SageTV & Fios What would you do ?

[davefred99]

I recently changed to Verizon Fios TV from Direct TV. There were several reasons for making the switch but one was cost and another was to simplify things. Direct Tv was becoming too expensive in my opinion and FIOS has some great bundle deals.

Enough of that, here is my situation. We use a FIOS HD DVR in my Living room for most everyday TV and time shifting, We also have a Sage HD100 Media Extender there. I mostly use the Sage HD extender for watching our Ripped DVD's but We do set up some regular and HD recordings on Sage too.
We have Two additional Media MVP clients hooked up, one to a TV in my home office and one hooke up to our master bedroomTV. The master bedroom also has a basic STB for Fios that is used for live TV viewing. We use the bedroom MVP to watch ripped DVD,s and recorded TV shows from SageTV. I use Sage exclusively in my home office via the #2 MVP.

Our Sage TV Setup presently consist of one HD-HR hooked up to FIOS for QAM HD & SD locals only. We have one Motorola 6200 HD STB connected via svideo to one MCE 150 capture card and one Motorola DT-700 sd reiceiver also via svideo to a 2nd mce150 capture card.

Here is my problem, I was originaly planning on getting an HD-PVR and using it with the Fios HD STB for more HD recording on SageTv. I really don't want to rent anymore STB boxes as I am paying for one HD DVR and one HD STB already. I also recieved 3 free basic SD stb's because of the Verizon conversion to all digital. So I have 5 total boxes. Verizon is upgrading there firmware on there HD DVR's so that you can have Multi-room video streamed in HD to any of there HD STB's from the main HD DVR. This basically makes the HD STB a network client like Sage extenders. They are also supposedly Beta testing a PC to STB sharing setup for non DMR'd content.
So now my wife says she wants to use the new MRV features in the bedroom and wants me to move the HD STB off of SAGE and give me back the SD basic STB. If I do that I would have to give up on using an HD-PVR unless I rented another HD STB @ $9.99 mos. I don't want to pay for another so it looks like I will not be getting an HD-PVR anytime soon.
When I think of it from a objective point of view I think the MRV setup with FIOS makes a lot of sense for us since we don't use SageTv for the majority of our everyday TV viewing and the only thing I would be giving up is the ability to record more HD non local stuff on Sage and archive it. The great majority of our TV recordings are watched once and then deleted anyways.
Just putting this out to see some other perspectives.
Thanks,Dave

[bcjenkins]

I thought VZ MRV didn't go with HD. BWDIK

I say SageTV all the way. I am using FiOS for my TV as well.

B

[davefred99]

Originally Posted by bcjenkins

I thought VZ MRV didn't go with HD. BWDIK

I say SageTV all the way. I am using FiOS for my TV as well.

B

Fios MVR didn't do HD until now they are rolling out IMG 1.6 firmware. It adds HD streaming and some other enhancements to guide and such.
WAF will not let me do Sage all the way. So I use the best of both.

[Fuzzy]

I have found Sage doens't work that well in partial household use. Do you have an idea what the specific WAF concerns are with going all sage? It would seem WAF could actually be maximized by using a standard whole-house solution, vice splitting duties between 2 different systems.

Of course, this means either going full MVR with Fios, or finding the problems with Sage and fixing them. Also, configuring sage for max reliability is a must (image the system drive after setup complete, and seperate recording drives for rapid system restore in the event of a drive failure.)

[davefred99]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

I have found Sage doens't work that well in partial household use. Do you have an idea what the specific WAF concerns are with going all sage? It would seem WAF could actually be maximized by using a standard whole-house solution, vice splitting duties between 2 different systems.

Of course, this means either going full MVR with Fios, or finding the problems with Sage and fixing them. Also, configuring sage for max reliability is a must (image the system drive after setup complete, and seperate recording drives for rapid system restore in the event of a drive failure.)

WAF with Sage TV is a difficult monster to tame. My wife has little tolerance for any glitches. Part of the problem is me, I am always fiddling with sage, updating to Beta's and such.
Sage has never been 100% stable over long periods of time. I get things all sorted out with one version and then start adding things like an HDHR and spend time getting it all setup and then they change how it is set up and I mess with it again. None of this is Sage Tv's fault per se but there is always something changing to try and improve it. Unlike TIVO which my wife used when we were with Direct TV. With TIVO it was mor like an appliance set it and forget it.
IT was a tough sell to get my wife to convert to FIOS and give up her DTIVO and she just has an affinity to Sage because it always seems that if its gona have a hickup it will be when she is using or it or I am trying to demonstrate some new feature.
Honestly for most everyday TV viewing and timeshifting it is just simpler to use the FIOS HDDVR.
In order to use SAGE exclusively I would need to add two HD-PVR's so I could record all HD channels and not just the ones that the HD-HR can record. That is a a huge upfront expense for something that in my mind is not yet ready for primetime and would surely cause caos with WAF if it failed like so many have indicated here. I am not to sure that the analog whole is going to be a long term fix either.
We have had a fairly peaceful co-existence using SageTV in a split fashion in our house so I don't think its all that bad. She gets what she wants and for the most part so do I.

[bcjenkins]

HDFury2 covers the "disappearing hole"

B

[davefred99]

Originally Posted by bcjenkins

HDFury2 covers the "disappearing hole"

B

I did a search and found the HDFury2 that you are referring to and have a question. Wouldn't that just mean one more $250 patch between the HDPVR and the PC. At that price + the cost of an HD-PVR its getting way too expensive. I already think that multiple HD-PVR's are kinda steep, this would put it way over the top for me.

[mistergq]

I need to hook up my second HD PVR and second HD STB for FIOS. They just arrived last week and I have been too busy to get them setup. I also want to remove the PVR card out of my computer, so that requires me to turn it off.

My set up will be two HD stb boxes hooked up to two HD PVRs. I get local HD stations from my antenna and HD Homerun.

I am using two Extenders with my Sage. I also use SageMC.

WAF - very high!

[bcjenkins]

Originally Posted by davefred99

I did a search and found the HDFury2 that you are referring to and have a question. Wouldn't that just mean one more $250 patch between the HDPVR and the PC. At that price + the cost of an HD-PVR its getting way too expensive. I already think that multiple HD-PVR's are kinda steep, this would put it way over the top for me.

Sadly, maintaining your ability to have DRM free TV is not cheap.

B