directv dvr vs sagetv dvr

[SteveD]

I was visiting my nephew and he has gotten directv whole house dvr system. It makes me wonder why I should maintain the sagetv infracture in my household, and not go to the directv systems. Can someone list the advantages of sagetv dvr over directv dvr.

[Slugger]

Having never used the DTV system, the most appealing advantage to me is portability. Regardless of what source I use to receive my tv, and I've used almost all of them with SageTV, my Sage system works with them all.

Maybe the DTV solution is better, maybe it's not, but I can say for sure that if you want to dump DTV later on down the road then your investment is worthless.

The rest of my advantage list is more to do with the open platform and the ability to extend the functionality of the system, which may or may not be an advantage to others.

[Graygeek]

Originally Posted by SteveD

I was visiting my nephew and he has gotten directv whole house dvr system. It makes me wonder why I should maintain the sagetv infracture in my household, and not go to the directv systems. Can someone list the advantages of sagetv dvr over directv dvr.

Came to the same conclusion this time last year. The DTV system works pretty good compared to my Sage setup with a lot less effort. It is not as snappy or versatile but with the 5 tuners and whole house capability I'm happy. I still keep a minimal Sage setup to capture for archive from one DTV receiver or from over the air. 99% of content I capture is to watch and toss and the DTV system works fine for that. Sadly I just can't bring myself to totally kick Sage to the curb yet.

[NetworkGuy]

I used to have satellite system about 4 years ago. One major disadvantage is the weather. When there was a heavy rainstorm in the area, we would lose reception for 5-10 minutes until it passed. I found a few gaps in the shows that were being recorded at that time.

I do not know about the new systems, but I was not able to watch anything other than what I had recorded from their service. With Sage, I can watch DVD’s, home moves, OTA, etc. I am not ready to give that up yet.

[SteveD]

Originally Posted by NetworkGuy

I used to have satellite system about 4 years ago. One major disadvantage is the weather. When there was a heavy rainstorm in the area, we would lose reception for 5-10 minutes until it passed. I found a few gaps in the shows that were being recorded at that time.

I do not know about the new systems, but I was not able to watch anything other than what I had recorded from their service. With Sage, I can watch DVD’s, home moves, OTA, etc. I am not ready to give that up yet.

I currently use directv as my primary feed into sage, the question is the dvr capabilities of sage vs directv whole home system. OTA channel are available through DTV. I have observed that if you want wait long enough you can find everything you want to watch through the internet (Netflix, Hulu, Crackle or eventually over the cable system. Archiving shows just seem to be redundant in today's climate.

I have 4 client PC, Sagetv Server headless (2 HDPVR, 1 HVR2250 SD, 1 HVR2250 OTA, Unraid server for mymovies storage and openvpn. This is a lot of hardware to watch tv.

[pjpjpjpj]

Originally Posted by SteveD

Can someone list the advantages of sagetv dvr over directv dvr.

If all you need is OTA, SageTV has no monthly fees. Whatcha pay for that whole-home setup?

[[JiF]Mike]

I have DirecTV, and did subscribe to the whole home dvr (it's extra $$ for that feature). Once our contract was up I dropped it cause I never used it. For every rcvr you have, you pay $6/mo after your initial "free/rebate" deal ends after a year. My bill went from roughly $70/mo to $105/mo after I removed some things I didn't use. This was still cheaper than our cable connection so I'm happy. The couple of times I tried the whole home dvr I was not that impressed with the speed. It's been a year though so things have likely changed, maybe it's better.

I still prefer my HD200's. Since I had the whole home dvr installed, I still have all the equipment and am able to use the http channel change for the rcvr's connected to sage. It works great, and I have all my archived movies and shows available in every room with only 2 directv rcvrs. I still have the DVR in the living room but it was last used during Sandy instead of firing up sage on the generator. I recently called to see about dumping it but it wouldn't save me much so I figured I would keep it as backup if anything ever happens with sage. Read that as, the wife likes being able to switch to it if she has any trouble with sage at all! lol

I know people talk about storms being an issue with satellite and I have had it happen a couple of times in the two years I've been a subscriber but it hasn't really mattered to me. When Sandy came through the cable was knocked out in our area for a few days, along with power. When I fired up our generator we had TV. Our neighbors didn't. That was a big deal!

[wbarber69]

for me the whole home dvr service made sense for me so that I could tie sagetv into it. the rebates made it affordable to get 4 boxes going. I use the 3 small ones attached to hdpvrs. the main dvr I have setup for guests or sitters so all I have to do is change inputs and no worries about people screwing up my recordings or settings or having to train every person on how to watch my tv. I had Charter Cable before and they charged 15 per hd box. DTV is much cheaper. I can also setup, very easily, PPV recordings. I can either do a timed recording with ondemand content with any available tuner. Or use the cinema channels for new releases, I just go in and add back the channel that will have the movie I want (with listing info too), and go directly into program guide and record after purchasing the movie through SMS. Recording ondemand content on cable was a nightmare.

