Am I the Only One....

[Kryspy]

Who is quite content with just using SageTV with extender just for streaming media from my WHS server and online content?

I tried TV through SageTV on the weekend and even though I "get" the advantage I am not totally sold that is that much better than my current set-up of satellite which gives me a second TV output (albeit not HD).

Just curious if others just use it for media streaming and not bother with the TV aspect. I wanna be just as cool as everyone else

I certainly can see the draw for OTA on it which I do plan on pursuing but the expense of recording HD content from satellite is a bit much perhaps.


Kryspy

[Texas-Hansen]

I agree with you. I only use Sage via Sage Media Server for WHS and a Sage HD200 to stream all my movies, my music and my pictures. It works awesome for that. I haven't tried using Sage as a TV DVR as I too use satellite for my television needs. I get so many more channels with Sat and my DirecTV HD DVRs work very well for what they were designed to do.

[bastafidli]

The same exact setup here. SageTV for all my media + internet, Dish for live TV, no DVR and very happy with it. I just wish SageTV would focus more on the media center/server experience since in the 1+ year I use it I haven't seen much improvement there.

[mayamaniac]

I say you guys are in the minority because the media center side of SageTV is it's weakest part. Its called SageTV, so the TV (PVR/DVR) side will always be the main focus. I would probably look for other options if all I want is a media playback solution. SageTV currently does not officially support Hulu and Netflix. Hulu support is rumored to be coming, but if it is like their YouTube or Google Video feature, it will be half-@ss implementation. The same goes for Music and Pictures support, they have very basic functionalities. You still can't play an audio CD or choose a folder for screensaver slideshow.

The HD200 is an awesome playback device though.

[jominor]

Originally Posted by mayamaniac

I say you guys are in the minority because the media center side of SageTV is it's weakest part. Its called SageTV, so the TV (PVR/DVR) side will always be the main focus. I would probably look for other options if all I want is a media playback solution. SageTV currently does not officially support Hulu and Netflix. Hulu support is rumored to be coming, but if it is like their YouTube or Google Video feature, it will be half-@ss implementation. The same goes for Music and Pictures support, they have very basic functionalities. You still can't play an audio CD or choose a folder for screensaver slideshow.

The HD200 is an awesome playback device though.

+1
I still use Expanded basic for analog cable. My 3 turners mine as much as possible out of television and that is its primary function.

[PLUCKYHD]

Originally Posted by mayamaniac

I say you guys are in the minority because the media center side of SageTV is it's weakest part. Its called SageTV, so the TV (PVR/DVR) side will always be the main focus. I would probably look for other options if all I want is a media playback solution. SageTV currently does not officially support Hulu and Netflix. Hulu support is rumored to be coming, but if it is like their YouTube or Google Video feature, it will be half-@ss implementation. The same goes for Music and Pictures support, they have very basic functionalities. You still can't play an audio CD or choose a folder for screensaver slideshow.

The HD200 is an awesome playback device though.

I wouldn't say it's weakest part as the blu ray function adds allot of strength

but yes if you are not using if for tv you are using a expensive device for no tv.

[Kryspy]

Well my problem is that I think the HD-PVR is a half ass solution for getting satellite into SageTV.

The R5000 mod is on the right track but expensive. My problem is that BellTV which I am using got stuck with 6141 receivers for HD which are 211K Dish receivers; so no R5000 mod there and using my $500 9242 DVR and onluone of the tuners seems silly as well.

I could switch to Starchoice but there are new receivers apparently coming this year as they are moving towards DVB-S2 or whatever it's called so I don't want to have to send a modified 505 back out oget remodded as I live in Canada.

Not having access to PPV also seems limiting. Aside from not having the ability to keep video forever my DVR does all that SageTV does. I don't think for $200 that SageTV is an expensive investment for not using TV. There aren't too many setups out there that can stream DVD with menus and mkv to boot and do a decent of looking good at the same time.

I am not totally sold against TV use in Sage it is just I am trying to justify the cost vs what I have now which is very reliable.

If my WHS went down so would TV in the house. Not an easy thing to explain to the wife.

Kryspy

[GKusnick]

Originally Posted by Kryspy

Aside from not having the ability to keep video forever my DVR does all that SageTV does.

Unlikely. It might do all that you need it to do for now. But if you ever want to record more than two programs simultaneously, or feed multiple TVs from a central video server, or watch TV on your laptop, or customize the UI to suit your preferences, there's no way your provider's DVR box can compete with Sage in those areas.

