error.

Welcome HairBear. How long have you had your MR 5000? Jump in and let everyone know your impressions of it, and how everything is working for you.

The more info people can get the better they'll be able to judge whether the MR 5000 can do what they're looking for.

Plus we may be able to bounce things off each other, just like your message above. That way be may be able to selfishly get the MR 5000 to better address our own needs, and in the process make it something attractive to others.

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by waynedunham

Does the current version of Sage keep some type of matrix of compatible versions or simply some kind of "greater than or equal to" test saying if the client is at or above version 'x.xx.xx' then the versions are compatible? (Opus4?)

I don't know, since I didn't program that part. If it were me, I would probably just have it recognize any version above X; that way it could easily be updated when some newer version changes the way the client/server talk to each other or deal with database info. (Not that it probably matters much...)

- Andy