Sage 7 with HD Extender????

[malbec]

You know, I really, really, really, truly do not mean to look the gift horse in the mouth. However, I was hoping against hope that when the 6.2 release candidate was released as final, the announcement would read "Version 7 is now released with HD extender support."

With the end of third quarter now approaching, I don't suppose there is any chance to knock the words "Yup, we are making progress" out of someone "in the know?" Please?

[Fluffdaddy]

Originally Posted by malbec

With the end of third quarter now approaching, I don't suppose there is any chance to knock the words "Yup, we are making progress" out of someone "in the know?" Please?

Suppose all you want, nobody "in the know" will say a thing. It's not SageTV, LLC's way.

Don't matter to me now. I'm done waiting, built one PC client last month and another yesterday. I'm ready for the newTV season next week. 100% HD ready in my home

[flavius]

Originally Posted by Fluffdaddy

Suppose all you want, nobody "in the know" will say a thing.

What could they possibly have to say.

[ybrew]

Originally Posted by Fluffdaddy

Suppose all you want, nobody "in the know" will say a thing. It's not SageTV, LLC's way.

Don't matter to me now. I'm done waiting, built one PC client last month and another yesterday. I'm ready for the newTV season next week. 100% HD ready in my home

Ditto. Except only did one (very powerful) client PC, at my single HD location.
The rest are fine in SD, and I too am 100% ready, HD all the way.

[jlindborg]

so - what did you guys do for HD clients? Are you happy with them? Nice and quiet? I hobbled together an HD client for a temporary patch earlier this year expecting the HD client to be coming "real soon" - I might throw in the towel here as well - care to share what you guys went with?

[mohanman]

I hate to say it but I may have to switch back to mce of there are no sagehd extenders as the new mce ones will be coming out soon. Along with cablecard support it might be unbeatable. I like the niveus stuff tho expensive. But u get what u pay for.

mo!

[flavius]

I'm not going to wait much longer, probably another month or two and if by then there's still not a single word from them, I'm going to ditch Sage.

[Yooper]

I keep looking at the HP Slimline computers at Walmart for $488. It has an Nvidia 6150 LE graphics processor. It has an AMD dual processor - I think it is 2.2 Ghz. Does anyone have experience using this as an HD client?

[ybrew]

Vista MCE, even with cablecard support, is still limited to 2 tuners, right?

I have 7 tuners in my system. 3 analog, 2 comcast boxes connected via analog, and 2 HD with the HD homerun. I could cut that back to maybe 5 tuners, but anything less than that would be a deal breaker.

I went crazy with my HD extender. Got an HTPC case (zalman). Super quiet. Put in an 8800GTS card, 2 gig ram, 250gig sata drive, dvd burner, e6750 chip.

This isn't just an HD extender though, it replaced the cable box and dvd player in my theater, and also is a very capable gaming PC (complete with wireless joystick, wireless keypads, gyration keyboard/mouse, etc.)

[reggie14]

Originally Posted by flavius

I'm not going to wait much longer, probably another month or two and if by then there's still not a single word from them, I'm going to ditch Sage.

What would you switch Sage for? BeyondTV doesn't have an HD extender, and I'm pretty sure their SD extender support isn't as good as Sage's. MCE has the Xbox, but my understanding is its somewhat crippled in what it will play back. I like MCE for the most part, but I probably wouldn't even consider switching unless MS makes a software extender.

You've been with Sage long enough to know its pretty silly to stick with Sage only because your waiting for some new feature or device. There's no way to know when Sage will release things. If you're happy with Sage in its current state, stick with Sage. If there's something better right now, switch. That's really all you can do.

I do, however, share your frustration. My opinion of Sage as a company is damaged not by the fact that product releases seem to always come late, but by their complete refusal to talk about them. While Sage didn't do an official announcement of the HD extender, they did say they expected a release in Q3 (or was it Q2?). That time has come and gone without a word from Sage. If Sage was a major company, they'd probably be forced to make some sort of statement or you'd just expect news would leak out anyway.

[davefred99]

Originally Posted by flavius

I'm not going to wait much longer, probably another month or two and if by then there's still not a single word from them, I'm going to ditch Sage.

Does this mean that the SageMC 16x9 development would go away too. That would be a serious blow to Sage's user community. If only Sage would just give us some sort of update on the HD Thin Client.

I am wondering if the problem might be that the proposed HD media extender just does not have the capability/horsepower to play more than OTA or QAM HD Mpeg2 content and the future is MPEG4 and other more demanding compression types. The Cost of building a full PC Client is becoming less of a burden and might be a better option in the long run.

