No more updates for the HD100?

[starfire]

So we have bluray playback and now subtitle support on the HD200 only as far as I understand.

Is there any reason why HD100 users cannot have these, is there a hardware limitation someone or have you just abandoned future development on the HD100?

Would appreciate a Sage response as I'm considering getting another extender soon.

[Brent]

I can't answer for SageTV, but I can say that the blu-ray playback is probably a hardware issue. The HD100 runs on an older board.

[Fluffdaddy]

Just speaking for myself, I think us HD100 owners will have to be happy with what we have............or upgrade to a 200.

Owner of 3 HD100's

[cncb]

Originally Posted by starfire

Is there any reason why HD100 users cannot have these, is there a hardware limitation someone or have you just abandoned future development on the HD100?

I tried to play Blu-ray on an HD100 with the latest Beta and while there were some "blips" of video and audio it seemed like it just didn't have the horsepower to keep up.

[TechJunkie]

I have converted all my blu-ray movies to a .ts file format so I can get the audio moved to AC3. All these play perfectly on the HD100. I have noticed if the audio is not converted to a format that the HD100 can handle, the video does not play very well. So I do not understand why the HD100 can not be made to play a .m2ts file.

[paulbeers]

Originally Posted by TechJunkie

I have converted all my blu-ray movies to a .ts file format so I can get the audio moved to AC3. All these play perfectly on the HD100. I have noticed if the audio is not converted to a format that the HD100 can handle, the video does not play very well. So I do not understand why the HD100 can not be made to play a .m2ts file.

But see, now you have converted the audio and video. You aren't playing the m2ts file as it was natively created. An example of the issues that will arrise from giving the HD100 is the movie Rescue Dawn. I have it on Blu-Ray. The master English Audio Track is in DTS. This is not supported by the HD100 (at least not down to stereo output) so if Sage promises Blu-Ray playback on the HD100 they would have to put several caveats about how it can do X and Y and Z. I have also read reports on here that in extreme action scenes it begins to studder as it doesn't seem to have the horsepower to handle that much video data. So again you would have to convert the m2ts files down to a manageable size so that no peak in data crosses X threshold. I believe that Blu-Ray playback was probably the reason Sage dumped the HD100 for the HD200. My HD100's do everything I was promised and therefore I am not upset that it can't/doesn't do Blu-Ray.

If you want to playback Blu-Ray discs for all devices, then just convert them....Most of the heavy Blu-Ray users on this forum have been doing it for at least a year now.

[bjkiller]

i do not see any video performance differences with hd100 and hd200.
hd100 uses EM862xL with mips cpu 200mhz and hd200 uses SMP863x with arm 300mhz.
hd200 should be only faster in menu, network, etc.

http://www.sigmadesigns.com/public/P...ion_guide.html

hd100 should play bluray rips as hd200.
I have reference BBC bluray "earth planet", so with previus beta it's plays on both fine(hd100/hd200), with latest beta it's not played good at all.
both unable to provide HD audio (DTS-MA, etc) via HDMI port. both unable to play VC1 encoding.

i personally beliave there a issue with stream separation (demuxing). i have issue with some digital captures, and i provided samples to SageTV support, they fixed issue. previus beta has huge huge improvement of video playing.

[bastafidli]

Originally Posted by TechJunkie

So I do not understand why the HD100 can not be made to play a .m2ts file.

HD100 plays m2ts at least the ones created by Canon Vixia HF100

[KJake]

I only have issues on the HD100 if I try to play the TrueHD, etc tracks. It tries to play the core audio, but it studders too much. Generally, I have had better luck by also putting the video and core audio streams into a MKV on the HD100 - I am not converting or downsampling anything, just demuxing the streams from the m2ts and remuxing into a MKV container.

[paulbeers]

Originally Posted by bjkiller

i do not see any video performance differences with hd100 and hd200.
hd100 uses EM862xL with mips cpu 200mhz and hd200 uses SMP863x with arm 300mhz.
hd200 should be only faster in menu, network, etc.

http://www.sigmadesigns.com/public/P...ion_guide.html

hd100 should play bluray rips as hd200.
I have reference BBC bluray "earth planet", so with previus beta it's plays on both fine(hd100/hd200), with latest beta it's not played good at all.
both unable to provide HD audio (DTS-MA, etc) via HDMI port. both unable to play VC1 encoding.

i personally beliave there a issue with stream separation (demuxing). i have issue with some digital captures, and i provided samples to SageTV support, they fixed issue. previus beta has huge huge improvement of video playing.

