SageTV HD Extender Update

[stanger89]

Discouraged by what?

[Rob]

Originally Posted by trini0

After reading this, I'm discouraged.
I was about to start setting up the extender with a soon to be 46" LCD.
I hope that features can be added to the current HD Extender..

Me too.

Originally Posted by stanger89

Discouraged by what?

Actually, I am very happy with the extenders I have, but I am worried that I'll have to buy the new one to get reliable blu-ray support without having to re-encode and to get sub-title support in blu-rays. Actually, I can live with re-encoding if I can get sub-title support.

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by Rob

Me too.




Actually, I am very happy with the extenders I have, but I am worried that I'll have to buy the new one to get reliable blu-ray support without having to re-encode and to get sub-title support in blu-rays. Actually, I can live with re-encoding if I can get sub-title support.

What makes you think the new version is going to bring any more blu-ray support than you already got? Crystal ball?

Gerry

[Rob]

Originally Posted by gplasky

What makes you think the new version is going to bring any more blu-ray support than you already got? Crystal ball?

Gerry

Difinitely no crystal ball, just the fact that for me it is the only thing I miss in the current extender and now with Sage planning a new one, I'm wondering if they will continue improving the support in the current extender.

[Brent]

And if you're happy with the one you have, having a newer model in the store isn't necessarily a bad thing...

[Rob]

Originally Posted by Brent

And if you're happy with the one you have, having a newer model in the store isn't necessarily a bad thing...

Unless I have to pay for it to get the support I was hoping for in the current version.

[Brent]

Originally Posted by Rob

Unless I have to pay for it to get the support I was hoping for in the current version.

I guess. So what was the support you were hoping to get in the current version that you didn't get? I know you said blu-ray playback, but what specifically? ripped? streamed from optical?

[Rob]

Originally Posted by Brent

I guess. So what was the support you were hoping to get in the current version that you didn't get? I know you said blu-ray playback, but what specifically? ripped? streamed from optical?

Reliable playback of rips with sub titles and without re-encoding the rip.

I'm not trying to throw a wet towel on the plans for a new extender. Sage is always making improvements and that is one of the reasons I am loyal to them. Based on this, I have expressed several times on this forum that I believe Sage would and could iron out these things for blu-ray. Now, I'm a bit bummed that ironing them out may cost me having to buy a new version of the extender (time will tell).

[patja]

If we are making wishes, mine is for support for WMA9 audio. I was a bit surprised to find some threads indicating that this is not supported on the current extender.

[valnar]

I know why Sage (and other companies) tend to not pre-announce products because it might take sales away from their existing ones. But in this case, there will be no more old HD extenders. I really don't see why they don't tell us everything about them. It can't hurt sales at all.

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by valnar

I know why Sage (and other companies) tend to not pre-announce products because it might take sales away from their existing ones. But in this case, there will be no more old HD extenders. I really don't see why they don't tell us everything about them. It can't hurt sales at all.

Then the competition knows what they're doing also.

Gerry

[johnnytyler]

Originally Posted by Rob

Reliable playback of rips with sub titles and without re-encoding the rip.

I doubt, Sage will ever support blu-ray straight from disc because of DRM, licensing and the legal issue of rips. However, like many other open sourced software players and hardware players, MKV, TS and other containers that are open sourced can and should be played. This will result in re-encoding but that is not difficult, and with new software on the horizon this will be likely a one touch automated process.

However currently the extender does not support HD audio (i.e it lacks HDMI 1.3a) to allow for DTS-HD and other HD 7.1 codecs to be passed through to your A/V receiver. Secondly, forum members, have had difficulty with choppy picture with high bit rate encodes. I believe (hope), that the next version will have the higher sigma chip to handle the higher bit rate as well as have the HDMI 1.3a compliance to allow for HD audio passthrough.

I doubt if the extender will have browser capabilities, keyboard functions, or hard drive add on capabilities as this would require a significant rewrite to Sage software. Don't get me wrong it can be added by the USB but there is no real demand for those functions as of yet.

Finally I hope they do have capability for Netflix "watch now" service as this is popular and many STB, Blu-ray players, and extenders are now incorporating this function. But again this introduces DRM, licensing issues. I'm not sure how enthusiastic Sage company is in tackling these issues.

[Rob]

Originally Posted by johnnytyler

I doubt, Sage will ever support blu-ray straight from disc because of DRM, licensing and the legal issue of rips. However, like many other open sourced software players and hardware players, MKV, TS and other containers that are open sourced can and should be played. This will result in re-encoding but that is not difficult, and with new software on the horizon this will be likely a one touch automated process.

I would be fine with mkv support (with sub-titles). It does not require re-encoding to put it in a mkv container. But the current version of the extender does require re-encoding to lower the bitrate before it will play reliably. Also, my process is already one touch, it just takes overnight to do the re-encoding.

[jm9843]

I thought that it was common knowledge that the STX-HD100's problem with high bit rate Blu-ray encodes was a limitation of the Sigma 8620 chip.

If perfect playback of those videos is of great importance to you then right now would probably be the best time to ebay your HD100s while you can still recoup most (if not all) of your $$$.

[Brent]

Originally Posted by jm9843

I thought that it was common knowledge that the STX-HD100's problem with high bit rate Blu-ray encodes was a limitation of the Sigma 8620 chip.

If perfect playback of those videos is of great importance to you then right now would probably be the best time to ebay your HD100s while you can still recoup most (if not all) of your $$$.

As long as your HD100 is in good condition, you definitely could get full value back out of it. There's very little I don't like about the HD100 - anything better in a newer version is just gravy.

[Rob]

Originally Posted by jm9843

I thought that it was common knowledge that the STX-HD100's problem with high bit rate Blu-ray encodes was a limitation of the Sigma 8620 chip.

If perfect playback of those videos is of great importance to you then right now would probably be the best time to ebay your HD100s while you can still recoup most (if not all) of your $$$.

I don't notice the limitation in the Sage Specifications.

SageTV HD Media Extender Specifications:

Video format supported: MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG4, H.264 up to 1080p, AVI, VOB, WMV9/VC-1 up to 1080p

[tmiranda]

The problem with the HD100 specs is that it does not specify the max bitrate (and other parameters) that it supports. Just specifying "H.264" is not enough since not all H.264 is the same.

The same holds for the other formats as well.

[mickp]

Originally Posted by patja

If we are making wishes, mine is for support for WMA9 audio. I was a bit surprised to find some threads indicating that this is not supported on the current extender.

Yes. So far as I've been able to find out, the current extender doesn't support wma lossless (non drm). I'm not sure about wma9 in general.

Lack of wma lossless support is a deal breaker for me.

Mick.

[Polypro]

HD audio decode on the box, just like TMT and PDVD do now. I'm not an HDMI 1.3a/Receiver guy.

P

[Rob]

Originally Posted by tmiranda

The problem with the HD100 specs is that it does not specify the max bitrate (and other parameters) that it supports. Just specifying "H.264" is not enough since not all H.264 is the same.

The same holds for the other formats as well.

Then you should not claim to support it without stating the limitations or your selling something that does not do what you claimed.