General Sage questions

[Donny Bahama]

Sage has looked good to me since the beginning, but there was always one thing or another that held me back. (No EPG for my area, then when that was taken care of, no HDTV. Now that that's taken care of I'm REALLY interested!) The "SageTV HD Media Center In-a-Box" looks like a pretty sweet deal, but...

1. Will the software support additional tuner cards?
2. If I want to record one HD program while watching a previously recorded HD program, do I need 2 HD cards?
3. If I have multiple HD tuner cards, can I record multiple HD programs simultaneously? If not, what about simultaneous recording of HD and SD programs? What about simultaneous recording of HD and 2 or more SD programs?
4. How much (PC) horsepower will I need for 2 and 3 above?
5. If I use the Sage Media Center for playing back DVDs, how sophisticated is it (video performance as well as feature set) relative to something like TheaterTek?
6. Can I play .VOB files from DVDs I've ripped to my media server?
7. For music playback, what lossless formats are supported? APE? FLAC?
8. Is music playback via ASIO supported?

Thanks very much in advance for the help!

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by Donny Bahama

Sage has looked good to me since the beginning, but there was always one thing or another that held me back. (No EPG for my area, then when that was taken care of, no HDTV. Now that that's taken care of I'm REALLY interested!) The "SageTV HD Media Center In-a-Box" looks like a pretty sweet deal, but...

1. Will the software support additional tuner cards?

Yup, Sage supports an unlimited number of cards.

2. If I want to record one HD program while watching a previously recorded HD program, do I need 2 HD cards?

Nope, you need one card for each thing you want to record simultaneously (LiveTV counts as a recording). You can watch as many previously recorded programs as you want.

3. If I have multiple HD tuner cards, can I record multiple HD programs simultaneously?

Yup, make sure they're supported ones (not sure if you have them already of if this is a theoretical question).

If not, what about simultaneous recording of HD and SD programs?

You can do that too.

What about simultaneous recording of HD and 2 or more SD programs?

Sure.

4. How much (PC) horsepower will I need for 2 and 3 above?

Recording is trivial, the tuners take care of what work needs to be done. Playback is listed on the requirements page, but my recommendation would be something >2GHz class and a good video card for HD playback.

5. If I use the Sage Media Center for playing back DVDs, how sophisticated is it (video performance as well as feature set) relative to something like TheaterTek?

Definitely not as refined as TT, but I use it for all my DVD needs. You can use the same codecs as TT (nVidia Purevideo), you can also use ffdshow, and VMR9 Fullscreen Exclusive. Aspect ratio control is not as robust though (Sage only has 4 AR settings).

6. Can I play .VOB files from DVDs I've ripped to my media server?

Yes, but if you have the full structure (VIDEO_TS folder and IFO files) then rips will work exactly like a native DVD without any extra effort. I do this with my ~300 DVDs.

This is my little pet project regarding this:
http://forums.sage.tv/forums/downloa...?do=file&id=52

7. For music playback, what lossless formats are supported? APE? FLAC?

MP3 and WMA AFAIK. WMA Lossless is supported. Well, actually via the user Winamp plugin, Sage can play anything Winamp can.

8. Is music playback via ASIO supported?

See above. Also, I haven't verified this but Kernel Streaming might work if you have the latest Reclock installed.

[Donny Bahama]

Thanks for your time! I'll download the PDF and check out the DVD player's feature set.

[Donny Bahama]

Originally Posted by stanger89

Sage can play anything Winamp can

Does that still hold true when using a Sage Media Extender?

Also, a couple of $ questions...
1. Is SageClient a different license? Or does it come with Sage MC?
2. What is the pricing policy wrt new versions (upgrade cost?)

[jquinlan]

Does that still hold true when using a Sage Media Extender?

The current Media Extender, a MediaMVP, is not as flexible because non-compatible formats need to be transcoded to MPEG1, MPEG2 or MPEG3. It works great for MP3, SD video, and ripped DVD. Additional license ($29.95) per MVP.
There are rumors of an HD Media Extender in the works but no specs are available at this time.

1. Is SageClient a different license? Or does it come with Sage MC?

The SAGE Client is an additional license ($29.95) but it will give you the most compatibility because it a true PC for all of the different formats.

2. What is the pricing policy wrt new versions (upgrade cost?)

So far it has been free for existing licensed users on version upgrades.

[stanger89]

The extender, at present, is somewhat limited, largely due to the hardware it runs on, but also due to the architecture. Everything on the extender is streamed, including the UI (which is partially rendered on the server).

Extenders are perfect for those "secondary" rooms/TVs where you want access to TV and your recordigns, but SageClient on a full HTPC is still the way to go for the primary viewing room IMO.

Originally Posted by Donny Bahama

1. Is SageClient a different license? Or does it come with Sage MC?

Sage MC is (for lack of a better term) a "skin" for SageTV or SageClient. SageClient is a separate license from SageTV (as is the Extender/Placeshifter).

