Am I the Only One....

[Taddeusz]

I've really been thinking about dropping SageTV for TV recording and going with either multi-room Tivo (really expensive) or the Cox Cable DVR whenever they roll out Scientific Atlanta's multi-room system.

I'm at a time in my life where I just want things to work. I am about to get married in June. She likes SageTV for playing back recorded TV and watching stored movies but watching live TV is pretty much a no-go. While it has been great when it works the STB+HD-PVR solution has been less than perfect. My HD-PVR crashes at least once a week which sometimes causes the SageTV service to stop responding. Channel surfing with the HD-PVR is a painful experience and many times results in the HD-PVR crashing. My fiance has given up trying watch live TV with Sage. Since this is only way to record the HD channels I want through SageTV it's screaming for something simpler.

I'm at a crossroads. I've dumped all this money into SageTV and now my life is changing and I don't see it fitting into my future in it's current capacity. Sad, but things change. The HD-PVR, at least on my setup, is just not stable. I need something that is rock solid that doesn't need constant attention.

This revelation saddens me.

[TorontoSage]

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.

I just got SageTV and am still implementing it. For music I've been using Sonos which is one of the best consumer devices I ever bought. Set it up in 5 minutes outside of the box and it just works.

With Sonos, you can wirelessly stream any music, either digital or from a line-in, from a single or multiple servers, wirelessly to a device, (connected via wire to speakers), in any room of up to 32 rooms either simultaneously in perfect sync or up to 32 different streams and control it through an iPhone/iTouch or a Sonos fully waterproof proprietary handheld player (which I use in the steam shower or bathroom). Also, you don't even have to have a computer turned on to stream music from a network attached server (NAS). Sonos is imply beautiful, robust, powerful and elegant.

I am currently investigating how I will use it with SageTV for video. I could just use the TV speakers for the SageTV audio feed, but given any room that has an HDTV will also have ceiling speakers, I might as well enjoy they better quality of these speakers. So I think that I will likely just connect the L/R audio line-out on the HD200 to the L/R analog audio line-in on the Sonos Zoneplayer (this is the device that receives the wireless audio feed and is connected to the ceiling speakers). The Sonos has no optical or SPDIF input port (they have unamplified Zoneplayers for connecting to home theatre surround-sound or other amplifiers), but most people don't really use surround sound except in their home theatre anyway. This will enable me to hear both the SageTV audio feed and the music feed through the ceiling speakers all the time.

The only slight drawback to using Sonos with SageTV is that you don't have a single controller. You have a wifi controller for the music and a IR remote for SageTV. But, if the volume is already set, there is no reason to touch the Sonos wifi controller when watching SageTV. On the other hand, there is nothing like walking around the house with an iPhone/iTouch in your pocket (especially at a party to impress your friends) and whipping it out to change any music in any room instantly. Also streaming internet audio such as Pandora, last.fm, rhapsody has been implemented.

Anyhow, trying doing any of that the same way with SageTV.

[TorontoSage]

Originally Posted by Taddeusz

She likes SageTV for playing back recorded TV and watching stored movies but watching live TV is pretty much a no-go. While it has been great when it works the STB+HD-PVR solution has been less than perfect. My HD-PVR crashes at least once a week which sometimes causes the SageTV service to stop responding. Channel surfing with the HD-PVR is a painful experience and many times results in the HD-PVR crashing. My fiance has given up trying watch live TV with Sage. Since this is only way to record the HD channels I want through SageTV it's screaming for something simpler.

I'm at a crossroads. I've dumped all this money into SageTV and now my life is changing and I don't see it fitting into my future in it's current capacity. Sad, but things change. The HD-PVR, at least on my setup, is just not stable. I need something that is rock solid that doesn't need constant attention.

This revelation saddens me.

It saddens me too given I have just bought 2 HD-PVRs, SageTV software, just ordered an HD200 and am about to buy a separate server instead of using my laptop.

I am wondering if this is a common experience when using SageTV.

I investigated using a matrix switch and distributing SD & HD video throughout the house using Cat5e/6 component video (or HDMI) baluns and IR receivers in each room. This would distribute the video from any source and particularly single or multiple SA8300HD PVRs (but given I already have 1.16 TB of storage on my single SA8300HD I would likely not need more than once unit. And, this could likely be bumped up with the new 1.5TB and 2TB hard drives that are now available). But, with one SA8300HD you'd have to watch the same source in each room, unless you add more cable boxes. One could add a second SA8300HD without external storage for watching and pausing live TV or even more SA8300HD PVRs, but then you have to remember which PVR you recorded which program on.

This setup is robust and simply works. There is no software to continously tweak except for the remotes in the very beginning. You can also have a DVD/Blu-Ray as a source device and add as many of them or SA8300HD PVRs as you have input ports on the matrix switch. You can send any source to any room, either all the same source or different sources all at the same time. The cost of this setup even with a server, btw, was slightly less expensive than using SageTV, which surprised me. I think it's because of the fact that the HD200 has so much functionality built into it. It is the IR blaster/receivers and audio/video balun devices which are so expensive to buy separately for the matrix switch.

