Giggling to myself....

[ewelin]

Originally Posted by ghostlobster

.... My main rig is hard wired and has a little more muscle behind it... 2GB, 4600+ X2, HD2600XT. That guy is driving the family room TV and pretty much all our digital entertainment. My SageTV server is running XP (for now) and is just a single processor 3000+, crappy integrated video, 1GB of RAM. However, all it has to do is serve files, tune TV and just be there. All my picture, music and ripped DVDs live on on my WHS rig...hmmm, on second though, maybe Mrs. Lobster is right....we have way too many things that "plug in" around this house!

I recently migrated to Sage as well and I'm in a similar boat as you. I've got a great HTPC that has 3 tuners it and is in our living room. Nice case with super quite and fast fans and it works great. But I do have a WHS box in the basement that has plenty of power and could easily have Sage on it to serve up the house. I just need to find time to move all 3 tuner cards into the WHS and install and configure Sage on the WHS then setup a client on the HTPC. Then I'll be able to power the HTPC off when it's not in use which will save on a bit of power.

[mickp]

Hey there,

I agree that if you bring setup of commercial detection etc into the picture then there's an argument for BTV being easier to setup.

I've taken statements about BTV being easier to setup on face value as a comparison with the base install. Getting the software onto the PC and configuring your tuner devices, paths, guide data etc. On this basis I don't see that BTV has an advantage over Sage (though it's been a while admittedly).

I've read comments re: sage setup on various forums and blogs that would lead me to think that getting the base Sage install to work at all was beyond the average joe and that BTV is easier to setup. I think it would be fair to say something like "Sage and BTV are fairly similar to setup though with Sage you will probably want to install some additional options from the Sage user community such as SageMC and comskip monitor".

Perhaps I'm missing something about the btv install/config process that makes it easier for users with no idea of basic pvr concepts. As I said, it's been a while since I've installed BTV.

Getting SageMC onto a system is almost the same procedure as using a custom skin in BTV (unless things have changed). The biggest hurdle that I recall as an ex BTV user is realising that SageMC existed and that it would make it unnecessary to install a bevy of other plugins. Brent has done an awesome job at putting together resources such as video walkthrough's and guides to setting up comskip and I've referred a number of people to the GeekTonic pages rather than trying to explain this.


Mick.

[Brent]

Originally Posted by mickp

I've read comments re: sage setup on various forums and blogs that would lead me to think that getting the base Sage install to work at all was beyond the average joe and that BTV is easier to setup. I think it would be fair to say something like "Sage and BTV are fairly similar to setup though with Sage you will probably want to install some additional options from the Sage user community such as SageMC and comskip monitor".

Mick,
I guess I need to be careful when I'm talking about setup and the ease/difficulty of setup here. As I read my comments above I probably overstated the difficulty of setting up SageTV. It's definitely easy enough for the average computer-savvy person to setup. BTV is easier I think only because those things are built-in to the install. Other than that the two are pretty close on ease of setup.

The biggest hurdle that I recall as an ex BTV user is realising that SageMC existed and that it would make it unnecessary to install a bevy of other plugins.

You know, there's only a few hard-core BTV users left and getting them to realize what SageTV can do for them is almost impossible because they are just resistant to the change itself. I'm seeing almost the same thing with the many unhappy Windows Media Center users. Lots are moving this way regardless.

Brent has done an awesome job at putting together resources such as video walkthrough's and guides to setting up comskip and I've referred a number of people to the GeekTonic pages rather than trying to explain this.

Thanks for the kind words. I share what I learn on the tech stuff I'm passionate about. I think I go into too much detail sometimes, but that's something missing from other tech websites.

[jominor]

Originally Posted by mickp

I keep seeing this one bandied about but I don't recall BTV being easier to setup.

• I had problems with getting btv to work correctly with my USB-UIRT for blasting to stb
• I had to configure girder to support the uirt + remote (which sage supports natively)
• BTV didn't correctly support one of my tuners (PAL)
• BTV absolutely required me to use the NVidia decoder to get a smooth picture
• The NVid decoder had to be hacked into a file somewhere
• I had to go to a separate web interface to configure paths etc

What in particular are the things that make btv easier to setup? Because SS said so?

Mick.

I actually tried BTV before Sage 1.4. They seemed to be equals in the installation department, at least at the time.

However, Snapstream wasn't as stable for me. Also, unless you started recording a show at the beginning, you lost it because of the "live viewing.", which I believe is overrated(but this is a taste issue).

What also turned me off was rewinding would flip you through channel changes. Did care for that.

