What chipset in the HD Extender?

[paulbeers]

Since I obviously can't order one anymore (should have done so on Monday morning, but noooo had to get the wife on board ), what chipset does it it use? The pictures weren't close up enough (and I have a feeling the "real" chipset is located under the heatsink). I can see the Via USB chip to the left of the heatsink and the Realtek Audio controller to the left of the Via chip. I assume the two chips just "below" the heatsink are memory chips, but I can't tell what the chip is to the down to the left from the heatsink or what is up to the right in the picture.

Would just be interesting to see if any other devices out there with this same PCB board......

Edit: I believe the Realtek chip (without being able to read the model number) is probably an ethernet controller and not the audio chip.

[SHS]

RTL8100CL

[bjkiller]

so what is the model number of decoder chip?

[paulbeers]

Originally Posted by bjkiller

so what is the model number of decoder chip?

Yeah, I guess I wasn't quite clear on that one. I was really asking what is the decoder chip, however, that did prove that it uses the Realtek chip for ethernet.

[KJake]

Looks like the Sigma EM8620 is the main processor for the system.

Sigma EM8620 Series info:
http://www.sigmadesigns.com/public/P...0L_series.html

Interesting project on creating a full open linux distro for this chip:
http://mvixcommunity.com/showtopic.php?tid/327

[valnar]

Originally Posted by KJake

Looks like the Sigma EM8620 is the main processor for the system.

Thanks for the info.

Now knowing that, are there other devices on the market besides the Sage HD extender that use it? If I read some of those reviews, it might give me a better idea of what file/codec formats this thing supports. I have some weird files archived that only a PC can handle at the moment....

Robert

[bcjenkins]

Why not just send an email to SageTV maybe with a small sample. if it is not working on the HD extender, I am sure they can tell you if it is possible?

B

[SHS]

Man take all long enougth to fig it out, By the way if re-check the review I did you find all the info you need to know.
http://www.shspvr.com/reviews/sagetv...der_index.html

[KJake]

Originally Posted by valnar

Thanks for the info.

Now knowing that, are there other devices on the market besides the Sage HD extender that use it? If I read some of those reviews, it might give me a better idea of what file/codec formats this thing supports. I have some weird files archived that only a PC can handle at the moment....

Robert

These all use a chip from the same family:
http://www.mvixusa.com/product.php?product=&page=specs
http://www.kjglobal.co.uk/acatalog/IAMM_NTD36HD.html
http://www.dlink.com/products/?sec=0&pid=542

[valnar]

Originally Posted by SHS

Man take all long enougth to fig it out, By the way if re-check the review I did you find all the info you need to know.
http://www.shspvr.com/reviews/sagetv...der_index.html

That review is incomprehensible. I was looking for others.


KJake - Thanks for the links.

Robert

[KJake]

Originally Posted by valnar

KJake - Thanks for the links.

No problem, but I'm not happy that I found them to be honest. They all look like better products for a price similar to Sage's offering. With those systems using almost the exact same Sigma chip, I feel a bit taken...

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by KJake

No problem, but I'm not happy that I found them to be honest. They all look like better products for a price similar to Sage's offering.

How are they better? Looks like they have about the same format support as Sage.

[KJake]

Originally Posted by stanger89

How are they better? Looks like they have about the same format support as Sage.

You can get the DSM-510 for $150 and it comes with wireless and usb enabled. The other two are more (I accidentally looked at the non-HD price version of the Mivx originally), but have support for hard drives, and have extra connectors, etc.

Maybe I'll just retract that comment...

[stanger89]

I was just curious, the way I looked at it, there are a number of devices with similar hardware capabilities to the HD100, and have been for some time. But what kept any of them from being interesting to me is that they all (as near as I can tell) had very limited/poor UI/backends to go with them.

I mean, I wouldn't touch wireless, so I don't care about that.

Outputs? HDMI, Component, S/PDIF, what else do you need? (VGA maybe)
Hard Drives? Why would the extender need HDD support when it's connected to a SageTV server with HDDs?
USB, dito for me, I put all my photos on my server.
USB would be nice if they added support for connecting a DVD drive.

All the other players just seem like standalone systems or maybe UPnP based, and UPnP isn't that impressive. I guess I've always wanted an integrated whole-house system, and Sage is one of the only products that provides that.

[TimmyToo]

Over the past few years I've looked at ways of getting HD content to my TV. Having issues with a PC as a client I started looking at those external boxes.

After reading reviews I never found one that I would want to take a chance on, especially the ones in the $300+ range.

It did help that I had been using SageTV and was impressed with the MVP client.

I'm glad I waited for the Sage product. We have an extender at a good price that uses the Sage interface.

[KJake]

Originally Posted by paulbeers

Yeah, I guess I wasn't quite clear on that one. I was really asking what is the decoder chip, however, that did prove that it uses the Realtek chip for ethernet.

RTL-8139D if that hasn't been noted anywhere...

[bastafidli]

I looked at the other models and I actually like the HD100 a lot better. Here are my reasons:

1. I prefer the more tradditional horizontal look since it matches the rest of AV equipment. The vertical "fat" shape would be harder to fit anywhere.
2. I don't mind the lack of wifi since when HD100 is placed in the AV cabinet, it is not best place to get wifi working without troubles anyway. Plus I am pretty sure you can get the HD100 working with wifi extender/bridge which you can position at some better place. Maybe that is an idea for Sage to over separate wifi bridge for those who wants to connect HD100 wirelessly if there are some.
3. Only 5 days after release and somebody on this forum already figured out how to mount USB key through the front USB ports. That means it is just a matter of time when you will be able to connect other USB storage.
4. I actually prefer not to have any HDD in the unit itslef. It keeps is cool and quiet which is a priority for me. As somebody said, why would you even want to have HDD there, when you can get one into the server which runs the SageTV. There you don't have to worry that much about noise and heat and go for the best capacity and temperature.

[KJake]

Originally Posted by bastafidli

3. Only 5 days after release and somebody on this forum already figured out how to mount USB key through the front USB ports. That means it is just a matter of time when you will be able to connect other USB storage.

That was me

I mounted my 300gb drive today too. It's NTFS so I could write to it, but the kernel does have NTFS reading built-in. The kernel is 2.4, so it is a little old, but the Sigma ARM tools are now being updated to 2.6 kernel, so maybe Sage will update it...

Keyboard didn't work...I guess USB HID wasn't compiled in and there's no module in the filesystem like the one for USB storage.

Charting findings here:
http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=29122