[S_M_E]

I can't even imagine SageTV without the PVR funtions too. The TV stuff is what brought me to Sage and the rest is gravy.

[matt91]

Originally Posted by Kryspy

Aside from not having the ability to keep video forever my DVR does all that SageTV does.

Not to get into a big discussion of what Sage does versus your PVR, I'll just say that the single biggest selling point in my house is automatic commercial skip. It just works. I let SJQ (recently) or DIRMON2 (last two years or so) monitor and launch comskip. SageMC is preset to look for an .edl file. The result is that every single commercial is skipped in our house. This is huge for us.

[Brent]

You're definitely not alone - I'm sure there are plenty using SageTV this way. It is interesting to see some SageTV users who are not interested (or less interested) in the TV/PVR part of things. I would guess that the majority of SageTV users are TV/PVR first and all other media second, but the media stuff is certainly important and probably more important now than ever before.

I started down this HTPC thing with Meedio. I had a ton of DVDs and CDs piled up in the house and wanted to digitize my collection and serve it to my TVs and Audio Receivers in the house - and to organize that media so you could drive music and movies with the remote control with playlists, sort by genre etc.

Next came the thought - hey, why don't I make this thing into a TiVO too? And THAT is when I really went in deep. Meedio plus BeyondTV took over my PC. After a while I took the gamble that Beyond Media would work better with BTV (boy was that a poor long-term decision) and I left Meedio.

Anyway, the point is Non-TV media was my initial stepping stone into the HTPC world. But since then TV has become extremely important because it has to work 24/7 and be totally reliable for me to use it for our TV recording and viewing. I want SageTV to keep a focus on TV/PVR so that it continues to be rock solid and keep up-to-date with the changing environment (HD-PVR, HDHR, etc) as time goes on as well. BUT, I also have music, movies and photos that are important to me too. So I hope that the powers that be at SageTV put some emphasis on improving the core for those things going forward.

There are plenty of add-ons and customizations that make SageTV's non-TV media stuff do what I want them to so I'm happy, but I still want more.

By the way, you can have a rock-solid PVR with SageTV. As with any HTPC it isn't always easy to get there and it isn't always the cheapest route to get there, but it definitely is possible. I use SageTV and the bumps in the road I encounter are almost always due to a hardware problem (I've had a hard drive go bad and a NIC go bad) or a beta problem (Me testing beta software on a "production" HTPC). But for the most part I turn on my TV and know my shows will record and that I can access whatever live program I want at any given time. That's the only way it can exist in my home or else the wife would have thrown the HTPC and me out long ago.

[Kryspy]

Brent and everyone else,

Thanks for your insight. I hooked the HD-PVR back up and am going to run it through it's paces for a week and see how it does at recording etc.

Kryspy

[wayner]

I have two HD-PVRs connected to my Sage system and I now only watch TV via SageTV. My alternative PVR is from Rogers Cable and it is the SA8300HD. As TorontoSage pointed out, compared to Sage the SA8300HD looks like it is a device designed by the Soviet Union.

But I almost never watch PPV and I never watch live TV - I am a sports nut but I even watch sports in "near real time" - the same day as the game but somewhat later so I can zip (or comskip) through all of the commercials.

[SWKerr]

Unless you are using a Tivo the DVR capabilities of the Cable and Satellite are pretty weak. Now that some of them support external drives, capacity is better for some, but there are a lot of features related to Comskip and the management of what and when to record shows that don't come close to the capabilities of Sage. If you have a DVR and several TVs you have no central management. Everything has to be on both boxes or you change TVs. I also like having one interface for all my media. Switching from one device to anther for music, TV and DVDs and Online content is just a pain and then each one works differently.

I started out keeping my DVR for awhile and recoded on both until I got to the point when I realized how bad the DVR was and that I would never go back. I stopped recording on them and when I switched to HD I just dumped the DVRs all together.

[bastafidli]

Originally Posted by mayamaniac

I say you guys are in the minority because the media center side of SageTV is it's weakest part. Its called SageTV, so the TV (PVR/DVR) side will always be the main focus.

