A late adopter for HD with decisions to make

[stevech]

Originally Posted by reggie14

That being said, you might have unrealistic demands for reliability. ... They don't happen often, but they will screw up 2-3 recordings a year.

That would be OK. But not one per month.

[stevech]

Originally Posted by davephan

Since you've been using SageTV already, you must have rejected that option in the past. I rejected the cable DVR a long time ago. The cable DVR user interface was extremely barbaric and crude, and what about automatic commercial skipping, forget about it!

I record a lot of TV, most of which I never watch because there isn't enough time. It is very rare that I've had the wrong program record or had a problem with the program to make it unwatchable.

Dave

Thanks Dave. I hope the "I record lots of TV" is speaking of the HD-PVR.
Yes, I got into Sage long ago because cable companies' DVRs were awful (but may be better now) and Sage seemed more prudent than TiVo.
I simply want HD in Sage to be similar to the good experience we've had with std def in Sage recording off the cable analog, but now recording via component video.

[reggie14]

stevech-

I'm not trying to be mean or rude, but I don't really know what you're trying to accomplish at this point, given I'm pretty sure you already know pretty much know all there is to know at this point. The vast majority of people have reasonably good experiences with the HD-PVR, but no one is claiming its perfect.

At this point it really seems like you're trying to blow off steam over the absence of a guaranteed perfect option. I suspect you've already made your decision, although I'm not sure what it is.

If you're really as demanding as you claim to be about reliability, then perhaps Sage and the HD-PVR aren't right for you. I'm sure there's a point for all of us where the cost, complexity and/or risk of a system becomes too much for us to accept. You may have reached that point. Upgrading your system to support the HD-PVR wouldn't be terribly cheap, and it might take a non-trivial amount of effort to set it up if you're not lucky enough to have it work out of the box. That might not be for you. The alternatives are probably either a cable company DVR or 2/3-room Moxi system. A two room Moxi system would run $800, but is probably the closest thing to a nearly-guaranteed solution as you can get (while still keeping many of Sage's centralized DVR features). I really don't think that's a bad option. There's a pretty good chance I would have selected that over a Sage system if I started from scratch a year ago. But at that point I already had a lot of money invested Sage-related hardware and software.

Or maybe you've already decided you're going to suck it up and jump in with the HD300 and the HD-PVR. That's not a bad choice either, although there's certainly some risk. In many cases you just seem to be looking for someone to reassure you that everything will be OK. At the same time, I think you know no one can guarantee what is going to happen in your particular situation. It might work perfectly out of the box. Or maybe you'd have to spend tens of hours tweaking your system, never getting any better than one missed recording per month. There's really no way to know for certain.

[davephan]

Originally Posted by stevech

Thanks Dave. I hope the "I record lots of TV" is speaking of the HD-PVR.
Yes, I got into Sage long ago because cable companies' DVRs were awful (but may be better now) and Sage seemed more prudent than TiVo.
I simply want HD in Sage to be similar to the good experience we've had with std def in Sage recording off the cable analog, but now recording via component video.

My HD-PVR is mostly reliable now. Every 2 - 3 months I noticed some trouble. I did the HD-PVR modification too. Not using the built-in IR blaster, using a separate USB card, and opening the top of the unit for better cooling. I did not do the fan, but I did buy a fan for it. I did not do the automatic power cycling, but I bought and adapter for it.

Several months ago, I switched to the Colossus. Sometimes I have choppy video and audio. When that happened, I did a cold boot. The problems were resolved. I've noticed that problem several times. I may see if there is an updated driver, but I thought about switching back to the HD-PVR. If there was a way to put the Colossus and HD-PVR in parallel, I would record with both at the same time using the single HD cablebox. I don't watch much cable, mostly financial shows like Clark Howard or Suze Orman and sometimes movie channels. Most of the movies I watch are from Netflix. Almost all of the recorded TV is from locals with the HVR-2250s or HDHomerun.

There's a device that converts HD component video to HD clear QAM. The device looks like it costs more than $1,000. The device could connect to the output of a HD cable box and the input of a HDHomerun or HVR-2250. I don't know how reliable it is. The R5000 option would be a lot cheaper and is a very reliable (according to Fuzzy) way to record HD from Dish Network.

Dave

[panteragstk]

I've considered the R5000, but fuzzy said in that thread that he would get an hd-pvr instead due to flexibility. I've read quite a few good things about r5000 other than the price.

Having said that. With my past experience with dish boxes that failed regularly I'm hesitant to go that route unless it was a non-dvr box. Then it would work well, but if I ever left dish I'd be stuck with an expensive paperweight.

