A few questions before I buy...

[Djinn]

I am looking at investing in Sage TV. Which is better the wired or the wireless? Does one have any benefit over the other? If I want to setup 2 rooms with surround sound how could I do it? I would prefer to have all the equipment in one central location. The Sage Extenders only have stereo outs on them though… do I have to have a client next to each area for surround or can I hookup a receiver on the audio outs on the sage extender to get surround? Like I said I would prefer to keep ALL the equipment in one location…If I use the extenders can I have different shows on different TVs or does it just broadcast the same to every extender in the house? Thanks for any help.

[ke6guj]

I am looking at investing in Sage TV. Which is better the wired or the wireless? Does one have any benefit over the other?

SageTV itself is neither wired or wireless, just the MediaExtender. As to betterness, it is up to you, the wired unit is cheaper than the wireless, but must be wired via ethernet. The Wireless unit is more expensive, but may be either used wirelessly via a wireless router or AP, or wired via ethernet, it has both. The Wireless unit is more finicky in usage, some people have problems getting the wireless working correctly.

If I want to setup 2 rooms with surround sound how could I do it? I would prefer to have all the equipment in one central location. The Sage Extenders only have stereo outs on them though… do I have to have a client next to each area for surround or can I hookup a receiver on the audio outs on the sage extender to get surround?

The new Extenders do have a digital out for sound, even though it isn't advertised on the box or website. So you could hook up the extender to a stereo receiver to have surround sound, if the original recording has surround.

Like I said I would prefer to keep ALL the equipment in one location…If I use the extenders can I have different shows on different TVs or does it just broadcast the same to every extender in the house? Thanks for any help.

You really couldn't keep ALL the equipment in one location with a normal Sage setup. YOu could however setup your server, and any STB's (cable or satelitte box) there. Then either run cat-5 or go wireless to the client rooms. There, you would need some equipment, an extender or a client PC and a stereo reciever. Each client would be run separately and could watch a different recorded show, or even a different Live show if you ahve enough tuners for each one. If not, then 2 clients could both watch 1 live show, but they aren't "linked", each client could FF or REW independently.

[stanger89]

It's always better to use a wired connection wherever possible. Wireless is just to inconsistent for video.

[Djinn]

If I would put an extender on each TV could each setup watch different shows with out placing a client in each location provided that I would have enough tuners? The new extenders have a digital out so if I hooked a receiver to the extender in each location I can have full surround sound??

Thanks for the replies.

[ke6guj]

Originally Posted by Djinn

If I would put an extender on each TV could each setup watch different shows with out placing a client in each location provided that I would have enough tuners?

Yes, each extender or client PC could watch a different live tv show if you had enough tuners. And if you ran out of tuners, an extender could still watch a previously recorded show, or else, watch the same live TV show that is being recorded for a different extender. It would not be "locked" video-wise with the other extender, it could FF and REW without affecting the other extender.

You could use an extender or client PC, either will work, there are benefits and drawbacks to each way, but both will do Sage at the TV.

The new extenders have a digital out so if I hooked a receiver to the extender in each location I can have full surround sound??

Yes, you should have full surround available to be sent to the receiver from the new extenders. You do however have to had recorded the show in full surround sound first. I don't know if the analog tuners can record in surround sound, but the digital over-the-air tuner and firewire recordings should be able to record surround sound. Also, any imported videos with AC3 sound or DVD's should be in surround sound.

I know that digital-out support for the extenders is new, IIRC, I remember some posts mentioning configuration issues, so there may be some bugs.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by ke6guj

I don't know if the analog tuners can record in surround sound, but the digital over-the-air tuner and firewire recordings should be able to record surround sound.

FWIW, analog tuners can record surround, but not DD 5.1 surround, they can record Dolby Surround, which is 4 channel matrix encoded surround, vs 6 channel discrete surround.

Most stuff on TV is stereo/Dolby Surround anyway, there's not a lot of DD 5.1.