SageTV Recordings > Roku

[pjpjpjpj]

Originally Posted by tvmaster2

Can you install the Sage MiniClient on a Roku?

Oh, um, heh... I guess I forgot that it's not just an android thing... Used to the other stuff, I guess.

[tvmaster2]

Originally Posted by pjpjpjpj

Oh, um, heh... I guess I forgot that it's not just an android thing... Used to the other stuff, I guess.

huh?

[pjpjpjpj]

Alright, let me back up. There is a SageTV miniclient app. I thought it was available on all Android and Amazon devices, maybe Apple too. I guess not. Regardless...

I use HDHRs for OTA TV content. I'm trying to find out whether there's a device out there which can play OTA MPEG-2 recordings inside the miniclient app. As in, I open the app, navigate to the TV EPG, see something I like, press play, and it actually plays. I know I can use various methods to convert recordings to other formats, but I'm asking whether anything plays MPEG-2 natively.

Besides my trusty HD Extenders.

[KarylFStein]

NVidia SHIELD TV

[pjpjpjpj]

Originally Posted by KarylFStein

NVidia SHIELD TV

Is that the only one? I was hoping, for WAF reasons, the answer wouldn't be the most expensive one of the lot...

[RonBoyd]

Originally Posted by KarylFStein

NVidia SHIELD TV

That nVidia Shield can simulate a HD300 is pretty handy. This would seem to indicate one less piece of equipment needed for SageTV to play on a TV. (FWIW, I have 3 HD300s -- 2 of them still in the original box.)

[KarylFStein]

Originally Posted by pjpjpjpj

Is that the only one? I was hoping, for WAF reasons, the answer wouldn't be the most expensive one of the lot...

It's the only thing I have, so can't speak to others. Note that if you want 5.1 sound it probably won't work for you, though.

[pjpjpjpj]

I'm not worried about 5.1, this would be for TVs with only the TV speakers being used. I'd still leave an HD300 on my home theater.

Curious whether anyone has tried a cheap Chinese android TV box that claims to play MPEG-2 for Sage miniclient usage.

[Tiki]

Originally Posted by pjpjpjpj

I'm not worried about 5.1, this would be for TVs with only the TV speakers being used. I'd still leave an HD300 on my home theater.

Curious whether anyone has tried a cheap Chinese android TV box that claims to play MPEG-2 for Sage miniclient usage.

There are many many posts here that say pretty much the same thing:
1. Most android devices don’t have hardware decoders for mpeg2 .
2. Many android devices may struggle playing back interlaced content (1080i or 480i).
3. Android and Android-TV are two different operating systems. Plain Android is designed for use with a phone or tablet (touchscreen device) and is a terrible experience as a TV set top box. Many apps have different versions that work differently depending on whether they are being installed on plain Android vs Android TV.
4. ShieldTV is the only device that most people here seem to like and have good results with. There are a couple other devices that seem to get mixed reviews on these forums.

[NetworkGuy]

I started with the MiBox and it seemed fine.

Since then I have purchased a FireTV 4K stick and a Shield. Both them them are WAY better than the MiBox when using the mini-client. The Mi is now sitting gathering dust.

The only problem I have had is with me. I am so used to the HD300 remote, I am having a tough time using a remote with only 3-5 buttons.

I still have not gotten around to setting up my Flirc and Harmony Remote.

[pjpjpjpj]

Originally Posted by NetworkGuy

I started with the MiBox and it seemed fine.

Since then I have purchased a FireTV 4K stick and a Shield. Both them them are WAY better than the MiBox when using the mini-client. The Mi is now sitting gathering dust.

The only problem I have had is with me. I am so used to the HD300 remote, I am having a tough time using a remote with only 3-5 buttons.

I still have not gotten around to setting up my Flirc and Harmony Remote.

I got a fire stick 4k to try in a recent sale (they seem to be on sale a LOT lately). I threw it on my patio TV. I really like it, and found myself wishing I could replace HD extenders around my house with them. But then people were coming over to a patio get-together on the night of the Final Four, and I realized the fire stick couldn't show live network TV (because I use HDHRs for OTA recording in Sage). I ended up getting an old rabbit ears antenna out and that worked for the games that night (luckily I get strong signals at my house from the local stations).

