My first month into SAGETV thumbs up

[PLUCKYHD]

Okay just that I would post a couple of my observations on my first month over from Media center cablecard pc. I am not fully functional yet but I am getting close. Here are my specs

Windows Home server-q6600 processor
4gb ram
12 1.5tb of storage in the pool
500gb c/d drive
2 dual hdhomerun tuners (2 for qam, 2 used for ota)
Blue ray buner-pioner
1 hd 200 extender

So far things have been pretty good touch and go. I tried dual hd-pvr's and although I got it working fairly well I just didn't like all the additional wires and boxes compared to my cable card setup in media center. So as of now I have 2 r5000 modded dish 211 boxes in route as I think one box is ideal it is more of a cable management and space constraint vs quality or anything.

I wanted to thank this great forum for the help of getting me converted all the help has been greatly appreciated and I only hope I can return that to the community. I have been a very active member at TGB and I hope to be come just as active in these forums. So far the WAF approval factor is extremely high (will be better once I get premium channels back into the equation with the r5000) I had originally passed on SAGETV as I wanted cable card solution after having a hard drive failure on the operating system hard drive and losing the ability to play back over 1tb of stored recordings I had enough with DRM and media center. (that was the straw that broke the camel's back) and seeing as how I am having trouble giving my xps 420 away @ $600 I don't think cablecard will last much longer on media center.

The recent addition of Blu Ray was the icing on the cake for me. I am stilling running media center extenders in my two other rooms but once I get the modded boxes I will order two more hd200's and send the xbox extenders to craiglist and won't miss their loud noise or power consumption one bit.

Thanks again and I am so far not regretting my switch in any way or fashion. native dvd and blu ray support, and drm free recordings is worth the price of admission.

[mikejaner]

I had originally passed on SAGETV as I wanted cable card solution after having a hard drive failure on the operating system hard drive and losing the ability to play back over 1tb of stored recordings I had enough with DRM and media center.

Great googly moogly.... 1tb of unwatchable recordings? You mean if you have to rebuild a mediacenter box with cable card recordings, the DRM dies with the original install? That Sux0rz big time! My wife would probably hang me if that happened.

[PLUCKYHD]

Originally Posted by mikejaner

Great googly moogly.... 1tb of unwatchable recordings? You mean if you have to rebuild a mediacenter box with cable card recordings, the DRM dies with the original install? That Sux0rz big time! My wife would probably hang me if that happened.

Yes you are correct the cable card recordings are tied to the install. A new install means now way to playback previous recordings. I don't see the need for this and the other plus is you can't backup the drm!!

[mikejaner]

Originally Posted by PLUCKYHD

Yes you are correct the cable card recordings are tied to the install. A new install means now way to playback previous recordings. I don't see the need for this and the other plus is you can't backup the drm!!

Would an Acronis/Ghost/WHS image have saved the DRM along with the OS?

[PLUCKYHD]

Sometimes but the DRM is ever changing and ever moving from what I read. Sometimes that works but others it doesn't if anything had changed in the drm since last backup.

[wayner]

I was 5 months ahead of you (and I recognize your name from TGB) except I diddn't have a CableCard PC and I came from XP MCE with 5-V1 extenders.

[PLUCKYHD]

Okay so just an updated on my second month in..

I recieved my r5000 tuners last week and thanks to the great help from nextcomm and sagetv forums and sagetv support (probably the best I have ever seen for a software company) everything is up and running like it should be.

My motherboard is apparantly bad on my WHS as if I try and run more than 1 stick of ram it instantly locks up so I have another coming to swap it out. Also had some issues with the lg blu ray drive seems to be picker than the pioneer blu ray writer on reading disk.

I only have one of my r5000's hooked up an running right now as I need to make another sattelite run for the second one.

That said having a 5 (2hdhomerun qam, 2hdhomerun ota, 1 dish 211 r5000) soon to be 6 tuner system that is completely DRM free and running off WHS is heaven sent. It took some time to get everything tweaked but I think I am almost there (can't say there because are we every really done ). I still need to get my commercial skipping working a little bit better but all in all I still haven't missed media center yet...

[wayner]

Originally Posted by mikejaner

Great googly moogly....

Somebody has been watching Maggie and the Ferocious Beast too much!

[ghostlobster]

Congratulations!!! I'm coming up on a year as a full time Sage user and don't see myself going anywhere.
A few questions, out of cusiosity:

• What were your biggest WAF hurdles?
• What front end are you using? SageMC or stock?
• What add-ins have you slapped into your rig?
• How many PC clients compared to extenders are hanging off your system?
• Are you using your WHS server as a playback device?

[PLUCKYHD]

Originally Posted by ghostlobster

Congratulations!!! I'm coming up on a year as a full time Sage user and don't see myself going anywhere.
A few questions, out of cusiosity:

• What were your biggest WAF hurdles?
• What front end are you using? SageMC or stock?
• What add-ins have you slapped into your rig?
• How many PC clients compared to extenders are hanging off your system?
• Are you using your WHS server as a playback device?

Just a couple of questions hey

Biggest WAF hurdle still exist she doesn't like the pause in between shows on livetv. (commercial skip on premium hdtv, blu-ray, and native dvd support help win her back.) I also still have one hurdle it is cataloguing my tv shows that I have on dvd haven't figured this one out yet.

Sagemc of course wife would never go for default sage.

I have fanart, advanced movie info, tv info, commercial skip via comskip and showanalyzer, (working on sqj to help with that), and of course have made my own menu with dvds,blu rays, home movies, pictures, and tv.

I currently use two hd200's and a old haupaugge extender and one client pc

no whs sits without a monitor where my old dell xps 420 was.

[briands]

Originally Posted by PLUCKYHD

Just a couple of questions hey

Biggest WAF hurdle still exist she doesn't like the pause in between shows on livetv. (commercial skip on premium hdtv, blu-ray, and native dvd support help win her back.) I also still have one hurdle it is cataloguing my tv shows that I have on dvd haven't figured this one out yet.

Sagemc of course wife would never go for default sage.

I have fanart, advanced movie info, tv info, commercial skip via comskip and showanalyzer, (working on sqj to help with that), and of course have made my own menu with dvds,blu rays, home movies, pictures, and tv.

I currently use two hd200's and a old haupaugge extender and one client pc

no whs sits without a monitor where my old dell xps 420 was.

Is the client reliable? Care to share the software config to get all of the HD (including BD) goodness to play back on it?

[PLUCKYHD]

Yes the client is reliable I haven't used it much as it is my office pc which I am running w7 on for some "private testing"

I haven't tried blu rays as I think currently that is only available on hd200's could be wrong but I don't think it will work.

The r5000 and hdhomerun feeds have worked good the couple of times I have used them.