On the other side of the argument I've used many a provider dvr and have had problems with every single one at some point. I used to keep movies and other stuff on the dvr, and when it would fail I lost everything with no way to retrieve. IMHO a provider stb is LESS reliable than sage because there is NO WAY to back up your recordings for another program to read because of the copy protection in place. If it breaks you are out luck.

In other words we can talk about this all day, but the reality is that a 100% reliable system simply does not exist.

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by panteragstk

I've considered the R5000, but fuzzy said in that thread that he would get an hd-pvr instead due to flexibility. I've read quite a few good things about r5000 other than the price.

Price is the real reason I wouldn't buy an R-5000HD at this point. Yes, flexibility of changing providers is nice, but not something I'm prone to do (I already HAVE dish network, so why would I change to a lesser service with pretty much anyone else?)

[stevech]

the thread forks to here

http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=55586

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

Price is the real reason I wouldn't buy an R-5000HD at this point. Yes, flexibility of changing providers is nice, but not something I'm prone to do (I already HAVE dish network, so why would I change to a lesser service with pretty much anyone else?)

Well then. So if I get dish and find a good deal on a vip-211 and buy the diy r5000 mod it would be pricey, but I'm all for getting the best possible functionality. If there wasn't a price difference which one would you pick? Once I pick something most have a 2 year contract so I'll be invested for a while so I think that would be worth it to get the r5000.

[Fuzzy]

R-5000HD with Dish Network will definitely get you the best quality, combined with the smallest file sizes of all the providers available (I'd much rather have the 'original' 5Mbps H.264 stream from Dish Network, than a re-compressed 12Mbps H.264 stream from anyone encoded through the HD-PVR. As for the DIY kit, it IS what I did, but keep in mind it is NOT a simple job. It involves attaching wires to SMD resisters (if you don't know what SMD resisters are, you probably don't want to tackle the soldering job). It's easy to destroy the STB if you aren't careful. I don't know the pricing of the pre-modified boxes right now, but I'm guessing it might be worth it at this point, as the used market for ViP-211's getting dried up, making them more expensive than the newer 211k's. You also then don't have to worry about the fact that about 80% of the 211's on craigslist and ebay are leased units, that you won't be able to activate anyways. So.. Answer: If money isn't an object - buy a pre-modified STB from nextcommwireless.com. My problem is I need a lot more than a single tuner, so the price difference is much more significant.

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

R-5000HD with Dish Network will definitely get you the best quality, combined with the smallest file sizes of all the providers available (I'd much rather have the 'original' 5Mbps H.264 stream from Dish Network, than a re-compressed 12Mbps H.264 stream from anyone encoded through the HD-PVR. As for the DIY kit, it IS what I did, but keep in mind it is NOT a simple job. It involves attaching wires to SMD resisters (if you don't know what SMD resisters are, you probably don't want to tackle the soldering job). It's easy to destroy the STB if you aren't careful. I don't know the pricing of the pre-modified boxes right now, but I'm guessing it might be worth it at this point, as the used market for ViP-211's getting dried up, making them more expensive than the newer 211k's. You also then don't have to worry about the fact that about 80% of the 211's on craigslist and ebay are leased units, that you won't be able to activate anyways. So.. Answer: If money isn't an object - buy a pre-modified STB from nextcommwireless.com. My problem is I need a lot more than a single tuner, so the price difference is much more significant.

I was going to test one first, then add more as needed. Thanks for the advice. They are out of pre-modded boxes, but there are a few retailers that carry the boxes. I try to avoid ebay and craigslist for things like this.

[stevech]

That's what I want rather than IR, but I've decided to not go satellite. Firewire isn't supported by Sage for tuning. I wanted to try to get a specific HD box from my cableCo to provide serial/Fireware compatibilty, but I have not been able to know how to make a match between what works and the 2-3 choices of boxes I may sort of have with the CableCo.

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by stevech

....Firewire isn't supported by Sage for tuning.....

Of course it is and many people are doing it. The caveat is the firewaire drivers are 32 bit only. It won't function on 64 bit OS. But firewire tuning works well with Sage on a 32 bit OS.

Gerry

[stevech]

Originally Posted by gplasky

Of course it is and many people are doing it. The caveat is the firewaire drivers are 32 bit only. It won't function on 64 bit OS. But firewire tuning works well with Sage on a 32 bit OS.

Gerry

How do I determine what make/models of cable set top boxes do work, i.e., have firewire and it's not disable my the CableCo? In my case, I believe I can jockey a bit to get either Scientific Atlanta 83xx or the Cisco rebranding or a Samsung whose model # I know. Asking the cable co. about firewire is futile, of course.

32-bit only - not an issue. I choose to not use Windows 64 bit here. Maybe in a few years.