Sage Media Extender!?!

[JUC]

Hi all, today I am going to be that guy. Sorry in advance. I really need to hear some promising news about the Sage Media Extender/Client. My shuttle client died on me and I am having a terrible time troubleshooting it. I purchased a MVP and it is working for the time being but connecting it to my Plasma just kills me--S-Video connection and all. Since my shuttle died I have no DVD player anymore in the living room. All this is just making it really hard for me to enjoy my new TV and Sage. My wife needs a DVD player too. So--I can either go out and by the cheapest DVD player out there and suffer with the MVP for a little while longer or fork out the money and purchase an upconverting DVD player--both of which I don't want to do. Myself, as others are hoping the extender will have HD output and a DVD player. This will be the solution....but when. Christmas is 18 days away now and I need a solution. Please help and chime in with your thoughts, optomistic feelings toward the extender and general opinions to calm me down and help guide me on my path to sage euphoria.
Thanks
JUC

[JasonJoel]

Man, is that a good question. Wish Frey would comment.

All I CAN say is that the XBOX 360 makes agreat extender for another product... Even steams/plays HD content, to my surprise. Of course it won't play DIVX/XVID out of the box - so there are always compromises...

Hopefully Frey will have something similar in their announcement...

Jason

[Jesse]

Hi,

I am holding off on a few media projects until the extender is released. I could build a couple of somewhat cheap pc's as clients, but I would really prefer a nice thin client. Like everyone else, I am hoping for HDTV capabilities, but just as important will be the ability to play dvd's stored on my Sage server's hdd. One of the few reasons I have not gone with MCE/xbox extender is its inability to do this without some mickey mouse hack. Even if it ends up being pricey (like the MediaReady) I will go for it if it will play back dvd's from the server's hdd. A zero maintenance thin client just sounds sweeeeeet.

Here's hoping we hear something in time for a good christmas

Jesse

[dkardatzke]

Hold on to that MVP, you'll soon be pleasantly surprised. I know I was when I started testing our latest extender support. That's all I can say for now. Keep an eye out for a 4.1 update coming very soon.

[heffe2001]

If you can pull a rabbit out of your hat and make that MVP do HD, then we'll all be surprised .

[michelkenny]

Hot diggity! I was looking to extend my Sage setup to a couple more TVs... I guess I'll just have to wait

[JUC]

Originally Posted by dkardatzke

Hold on to that MVP, you'll soon be pleasantly surprised. I know I was when I started testing our latest extender support. That's all I can say for now. Keep an eye out for a 4.1 update coming very soon.

Thanks for the word, I will keep waiting and hope for the best....here's hoping for an early christmas!
JUC

[Jesse]

ooooooh, we've been thrown a bone

Well, I am using an mvp for my kitchen client. I am very happy with it. It was cheap, the picture is very good, and the plugin works great. With a few more features (see post above) I could be happy with svid. HD support would be better, but svid would do fine for now.

Thanks for giving us a hint.

Jesse

[insomniac]

oh the pain! no.....more....bones....

[GbrNole]

if you can just tell us how we can get component video out and the MVP to downmix 5.1 ac3 audio then that will be just great lol

[JasonJoel]

Dan's da man.

A hint was all I was looking for.

Jason

Originally Posted by dkardatzke

Hold on to that MVP, you'll soon be pleasantly surprised. I know I was when I started testing our latest extender support. That's all I can say for now. Keep an eye out for a 4.1 update coming very soon.

[ukmgranger]

I guess that this thread now confirms that the Sage media extender is definitely going to come in the form of the MVP then?!?!?

I was hoping for more somehow. Oh well, lets just hope that they have a trick up their sleeve to allow it to play DVD's.

[Mahoney]

Originally Posted by ukmgranger

I guess that this thread now confirms that the Sage media extender is definitely going to come in the form of the MVP then?!?!?

I was hoping for more somehow. Oh well, lets just hope that they have a trick up their sleeve to allow it to play DVD's.

I don't think so - the original poster was asking whether he should hang on to his MVP for now and wait for a Sage extender or buy something else now. The answer was to hang on to his MVP for now - ie don't buy anything just yet as there's something good coming. I think!

[GbrNole]

i know when dan wrote this: >>I know I was when I started testing our latest extender support<<

i was hoping "latest" meant they had been playing with something other than just the mvp.

[michelkenny]

Originally Posted by Mahoney

I don't think so - the original poster was asking whether he should hang on to his MVP for now and wait for a Sage extender or buy something else now. The answer was to hang on to his MVP for now - ie don't buy anything just yet as there's something good coming. I think!

That's what I got from the response as well.

[mlbdude]

I would read it as don't get rid of the MVP yet since it will have usage with SageTV.

I think an MVP extender is fantastic. Cheap and efficient. However, an HD extender is also a must if you are allowing us to record in HD. With the MVP I cannot watch most of what I record.

[GbrNole]

Originally Posted by mlbdude

I would read it as don't get rid of the MVP yet since it will have usage with SageTV.

I think an MVP extender is fantastic. Cheap and efficient. However, an HD extender is also a must if you are allowing us to record in HD. With the MVP I cannot watch most of what I record.

i have 3 mvp's i just snapped up from radio shack which i was waiting on sage to provide the interface for - obviously this is forthcoming

as mlb said though i'm really needing an HD extender. a couple of people have posted that the buffalo device does a really good job of streaming HD recordings so obviously the hardware is very much available it's just a case of finding a suitable vendor with an open interface very much like that of the MVP.
the roku comes to mind but i find it kinda expensive for lacking a dvd tray. still i'll jump in line if support is made available!

[JUC]

with non SD content coming into an HDTV--does the MVP provide inferior quality compared to a dedicated client connected by component or DVI? I am thinking along the lines of if the source is SD--does it matter?
Thanks
JUC

-btw--i also read it as the MVP support being the extender---they probably found a way to pass through AC3 audio--at least we should be able to play DVD's off the hard drive then.


edit: Actually, i meant "with SD content"

[mlbdude]

Originally Posted by JUC

with non SD content coming into an HDTV--does the MVP provide inferior quality compared to a dedicated client connected by component or DVI? I am thinking along the lines of if the source is SD--does it matter?
Thanks
JUC

-btw--i also read it as the MVP support being the extender---they probably found a way to pass through AC3 audio--at least we should be able to play DVD's off the hard drive then.

Probably about the same. I would only expect it to play what a normal MVP can knowing what I do about the MVP. But we shall see .

[Mahoney]

Shame. Like JUC I was looking for an extender with HD playback and a DVD player.

Oh well, back to a client PC, I guess - my ideal setup is going to be ruinously expensive! It may have to remain a pipedream.