Does Anyone Yet Sell a cheap Set-Top Box with SageTV preloaded as a Tivo Alternative?

[bradesp]

Just curious if anyone out there is taking the OEM Sage TV and bundling it with a Linux / Set-Top-Box type form factor to sell as a low cost / no fee alternative to Tivo, etc.?

Thanks!

bradesp

[stanger89]

Video Without Boundaries sells off-the-shelf SageTV systems.

[waynedunham]

Originally Posted by stanger89

Video Without Boundaries sells off-the-shelf SageTV systems.

That at least as of today won't talk to current SageTV (re 4.x -5.x) systems.

I've been waiting since October for a restore CD from them.

If I had to do it today I'd scrounge up a used CPU and build a Linux Sage system.

VWB has had an update in the works for quite some time, if I can believe their Email replies to my plea's for a restore CD, hopefully it will give me the ability to use it with my existing Sage Windows system.
I was told by David Novak (Executive Vice President, Sales and Marketing) of VWB back in February that the restore CD was "done" and I was first on the list to get it. Since then every time I've sent an Email asking about it to the contact person (Executive Administrator) I get the same story about there being last minute changes and that it will ship (insert vaporware release date here).

I just sent a scathing Email to both the contact person and David Novak. Send me SOMETHING, they must be using something to image production machines!
It's already trashed the media partition twice. First time it took a miracle and a Linux Guru friend to recover the partition. The last time the startup disk check cleaned it up (by removing the entries for about a dozen new recordings). That last time the system froze and wouldn't shut down so I had to do a hard shutdown by holding down the power button for 5 seconds which is most likely why all the "new" recordings were lost.
Both times it happened because the media drive was full.

Can you tell I'm a bit steamed?

[insomniac]

ouch!

[Fluffdaddy]

Guess that tells everyone why it's best to roll your own box

[SHS]

You could alway make harddrive disk image and burn it to a DVD or CD

[waynedunham]

Originally Posted by SHS

You could alway make harddrive disk image and burn it to a DVD or CD

I have backed up the drive to another drive which I needed to grab some stuff off on one of the crashes.

However I haven't figured out/found how to burn an image with just the drive sctructure info and data. The only things I've seen do the entire drive, empty sectors and all. ( I wouldn't look forward to restoring from a 40 DVD "image" backup)

[stevech]

Acronis TruImage (and others?) allow you to do full and incremental drive or partition backups. This yields files on whatever other local or network drive. With Acronis, this is all done in windows. Mine runs unattended each night.

You can then mount a backup file as a drive letter under windows (at least with Acronis you can). Now all the folders/files in the back are read-only accessable.

[phenixdragon]

I woudln't say anyone sells any DVR boxes on the cheap beside TiVo or renting frmo yoru cable/Sat company. These systems do a whole lot more but they aren't as cheap as lets say a TiVo. Now if you build it yourself you hcan build it pretty reasonably. My main server only was about $500 and it is pretty beefy, like an AMD 64 3000+ and 500 gigs of space (soon Raid 5 with a TB).

And I wouldn't trust VWB. They seem pretty shaddy in their operations. Actually I have even talked to the CEO and just the manor of the conversation I had with him about their new box coming up totally turned me off in even considering it as it is supposed to have CableCARD support, which I am almost positive it actually won't. But just the manor of the guy makes me wonder why Sage lets them use their software besides money. And their whole operation over there is just too shaddy to trust in my eyes.

Building your own is pretty simple and always tons of support on the forums.