Digital Cable vs. Sage

[beefmasterj]

For various reasons, I'm going to have to move to a digital STB in the near future.

In reseatching this, it seems like I'm basically out of luck with Sage - unless I want to spend $$$ to buy the HD PVR (The Wife unit won't buy into that cash going out the door).

Was curious if there were any other options out there? OTA is limited in my area, and I beleive the Firewire port on the STB is nearly useless due to DRM.

Any advice would be appreciated.

[paulbeers]

Originally Posted by beefmasterj

For various reasons, I'm going to have to move to a digital STB in the near future.

In reseatching this, it seems like I'm basically out of luck with Sage - unless I want to spend $$$ to buy the HD PVR (The Wife unit won't buy into that cash going out the door).

Was curious if there were any other options out there? OTA is limited in my area, and I beleive the Firewire port on the STB is nearly useless due to DRM.

Any advice would be appreciated.

You could capture via an SD MPEG2 encoder such as the Hauppauge PVR150, but it will only be SD in the end. It will not give you true HD. The only other option is the R5000 mod for SOME cable boxes but it is more expensive than the HDPVR, so if you can't fork over the cash for the HDPVR then you are out of luck using the R5000.

From a single box connected to a tv (aka Cable Co's DVR) that you only want to use to record televison then the Cable Co's DVR is fine for one's needs. Where Sage shines is the ability to play multiple formats (music, dvd's, etc.) and the ability to play back recordings in multiple locations of your house.

[matt91]

I'd say record in SD for now as noted above, then get a HDPVR when you can.

What are your goals in all this anyway? HD? Broadcast channels or premium channels?

[GKusnick]

Originally Posted by beefmasterj

unless I want to spend $$$ to buy the HD PVR

Not to quibble, but I'd classify the HD-PVR as merely $$. The R5000 is $$$.

[wayner]

Originally Posted by beefmasterj

For various reasons, I'm going to have to move to a digital STB in the near future.

In reseatching this, it seems like I'm basically out of luck with Sage - unless I want to spend $$$ to buy the HD PVR (The Wife unit won't buy into that cash going out the door).

Was curious if there were any other options out there? OTA is limited in my area, and I beleive the Firewire port on the STB is nearly useless due to DRM.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Some clarification is necessary - Sage works just as well with digital cable as it does with analog cable. The only difference is that you need a way to change channels on the cable box. The advantage is that the quality of the video files should be better.

If you are talking about HD then that is a different story but digital cable and HD are not one and the same - all HD cable is digital but not all digital cable is HD!

[beefmasterj]

Originally Posted by matt91

I'd say record in SD for now as noted above, then get a HDPVR when you can.

What are your goals in all this anyway? HD? Broadcast channels or premium channels?

Today I've got 3 tuners (2x 150, 1x 250) recording analog cable. Ultimately I want to maintain that level of functionality,

I'm not sure I want to invst in 3 SD STBs to use for recording (Correct me if I'm wrong, I beleive I need 1 box for each channel I wish to record?) - and possably one for live TV.

I think what I may end up with is taking the PVR solution from my cable co. and keeping Sage for my electronic content, music and photes. Perhaps until such time I'm able to present a valid business case to the wife to poiny the money for one of the various HD solutions.

Jason