Is Sage TV the right choice

[LeaveTiVo?]

I currently have multiple TiVos (1 Series 3 and 2 Series 2).

I was debating replacing the series 2 with the HD TiVos.
Issues include:
- Recurring cost associated with multiple TiVos
- Recurring cost associated with multiple Digital Cable Receivers
- Inability to transfer material between TiVos due to copy protection imposed by transmitting party
- Inability to save recorded programs that are copy protected to media for
replay at later date (need to manage disk space)
...

Get the picture?

So... Sage TV can provide this function with?
- Purchase of Sage TV software
- Purchase of hardware to provide 2 cable QAM tuners + 1 OTA ATSC
- Purchase of HD media extenders w/ license for each
- purchase / upgrade of existing PC

The simple goal is to be able to view live TV or recordings at several different locations in our home. We currently have 2 HD TVs (50" and 65") + additional TVs and computer monitors.

Before making this investment I need to be comfortable this will work well...
- I believe my cable is not clear QAM. How to verify? (require cable cards for the Series3)
- Are there alternatives to using cable boxes for this source?
(I really don't want to go down the Vista Meda Center + HDCP not be able to save recordings! I am not even really worried about porting to commercial players at this point)
- Is it known that the IR controllers will control a SA (Scientific Atlanta)cable box?
- Does the SA cable 1394 output for DVR work well?
- What formats and resolutions are provided by this stream?
- Is the video quality when viewed comparable to the Series 3 (much better than a SA HD3250)
- will 100mbps be able to support multiple media centers in HD?
- will we be able to phase the hardware updates?

I expect that some specific details might have to be sent as private messages to not offend vendors. I am sure more questions will have to be asked in addition to these. Most will likely be specific in the hardware forum.

- Is the sound for the HD retained as 5.1? Are there synch problems?
-

[davephan]

Originally Posted by LeaveTiVo?

I currently have multiple TiVos (1 Series 3 and 2 Series 2).

I was debating replacing the series 2 with the HD TiVos.
Issues include:
- Recurring cost associated with multiple TiVos
- Recurring cost associated with multiple Digital Cable Receivers
- Inability to transfer material between TiVos due to copy protection imposed by transmitting party
- Inability to save recorded programs that are copy protected to media for
replay at later date (need to manage disk space)

It sounds like you just answered your basic question, should you replace Tivo with SageTV. I have never used Tivo, so I don't know to relate to it directly. I do not like what I hear about it. Its main advantage is that it is an appliance with very limited features, but can be used by a person who can only operate an appliance, such as a TV or microwave oven. How much does it cost monthly for each Tivo unit? How many hours can you record with Tivo? Are there pop up Tivo advertisements? Can you automatically eliminate commercials with Tivo (without manually fast forwarding)?

You may be able to find out details about your local HD channels from this link:
http://www.silicondust.com/wiki/hdhomerun/channels

I do not have HD yet, so others will need to give you details. Your posting is a bit overwhelming, so that might be why there haven't been responses yet. There is a media extender for standard definition available for SageTV from Hauppauge called a MVP. I have two MVP units. The MVP units allow you to stream video through eithernet to a small set top box near each SD TV set. Next month a HD media extender is supposed to be available, after a long wait for the people who already moved to HD.

You can try SageTV for free with the 15 day trial period for Windows, but SageTV still does not offer any trial for the Linux version (otherwise I might have already switched to Linux, depending on the trial outcome).

Make sure you have enough computer resources to handle the task. My system is on the upper end for the mobo, CPU, and memory. An AMD XP +2800 is barely enough for SD when you use SD media extenders and video compression transcoding. If you decide to use transcoding, you need more system resources, but you can store five times the video content in the same disk space.

When you do build up a system, I recommend that you image your computer onto a USB hard drive that is disconnected most of the time from your system. You will then be able to quickly and easily recover your system problems occur. After using SageTV for awhile, you will not want to ever have long downtime. I use Ghost version 10, but there are other imaging software alternatives to Symantec Ghost.

There are low cost or free programs to enhance SageTV. A couple of these enhancement programs automatically eliminate most commercials.

I do not plan to upgrade my televisions to HD yet, so others will need to give you advise about the HD specifics. I believe the SageTV has the best user supported forum of all computer based video recording software.


Dave

[BFisher]

You have too many questions in your posting that I can't answer... but I'll give you this - I used to be a TiVo user (DirecTivo) and was very happy for years. I upgraded it (RAM memory, harddrive), and added a network card to it. It served my family well for many years.

Now that I have Sage, I'd never want to go back:
- any tv can watch anything recorded (or live) at any time (using MVPs)
- picture quality on every TV is excellent (and will be better with the HD Extender coming soon)
- Awesome to record my kids DVDs to the PC and be able to play them without the kids scratching up their originals
- 5 tuners (3 OTA, 2 DirecTV). I never have a recording conflict for anything.

[ke6guj]

Originally Posted by LeaveTiVo?

Before making this investment I need to be comfortable this will work well...
- I believe my cable is not clear QAM. How to verify? (require cable cards for the Series3)

TO verify, you need some sort of QAM tuner, do you have one, or can borrow one. Many HDTV's have QAM tuners that will be able to scan for any unscrambled QAM channels.

