So what is sage media center?

[GbrNole]

sage doesn't support HD in any form right now so the only way you could use that card with a slick interface would be with mce 2005 or got tv.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by Crazedz

Ok so i looked at that and i noticed that the ATI HDTV Wonder Remote Control Edition is for sale with a mail in rebate. Question will this work in sagetv or does it look like sage will support it? If not how long before they do?

Thinking about it i was going to get a wintv pvr 500 but if this is on sale and will be useable with sage now or sometime soon i could just get that and hold off on getting the 500.

The rebate is only good on a card purchased by tomarow so if you could give an answer today i would greatfull.

I think you missed my point, probably an unclear post on my part.

Sage doesn't support HDTV capture. My point was that there's no need for special hardware or "partnering" to get good HDTV output, it's already here in the form of current video cards, and it's only getting bigger.

So no, don't get the HDTV wonder over the 500 since it's not supported at all, and even if it is supported for HD, it will probably be only for HD since it doesn't have a hardware encoder for SD.

[AJ Bertelson]

Originally Posted by mbrown3

Wow, lots of angst in this post, but lots of valid points. The next few months should be very interesting for Sage, and what happens with their (so far) loyal customers.

I have to agree to that, the ammount of misinformation that is being taken from the press release is pretty amazing.

[DFA]

I think the jury is still out and I will first let the dust settle. By the end of today or tommorrow we should be sufficiently informed to decide if we need to start throwing rotten fruit.

For good business sense, I can see why Frey is addressing the STB business. We are a small group with one-time purchases and free upgrades there after. Quick saturation with a leveling off or even decline in revenue. That does not mean we should be left behind. Our loyalty and support deserve continued recognition and support. However, a change in Frey's business model and future directions is natural and should not be unexpected.

Dan and Jeff got to eat and live the good life. The American thing to do.

DFA

[GbrNole]

we're definitely all grabbing at straws here but it would be nice to know that more is to follow or at least be provided with the facts if this is the whole enchalada?

in the mean time...where is the vmr9 update jeff lamented to last week????

[GbrNole]

Originally Posted by DFA

For good business sense, I can see why Frey is addressing the STB business. We are a small group with one-time purchases and free upgrades there after. Quick saturation with a leveling off or even decline in revenue. That does not mean we should be left behind. Our loyalty and support deserve continued recognition and support. However, a change in Frey's business model and future directions is natural and should not be unexpected.

can't disagree with that. heck i'm ready to drop $125 just so i can get mce 2005 on my machine and the only thing that holds me back is that their media extenders are so limited. i just don't want sage to make this same foolish mistake when the extender technology is available for extremely good playback.

[Opus4]

I don't know if everything has been released or if there are still more details to come about v3 during CES (maybe certain details will be release during CES & other things will come out later?), but I would think that being able to license linux box servers through oems and sell an extender so that Frey receives an income would be "Good Things" in terms of keeping the company going so that the product can continue to be developed and features added. Part of being written in java means that it would run pretty much the same on Windows & linux, using the same user interface even. The negative responses seem to happen for all of these announcements: it is noted that new things will be coming, so people comment on all kinds of things that they hope will be included, then when that entire wish list isn't included (inevitably), it is the end of the world.

(Oh, btw: and in case anyone notices a couple previous posts disappearing from this thread: they were removed by the original posters. No one has started deleting others' comments.)

- Andy

[DFA]

I would be a happy camper if Frey would just get around to:

1. Provide XCard OSD support. Not a programming biggy by all accounts.

2. Provide a plugin for STB firewire TS like the Euro folks have done for DVB. This is probably something we could even do ourselves and should be even easier than the DVB implementation.

This is all I really want and have wanted for a long time. That and a few bug fixes I am aware of (power management not working well in 2.2.2).

DFA

[ErsatzTom]

There is also no reason to believe that some OEM might not be building their own linux based extenders. If there are companies that make media STBs that you like, send them an email suggesting that they should support Sage as an add on option.

t

[Cayars]

DFA, do you have any good links for the STB firewire TS stuff?

I'd like to take a look/read on this. Might not be to hard to do.

What R the limitations of doing this if any (i.e. DRM)?

[edbmdave]

Originally Posted by Opus4

I don't know if everything has been released or if there are still more details to come about v3 during CES (maybe certain details will be release during CES & other things will come out later?), but I would think that being able to license linux box servers through oems and sell an extender so that Frey receives an income would be "Good Things" in terms of keeping the company going so that the product can continue to be developed and features added. Part of being written in java means that it would run pretty much the same on Windows & linux, using the same user interface even. The negative responses seem to happen for all of these announcements: it is noted that new things will be coming, so people comment on all kinds of things that they hope will be included, then when that entire wish list isn't included (inevitably), it is the end of the world.