The other problem is audio input level; the fire stick (and every other device I've ever used) has a WAY louder input level to my TV or soundbar than the HD300. So I'd love to be running everything through a single device and not have to worry about that too.

So since then I've been thinking about if and how I could replace HD extenders throughout my house with some sort of android device and use the miniclient for Sage recordings. That's why I (apologies) did this threadjack. There are lots of threads which touch on and around this topic but I couldn't find a solid, reliable, and current (up to date) answer... in the AV world, a thread about what certain devices can or can't do is subject to being outdated within weeks...

[tvmaster2]

Originally Posted by KarylFStein

It's the only thing I have, so can't speak to others. Note that if you want 5.1 sound it probably won't work for you, though.

So any use of the mini client on any box produces stereo audio only?

[RonBoyd]

Originally Posted by Tiki

4. ShieldTV is the only device that most people here seem to like and have good results with. There are a couple other devices that seem to get mixed reviews on these forums.

I am an outlier then, I use ROKU much more often that the Shield... and lately, surprisingly, more than the HD300.

Nevertheless, I find them both equal in value to my system.

[RonBoyd]

Originally Posted by NetworkGuy

The only problem I have had is with me. I am so used to the HD300 remote, I am having a tough time using a remote with only 3-5 buttons. (

Yeah, that is a problem with the Shield simulation of the HD300. They do tell one during the install that a "controller" is needed and they are quite correct. I found the small three button Shield Remote is not up to the task. The Controller that came with the Shield did work much better but since it was my first time using it... I was kinda lost. I think switching to the controller would be easy -- I use a Universal Remote so cannot speak from any experience, however.

Full disclosure: I only spent about three or four minutes with the Shield SageTV App. The bigger problem I found was that after several minutes, the text got all pixelated and I had to close and open Shield to recover. This happened several times. I was interrupted and never got back to it. Other than that, I was impressed with how closely it resembled the HD300.

[KarylFStein]

Originally Posted by tvmaster2

So any use of the mini client on any box produces stereo audio only?

There is an option to bitstream audio using one of the two video player options in the miniclient. But that player is pretty finicky and won't always play the stream, (especially the MPEG-2 OTA streams for me). The other player handles "imperfect" streams fine, but only does stereo. The only solution I've found for solid 5.1 playback is to transcode the stream after recording (the quick "fix only" built-in profile seems to work well). That doesn't help for live TV.

Originally Posted by RonBoyd

Yeah, that is a problem with the Shield simulation of the HD300. They do tell one during the install that a "controller" is needed and they are quite correct. I found the small three button Shield Remote is not up to the task. The Controller that came with the Shield did work much better but since it was my first time using it... I was kinda lost. I think switching to the controller would be easy -- I use a Universal Remote so cannot speak from any experience, however.

I use a universal remote too. For the first version of the SHIELD it worked fine and I could program it to do things like send the HD300 delete command when I pressed the red button. With the new version of the SHIELD (no IR receiver) I had to get a Harmony Hub with Bluetooth. Now the red button on the remote sends something like F12 and in the miniclient I have F12 mapped to delete. I had to set up a handful of Fxx mappings like that, but it works for what I want.

[pjpjpjpj]

Taking the threadjack farther... Does anyone have a TV with android TV native (Sony Bravia, for example)? I'm wondering whether the tuner for the TV itself (antenna) is the same computer chip as the "smart" portion. If so, then the Android TV part would clearly have native MPEG-2 support, since the TV's OTA tuner would need it.

[Tiki]

Originally Posted by RonBoyd

I am an outlier then, I use ROKU much more often that the Shield... and lately, surprisingly, more than the HD300.

Nevertheless, I find them both equal in value to my system.

As far as I am aware, there is no Sage client available for Roku. You can probably play back recordings made by Sage on a Roku, but I don’t think you can do things like browse the TV guide, watch live TV, setup recordings, manage favorites, track watched status, etc.

[RonBoyd]

Originally Posted by Tiki

As far as I am aware, there is no Sage client available for Roku.

Yes, I misread the original quote. Of course, the ROKU unit is useless for SageTV.