HD PVR really worth it?

[viperdiablo]

I am thinking about getting the Hauppauge HD PVR. I am trying to convince myself that its worth it. However at the cost of $250 plus tax for 1 of these devices plus the cost of the cable companies HD STB not to mention doubling these costs to have dual tuner capability is it worth it? My local cable company charges 600 for a dual tuner HD PVR stb and 300 for a HD stb. For a dual tuner hauppauge hd pvr setup with sage it would cost $1100 plus taxes. Just want to throw it out there to you guys for some opinions/ thoughts on this?

[Brent]

Originally Posted by viperdiablo

I am thinking about getting the Hauppauge HD PVR. I am trying to convince myself that its worth it. However at the cost of $250 plus tax for 1 of these devices plus the cost of the cable companies HD STB not to mention doubling these costs to have dual tuner capability is it worth it? My local cable company charges 600 for a dual tuner HD PVR stb and 300 for a HD stb. For a dual tuner hauppauge hd pvr setup with sage it would cost $1100 plus taxes. Just want to throw it out there to you guys for some opinions/ thoughts on this?

Wow, you mean you can't "rent" the cable boxes?

For me it is worth it. Access to all cable content including those encrypted makes it very worth it to me - especially the output isn't copy protected.

[viperdiablo]

I just looked on my cable companies website and they do not rent them. However they do allow you to finance the box. 10 bucks a month for 36 months, so a 300 dollar box is 360 financed. I guess thats not bad, I would own it after 3 years vs renting.

[viperdiablo]

Brent I forgot to ask are you using two HD pvrs with sage? If so any real problems? Thanks

[Brent]

Originally Posted by viperdiablo

Brent I forgot to ask are you using two HD pvrs with sage? If so any real problems? Thanks

I only have one HD-PVR at the moment. There are several SageTV users using multiple HD-PVRs though and sounds like its working for them just fine.

[paulbeers]

Not to be an arse here, but if you are considering a cable company PVR, then Sage really isn't geared for you. We could all rent and/or buy our cable companies PVR. They are actually fairly reasonable (about 10 bucks a month or so)....but they are stand alone devices that can't play DVD's, aren't centralized servers to serve multiple t.v.'s, can't play music (other than the music channels), auto channel skip, etc., etc., etc.

I tell everyone I know, if all you want is a TIVO, go rent your cable company's DVR. It's easy, does exactly what you want with no hassel. Sage is not a money saver. It is actually quite the opposite, but for the additional functionality I am willing to pay the price and take the time to get it to work just as I want it to.

[viperdiablo]

Paulbeers that is a good point. I do use sagetv and the hd extender. I love it for DVDS that I have backed up on my hard drive and for streaming all my cds and pictures. As I said I am really wanting to get a hauppauge hd pvr, but i just want to know for the cost of it after all said in done, is it worth it vs the cable companies pvr. Besides being able to have all media go through sagetv and being able to add more hard drive space what other features does or will it offer vs a regular cable company hd pvr?

[thomaszoo]

Originally Posted by viperdiablo

Paulbeers that is a good point. I do use sagetv and the hd extender. I love it for DVDS that I have backed up on my hard drive and for streaming all my cds and pictures. As I said I am really wanting to get a hauppauge hd pvr, but i just want to know for the cost of it after all said in done, is it worth it vs the cable companies pvr. Besides being able to have all media go through sagetv and being able to add more hard drive space what other features does or will it offer vs a regular cable company hd pvr?

Some of the SageTV features that come to my mind are :

1. Sage is must more robust in that not only does it record what I want but it remembers what I watched and doesn't record it again.
2. It detects where the commercials are via comskip (waiting for HD PVR support here)
3. The screen saver is awesome in that it randomly picks from my photo library; great to watch while waiting for someone while Sage is paused.
4. Easy access to YouTube videos and weather information.
5. Easy expandability. It may take a while to set up but adding extenders is really easy.
6. While I agree that SageTV is not the cheapest route to go, it can save on month to month costs of DVR rentals. And since everything is on a central server there are some additional savings there instead of a STB DVR for every TV with a monthly rental fee.

Yeah, I love my SageTV.

