dumb HD extender related questions

[drewg]

Hi,

I currently use a different PVR solution, and am considering switching to Sage specifically because of the new HD Extender. I've never been able to get 1080i content to look correct using a PC, and I'm quite excited about the HD extender. However, being unfamiliar with extenders on Sage leaves me with some dumb questions.

1) Will extensions (like comskip) work for on the extender?

2) How does fast-forward/rewind work with an extender? Is it fast-motion-with-no-audio like Tivo, or a jump of some number of seconds forward / backward in the file? Is it configurable in any way?

3) Can Sage play back faster or slower (with audio) than normal (MythTV calls this feature "timestretch").

4) Will it be possible to configure the extender to play things back in their native mode? Eg, 720p gets sent to the TV as 720p, 1080i as 1080i, etc?

5) Not really an extender question, but... Will Sage be able to import my currently recorded shows from MythTV and play them (somehow) in the extender?

[ke6guj]

Originally Posted by drewg

1) Will extensions (like comskip) work for on the extender?

Yup, most plugins should work fine for the extender.

2) How does fast-forward/rewind work with an extender? Is it fast-motion-with-no-audio like Tivo, or a jump of some number of seconds forward / backward in the file? Is it configurable in any way?

Not sure. The new HD extender does have 3 types of FF/REW keys, so there should be plenty of options.

3) Can Sage play back faster or slower (with audio) than normal (MythTV calls this feature "timestretch").

Have seen other requests for this, but have never seen it implemented.

5) Not really an extender question, but... Will Sage be able to import my currently recorded shows from MythTV and play them (somehow) in the extender?

Yes, you can import in your mythTV shows into Sage as imported videos (they will appear in the menu under the filename without any mythtv metadata). You will be able to play them, but they won't show up in you main Recordings Menu like new Sage recordings will.

[drewg]

Originally Posted by ke6guj

Not sure. The new HD extender does have 3 types of FF/REW keys, so there should be plenty of options.

Taking a closer look at the labels on the remote makes me hope you are right. Eg, that there is a skip, and a tivo-like fastforward/rewind.

Thanks for your reply,

Drew

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by drewg

4) Will it be possible to configure the extender to play things back in their native mode? Eg, 720p gets sent to the TV as 720p, 1080i as 1080i, etc?

From the 6.3 release notes:

Media Extender Updates
1. Support for the SageTV HD Media Extender
...
5. Added support for native output resolution switching. It's disabled by default.

5) Not really an extender question, but... Will Sage be able to import my currently recorded shows from MythTV and play them (somehow) in the extender?

"Probably" is about the only way to answer that question. If they're recorded in a supported format, you should be fine. If you want them to show up with metadata, you'll have to do a little work (do a search, it's come up a number of times).

[stevech]

Originally Posted by stanger89

From the 6.3 release notes:
"Probably" is about the only way to answer that question. If they're recorded in a supported format, you should be fine. If you want them to show up with metadata, you'll have to do a little work (do a search, it's come up a number of times).

among the Stated Supported Formats is AVI. My pocket camera produces AVI but they won't play in Sage. Apparently because the frame size is not one that's expected. They do play in Windows Media Player.

[stanger89]

Well AVI is just a container, that's only one third of the question. If the audio and video inside the AVI container aren't supported codecs, then even though AVI is supported the video can't be played.