Current state of the R5000 with Sage?

[Chriscic]

Hello R5000 owners,
I'm currently using the Hauppauge HD-PVR for my whole house TV solution. I've run into tons of bugs and problems, but that's almost besides the point now, as I think the system will soon be workable.

One thing I don't like about the HD-PVR is the slight quality loss. It is slight, but it is there, and the point of HDTV is max quality to begin with, no?

I took at look at the R5000 webpage, and was surprised to see that the costs have really come down. I think you can get two R5000 mods (send the unit in, not do myself) for about $500, which is just $100 more than two HD-PVRs (presumably I could sell my two for $300 or so on Ebay).

I think when you subscribe to Dish you can get two HD-DVRs for $99 (hard to tell exactly from their ordering process), so net net the R5000 solution just isn't terribly expensive.

I'm wondering how well the R5000 solution currently works with Sage though. I don't want to jump out of the frying pan and into the fire, and be faced again with a multitude of bugs, glitches, and compromises. Plus, it would be really important that they work smoothly with my two Sage HD extenders. Also, wondering if you can run the server from WHS.

Any insight from R5000 owners appreciated.

Cheers,
-Chris

[Fluffdaddy]

http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=36315

http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=33892

http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=36561

[jerryt]

Originally Posted by Chriscic

Hello R5000 owners,
I'm currently using the Hauppauge HD-PVR for my whole house TV solution. I've run into tons of bugs and problems, but that's almost besides the point now, as I think the system will soon be workable.

One thing I don't like about the HD-PVR is the slight quality loss. It is slight, but it is there, and the point of HDTV is max quality to begin with, no?

I took at look at the R5000 webpage, and was surprised to see that the costs have really come down. I think you can get two R5000 mods (send the unit in, not do myself) for about $500, which is just $100 more than two HD-PVRs (presumably I could sell my two for $300 or so on Ebay).

I think when you subscribe to Dish you can get two HD-DVRs for $99 (hard to tell exactly from their ordering process), so net net the R5000 solution just isn't terribly expensive.

I'm wondering how well the R5000 solution currently works with Sage though. I don't want to jump out of the frying pan and into the fire, and be faced again with a multitude of bugs, glitches, and compromises. Plus, it would be really important that they work smoothly with my two Sage HD extenders. Also, wondering if you can run the server from WHS.

Any insight from R5000 owners appreciated.

Cheers,
-Chris

The current model receivers supplied by Dish are VIP211K, which can NOT be modified with a R5000 kit. So you will have to buy receivers, like the VIP211 (no K), which is an added expense.

[HawgGuy]

Originally Posted by Chriscic

Hello R5000 owners,

I'm wondering how well the R5000 solution currently works with Sage though. I don't want to jump out of the frying pan and into the fire, and be faced again with a multitude of bugs, glitches, and compromises.

I'd say pretty darn good. I have the HD-PVR as well as the R5000. Guess which one I use. Both video and audio are superior. The only caveat I would add is that I had all kinds of codec problems before I switched the the extenders for playback.

[Chriscic]

Thanks for the thoughts/links.

I didn't realize I might have to buy a couple of 211 receivers myself. But, the R5000 website says the mod also works with the 622VIP. It says "live TV only," but that seems to be no impediment if you're using Sage to record anyway.

[briands]

Originally Posted by HawgGuy

I'd say pretty darn good. I have the HD-PVR as well as the R5000. Guess which one I use. Both video and audio are superior. The only caveat I would add is that I had all kinds of codec problems before I switched the the extenders for playback.

Mines been working pretty well but occasionally misses a channel change and does not like to tune the OTA channels eg 11.1 as 01101 as my other VIP211 receivers via USBUIRT

[GKusnick]

I have an older DirecTV receiver (Hughes E8) with the R5000 mod. No MPEG4, but other than that it's been very solid. I used to have some reliability issues with channel changing, back when I had it plugged directly into the PC's USB port, but putting a powered USB hub in between seems to have solved that issue.