HD100 - will it ever be available? And other questions about SageTV.

[heffneil]

I have to ask the obvious question: We are posting this speculation on the company's forums and no one has updated or commented on the short supply. We just hear about potential dates. Why hasn't the horse's mouth responded with an update? I am not looking to start an uprising I just wonder if anyone else thinks we should find out the truth and get an update? I do not want to be a guinea pig for someone else's device especially for $200 x's however many devices. I think if it's not too much to ask that the people at Sage please chime in here with an update as to when the device is going to be available and what the delays are.

Neil

[Stuntman]

Originally Posted by heffneil

I have to ask the obvious question: We are posting this speculation on the company's forums and no one has updated or commented on the short supply. We just hear about potential dates. Why hasn't the horse's mouth responded with an update? I am not looking to start an uprising I just wonder if anyone else thinks we should find out the truth and get an update? I do not want to be a guinea pig for someone else's device especially for $200 x's however many devices. I think if it's not too much to ask that the people at Sage please chime in here with an update as to when the device is going to be available and what the delays are.

Neil

I don't know that Sage has any obligation to post anything here in our forums.. sure, it would be nice!!! Email support and ask them directly, I suspect you will get an email back telling you they hope to have them available again in February.. can't get a more direct response than that! May not be what you want to hear, but it will be a response..

[heffneil]

I wasn't implying they are obligated to do anything but as a potential customer I think I would like to know the history of the device and why there is a shortage. I am just asking if anyone else thinks its strange that the people who make up the company haven't chimed in. I mean regardless I am going to buy one of the boxes for playing around with but honesty has always been the best policy.

Neil

[Rob]

Originally Posted by heffneil

I wasn't implying they are obligated to do anything but as a potential customer I think I would like to know the history of the device and why there is a shortage. I am just asking if anyone else thinks its strange that the people who make up the company haven't chimed in. I mean regardless I am going to buy one of the boxes for playing around with but honesty has always been the best policy.

Neil

In my opinion, sage makes a great product, but has always been too tight lipped about things. I'd be shocked to see them give out any more information here.

Maybe the reason is that 6 months from now I'll be enjoying their product and will have mostly forgotten that there were delays in the initial shipments.

[sam99]

bleh, tired of carrying the bedroom/basement workout area mvp up and down the stairs. Can not wait for the next batch to come in to find a permanent residence in the bedroom.

[matt91]

What are people doing with their SD extenders when they replace them with a HD version?

Keeping them for another (formerly "un-saged") TV or selling on ebay?

[paulbeers]

Originally Posted by Serra

Really? It seems like a VERY POOR business decision. The majority of cost would be in tooling and setup, not in production. To sink 80% of the cost of production into a test run wouldn't be very smart. Also, to use a production run to test a product, by providing it to end users to have them "test" it for you, just is very poor business. Not to mention that market research is far cheaper than test production. If they wondered if their was a market, this could have been determined far cheaper.

It is far more likely that when the problem was discovered, production was halted so that the problem could be fixed and it has taken some time to fix the problem and get it back into production.

All devices are created like this. First you build some prototypes and you send those out to beta testers.....Then when you feel comfortable that most of the issues are worked out you produce your first model in generally somewhat low numbers and depending on the market acceptance, then you ramp up production. Look at every game system ever sold, they have a certain amount on hand at "go live" and when those are sold out there aren't any available (or in very limited numbers) and once the manufacturer decides what the market warrants they ramp up production. Why the heck would you build thousands upon thousands, only for there to be no market demand? Yes you are right that there is an expense in design, etc., but would you really want to spend even more money on a bunch of stock that isn't sold? It's called "cutting your losses"..... This is normal for any business. This is business 101.

Oh and let's not forget that a shortage actually drives up interest (to a point). If we know there is a shortage, we are more apt to buy as soon as they come available, rather than when we "want to"....it is human nature. I would have bought in December, had I known the shortage was going to last this long!

And your argument about testing before hand, look at the XBox 360, it took a year and a half before they finally started releasing cooler running processors/motherboards that didn't regularly cause the Red Ring of Death....your first runs will always have issues so why make a ton until you have everything sorted out. People always want to say that a company is making a stupid decision, when they can't get what they want (even when they are the right decisions). How many people were annoyed Nintendo waited 6 months before they even started in with talks with another electronics manufacturer to produce Wii's....

