SageTV HD Media Extender

[stevech]

Originally Posted by rickw

What about the performance of the HD Extender as compared to the MVP? The only thing that's reduced the WAF with SageTV is the performance of the UI from the MVP's, sometimes it just doesn't respond very quickly to keystrokes. (Usually just a second or two, but sometimes as long as 30 seconds)

Rick...

my MVP doesn't have those delays. Could it be not enough RAM on the server and things got swapped out?

[rickw]

Originally Posted by stevech

my MVP doesn't have those delays. Could it be not enough RAM on the server and things got swapped out?

It very well could be my server, because it is (intentionally) on the low end. That's one reason I don't plan on moving to recording/playing HD content anytime soon.

The entire family is pleased with the current performance and I'm not dogging the MVP's or SageTV. For the price I've paid, it's a great solution.

But when comparing performance of a PC connected client to an MVP extender there is a difference. If the HD extender can perform closer to the PC connected client then I'd gladly pay the $200.

I suspect it will because the menu animations are supported.

Thanks,
Rick...

[reggie14]

Recording and serving HD files isn't very difficult. You're only need to be able to read/write to disk at 2.5 MB/sec per simultaneous recording. Pretty old hardware should be able to handle that. I don't know how much RAM you have in your server. I have 512 megs in mine and I don't really have any serious problems. But, I think I'm right at the edge. I noticed RAM usage seemed to go up a lot after I retagged my albums to include album art. RAM is relatively cheap. Assuming you have an extra slot, you really ought to get up to at least 512 or even 1 gig.

[robmarch]

great to see this thing is going to be available soon!



...now, I just need to rethink my setup for HD distribution.

[cncb]

What would be cool is simultaneous HD/SD outputs. Then I could feed a small SD display to select music to play and not have to turn on my bigscreen for this. Any chance of this?

[wrems]

Originally Posted by cncb

What would be cool is simultaneous HD/SD outputs. Then I could feed a small SD display to select music to play and not have to turn on my bigscreen for this. Any chance of this?

Why not get a HDMI splitter and connect a flat panel computer monitor for your music?

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...001&CatId=1638

I would think this would suffice...

[cncb]

Originally Posted by wrems

Why not get a HDMI splitter and connect a flat panel computer monitor for your music?

This would work but would require me to buy a new monitor and I would not easily be able to send the signal to a different location.

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by Opus4

The first post of this thread already says it can do the animations. They work quite well.

- Andy

HEY! Wait a minute! How do you know they work well...unless... hey! The line forms to the rear, Pal! No favoritism here!




Gerry

[TechBill]

Will this HD extender have closed captioning?

I hope it does have closed captioning even if it would not be official supported.

Thanks
Bill

[Stuntman]

Will this unit be plug and play ready, or will I need to go find some video/audio cables to get this to get to my TV? I want to have every cable sitting there in the Entertainment Center ready to go.. so I can go from Box to Coach as fast as possible!

[ke6guj]

Originally Posted by TechBill

Will this HD extender have closed captioning?

+1 on that question. And will it do captions from both analog and digital recordings?

[Djc208]

Originally Posted by Stuntman

Will this unit be plug and play ready, or will I need to go find some video/audio cables to get this to get to my TV? I want to have every cable sitting there in the Entertainment Center ready to go.. so I can go from Box to Coach as fast as possible!

I highly doubt it will include any cables, maybe an ethernet cable since that's the only one everyone will use. Otherwise there are so many different ways to connect this thing you'd have another $50 in cables to cover every option.

Thanks to the pictures and info we've been given it should be easy to figure out what cables you need and order them after you get done ordering your extender.

[TechBill]

Originally Posted by ke6guj

+1 on that question. And will it do captions from both analog and digital recordings?

I am glad to see other are hoping for closed caption feature on HD extenders as well too!

Hopefully they will add "unsupported" closed caption to it


Bill

[mayamaniac]

since there's no CC button on the remote, I doubt CC is supported on the HD Extender, but we'll find out in a few days.

[TechBill]

Originally Posted by mayamaniac

since there's no CC button on the remote, I doubt CC is supported on the HD Extender, but we'll find out in a few days.

SageTV does CC and there no CC button either . I think it the decoder that your using that determine if the CC is going to work or not and on SageTV to use it you enable it via properties file.

Bill

[Folkboat]

From what I'm understanding the Sage HD Media Extender would allow someone to "stream" HD/Blu-Ray content over a 100mps network to any HD TV. This would especially include (disk)based "backups" of HD/BR residing
on a SageTV server.

Would there be any special format requirement in loading the HD/BR onto the servers disk drives??

How would I back up my HD/BR DVD'S onto a SageTV server??

Thanks

[Folkboat]

The more I think about this the more exciting it sounds, won't have to buy additional HD/Blu-ray players. Movies would be stored in one location.

I live in a three story house.

I would imagine a SageTV HD Extender could be used on the server directly, thereby eliminating the need for a high powered PC. Actually the whole server could be stored anywhere in the house (fortunatly we are hardwired Cat5).

Sorry - just thinking out loud!!

[reggie14]

Originally Posted by Folkboat

From what I'm understanding the Sage HD Media Extender would allow someone to "stream" HD/Blu-Ray content over a 100mps network to any HD TV. This would especially include (disk)based "backups" of HD/BR residing on a SageTV server.

While Sage can play back regular (unencrypted) DVDs that have been ripped to the server, I don't think Sage can play back HD-DVD or Blu-Ray discs. So, I think its safe to assume the extender won't be able to either. And, I don't think there's any reason to believe that Sage will be able to implement that functionality anytime soon. Sorry.

[evilpenguin]

Originally Posted by reggie14

While Sage can play back regular (unencrypted) DVDs that have been ripped to the server, I don't think Sage can play back HD-DVD or Blu-Ray discs. So, I think its safe to assume the extender won't be able to either. And, I don't think there's any reason to believe that Sage will be able to implement that functionality anytime soon. Sorry.

Thats what I thought too, but its got all of the video codecs (MPEG-2, VC-1, h.264) covered and (AFAIK) all discs have audio that is backwards compatible with DD/DTX when passed through digitally to the receiver. So while full playback including fancy menus is definitely not going to happen, I wouldn't be surprised if it could (eventually, atleast) read the EVOB and play them back just like Sage can currently play back straight, unencrypted, VOB files.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by evilpenguin

Thats what I thought too, but its got all of the video codecs (MPEG-2, VC-1, h.264) covered and

True.

(AFAIK) all discs have audio that is backwards compatible with DD/DTX when passed through digitally to the receiver.

Actually no, almost no HD DVDs have legacy audio on them, they use DD+ and Dolby TrueHD almost exclusively. Blu-ray is a bit better.