And if I ever get sick of SageTV I still have whole home dvr.

[patja]

Comskip is reason enough for me.

[SteveD]

Well my wife just ordered the whole home dvr from directv. I will be saying goodbye to sagetv next week. Have to find a new hobby.

[phenixdragon]

I used Sage for a long time, but moved on to WMC due to a much better UI and CableCARD support. However, a few months ago I moved to DirecTV for the whole home DVR only because DirecTV, even after the discounts, was something like $75 less per month for the same exact channels...actually I now get a few more channels. Their boxes are okay, 100 times better than what they use to be, but still pretty crappy but it doesn't piss me off just trying to change anything on the screen like it use to.

[phenixdragon]

Originally Posted by NetworkGuy

I used to have satellite system about 4 years ago. One major disadvantage is the weather. When there was a heavy rainstorm in the area, we would lose reception for 5-10 minutes until it passed. I found a few gaps in the shows that were being recorded at that time.

I do not know about the new systems, but I was not able to watch anything other than what I had recorded from their service. With Sage, I can watch DVD’s, home moves, OTA, etc. I am not ready to give that up yet.

Sounds like you don't have it aligned properly. When it is, you rarely ever see any issues. I have had my dishes even covered in inches of snow, no issues.

[NetworkGuy]

Originally Posted by phenixdragon

Sounds like you don't have it aligned properly. When it is, you rarely ever see any issues. I have had my dishes even covered in inches of snow, no issues.

Well this was 4 years ago and SD. Hopefully they have gotten better with HD. It also depends on where you are located on the horizon relative to the satellite you are pointed it. We were at the edge for the satellite we were pointed at.

[SteveD]

Well, I miss my sage setup already. I have de-installed the server already. Before I uninstalled it, I tested serial tuning on one of the client boxes and it works. The problem is that directv used hdmi on the client boxes and would not supply the component breakout cable. The Genie system, I have has five tuners, so If I were inclined to, two of the client devices could be assigned to sage for recording. Its a nice system, with a clunky interface. I am finding difficult to use the search future to add favorites, like you could do in sage. There were a lot of things you could do in sage that are a pain in the @#$! to do with the Genie. Others are not even an option. The mediashare options doesn't appear to work all that well either, I had planned for my unraid server to stream content to the genie box, but it buffers and distorts the sound. It looks like, I will have to use plex on unraid and my roku boxes to stream other content. I am going to keep tinkering with it to see if I can get mediashare to work.

Wife is happy though.

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by SteveD

Well, I miss my sage setup already. I have de-installed the server already. Before I uninstalled it, I tested serial tuning on one of the client boxes and it works. The problem is that directv used hdmi on the client boxes and would not supply the component breakout cable.

Break-out cable

Funny how people's taste for UI is so different. I can't stand how many button presses it takes you to get to content in WMC, XBMC, Plex, or any of the other random HTPC front ends there are. Directv is fantastic, but I won't be using their interface any time soon.

Hopefully you guys will be content with your decision, I know I wouldn't be.

[SteveD]

Originally Posted by panteragstk

Break-out cable

Funny how people's taste for UI is so different. I can't stand how many button presses it takes you to get to content in WMC, XBMC, Plex, or any of the other random HTPC front ends there are. Directv is fantastic, but I won't be using their interface any time soon.

Hopefully you guys will be content with your decision, I know I wouldn't be.

That not the right one, I found that one myself over the weekend. The client boxes have a larger diameter connections. That connector in the pictures looks the size of svideo.


I changed because I believe that the htpc is own a rapid path to become obsolete. The analog hole is constantly being shrunken by the big boys. I still have all my hardware. My clients recently began having the wheel of death for no apparent reason. Os reloads on the server and various other attempts to repair would not fix the problem. Just got a little tired, probably will put part of it back togather in the next six months, Just enough for my use and not the wife.

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by SteveD

That not the right one, I found that one myself over the weekend. The client boxes have a larger diameter connections. That connector in the pictures looks the size of svideo.


I changed because I believe that the htpc is own a rapid path to become obsolete. The analog hole is constantly being shrunken by the big boys. I still have all my hardware. My clients recently began having the wheel of death for no apparent reason. Os reloads on the server and various other attempts to repair would not fix the problem. Just got a little tired, probably will put part of it back togather in the next six months, Just enough for my use and not the wife.

I hear ya on that.

What boxes do you have? I got one of those for the tiny H25 and it works just fine.

[SteveD]

Originally Posted by panteragstk

I hear ya on that.

What boxes do you have? I got one of those for the tiny H25 and it works just fine.

I have the Genie with three C31-700 CLIENTS that can be tuned serially.