Wayne

[heed316]

I was looking into getting the HD PVR for a while, until I got a great deal on a TiVo HD. The Tivo and a years subscription was less then what I would pay for a HD PVR. The cablecard rental is only 1.50 for me, and it gets two streams for me to record. On my cable system, everything is able to be copied to my computer to, so I just record the encrypted HD stuff on the tivo, and transfer it onto my computer to watch with Sage. I found this to be the solution for me, as nothing is copy protected where I live, not even Showtime HD. So it just made more sense to do it this way then to spend the 250$ on the HD PVR and then rent a HD box to get one stream. I say look into your options and what is copy protected before going the HD PVR route.

[Shield]

Originally Posted by viperdiablo

I am thinking about getting the Hauppauge HD PVR. I am trying to convince myself that its worth it. However at the cost of $250 plus tax for 1 of these devices plus the cost of the cable companies HD STB not to mention doubling these costs to have dual tuner capability is it worth it? My local cable company charges 600 for a dual tuner HD PVR stb and 300 for a HD stb. For a dual tuner hauppauge hd pvr setup with sage it would cost $1100 plus taxes. Just want to throw it out there to you guys for some opinions/ thoughts on this?

To be honest, it's just not quite ready for primetime until Sage can get better results with other H264 decoders.

A few things spoil it for me.
1. No Directv MLBEI guide data.
2. Stuttering for a few seconds after you hit play, which means:
If you're jumping a few seconds ahead during a recorded HD baseball game, you're watching a stutter-fest.
3. No DD out (yet)
4. Various hardware overheating issues even with the revision with the fans.
5. Out of the box the channel changing is slow unless you purchase additional hardware and/or can use firewire to change channels.
6. Stutters more often on 720p than 1080i.
7. No Directv PPV guide data.

Did I mention it stutters?

Now, if you want to also sink extra money into $200 HD extenders then by all means, pick one up. Plus a dedicated cable box/sat box. Plus a USB-UIRT. Plus your monthly cable/sat bill will go up with extra receivers.

But, it's the only current way we have to get premium directv channels in HD at the moment. If I had Dish Network I'd get a R5000.

[Shield]

Originally Posted by paulbeers

Not to be an arse here, but if you are considering a cable company PVR, then Sage really isn't geared for you. We could all rent and/or buy our cable companies PVR. They are actually fairly reasonable (about 10 bucks a month or so)....but they are stand alone devices that can't play DVD's, aren't centralized servers to serve multiple t.v.'s, can't play music (other than the music channels), auto channel skip, etc., etc., etc.

True, but here's another point. Right now you could get a cable box / sat box and use it IN ADDITION to using Sage. Plus you can't skip commercials yet with the HD-PVR.
But I'm a tinkerer and hate to be told "you can't do that" re: getting HD into Sage. So I have one.

[viperdiablo]

Shield are you saying that the 30 second skip will not work with the hd pvr? That is a pretty huge feature to be missing. I guess I will hold off a bit for it to be more ready for "primetime"

[sleonard]

You can skip commercials just fine. As soon as you see a commercial start skip 2 1/2 minutes + as many 10s skips as needed. What you cannot do is mark commercials for auto skipping until H.264 support in Showanalyzer is ready.

S

[paulbeers]

Originally Posted by Shield

True, but here's another point. Right now you could get a cable box / sat box and use it IN ADDITION to using Sage. Plus you can't skip commercials yet with the HD-PVR.
But I'm a tinkerer and hate to be told "you can't do that" re: getting HD into Sage. So I have one.

No you can't skip commercials automatically with the HD-PVR, but I only use mine for content I can't get by OTA or SD (only DiscoveryHD, ESPNHD, etc.), but if you rent a cable company's box you can't auto skip anything!

Further, unless I am mistaken the MLBEI guide would be an issue with Zap2it and not Sage. Has anyone made a request to Sage to contact Zap2it? Sage pays money to them for us to use their lineups, so they have quite a bit of pull when it comes to this sort of thing.

As for the studdering, is that thru a full client or an HD100? I have no problems with HDPVR playback on my HD100 and using the USB UIRT (which I need anyway since I have 2 311's) the channel changing is fairly quick. Takes about 2 seconds (could be faster if I would tweak the delay).