I like many have become pretty frustrated at Sage for not keeping us in the loop. I switched to Save over BTV because of similar tactics from them because of there still unfulfilled promise of integration. I am not ready to jump ship again but am starting to think it is history repeating itself.

Come on Sage Give us a Damned update!!

[ToxMox]

Originally Posted by davefred99

Does this mean that the SageMC 16x9 development would go away too. That would be a serious blow to Sage's user community.

I think you may be confusing flavius with flachbar

[mattdcknsn]

At this point I dont really care. I was excited when the HD extender was announced, but once the deadline came and went with no word about it I figured it was a failed experiment. Maybe next year.

I upgraded my server to support transcoding to an MVP and upgraded my client to have better HD playback. I honestly cant think of why I would want to replace the client PC at this point with an HD extender.

If and when they ever release the HD extender I'll probably wait until a couple of revisions are made to it so that most of the major bugs are out. Then I'll have to figure out if its worth it.

[ybrew]

Originally Posted by mattdcknsn

At this point I dont really care. I was excited when the HD extender was announced, but once the deadline came and went with no word about it I figured it was a failed experiment. Maybe next year.

I upgraded my server to support transcoding to an MVP and upgraded my client to have better HD playback. I honestly cant think of why I would want to replace the client PC at this point with an HD extender.

If and when they ever release the HD extender I'll probably wait until a couple of revisions are made to it so that most of the major bugs are out. Then I'll have to figure out if its worth it.

Ditto both points. Upgraded server first. Waited until the new tv season was about to start then built my own client.

[jlindborg]

Hmmm... I'm eyeing the XPC Shuttle: http://hq1.shuttle.com/products_page...LLI=551&PI=635

Can't find many reviews from folks using it to push 1080p content, though...

[Polypro]

Beat me to it...I'm looking at this one:

http://hq1.shuttle.com/products_page...I=236&FCLI=11#

P

[jlindborg]

I ran across a few reviews that said the GMA 950 just wasn't up to the task for proper HD playback support - I did find a review of the newer GMA 3100 in the SG33G5 that says the 1080p playback is good, although the game benchmarks for it are pretty awful. I don't plan to use it for anything other than Sage playback, though, so that's ok by me.

I guess if you plan to toss a different video card in that box it would work out, although space is tight. I'm keen to get a lower end Duo 2 processor and run everything off the built in mo-bo to keep temps/noise down.

I'm about _this_ close to ordering one up... someone just tell me all the cool kids want one... someone has to fend of this pending recession with some completely unnecessary spending...

[Enormous]

I was so disappointed that there wasn't an HD extender mentioned with the 6.2 release that I haven't even downloaded it yet. I'm in the same situation as a lot of you, in that my current client can't do HD, and I'm wondering if I should get a 7600GT (stuck with AGP), wait for the 8x00 series to hit AGP, or wait for the never-seen extender.

[Sam]

Originally Posted by reggie14

My opinion of Sage as a company is damaged not by the fact that product releases seem to always come late, but by their complete refusal to talk about them. While Sage didn't do an official announcement of the HD extender, they did say ...

Perhaps the only problem here is that they DID say something rather than a "complete refusal to talk about them". I've been in the software industry since the 1970's, and when you can get by with it, a complete refusal to talk about anything is generally by far the best for the vendor. It makes it much easier to "under promise and over deliver". Software tends to be the reverse of that: over promise and under deliver. In my experience, this is caused by the old 80/20 rule: The first 80% of the project takes the first 80% of the time; the remaining 20% of the project takes the other 80% of the time.

If they hadn't opted to demo a prototype at a show earlier this year, we wouldn't be sitting here salivating over when we can get our own paws on one.

[KarylFStein]

Well, I don't know how manufacturing works, but it seems like if 6.2 just came out then it would take some time to load and test it on a device, and then start mass producing devices with the software. Anyway, I'm ready for a CE device that just does what it's supposed to do and fits in the form factor of my other HT equipment. I've been playing with HTPCs for maybe 6 or 7 years now, and my home network for longer than that. Although I like it, every time I think I have the "final" system or layout, I get the urge to tweak something or make changes. This hobby has become too expensive and time consuming for me. I'm hoping that by going with CE components, I can get rid of the urge to tweak, spend less money, and be able to just buy a new individual piece when new technology comes out. That's probably a pipe dream, but I and my family have hope. Please, Sage, help me end my HTPC addiction by releasing a HD media extender! I'm already getting the urge to build a new client for my bedroom since I'm moving my old flat panel up there one I finish installing all the extras on the 6.2 upgrade I just did. Save my children from having an absentee, HTPCaholic dad!