But, you don't get the software functionality of SageTV. And this is why I decided to implement the latter with a headless WHS server and HD200's in each room (no HTPCs). Of course, your post makes me question my decision somewhat, but I am going ahead and see what my experience is as there are many happy users on here. If I don't like it I can always go to a matrix switch architecture and be out the cost of the 2 HD-PVRs, 1 HD200 and the SageTV software (I won't buy more HD200's if this doesn't work to my liking) unless I can recover some of the money by selling them. I can always convert the server to a desktop PC which I need anyway. The cabling and SA8300HD PVR and SA4250, HDTV's are a sunk cost as I will need them with either scenario.

But, I hope it does work to my liking of course.

[mayamaniac]

Originally Posted by Taddeusz

While it has been great when it works the STB+HD-PVR solution has been less than perfect. My HD-PVR crashes at least once a week which sometimes causes the SageTV service to stop responding. Channel surfing with the HD-PVR is a painful experience and many times results in the HD-PVR crashing. My fiance has given up trying watch live TV with Sage. Since this is only way to record the HD channels I want through SageTV it's screaming for something simpler.

Are you using IR Blasters for channel changing? I never got the HD-PVR to work reliably until I went with firewire for channel changing.

Originally Posted by TorontoSage

The only slight drawback to using Sonos with SageTV is that you don't have a single controller. You have a wifi controller for the music and a IR remote for SageTV. But, if the volume is already set, there is no reason to touch the Sonos wifi controller when watching SageTV.

What Sonos lacks is a Zone player for the TV, so you can listen to music through your TV and the ability to control the entire sonos system with the TV interface via IR remote. And maybe add Pictures support as well, like an integrated flash card reader as well as pictures from networked the PCs.

[Taddeusz]

Originally Posted by mayamaniac

Are you using IR Blasters for channel changing? I never got the HD-PVR to work reliably until I went with firewire for channel changing.

I use firewire for channel changing. For the most part it works ok but about once or sometimes twice a week my HD-PVR stops responding and I need to reset it by unplugging and replugging the power. Having my cable box output AC3 rather than PCM stereo makes things worse.

Right now I just wish for something that had near zero maintenance like an appliance.

For the time being I just wish for that magic bullet driver update that miraculously fixes it. But we've been a couple months now without any updates so I'm not holding my breath.

[mayamaniac]

Originally Posted by Taddeusz

I use firewire for channel changing. For the most part it works ok but about once or sometimes twice a week my HD-PVR stops responding and I need to reset it by unplugging and replugging the power. Having my cable box output AC3 rather than PCM stereo makes things worse.

Right now I just wish for something that had near zero maintenance like an appliance.

For the time being I just wish for that magic bullet driver update that miraculously fixes it. But we've been a couple months now without any updates so I'm not holding my breath.

It seems to be the case with the HD-PVR, that it is working for some and not for others. I have zero problems with the HD-PVR. I bought the C2 revision after they fixed the heat problems of the first batch that early adopters encountered. And since then, I haven't powered or reset at all, it's really zero maintenance on my part. I even switched from cable to FiOS, and no problems so far. I guess I should consider myself as one of the lucky ones.

[Taddeusz]

Originally Posted by mayamaniac

It seems to be the case with the HD-PVR, that it is working for some and not for others. I have zero problems with the HD-PVR. I bought the C2 revision after they fixed the heat problems of the first batch that early adopters encountered. And since then, I haven't powered or reset at all, it's really zero maintenance on my part. I even switched from cable to FiOS, and no problems so far. I guess I should consider myself as one of the lucky ones.

I actually hadn't had many issues with my HD-PVR until the latest driver with AC3 pass-through. I had it running for weeks on end through the heat of the summer without a hiccup. But now it seems the AC3 encoding mucks it up. Maybe I should try downgrading to the previous driver and see how that works?

[TorontoSage]

Originally Posted by mayamaniac

What Sonos lacks is a Zone player for the TV, so you can listen to music through your TV and the ability to control the entire sonos system with the TV interface via IR remote. And maybe add Pictures support as well, like an integrated flash card reader as well as pictures from networked the PCs.

True, but I am not sure why you would want to do that. You can feed the audio from the TV to the line-in on the Sonos, but yes you can't control it except through the TV remote. Also, why would you want to manipulate the Sonos through the TV remote when the TV remote pales in comparison to the control you get with the Sonos handheld wifi controller and the remote also only works if pointed at the TV, etc.

Also, digital music that you have stored on your server that can also be accessed through SageTV can also be accessed through Sonos and it's way easier to control throught the latter. Why use the IR remote for the TV if it's harder to use and has less functionality?

And you can listen to your Sonos through the TV if you just plug the output from the Sonos into the audio of the TV. Why you would want to do that I don't know as TV speakers aren't that great quality. You'd be better with standalone or ceiling speakers.