[Brent]

Originally Posted by Shield

To be honest, it's just not quite ready for primetime until Sage can get better results with other H264 decoders.

Shield,
It may not the easiest to set up, but SageTV DOES work well with h.264 - I know because I just used in on my HTPC box in the living room all weekend watching HD at 1080. Not saying its working well for you, but I did want to point out that it does work and work well for me at least. Add a HD extender to the mix and it not only works well, it's easy to get going also.

1. No Directv MLBEI guide data.

Originally Posted by paulbeers

Further, unless I am mistaken the MLBEI guide would be an issue with Zap2it and not Sage. Has anyone made a request to Sage to contact Zap2it? Sage pays money to them for us to use their lineups, so they have quite a bit of pull when it comes to this sort of thing.

I get MLBEI guide info through SageTV with the game info and all. My provider is Time Warner fwiw. Go to zap2it.com, put in your zipcode and select your provider to see if the MLBEI guide info shows up. If it doesn't then you need to do what paulbeers recommended so you can get it.
EDIT: check out this sticky if zap2it doesn't have the guide data your looking for. There's info on e-mailing SageTV to request it be added

[Shield]

Originally Posted by Brent

Shield,
It may not the easiest to set up, but SageTV DOES work well with h.264 - I know because I just used in on my HTPC box in the living room all weekend watching HD at 1080. Not saying its working well for you, but I did want to point out that it does work and work well for me at least. Add a HD extender to the mix and it not only works well, it's easy to get going also.



I get MLBEI guide info through SageTV with the game info and all. My provider is Time Warner fwiw. Go to zap2it.com, put in your zipcode and select your provider to see if the MLBEI guide info shows up. If it doesn't then you need to do what paulbeers recommended so you can get it.
EDIT: check out this sticky if zap2it doesn't have the guide data your looking for. There's info on e-mailing SageTV to request it be added

Yeah, I tried that. It doesn't have any game information for Directv. But I did check and it does have everything for Time Warner. I'll email Sage and request to have it added.

[Shield]

Originally Posted by paulbeers

No you can't skip commercials automatically with the HD-PVR, but I only use mine for content I can't get by OTA or SD (only DiscoveryHD, ESPNHD, etc.), but if you rent a cable company's box you can't auto skip anything!

Further, unless I am mistaken the MLBEI guide would be an issue with Zap2it and not Sage. Has anyone made a request to Sage to contact Zap2it? Sage pays money to them for us to use their lineups, so they have quite a bit of pull when it comes to this sort of thing.

As for the studdering, is that thru a full client or an HD100? I have no problems with HDPVR playback on my HD100 and using the USB UIRT (which I need anyway since I have 2 311's) the channel changing is fairly quick. Takes about 2 seconds (could be faster if I would tweak the delay).

This is on a full client (see sig for hardware). I haven't heard of anyone yet saying they aren't getting some stuttering on a full client while watching live tv and/or playing back HD-PVR .ts files.

[Brent]

Originally Posted by Shield

This is on a full client (see sig for hardware). I haven't heard of anyone yet saying they aren't getting some stuttering on a full client while watching live tv and/or playing back HD-PVR .ts files.

I have. And I'm one of those getting perfect (no stuttering) playback of h.264 HD-PVR files in LiveTV and Recorded TV on my full HTPC client (not an HD100). Also get perfect playback on my HD100 of course.

[Shield]

Brent, tell me about your hadware.

So you're saying if you tune into live television you don't have to hit pause/resume to get the stuttering to stop?

Watch out, I'm coming over to watch your TV!

[Brent]

Originally Posted by Shield

Brent, tell me about your hadware.

So you're saying if you tune into live television you don't have to hit pause/resume to get the stuttering to stop?

Watch out, I'm coming over to watch your TV!

Not sure where you are located, but the fuel cost to KC might not be worth it.

I built my HTPC a little over a year ago - here's the basics of it from back then note I was a BeyondTV user back then...

Then this June I did a little CPU "brain surgery" to upgrade to a dual-core.

And I'm using ArcSoft decoder for HD-PVR file playback.