SageTV HD Extender Update

[freedml]

I just wired my house and it WAS cheap. About $250 for materials including a remote gigabit switch running off homemade POE instead of multiple home runs to my server/router.

[bjkiller]

borring news,
unsubscribing from the thread

[Humanzee]

As long as we are speculating, I think it would be sweet to have bluetooth stereo headphone capability. This way I can watch some TV while the wife sleeps.

[briands]

Originally Posted by Humanzee

As long as we are speculating, I think it would be sweet to have bluetooth stereo headphone capability. This way I can watch some TV while the wife sleeps.

Via the USB port

[PosterBoy]

Originally Posted by Hari_Seldon

[*]Cannibalization - users won't buy an existing product if they know it will soon be replaced/obsoleted

I have seen this mentioned several times. They appear to not be selling the old extenders anymore in anticipation of the new one. If they were concerned about cannibalization, they would still be selling the old hardware.

My personal opinion is that it will include some sort of wireless interface. Not that I would be interested in that feature in the slightest, but that did seem to be one of the recurring negative comments it received from the online reviews I saw of it. I hope they are adding more processing power and possibly putting the USB port to better use.

Kent

[bug1124]

I wish they would sell something. I have been waiting to buy two of these since August. Honestly, I would buy the 1st version right now if I could, even knowing a new one is coming.

[Olias]

I had two HD extenders and ended up not using the second one, so I put it on ebay last weekend. It lasted all of two hours before it was scooped up.

[Homebuilder]

I have had sage for years now... looking to upgrade my system. I was considering the HD Extender or building my own client. What I was curious about is the quality of the onboard graphics.

Looks like they are getting a new extender, is it a new graphics chip?

What was the old chip?

Any news on availability?

[Lucas]

Originally Posted by Homebuilder

I have had sage for years now... looking to upgrade my system. I was considering the HD Extender or building my own client. What I was curious about is the quality of the onboard graphics.

Looks like they are getting a new extender, is it a new graphics chip?

What was the old chip?

Any news on availability?

The current HD extender had a Sigma Designs 8620 series chip. The new one we are not sure but most likely will be an upgrade.

Having faced the same dilema as you, I built a PC client a year ago just before the HD100 was released for my HT room driving a projector.

I also bought bought 2 HD100s for TVs.

I can say that the HD100 is far better, predictable and stable at playing HD stuff than the PC client, facing only issues in handling very high bitrate video. Also, it only uses 7watts of power!

The next gen model will probably be even better in all areas.

[dbullock]

If the new HD extender will be for sale in December and the units are probably on a ship from China as we speak, couldn't Sage disclose the features and capabilities at this point?

[Beefcake550]

dbullock -

Assuming your time line is right, as any responsible person would tell you, one in the hand is worth two in the bush .

I'd rather have the wait for the units to materialize, get tested, and be known to work before mentioning what they can do so that I won't be dissapointed when the specs change and it can no longer do feature XYZ. Of course, feature XYZ seems to be the thing I ended up buying the unit for in the first place!

[OldPCGUY]

If Sage is projecting units for sale in december then they already have prototype units up and running and are debugging/writing updated drivers.

They may already have productions units in house but you can't sell units with drivers that don't work. Oops I forgot about Hauppauge and the HD-PVR. I guess you can ship a unit without working drivers.

[jerryt]

Originally Posted by OldPCGUY

but you can't sell units with drivers that don't work. Oops I forgot about Hauppauge.

Ouch, take that Hauppauge...

[pvrpenguin]

Only one month until Christmas. I wonder if there will be a new HD extender in time to put under the tree?

[mightyt]

Too much longer and I'll run out of the little money I have ...

Hey... Someone told me, It's the economy stupid !! ...

Projects like this should start so that product is available 11/1 just as we begin to reach in to our pockets, not when all there is are a few pennies, a gum ball and some lint!!

I know ... wawa ... but I hate waiting for Christmas!!

[wayner]

IMHO the lack of availability of the HD extenders has cost Sage some serious money. The economy is in much worse shape now than it was in August when these were last available. I bet that they have lost lots of sales due to people that are now much more careful about every dollar that they spend. They better hurry up and get them back in stock before no one is left with enough disposable $$$ to buy goods like this.

[valnar]

Originally Posted by wayner

IMHO the lack of availability of the HD extenders has cost Sage some serious money. The economy is in much worse shape now than it was in August when these were last available. I bet that they have lost lots of sales due to people that are now much more careful about every dollar that they spend. They better hurry up and get them back in stock before no one is left with enough disposable $$$ to buy goods like this.

I partially agree with this. It doesn't do Sage any good to be so quiet about the new extenders since they can't jeopardize any sales of old ones. If anything, especially considering what day tomorrow is in the USA, they would want people to get interested in a product before people's Christmas money is allocated elsewhere.

I mentioned this once before and somebody commented that Sage doesn't pre-announce product features because their competitors might get an upper hand on a response product. Well, I don't believe there is any competition to the Sage Extender per se. The hardware is just an extension of their SageTV software. Sure, you do have the Popcorn Hour devices, but they aren't quite the same and their A-110 unit is already a generation ahead. If anything, I would assume Sage is just playing catchup. Of course, I hope to be wrong. It would be nice if Sage leapfrogged totally over anything out there, but I'm not sure what kind of functionality that would be. It still has to perform in the limits of the SageTV software.

[voorhees]

Originally Posted by wayner

IMHO the lack of availability of the HD extenders has cost Sage some serious money.

It did from me. I do not have an HD TV, but I wanted to buy an HD extender to give one a try and see if it was worth buying more for the rest of my TV's. Everyone says they are so great I thought I would replace my MediaMVP's with the HD extenders, even though I really did not need the HD capability. I just got tired of waiting, and bought MediaMVP's to complete my setup. I am not saying I will not buy HD extenders in the future, but it will not be anytime soon since the need is not urgent anymore. Truthfully, I would have bought one of the original ones if it was available, even if I did know they were coming out with new ones.

[Djc208]

While an ETA or something would be nice and at least help keep people primed to buy I can't blame them for running out. The last batch they offered didn't sell out nearly as quickly as previous batches. Since they're probably a small order compared to other companies I'm sure there is a decent lead time from order to reciept. While it would be great for them to have Newegg type availability it's just not practical on the scale they're probably dealing with.

[briands]

thought maybe the Sage guys would use Black Friday to announce pre orders...