2. What is the pricing policy wrt new versions (upgrade cost?)

As jquinlan noted, all upgrades have thus far been free. I believe "official" policy is that they will try not to charge for upgrades (but they don't exclude the possibility).

My personal feeling is that upgrades will remain free, and that additional clients (extenders, placeshifters, clients) will be where they make the money.

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by stanger89

Everything on the extender is streamed, including the UI (which is partially rendered on the server).

Unless I'm misunderstanding something, you might be thinking of the older MVP plugin -- the built-in MVP support uses the MVP to draw its own UI, so that's why the UI on the MVP is very responsive now & doesn't have the same lag that it used to have.

Very little cpu is used on the server unless you are doing something like transcoding video playback.

- Andy

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by Opus4

Unless I'm misunderstanding something, you might be thinking of the older MVP plugin -- the built-in MVP support uses the MVP to draw its own UI, so that's why the UI on the MVP is very responsive now & doesn't have the same lag that it used to have.

No, I'm thinking of the new one, probably not explaining what I mean well though. That there's a somewhat complicated partnership between the MVP and the server. The full client doesn't run on either the MVP or the server, the actual heavy-lifting rendering is done on the MVP but parts of it are done on the server. Which is why the MVP/placeshifter act as if they're running local on the server.

[Donny Bahama]

Originally Posted by jquinlan

Additional license ($29.95) per MVP.

Originally Posted by stanger89

No, I'm thinking of the new one

MVP = MediaMVP = Hauppage, right?
I'm talking about the one that's being advertised on the Sage home page for $109 (wired) and 159 (wireless)
Surely those must come with a license?

I still don't know the answer to my question, though - using an extender, can I still play anything that Winamp can play? (i.e. with transcoding done on the server?)

[PGPfan]

Hey Donny!

How you been my friend? Getting any 2-wheeled time in lately?

As for your questions, yes the MVP 'IS' the Hauppauge unit. If you buy one from Sage (wired or wireless) it includes the license. For those of us that have had one for a while, the license is $29.95.

They do work quite well, but I do agree with Stanger (as usual ) that you really want them for 'extra' rooms, you want a full blown client for the primary room, especially if you are going to be feeding your CRT projector.

-PGPfan

[ke6guj]

Originally Posted by Donny Bahama

MVP = MediaMVP = Hauppage, right?
I'm talking about the one that's being advertised on the Sage home page for $109 (wired) and 159 (wireless)
Surely those must come with a license?

Yes, if you buy the extender from Sage, it comes with an included license. If you already have an extender bought from someplace else, then you need to buy the extender license.

[Donny Bahama]

Originally Posted by PGPfan

Hey Donny!

How you been my friend? Getting any 2-wheeled time in lately?

Hey, Dude! Good to hear from you! (You're one of very few people that know me from my "alter ego"! LOL) I've been fine, but busy as hell. How bout you? I'm doing some custom stuff to my bike that's taking longer than expected. Right now he's sitting in my garage naked. (No tank, seat or rear fender - looks kinda cool that way - tempting to just throw on the tank and a springer seat and ride that way, but the mrs. would have no place to sit!)

They do work quite well, but I do agree with Stanger (as usual ) that you really want them for 'extra' rooms, you want a full blown client for the primary room, especially if you are going to be feeding your CRT projector.

Yeah, for the main room, I'll be using a client license on my HTPC. (No more CRT projector - couldn't resolve all my light control issues so I bought a nice, bright DLP.) I'm looking at the extender for the bedroom. Mostly for just watching TV (soon to be Sage TV!) on the plasma, but potentially for music as well. But since my entire CD library is either APE or FLAC, I need to know if the extender will do APE/FLAC. (Winamp will, so...???)

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by Donny Bahama

Mostly for just watching TV (soon to be Sage TV!) on the plasma, but potentially for music as well. But since my entire CD library is either APE or FLAC, I need to know if the extender will do APE/FLAC. (Winamp will, so...???)

If Sage can play them natively, then it should transcode to MP3 (I think) for the MVP.

Probably a not-popular solution (evil empire and everything), but you could convert your APE/FLAC collection into WMA Lossless. That's what I did when Sage gave us WMA support.

I haven't tried playing them with my extender, but they play fine in Sage. And JRMC converted my whole library for me, so there wasn't really any work on my part to convert.

[Donny Bahama]

Originally Posted by stanger89

Probably a not-popular solution (evil empire and everything), but you could convert your APE/FLAC collection into WMA Lossless.

Thanks again for the response, Stanger! That's precisely what I was trying to avoid, though. I just don't trust M$ to get that right... either it won't be truly lossless (think Kmangler) or it won't be compressed as well as Monkey's Audio or FLAC would've done, or (my biggest fear) there could be some "world domination" flag that will turn on some hidden DRM and I'll have to rerip all my CDs! (You're not paranoid when they are all really out to get you!) I use JRMC, too. If I had unlimited disk space and could keep two copies of everything, I wouldn't worry about it, but I'd rather use that extra disk space for storing more DVD rips.