Congrats on the HD media extender and Sage Server system

[spike5884]

Originally Posted by Bathel

Since Cisco owns Scientific Atlanta, I'd assume that it would be something released via SA and not SageTV.

I have several friends at Cisco (one is a Director) I'll see if they have any information on that.

And doesn't Scientific Atlanta make Set Top Boxes? I was thinking along the lines of how much exposure SageTv would get if it was being put on these STBs...

[bcjenkins]

So while at CES I spotted a cable box replacement from a company called Diego. Their product is called Moxi. Diego plans on taking their product to the consumer level this summer because of an FCC rule which states cable companies must open up and let consumers bring their own boxes to the party for digital TV. Guess what? Moxi is based on the AMD Live platform..

I seem to recall a press release about AMD Live and SageTV.. If Sage were to produce a cable card box akin to the Moxi, then you now have STBs which would plug in where you need them too...

Food for thought (Or more like fuel on a fire, chum for sharks..)

here's a link http://www.digeo.com/press_pressrelease.aspx?id=4

[Kirby]

Hehe, chum for sharks... I like that one!

[mikesm]

Originally Posted by Kirby

I'm not sure that I am really supposed to say what the REAL reason is that there is no MPEG4 D* solution. Suffice it to say, it is mainly because they lack any national MPEG4 channels (no motivation to finish a mod on a receiver for people to get 4 HD locals per market). The receiver can probably be modified from initial inspection, but its going to have a serious downfall that the E* boxes dont have. Sorry, I'm not going into it any more than that. If Nextcom wants to publically state the issue then you'll all know what I know. Sorry.

You should post this in the R5000-HD thread on AVS and see if they reply...

As for DirecTV, I am telling you, they are VERY serious about lots of new national HD channels. They have a number of deals inked and unless the new spacecraft fail to achieve orbit, they will have a very compelling supply of content.

I'm not sure if the "serious downfall" is related to lack of content or some other issue that affects reliability of accessing the stream, but long term, I expect DirecTV to be a better source of HD than Dish. And I think that will be marginally if not significantly true in the next 12 months.

Thanks,
mike

[Kirby]

I certainly hope your sources are right about HD on D*, and not just trying to spin things so they reduce churn. More HD on D* just means better things for everyone (more choice, stronger competition, and hopefully someone dropping the extra charge for HD like Star Choice does!).

It is a bit disheartening though when the D* folks say that we should all embrace and love HD Lite because its better than our TV's can display. If they get all this extra bandwidth in the air successfully, I would hope they dont start out immediately down-rezzing channels. There will be no reason to do that.

[geogecko]

*Subscribing*

Oops, was this about the R5000, or the new HD Media Extender, I forgot?

[geogecko]

Here's an interesting problem I'm currently having with the current SD Media MVP.

I bought a widescreen computer monitor to use for the MVP, anticipating an HD Extender at some point, however, the monitor does not come with a remote, and all power management is done via Windows in normal monitors, or at least, this one in particular (Westinghouse 22"). So, when hooked up via s-video (ugh...1050p resolution at 480!), and turn the MVP off, I get a big blue screen, and the monitor never goes into standby.

So, it would be nice, if the HD Extender had some kind of functionallity in it, when hooked up using a digital interface, that it could send the "Power Save" mode to the monitor, when it is turned off/in standby.

I don't know if anyone from Sage watches this forum, but I would REALLY like to see this functionallity, as CCFL display backlighting is only good for 60K hours, not to mention, that a black screen is still lit up at night!

[mayamaniac]

Originally Posted by geogecko

So, it would be nice, if the HD Extender had some kind of functionallity in it, when hooked up using a digital interface, that it could send the "Power Save" mode to the monitor, when it is turned off/in standby.

Does it need the connecting device to send a power save signal?

I would think that if you are using the digital interface, then the monitor would know when the signal is off and therefore the monitor will automatically go to standy on its own.

[mikesm]

Originally Posted by mayamaniac

Does it need the connecting device to send a power save signal?

I would think that if you are using the digital interface, then the monitor would know when the signal is off and therefore the monitor will automatically go to standy on its own.

The issue is that the HD extender PROTOTYPE that was demo'd at CES didn't turn the signal off on standby - it just sent video of a screensaver with the new sage logo on it.

I expect they will fix this, because if they don't it will lead to exactly the problem geogecko described.

thanks,
mike

[geogecko]

It could be. Possibly since it is an analog input, the monitor cannot really tell when the signal is not valid.

However, the manual talks about the monitor having a power save mode, but then goes on to say that it's only configurable via Windows power managment, or something similar. So, it may be a signal, or a special output that tells the monitor to go into power save mode.

I'm not sure even a blank screen, which you can now set to be the screensaver, would work in this case.

[dotheDVDeed]

So any progress on this HD media extender?

As a current Avel Linkplayer user, this addition would definitely make me dive into setting up a SageTV network.

TIM

[flavius]

Q2. Which, technically, could mean in just a few weeks.

[Jesse]

Hi,

Question.

Since the new extender will require sage to be rendered by the server, but will not require trans-coding, how much server horsepower will it take to support 4 HD extenders at the same time. I am hoping that my existing P4 3.0 will be more than adequate.

These things could really be the holy grail. I just hope they are more reliable than the mvp....

TIA

Jesse

[paulbeers]

Originally Posted by Jesse

Hi,

Question.

Since the new extender will require sage to be rendered by the server, but will not require trans-coding, how much server horsepower will it take to support 4 HD extenders at the same time. I am hoping that my existing P4 3.0 will be more than adequate.

These things could really be the holy grail. I just hope they are more reliable than the mvp....

TIA

Jesse

That's weird that you say the MVP isn't reliable. Mine are wired (and somewhat older units which may make a difference) and rock solid. I rarely ever have a problem (still on 5.0.4) and infact I prefer them over my full clients because they require no tweaking (of course only using them for SDTV makes it easier, compared to my full clients doing HD). As far as how much "horsepower", if all the decoding is done on the actual unit, it shouldn't take a very powerful server since all the server would do is record and then send the video to the extenders. It shouldn't take much more than sharing SDTV Mpegs to the MVP's.

[AngelofDeth]

If the MVP can render the Sage UI, I would hope the HD one could as well. As for reliability, the MVP has been as solid as you would expect a standalone box to be... It occasionally hangs up for a few seconds, but that could be a server problem as its woefully underpowered and runs comskip.

[doc]

While you're discussing mvp's, since upgrading to java 6 my 3 (1x ver 1, 2x ver 2.05) have all been fast and stable without any glitches, be it on 5.0.4, 6.0.19 or 6.1.3 or 6.1.4

I prefer them to a client pc anyday.

[jlindborg]

got to agree on the MVPs - they rock. They give me no trouble as opposed to the full client on the Mini which requires a constant low level of care and feeding - the MVPs don't look quite as nice on the Plasma but since I switched the Mac over for the beta of the Sage server on Mac, I've actually appreciated how easy/solid it is (as does my wife). Without the MVPs I probably would have thrown in the towel on the Sage stuff long ago... if the HD version is as good or better it will take Sage to a whole new level for a lot of folks...

[oddjob]

Will the HD Media Extender lead to other add on products for Sagetv?
Any options for Movielink or Vongo?

[Fluffdaddy]

Dream on

[dotheDVDeed]

Originally Posted by bcjenkins

From what George said.. Q2

B

I can see Q2 from here....

Ready to ship Monday.... right?