My main focus is to do not spent my life in front of the tube :-). 80% of SageTV usage in our household is to actually listen to all our music with TV usually turned off once selection is made or on to see family pics. The music makes wonders for our little kids. For this reason I would be willing to pay extra $$$ to get Internet radio and Pandora. 18% are spent on some kids show when parents need to do something urgent or some feature movies and shows when the kids are asleep and parents are not exhausted so much to fall asleep in front of TV :-). 2% are used to catch up some network news from the Online section usually in the mornings.

My attachment to Sage is for 2 reasons only
1. HD100 is awesome device
2. Support from SageTV when you encounter issues is the best there is.
(Notice the lack of attachment to SageTV software :-)

[AtariJeff]

Originally Posted by Kryspy

Well my problem is that I think the HD-PVR is a half ass solution for getting satellite into SageTV.

I am using 2 ExpressVu 6141 HD receivers with 2 HD-PVR's on WHS. I was using more nefarious means in the past to get 'pure digital' but quite frankly this setup is more reliable and the pic quality is better IMHO. So don't write off the HD-PVR just yet.

[mayamaniac]

Originally Posted by bastafidli

My attachment to Sage is for 2 reasons only
1. HD100 is awesome device
2. Support from SageTV when you encounter issues is the best there is.
(Notice the lack of attachment to SageTV software :-)

The HD100 still relies on SageTV software to function.

Now for people using the HD200 in stand-alone mode only, I can understand why they don't care much for SageTV's PVR features.

[pjpjpjpj]

Originally Posted by bastafidli

80% of SageTV usage in our household is to actually listen to all our music with TV usually turned off once selection is made or on to see family pics. The music makes wonders for our little kids. For this reason I would be willing to pay extra $$$ to get Internet radio and Pandora.

If music and photos are your main focus, there are seemingly many other options out there available that are much better for these (at least the music side). I endure the clunky music interface because it's my only networked option and I appreciate that it's there... but I wouldn't choose it if I had choices....

Originally Posted by S_M_E

I can't even imagine SageTV without the PVR funtions too. The TV stuff is what brought me to Sage and the rest is gravy.

+1. Gravy that makes my friends jealous, too.

[sleonard]

Originally Posted by pjpjpjpj

If music and photos are your main focus, there are seemingly many other options out there available that are much better for these (at least the music side). I endure the clunky music interface because it's my only networked option and I appreciate that it's there... but I wouldn't choose it if I had choices....

The only reason I have used the music interface is because it came with Sage. In fact I have removed the music import directories and am researching Squeezecenter and Squeezeboxes and similar alternatives. If I do go with something like that I'll probably install Nielm's dynamic menu and remove the media center menus altogether.

S

[TorontoSage]

Originally Posted by wayner

I have two HD-PVRs connected to my Sage system and I now only watch TV via SageTV. My alternative PVR is from Rogers Cable and it is the SA8300HD. As TorontoSage pointed out, compared to Sage the SA8300HD looks like it is a device designed by the Soviet Union.

But I almost never watch PPV and I never watch live TV - I am a sports nut but I even watch sports in "near real time" - the same day as the game but somewhat later so I can zip (or comskip) through all of the commercials.

Didn't I say Soviet Union 'during World War II'?

We all have different needs, but just before Wayner sent me an innocuous message on another forum about SageTV (thank you Wayner), I was heading in the direction of just wanting to distribute HD video from a single SA 8300HD PVR box (with 1 TB of external storage) to all of the HDTV's in my house for two reasons. I did not want to buy more than one SA8300HD PVR or, if I did, try to figure out which program I recorded on which unit. I was more concerned at the time about distributing the broadcast video signal than anything else. But then he pointed out the advantages of having a server based DVR and my eyes started widening. For broadcast video especially, there are SO many things that SageTV can do that are simply not possible with cable company boxes, such as the ability to:

- copy SD & HD programs to a laptop in minutes and take them on the road. Without Sage and the HD PVR, I can only copy them in SD format to a DVD (which takes as long to do as the program length).
- save SD & HD programs indefinitely, which you can't really do on a cable box because the storage is not expandable beyond the size of the largest single external hard drive available
- backup SD & HD programs instead of losing them all when your cable box dies. Even if you wanted to, you can only do this in a round-about way by buying 2 cable boxes and recording the same shows on each and hope both don't fail at the same time.

And the other big feature is the SageTV software which is simply amazing and is another world from the kindergarten software that the SA8300HD PVR has. Also, I can even program SageTV when I am on the road through a web-enabled device.

But, if you do not care about broadcast video at all, then SageTV may not be the prettiest girl at the dance.