New UK user for SageTV - Concerns

[emotionnotion]

Hi Folks,

I am a newbie and have been reading the contents of this forum over the past 2-3 weeks which has increased my interest in this PVR platform.

I am interesting in defecting from Windows Media Center 7/Xbox 360 to a SageTV, HD200 combination.

Having now invested in a new Tranquil Windows Home Server and HDHomerun I am keen on running as few hardware items as possible and attain the all important WAF for the system (Windows Media Center is just too clunky and streaming DVD's is a nightmare).

I hope the UK user base can allay my fears about using SageTV in the UK.

1) EPG updates appear to be a nightmare; how much effort is involved daily/weekly in maintaining this information in the UK?
2) HD200's can only be ordered from the US - At present there is a 2 month wait just for stock - Is this normal and how robust are these extenders on a day-to-day basis?
3) How stable is the SageTV server for Windows Home Server and what level of support do you experience from SageTV in the US when issues occur?
4) How easy is it to setup SageTV for Freeview in the UK in terms of channel order, channel logos and such the like?
5) I have seen the new UI in the 7 beta (which I am trialing on my laptop) and the Movie wall which is welcome but, how much effort is involved in maintaining the cover art and metadata for the movies (I am used to managing this in MYMOVIES)?

If I have asked anything that is answered elsewhere I apologies; I am simply making sure I get a PURE UK PERSPECTIVE before I invest £500+ in this solution as our experience with Windows Media Centre has been poor.

If anybody is using SageTV in the UK with WHS, HDHomerun and HD200 extenders I would value you input as this would be my complete setup.

Cheers
Simon

[logsvp]

See my signature for my setup

Can't help with the HDHomeRun as I use internal PCI/PCI-E and USB tuners. I am picking up Freeview and Freesat (including BBC HD and ITV HD).

I wouldn't call EPG updating a nightmare - it is runs perfectly for me but does involve a subscription to DigiGuide and the use of StephaneM's importer.

Probably tempting fate here but my HD200 runs perfectly and seems to play back everything I can throw at it.

SageTV has been more stable than WHS and I haven't had to call on support. However, I tend to use these forums as a first port of call for problem issues.

I have SageTV setup using my own channel numbers (again using StephaneM's importer) - means I can group the channels I want together and lose the ones I don't want.

There is a new plugin in development by PluckyHD that has been designed to work from the ground up with MyMovies. It is not out yet but imminent, see this thread.

Generally I am very pleased with my setup and it has a high WAF which is as we know very important I am very glad I went with SageTV.

With Sage V7 the need to get your hands dirty has been significantly reduced and I suspect will improve further as more of the existing plugins are converted to the new SageTV 7 plugin system. However, some tinkering is still needed under the bonnet to get a perfect setup.

Hope this helps as a starter for 10

[emotionnotion]

Thanks for this; makes me feel better; I have no issue getting my hands dirty as long as the end result is worth the effort and V7 looks to be.

Just annoying I have to wait 2+ months for a couple of HD200's!

Now must update my signature even though SageTV is currently a trial version.

[jaminben]

I'd pretty much echo what logsvp said......setting up the epg isn't an easy task but on the other hand it shouldn't be more than a couple of hours work if you put a little time in reseaching first.

You also can't really go wrong with an extender/WHS combo.....IMO its simply the ultimate solution. My setup is currently 100% stable (I really hope I haven't talked it up!!) and has been for well over a year now, in fact its so stable I'm not even running version 7 yet as I don't want to break a working system (and I also want to smash my personal best uptime record).

Pluckys MyMovies plugin is very good and is pretty much automatic so you wouldn't need to put much effort into getting metadata or fanart for your movies.....there is also BMT which by all accounts is also very good.

Welcome to SageTV

Cheers

Ben

[starfire]

Originally Posted by emotionnotion

1) EPG updates appear to be a nightmare; how much effort is involved daily/weekly in maintaining this information in the UK?
2) HD200's can only be ordered from the US - At present there is a 2 month wait just for stock - Is this normal and how robust are these extenders on a day-to-day basis?
3) How stable is the SageTV server for Windows Home Server and what level of support do you experience from SageTV in the US when issues occur?
4) How easy is it to setup SageTV for Freeview in the UK in terms of channel order, channel logos and such the like?
5) I have seen the new UI in the 7 beta (which I am trialing on my laptop) and the Movie wall which is welcome but, how much effort is involved in maintaining the cover art and metadata for the movies (I am used to managing this in MYMOVIES)?

Hi, welcome to Sage

1. Effort on a daily/weekly basis is none for me typically. I just spent a couple of hours setting up then any tinkering required if TV frequencies are changed etc.
2. I only run HD100s but apart from the famous PSU capacitor issue they have been perfect, suspect HD200s will be the same. HD200s have been in stock a fair bit, I suspect a new "HD300" may be in the works but nothing official yet.
3. Sorry just run it on XP Home but very stable running as a service and official support is normally good, ie they get back to you and try and fix the fault
4. There is a learning curve but you should get plenty of help here - have a go while you are still in Trial to try out. I recommend Digiuide and Stephane's importer.
5. Sorry can't answer I am a SageMC user still on v6 - waiting for the new Phoenix or Ortus projects to appear for v7 as I still don't really like the new GUI and it seems to me lots of plugins are appearing to try and massage it into something better

Hope that helps.

[mrcandu]

Originally Posted by emotionnotion

1) EPG updates appear to be a nightmare; how much effort is involved daily/weekly in maintaining this information in the UK?

There is a little effort involved in setting up and maintaining an xmltv data source, but as mentioned above, StephaneM's importer does simplify the process. If you have DVB-T card and you want a setup and maintenance free epg data source , you can use the 7 day epg that's part of the broadcast.

Originally Posted by emotionnotion

4) How easy is it to setup SageTV for Freeview in the UK in terms of channel order, channel logos and such the like?

Unfortunately DVB-T logical channel mapping is still a manual process. By default tv and radio channels are assigned numbers alphabetically. Not all countries with DVB-T include the logical channel numbers with the broadcast, but in the UK we do, so i'm hoping that at some point Sage might introduce a feature to take advantage of this. That being said, once you have mapped the channels once, its not often you have to change them.