(Oh, btw: and in case anyone notices a couple previous posts disappearing from this thread: they were removed by the original posters. No one has started deleting others' comments.)

- Andy

Have to agree with Andy. I want Sage to continue, and Fry needs and good income stream to do it. Face it folks we are an elite group. Most people (probably 95%) HATE stuff that has to be put together. They want plug in and go. I applaud Fry's announcements. They are welcome, and I am eager to see the products. My wife hates me changing anything. (but it is my hobby). I would welcome a full solution that I don't mess with. I would spend more time with my kid and wife.

And folks this announcement was clearly aimed at OEMs. What arrogance to think it was directed at us. Read it. Remember the context. Remember where and why it was released.

I am sure we will have "our" details that are focused on the issues we are concerned with shortly. For now Dan is out there trying to secure a strong future for Fry and SageTV. Would you rather they failed and you had to get another new solution?

Patience. I am eager too. But the announcement was not aimed at us. Don't put it into a context it was not intended for.

[GbrNole]

Originally Posted by ErsatzTom

There is also no reason to believe that some OEM might not be building their own linux based extenders. If there are companies that make media STBs that you like, send them an email suggesting that they should support Sage as an add on option.

t

i don't disagree with that but i don't want to do the leg work. htpc'ers already do enough leg work. i just want to pay frey a certain dollar amount for an extender that can stream xvid and be able to resize to 720p or 1080i.

i also want tear free playback from within sage. not really a whole heck of a lot but i'm pretty sure what i want is high on most others priority list too.

if we get meadiator like playback from sage then xcard implementation becomes entirely moot.

[parkimar]

An MVP as a media extender is not too bad, although I would like to see it include the SPDIF patch that I read about on SHS's Forums.

If it had that, you could output DVD's , with the AC3 going through the SPDIF.

More details before I start worrying about all I guess.

Till then, I may just use the system to watch some TV on

Cheers

Mark

[AndyS]

Also bear in mind that if it's a rebadged MVP it would probably be running a custom dongle.bin (the linux kernel that the MVP runs on) so some of the problem stuff we're used to with the MVP would quite possibly go away (performance issues, network disconnects etc.).

I'm not worried about the MediaMVP as a platform for the Media Extender as long as it is well supported by Frey.

Andy.

[cmaffia]

I just hope that this doesn't all mean that SageTV 2.2 will no longer be supported and/or that development slows down for 2.0 users. The amount of $$$ I have invested in hardware/software for two Sage boxes and all I got left is a very buggy version 2.2.2. Will We get discounted for 3.0? Is 2.2.2 upgradable to 3.0?? Are they 2 different products? I am confused.

[mlbdude]

Originally Posted by GbrNole

i don't disagree with that but i don't want to do the leg work. htpc'ers already do enough leg work. i just want to pay frey a certain dollar amount for an extender that can stream xvid and be able to resize to 720p or 1080i.

i also want tear free playback from within sage. not really a whole heck of a lot but i'm pretty sure what i want is high on most others priority list too.

if we get meadiator like playback from sage then xcard implementation becomes entirely moot.

For tear free playback you can use Overlay (the XCard is certainly not using VMR9). Also, after doing a little reading on the TT forums I have found that I only get tearing with my nVidia card. With my ATI 9600 I no longer get any tearing with SageTV with ffdshow resizing to 1776x1000.

[GbrNole]

i don't want to settle for overlay when a mediator/nstant/mce type interface will allow any card to playback tear free.

it's not even the menus that i care about with vmr9 (far from it) it's the fact that the picture just plain looks/is better.

[mlbdude]

Originally Posted by GbrNole

i don't want to settle for overlay when a mediator/nstant/mce type interface will allow any card to playback tear free.

it's not even the menus that i care about with vmr9 (far from it) it's the fact that the picture just plain looks/is better.

I think it is a bug in the nVidia drivers from what I am seeing. Or at least, they are making their drivers work with VMR9 one way only.

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by cmaffia

I just hope that this doesn't all mean that SageTV 2.2 will no longer be supported and/or that development slows down for 2.0 users.

I don't know how you could read into it that the Windows version is being dropped/no longer supported.

Originally Posted by cmaffia

Will We get discounted for 3.0? Is 2.2.2 upgradable to 3.0?? Are they 2 different products? I am confused.

Frey's policy stated here hasn't been changed lately:

Originally Posted by SageTV FAQs

What is the upgrade policy for all SageTV applications?
We will do our best to provide upgrades at no additional cost to our current customers.

- Andy

[GbrNole]

mlb - are you referring to 1080i output from that nvidia card?

if so i'm assuming that you connect using dvi in which case the playback is almost non existent from nvidia cards and is driver related. the same card with the same connection will play quite happily in mediator though. go figure.