embarrassed by sage over the weekend

[JUC]

QUOTE]Originally posted by zz5
You're embarrassed in front of your friends because of something your computer can or cannot do?!?!? Wow, that is weird. Are you some kind of nut?
[/QUOTE]

zz5--usually I do not even reply to marks such as you made but since you obviously didn't take the time to read the first sentence of my post you probably didn't read the rest either. Let's think about this. I want sage to do X. other programs are doing X. Sage claims they are the providing the 'total media center experience'---which for me means one app for all. I obviously knew when buying sage that they didn't do X (in case you haven't picked up on it yet X = burn/rip/cd). Actually, do you even know what a HTPC is----i don't own a DVD player outside my HTPC setup and of couse I have tons of programs to burn discs with but once again if you have read my thread, they are not legible on my SDTV, while sage has done a great job on readability. Anyway, I really don't need to be explaining my view because it seems everyone else who has contributed to this thread has at least understood and contributed to a thoughtful discussion, something I unfortunately can't say about your post.
JUC

[zz5]

JUC, sorry about that post, what with me asking if you were a nut and all. I didn't really read anyone else's post. I just quickly read your post. I think your post was actually pretty good. I agree that Sage doesn't really do anything well except PVR. But I don't want to use it for anything except for PVR. It's never really done anything as well as separate programs. I just assume that all that other junk is thrown in because it's easy and to kind of pad out the feature list. But you make a good point - that it's really not that good for anything but PVR. However, the reason I don't expect anything more of it is that this kind of thing applies to a lot of software. For example, the Ulead DVD Movie Factory that comes with the PVR-250/350 has lots of features, like an editor, but it's a really bad one. No one would really want to use that editor if they needed to edit very often.

Why do you want to do everything with the HTPC? Why not get yourself a DVD player to play CD's. You can get them for $30 at Walmart. That way the CD's won't be upsampled by the computer sound card. Upsampling from 44 to 48 really messes up the sound curve. Using an HTPC with an SDTV causes lots of picture quality problems because of the conversion from interlaced to progressive, and then back to interlaced, unless you are using the PVR-350, which has a lot of problems. I would just get a TIVO or ReplayTV (or multiple ones if you want more than one tuner) if you have an SDTV. If you want to burn DVD's/CD's, why not put the burner on a client PC and burn from your server across the network? Burning doesn't work well because on the server because the software will set itself to high priority, causing interruptions in recordings. You can also see what you're doing better with the regular monitor (as opposed to the TV) you'd have on with client PC.

[ErsatzTom]

You're joking, right? Yeah, why would any of the people who participate in these forums want to use sage tv when they could just go buy 3 or 4 TiVos? Why didn't I think of that?

t

[Ralphjb]

I am in the "core competency" camp.

Playing music, watching DVD's, looking at digital photos, ripping DVD's and CD's - I've got other software for that.

I want a program that runs flawlessly for months on end, recording the Television programming I schedule. I also want that software to allow me to pause live TV. End of story for me.

[JUC]

An ideal world, I would have my burner and other stuff on a client machine but unfortunately I am running a wireless network and the downtime associated with transferring files just to burn a CD or even DVD is just too long for me. Of course wired would be the best but my house just can't accomodate. I guess I want a one for all, but my SDTV does work great for all Sage's intended uses so far--quality of tv is good too! (a nice TV is my next purchase).
later
JUC

[zz5]

ErsatzTom, I'm not joking. Have you ever researched it and compared the two options? Tell me why, specifically, you don't think it's a good idea. Ask yourself without any preconceived notions - why not go for 4 ReplayTV's instead of SageTV? If I was putting together a system today, I would probably go with 4 ReplayTV's instead of my 4-tuner setup. And that's not a knock against Sage. Sage is by far the best option for doing PVR with computers.

[ErsatzTom]

I have a TiVo. I love it. I wouldn't dream of getting another one. If that is what I wanted I certainly wouldn't be here.

t

[jominor]

Originally posted by zz5
ErsatzTom, I'm not joking. Have you ever researched it and compared the two options? Tell me why, specifically, you don't think it's a good idea. Ask yourself without any preconceived notions - why not go for 4 ReplayTV's instead of SageTV? If I was putting together a system today, I would probably go with 4 ReplayTV's instead of my 4-tuner setup. And that's not a knock against Sage. Sage is by far the best option for doing PVR with computers.

I'll still go with sage. One box, unlimited tuner and storage. Of course, no one complains that a tivo can't burn CDs.

[jptaz]

Originally posted by zz5
ErsatzTom, I'm not joking. Have you ever researched it and compared the two options? Tell me why, specifically, you don't think it's a good idea. Ask yourself without any preconceived notions - why not go for 4 ReplayTV's instead of SageTV? If I was putting together a system today, I would probably go with 4 ReplayTV's instead of my 4-tuner setup. And that's not a knock against Sage. Sage is by far the best option for doing PVR with computers.

I Guess it probably is actually much better at this point.

ReplayTV 80 Hour $199 after $100 Rebate
Lifetime subscription $299
x 3

ReplayTV 80 Hour $299
Lifetime subscription $299

Total Price
$1694.00

Not that I feel the need to justify my investment in SageTV and all my PCs, but I don't think I would have agreed with this 2 years ago.

I am pretty sure that the local network streaming feature was not available when I started using 4 PVR 250s...or if it was it cost too much at the time. At the end of 2002 I bought 4 PVR 250s for $500 and I already had a good amount of hard disk space and several spare PCs.

But I guess I am a computer geek and would have done it any way and just like the challenge of making it all work.

John

[ToxMox]

Can networked Replays share the same recording shedule and conflict handle between them all or do you have to set up different whatever they call favorites on each Replay? Last time I checked you can watch shows across the network and schedule things on different Replays but I don't think you can make them act intelligently.

[jptaz]

From the current information in the 5500 serries manual it will handle conflicts using networked ReplayTVs. It is not intelligent. Basically a conflict comes up and you have to tell it to record on another replaytv and I am not sure if it is smart enough to only show ReplayTVs with that time slot free for recordings.

The recorded shows are not all combined into an a single recordings list you need to manually switch to the list for the other ReplayTVs.

But it beats Tivo hands down since with Tivo you need to transfer the whole show to the other Tivo before it can be watched. It also appears that the Tivo you are transferring from can delete the show even if you are in the middle of the transfer. Of course my coworkers biggest problem is that he is connecting his Tivos via a slow wireless connection and it does not allow scheduling on other Tivos in the house.

I have a feeling that Tivo is going to be taking a beating since ReplayTV has the better feature set and the loss of DirecTV relationship has to be hurting them.