Even if you want to access a live music channel provided by your cable operator you can feed it to the line-in on the Sonos and simply change the channel using the TV or HD200 remote (you can't do anything except with that music anyway, except change to another channel).

So, I don't really understand where Sonos is limited. Can you elaborate?

[TorontoSage]

Originally Posted by Taddeusz

I actually hadn't had many issues with my HD-PVR until the latest driver with AC3 pass-through. I had it running for weeks on end through the heat of the summer without a hiccup. But now it seems the AC3 encoding mucks it up. Maybe I should try downgrading to the previous driver and see how that works?

So, you actually had it running without a hiccup and were prepared to ditch it because of this problem? I do agree that ongoing problems would be problematic for the WAF but there are lots on here that need to handle the WAF and have successfully done so without ongoing problems (it seems). But, if there was just this one problem it seems that it would be better to try and fix it than just ditch the system.

[Kryspy]

Well,

The HD-PVR, IMHO is a bit of a joke. The IR blaster is brutal and I refuse to buy a 3rd party blaster for something that should work reasonably well.

Drivers; well the spdif won't work under the capture module. I get some device in use error and have pursued on the web. Solution seems to be to contact Arcsoft support and provide them with your serial number and what not.

For the love of pete if you know there is an issue, release a patch or in the least post a ftp link to the necessary files.

So, in short, for me, I say screw the HD-PVR I should have known better than to buy a Hauppig product again.

The solution....

I was a very happy Starchoice customer but left due to their Fisher Price PVR. I have looked over the instructions and think the R5000 is within my comfort zone to install myself.

I need to do a self install to keep the cost down being from Canada. Also, Starchoice is going to DVB-S2 and so at some point I will need to swap the mod to another receiver.

So I may go back to Starchoice.


Kryspy

[Taddeusz]

Originally Posted by TorontoSage

So, you actually had it running without a hiccup and were prepared to ditch it because of this problem? I do agree that ongoing problems would be problematic for the WAF but there are lots on here that need to handle the WAF and have successfully done so without ongoing problems (it seems). But, if there was just this one problem it seems that it would be better to try and fix it than just ditch the system.

Right now I'm trying to find which was the last driver that recorded audio to AAC. If it was one I dowloaded or the one on the CD I don't know. That's the one I never had any problems with.

[S_M_E]

Originally Posted by pjpjpjpj

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

No doubt, I like the gravy too but generally I want my gravy *on* something else not just a bowl of gravy...

[Rob]

Originally Posted by Kryspy

Well,

The solution....

I was a very happy Starchoice customer but left due to their Fisher Price PVR. I have looked over the instructions and think the R5000 is within my comfort zone to install myself.

I need to do a self install to keep the cost down being from Canada. Also, Starchoice is going to DVB-S2 and so at some point I will need to swap the mod to another receiver.

So I may go back to Starchoice.


Kryspy

Good luck with the self install. In the last year I have gotten two R5000s that I bought pre-modded and three HD100's. Life is SO much simpler now that it was a year ago. For me, the setup now just works. It never misses recordings. They always work and I spend little or no time fiddling with it anymore. The only thing I'm wanting now is an HD200 to make blu-ray playback more reliable.

[TorontoSage]

Originally Posted by Rob

Good luck with the self install. In the last year I have gotten two R5000s that I bought pre-modded and three HD100's. Life is SO much simpler now that it was a year ago. For me, the setup now just works. It never misses recordings. They always work and I spend little or no time fiddling with it anymore. The only thing I'm wanting now is an HD200 to make blu-ray playback more reliable.

The R5000 does not work with Rogers Cable right?

[Rob]

Sorry, but I do not know. I use Dishnetworks with vip-211 receivers.

[Kryspy]

TorontoSage,

It is my understanding that they are Motorola only cable boxes and they must not have firewire.

Kryspy

[Kryspy]

AtariJeff,

What IR code did you use for the Bell 6141?

Kryspy

[Taddeusz]

Well, I finally found a copy of the old HD-PVR 1.0b driver and downgraded my system last night. It already made one recording. We'll see how it goes.

Previously with the same driver I ran for at least a couple months without issue.

Of course, the only reason this can be made possible is I have a C2 unit. It is my understanding that newer revisions of the HD-PVR are not recognized by that driver versionl.

[TorontoSage]

I wonder what it is with Hauppauge that they can't write stable drivers? I guess maybe because they are pretty well the only game in town other than the R5000, which is a bit of a different animal and at a different price point (which Netcom informed me will never support the Scientific Atlanta cable boxes). So, I guess they don't feel the pressure to make the HD PVR product bullet proof.

[Taddeusz]

Originally Posted by TorontoSage

I wonder what it is with Hauppauge that they can't write stable drivers? I guess maybe because they are pretty well the only game in town other than the R5000, which is a bit of a different animal and at a different price point (which Netcom informed me will never support the Scientific Atlanta cable boxes). So, I guess they don't feel the pressure to make the HD PVR product bullet proof.

I think its just such a new type of product. Even with all the revisions of the HD-PVR it is still essentially a v1.0 product