However, BTV did allow for a bit more control over where shows would go. I still wish Sage would allow us to specify a folder or drive as archive so I could just compress and backup just the archive.

[nick_l]

Originally Posted by jominor

I still wish Sage would allow us to specify a folder or drive as archive so I could just compress and backup just the archive.

Amen to that.

[morphy]

Hi, I'm one of the people whining and complaining on The Green Button. I'm a DirecTV user with multiple rooms where I need to view the same media, primarily recorded HDTV. Without either HD-PVR support, or support for DirecTV's own native HDPC-20, HDTV in Vista Media Center is impossible for me. I realize now the best way to get HDTV in a media server is to switch to SageTV, and use HD-PVRs as mediums from standalone HD receivers. Normally all of this hardware would be bulky and fail the WAF, but in my case my entire house is wired with multiple cat-5 runs to a central network rack, which also houses my media server. So yes, I would very much like to abandon Vista Media Center for SageTV.

But I can't.

I can't buy a single HD100 extender to conduct a smoke test. Much less the 6-7 that I would need for this to become my solution.

So keep giggling, @$*()&@($^.

[wayner]

Like you I am ticked off that I can't buy a Sage Extender right now. But how long did it take for V2 extenders to appear for VMC after Vista was released? Quite a while I believe and MS has much more resources than Sage.

[Brent]

Originally Posted by morphy

...I would very much like to abandon Vista Media Center for SageTV.

But I can't.

I can't buy a single HD100 extender to conduct a smoke test. Much less the 6-7 that I would need for this to become my solution.

So keep giggling, @$*()&@($^.

I understand the frustration. They will be back in stock eventually - don't give up they are truly worth the wait.

[chasmetz]

Originally Posted by morphy

But I can't.

I can't buy a single HD100 extender to conduct a smoke test. Much less the 6-7 that I would need for this to become my solution.

So keep giggling, @$*()&@($^.

They say timing is everything....The instant I learned that the DirecTV portion was cut out of the TV Pack, I switched to Sage.

I had run some preliminary tests with Sage due to rumors of H264 being removed from the final beta of the TV Pack. But as soon as the TV Pack was released and the DirecTV HDPC20 was confirmed to be delayed, I came over here and purchased a HD-PVR, HD Extender, Server license and two client licenses.

I guess my timing was good...for once. Now I have two HD-PVR's, two DirecTV H23 recievers, native DVD streaming, Blu-ray streaming, pictues, music...Im in seventh heaven.

Hang in there....It is definently worth it!!!

[morphy]

Thanks for the encouragement, guys. I'm hanging in there.

[ghostlobster]

Originally Posted by morphy

Thanks for the encouragement, guys. I'm hanging in there.

Just out of curiosity, do you have a PC that could function as a client for the testing? I plan on getting an extender eventually, but for now, I'm running my 3 client setup and it's really working well with the HD-PVR, HDHR and Hauppauge 150s.

[loomdog32]

I used VMC since RC2 from a dedicated HTPC... I switched to Sage for one very simple reason.. DRM... or more importantly, Sage lack or DRM..

Although I got lucky and looked at Sage (and other options out there) when I was looking to start using multiple clients (still waiting for HD extenders.. shouldve got them when they were in stock.. although I do have my test box.. hmmmmm.....)


I have said this and will continue to say this... VMC is much nicer, polished and easier to use that ALL the 3rd party DVR apps I tested!!! Sage happended to be the best fit for me.. Now Sage needs to work on making a polished piece of software to show just how much VMC is just a polished turd

[morphy]

Originally Posted by ghostlobster

Just out of curiosity, do you have a PC that could function as a client for the testing? I plan on getting an extender eventually, but for now, I'm running my 3 client setup and it's really working well with the HD-PVR, HDHR and Hauppauge 150s.

Well, quite honestly, anything in the living room entertainment cabinet that is not solid-state will immediately draw the veto from the wife.

One possibility may be using our MacBook Pro as an extender... anyone know if the extender portion of Sage's software suite supports OSX?

[ghostlobster]

Originally Posted by morphy

Well, quite honestly, anything in the living room entertainment cabinet that is not solid-state will immediately draw the veto from the wife.

One possibility may be using our MacBook Pro as an extender... anyone know if the extender portion of Sage's software suite supports OSX?

Have you looked into a simple, inexpensive HTPC case then? Generally, that's a contridiction of terms, however, I've had great luck with nMedia cases. I've got one running our bedroom client and have never had a problem with it. Here's the NewEgg link