P.S. Before anyone says anything, I am solely using gaming systems as a comparison, I realize that there are differences, blah, blah but there are parallels to new gaming systems

[sam99]

as indicated in my previous post, I will be resuing mine for a previously unconnected tv in the basement. My first HD extender replaced a pc client. My third one will go on the plasma (enabling all 3 of my HD capable tvs) and the mvp will probably go in the garage with some tiny little screen and hook up to my stereo receiver out there just to extend my music to that point. Right now I plug my ipod into the receiver, but the mvp would be nicer, on top of tuning sports games for updates (for those games I do not care about enough to sit down and watch them) while working in my garage workshop. I pulled two network cables to the garage access point when i pulled the extra circuit last summer, so I have a phone port and a network port ready to go for future use.

[paulbeers]

Originally Posted by matt91

What are people doing with their SD extenders when they replace them with a HD version?

Keeping them for another (formerly "un-saged") TV or selling on ebay?

Both probably. I'm going to replace my full clients with HD extenders and either move the pc's to other tv's or sell them or give them to other family members.

[paulbeers]

Originally Posted by sam99

as indicated in my previous post, I will be resuing mine for a previously unconnected tv in the basement. My first HD extender replaced a pc client. My third one will go on the plasma (enabling all 3 of my HD capable tvs) and the mvp will probably go in the garage with some tiny little screen and hook up to my stereo receiver out there just to extend my music to that point. Right now I plug my ipod into the receiver, but the mvp would be nicer, on top of tuning sports games for updates (for those games I do not care about enough to sit down and watch them) while working in my garage workshop. I pulled two network cables to the garage access point when i pulled the extra circuit last summer, so I have a phone port and a network port ready to go for future use.

Hmmm...that's a good idea. I have an amp and speakers out there....now to figure out how to get ethernet out there (stupid detached garage).

[pjpjpjpj]

Originally Posted by matt91

What are people doing with their SD extenders when they replace them with a HD version?

Keeping them for another (formerly "un-saged") TV or selling on ebay?

I propose that you guys with spare SD extenders start a "forum family" resale thread here...

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by pjpjpjpj

I propose that you guys with spare SD extenders start a "forum family" resale thread here...

A reminder: the forum rules do not allow any type of buying/selling/trading on this forum. Such posts will be removed.

- Andy

[CyRex]

Originally Posted by heffneil

I wasn't implying they are obligated to do anything but as a potential customer I think I would like to know the history of the device and why there is a shortage. I am just asking if anyone else thinks its strange that the people who make up the company haven't chimed in. I mean regardless I am going to buy one of the boxes for playing around with but honesty has always been the best policy.

Neil

How do you feel Sage is not being honest here? The fact is, these are user forums, so there shouldn't really be any expectation that Sage would chime in with updates regarding the extender's availability. I would not say that Sage is being tight-lipped about this either. Several users have inquired with support for an estimated delivery date, and have received responses.

-Dan

[heffneil]

Wait wait I never said they weren't being honest. People have implied that there are issues with the units and that is why we aren't hearing anything from the Sage folks. I never implied that I just want to understand the shortage and I think the Sage people should respect the demand as evident by this thread and others on the forum. I have see the president and founder of Sage post in these forums so him giving us a heads up doesn't seem unreasonable.

Neil

[Opus4]

For those of you new to the forum: SageTV's policy is generally not to give out expected release times (or even expected new features under development for new versions of SageTV), until the time/feature has arrived. When it is available, info will be posted. Until then, about all you'll get in response to these questions is "in the future" or no comment.

- Andy

[heffneil]

Or sometime in February. Are we asking about a release? I thought we are just find out when the next batch will be built and sold? Is the next batch a newer version? Thats good to know if it is. I don't think anyone with any certainty has said if they would be different. It would be expected that the front panel would be the newer version.

Thanks and I don't mean to stir anything up.

Neil

[maxpower]

I suggest that Sage should install a webcam in their warehouse pointing at the shipping dock, so we can see the moment they get their stock in.

[Rob]

Originally Posted by maxpower

I suggest that Sage should install a webcam in their warehouse pointing at the shipping dock, so we can see the moment they get their stock in.

[pjpjpjpj]

Originally Posted by Opus4

A reminder: the forum rules do not allow any type of buying/selling/trading on this forum. Such posts will be removed.

- Andy

My bad. Forgot about that. I respectfully withdraw my suggestion.

I do like sam99's suggestion though, about using the SD extenders as "audio extenders" for internet radio, music, etc.

[CyRex]

Originally Posted by heffneil

Wait wait I never said they weren't being honest.

Sorry, I was just going off the "honesty is the best policy" statement. I understand where you are coming from, everyone who is waiting for an extender would love to know the exact date they will be available. Hopefully the next batch will last longer than the first batch did, or else there will be some very disappointed people...

Oh well, if they meet their February estimate, then there is only 11 more days left... If the average person waiting for an extender checks the website 5 times per day, that means you only have to hit 'Refresh' another 55 times.

-Dan