User Interface

[JDizzy]

I am considering purchasing and mainly want to be able to stream dvd, video and music to my HDTV and 5.1 sound system. I have used Sage on an HTPC before and in time the HTPC that was next to my TV died.

I am curious.....

Do you setup everything on your PC and this more or less just streams the picture through your network from the PC to the HDTV? Or does the Extender have it's 'own' interface? I was running Sage MC 16x9 before.

I considered another Extender that used Windows Media Center but want to be able to customize the interface. It also did not allow for visualizations when listening to music which is mandatory.
I am currently using and Apple TV but it is very limited in what can be done and is more or less held 'captive' as to what you can stream easily.

Will the extender allow for visualizations while listening to music. (If I remember correctly, the stock visualizations in
Sage were somewhat lacking at the time and rigged Gforce to work through JRMC to play the music and visualizations.)

Can you use Gforce or any other programs as a visualization program?

Can you load other players such as Winamp or J River Media through Sage and have it all viewable and controllable from the Extender?

This appears to be what I am looking for but as I said am curious just to how customizable it is......

Thanks!

[JDizzy]

No takers huh?

OK - does the extender allow visualizations and if so, to what extent?
Are Windows viz' available?

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by Railrider

Do you setup everything on your PC and this more or less just streams the picture through your network from the PC to the HDTV? Or does the Extender have it's 'own' interface? I was running Sage MC 16x9 before.

The extender renders it's own UI, and it's independent of the PC. But it can run any STV that can run on the PC.

Will the extender allow for visualizations while listening to music. (If I remember correctly, the stock visualizations in
Sage were somewhat lacking at the time and rigged Gforce to work through JRMC to play the music and visualizations.)

Can you use Gforce or any other programs as a visualization program?

No it can't. Any "external" programs would end up running on the PC and not show up on the extender.

Can you load other players such as Winamp or J River Media through Sage and have it all viewable and controllable from the Extender?

Sorta, but the audio will come out of the server not the extender.

[JDizzy]

Thanks for the reply!

So, when listening to music, what is on the screen?

Is it the usual album cover, song title, and album name?

Does the extender have any visualizations built in?

I would be willing to pay addition for this product if it included a decent viz......

[jason22]

Originally Posted by stanger89

The extender renders it's own UI, and it's independent of the PC. But it can run any STV that can run on the PC.

Hi stranger. Have you tried this at all? I had thought that it only worked with specialty STVs. it would be pretty cool if it could work with any of them

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by jason22

Hi stranger. Have you tried this at all? I had thought that it only worked with specialty STVs. it would be pretty cool if it could work with any of them

As a Sage Extender. In standalone mode it would need a different one created for it.

Gerry

[JDizzy]

If I setup Sage on my PC using SageMC 16x9 as my STV, will I need to also
configure the extender separately?
Or, will it use the settings I have already configured on the PC?

[Slack]

Originally Posted by Railrider

If I setup Sage on my PC using SageMC 16x9 as my STV, will I need to also
configure the extender separately?
Or, will it use the settings I have already configured on the PC?

No configuration of the extender for SageMC16x9 is needed at all. It faithfully portrays whatever STV is installed on the server no questions asked. (I am running SageMC 16x9, and have two HD-200 extenders never once had to do anything).

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by Slack

No configuration of the extender for SageMC16x9 is needed at all. It faithfully portrays whatever STV is installed on the server no questions asked. (I am running SageMC 16x9, and have two HD-200 extenders never once had to do anything).

That's not necessarilly true, you can run different STVs on the server and extenders, or on different extenders. It's possible that if you had a particular STV setup on the server first (and you're not running the service) that the extenders copied that by default when you first connected them.