Your own link points out that the EM62XL chipset was NOT designed to handle Blu-Ray playback. Unlike the SMP863X series chipset. Not sure what you are getting at here....

Also, just comparing a MIPS 300mhz to an ARM 200mhz and trying to say that one might be faster than another is like comparing apples to Oranges.

And one last point not to forget....We already know that the HD200 has a significant increase in onboard memory. Yes this mainly allows for the Stand alone mode, but this also very well could have an advantage in video playback. I know for a fact there were reports early on that those that converted Blu-Ray discs to play back on the HD100 often had to scale back the peak video playback in order to get smooth playback in high action sequences.....

[inlvnv]

Originally Posted by starfire

So we have bluray playback and now subtitle support on the HD200 only as far as I understand.

Is there any reason why HD100 users cannot have these, is there a hardware limitation someone or have you just abandoned future development on the HD100?

Subtitle do work on HD100, at least SRT files do.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by bjkiller

i do not see any video performance differences with hd100 and hd200.
hd100 uses EM862xL with mips cpu 200mhz and hd200 uses SMP863x with arm 300mhz.
hd200 should be only faster in menu, network, etc.

http://www.sigmadesigns.com/public/P...ion_guide.html

hd100 should play bluray rips as hd200.

Not necessarilly, the 862xL only supports H.264 up to HP@L4.0, while the 863x supports up to HP@L4.1, Blu-ray specifies Level 4.1. Level 4.0 only allows up to 25Mbps, while Level 4.1 allows up to 62Mbps. While they're the same for VC1 (AP@L3 - 45Mbps), and MPEG-2.

So there's a lot of BDs that the HD100 should be able to decode, like your Planet Earth example, which is VC1 and ~20Mbps. But there are a number of BDs that go beyond the capabilities of the 862xL in the HD100.

[Brent]

I think it's pretty safe to say the HD100 is a bit underpowered for Blu-ray. It might work in some cases, but you won't be happy with the results most of the time.

Also, Narflex has said that an uddate for the Hd100 to include subtitles is planned. There is no reason they would not update the HD200 where it makes sense.

[Opus4]

Since I'm now getting PMs asking about this: SageTV has stated in the past that the HD100 is still supported; it just didn't seem necessary to say that every time this question is asked. Firmware updates are planned for features the HD100 can support, but as usual, there will most likely be no statement of an estimated timeframe for any changes.

- Andy

[briands]

Andy - understand about timeframes... but could you provide details of those projects that are feasible and on the roadmap and those that are not feasible due to limitations of the HD100 hardware?

[Opus4]

I don't have that info either.

[Chriscic]

I have one HD100 and one HD200, and I'd love to have all the same features supported on the HD100. But, I also don't want to stop Sage from going full steam ahead on HD200 development in order to continually maximize the HD100 at the same time.

At the end of the day, think we have to accept that the HD200 is going to get more/better/faster, while at the same time trust Sage to do the right thing on the HD100 as is technically possible. Of course, giving them a gentle nudge with threads like these never hurts

I'm guessing also that the Sage team may not always be sure what the HD100 can and can't eventually do, so its tough for them to give a roadmap.

[HelenWeathers]

I agree with chriscic that Sage needs to move ahead with the HD-200. It is their current product. I am disappointed that my SageTV client doesn't handle Blu-ray folders like the HD-200. (yes I can file browse and play the m2ts file but it's not the same).

Let Sage get the HD-200 as far along as they can as quickly as they can, then bring the other implementations up to speed where possible.

[Whitey]

Originally Posted by stanger89

Not necessarilly, the 862xL only supports H.264 up to HP@L4.0, while the 863x supports up to HP@L4.1, Blu-ray specifies Level 4.1. Level 4.0 only allows up to 25Mbps, while Level 4.1 allows up to 62Mbps. While they're the same for VC1 (AP@L3 - 45Mbps), and MPEG-2.

So there's a lot of BDs that the HD100 should be able to decode, like your Planet Earth example, which is VC1 and ~20Mbps. But there are a number of BDs that go beyond the capabilities of the 862xL in the HD100.

So theoretically my HD100 should play a 2hr h.264 movie if the video is less then 22GB in size?

Whitey

[paulbeers]

Originally Posted by Whitey

So theoretically my HD100 should play a 2hr h.264 movie if the video is less then 22GB in size?

Whitey

I don't think that is a hard and fast rule. Non-action scenes could be well below the 25mbps limit, but high action scenes could be well above and therefore the end result is an average of 25mbps (or 22GB) but still not be able to be played back (at least the high action scenes) without stutter. Just my .02 worth.