What is a reasonable price to pay for ATSC recording?

[mikbro]

My company is investigating the possibility of integrating an ATSC tuner in our line of SageTV powered PVRs.

For existing Sage owners we are exploring the possibility of offering a package to include the card and necessary software that you could install alongside your existing tuners. This package would offer the full range of ATSC functionality and since it is based on the network encoding API built into Sage, Sage itself does not need to be 'familiar' with the tuner card in order for it work - therefore full functionality could be achieved with the current version (1.4.10) of Sage.

If we make this package available to existing Sage owners and future DIY'ers what is a reasonable price you would pay for such package, given that current ATSC cards do not (yet) have full support in Sage and that they typically run $500+?

[stanger89]

Well I'll throw my vote in for 2-300. I figure that would cover the cost of a nice HDTV card (AccessDTVs/MyHD 120s are about $250-$300) plus maybe a nominal fee to cover development costs.

[mikbro]

When are development costs ever nominal? :-)

[stanger89]

When you're an unemployed college student who can't afford anything else.

Back to reality though, my thoughts are this:
Current HDTV cards fall in the $250-$300 range.
Sage itself is $60.
Native HDTV support is coming (hopefully).

I would find it hard to justify spending more than Sage itself (excluding HW cost) on a "plugin" for lack of a better term. But this kind of thing would probably be enough to get me off the fence and start PVRing HDTV.

Now we just need to make sure everyone who votes comments on their reasons.

[mikbro]

Understood. It may just be capability we end up building into our units.

[mikbro]

Re: Sage costing $60 - I have always said Sage is dramatically underpriced :-)

[stanger89]

Who am I to argue? But I guess that's what happens being an overachiever (Sage) in a market of underachievers.

[sleonard]

I guess it depends on the ATSC tuner you choose. I'm thinking that SW decoder cards like the Fusion are the enevitable future (anybody know of a HW DVD decoder still on the market?) and the price is a lot cheaper. If you can provide HD functionality in Sage now you'll be able to make some money but when Sage supports it natively...

[jkaisre]

"anybody know of a HW DVD decoder still on the market?" - I assume you meant HW HDTV since that is the basis of this thread.

The MyHD 120 is very much still in the market.

"and the price is a lot cheaper."

The price is still up in the air on the Fusion III gold (sometime after the new year), so the prices may be a lot closer.

As far as integrating with Sage, the fussions may be easier as it is closer to a tuner card than the HD cards. You would probably loose some of the features like QAM support since it is built into the fusion software.

I would say that if it is based on the fussion (currently $180 with remote) then $300 would be a fair market target.

[sleonard]

Nope, meant what I said. My point was that although most HDTV cards are now using HW decoders, SW decoders will eventually be the standard in the same way that DVD playback started out with HW decoders but is all SW now.

Anyway, indications are that Sage will support HD natively, probably by next summer. Any "plugin" that enables support now has a limited lifespan and thus limited profit potential. I wouldn't pay very much for a piece of SW that will be irrelevant in about 6 mos. Given that there is currently but a handfull of HD channels, you lower the value propostion that much more.