Hopefully, you should be getting some QAM channels unscrambled. At least your digital locals, and maybe a few others. Right now we are in a transition period in which the cable company's are all over the map on what is available digitally scrambled or unscrambled. Hopefully after the analog OTA signal gets retired, more stuff will open up via open QAM.

- Are there alternatives to using cable boxes for this source?

If you are trying to tune an unscrambled QAM channel, then any QAM tuner would work, like the HDHomerun. If you want to tune a scrambled QAM channel, you have to have a cable box, or a cable card tuner. If you did get a cable card tuner, you'd be doing the Vista DRM deal you don't want.

If you went the cable box method, you'd have to capture the original digital content via analog tuner, or else get your cable box R5000HD modded, and I don't know if they offer a mod for SA boxes.

- Is it known that the IR controllers will control a SA (Scientific Atlanta)cable box?

Yes, you should be able to IR tune an SA box. THe USB-UIRT is a good solution.

- Does the SA cable 1394 output for DVR work well?

Firewire is a good solution if it works for you. There is another encryption method you have to deal with for firewire captures, 5C. The cable company can block you from capturing channels from the firewire. You just have to hook it up and see what you can get. SOme people get all paid-for channels, others get only the locals, and others get in between.

- What formats and resolutions are provided by this stream?

The firewire stream gets exactly what the cable company is sending. Different channels are sent at different resolutions, so one recording may be a 1080i, and another may be a 720p, or even 480i/p.

- Is the video quality when viewed comparable to the Series 3 (much better than a SA HD3250)

Since you are digitally capturing the stream, perfect recording quality. It would depend on your video card to determine output quality. A good video card and TV would give you a virtually perfect copy of the originally captured recording.

- will 100mbps be able to support multiple media centers in HD?

You should be able to stream a couple HD broadcasts through 100 base ethernet. More than that, may start running into issues, depending on your network layout.

- will we be able to phase the hardware updates?

Yes, Sage is customizable and very hardware flexible. My original system has gone through 2 motherboard upgrades, harddrive upgrades (including adding a Raid5 array), and multiple tuner upgrades (3 analog tuners, then 5. Adding in a firewired STB, and then adding in a HDHomerun). I've added in SageTV clients, played with the SD Media Extender, and even used the Placeshifter client to watch Sage over the internet from Mexico.

- Is the sound for the HD retained as 5.1? Are there synch problems?
-

If you are capturing the digital source in the original format, then, if the source is 5.1, then you still have 5.1. Then, all you need to do is set up your computer to properly output the 5.1 to your speaker system.

[Addict]

I'm only quoting what I can answer...

Originally Posted by LeaveTiVo?

I currently have multiple TiVos (1 Series 3 and 2 Series 2).

I used to have a Series 2 TiVo...will never go back.

Originally Posted by LeaveTiVo?

I was debating replacing the series 2 with the HD TiVos.
Issues include:
- Recurring cost associated with multiple TiVos
- Recurring cost associated with multiple Digital Cable Receivers
- Inability to transfer material between TiVos due to copy protection imposed by transmitting party
- Inability to save recorded programs that are copy protected to media for
replay at later date (need to manage disk space)
...

Get the picture?

Don't forget:
- Inability to burn DVD's to disk and watch them later
- Inability to watch other downloaded videos
- Inability to view your photos
- Inability to play your music
- Inability to connect and watch YouTube or Google Videos
- Inability to get weather forecasts
- Inability to automatically skip commercials
- Inability to install add-ons, plug-ins, or other customizations to the core functionality or GUI

Originally Posted by LeaveTiVo?

So... Sage TV can provide this function with?
- Purchase of Sage TV software
- Purchase of hardware to provide 2 cable QAM tuners + 1 OTA ATSC
- Purchase of HD media extenders w/ license for each
- purchase / upgrade of existing PC

Sounds about right. The HD extenders are due to be released within a month or so from what we've seen here in the forums...

Originally Posted by LeaveTiVo?

- Is it known that the IR controllers will control a SA (Scientific Atlanta)cable box?
- will 100mbps be able to support multiple media centers in HD?
- will we be able to phase the hardware updates?

- I have a SA box and the USB-IRT repeater works just fine.
- Most folks say that 100MB to the extenders is more than enough since HD doesn't come close to using that much BW. But, your connection to the server could be GB since all traffic goes through this interface.
- Not sure I follow the question, but you can upgrade your hardware however you wish. I'm not running HD (yet), but as you can tell by my signature you don't need much hardware to run a server, or even an SD client. My current server is also my client (until the HD extenders come out).

Hope this helps!

[Djc208]

The biggest issue you'll have if you leave the Tivo is scrambled content. You can try the cable box/firewire in order to record them but it's hit or miss on what you'll get and you'll need multiple cable boxes if you want to record multiple scrambled channels. Otherwise all that will be available via a tuner card is analog and clear QAM (which is usually just locals).

If you watch and record a lot of your scrambled premium channels you may be dissapointed if you switch. Sage is great, and will let you do a lot more than Tivo, but it does require more effort to get everything running right and there's still no good way to record scrambled content.