IT seems awfully quiet in the beta department... until now

[setherd]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

Been a LONG time since I've needed it, but something I've done in the past is actually set WMP to auto-rip music CD's on insert, and have it always running in the background. It does a good enough job of detecting and downloading the metadata, that it's pretty much a hands-off endeavor. Then it can be played back from the media library. Still, as said, I don't remember the last time i've done this.. or even touched an audio cd... I suppose they should support cassettes as well.. ;-)

you know that's a pretty good idea! I'll have to look into that

[TwistedMelon]

I'm not saying that adding CD playing capability would be the end of the world, but why would anyone want to turn on their TV to play a CD? Not to mention, why would anyone want a noisy PC in the same room as the music?

You can't put a CD into an HD200 extender, and from the look of things, this seems to be the biggest advantage SageTV has over any of its competition/contemporaries.

BTW, you can buy a CD player and put it next to your HTPC. You can buy one for less than the upgrade license cost a couple of years ago for moving to version 6 from version 4.

[bastafidli]

Why would anybody put another box to his living room when he already has HD extender and TV there which should be able to do all that. I am very happy that I was able to decrease the amount of electronics in my living room to HD100, speaker system and TV with computers moved to the office and server cabinet. I absolutely refuse to put another box there. Our TV is on most of the time and we use HD extender to acceess all our media. CD should be no different.

[brainbone]

Originally Posted by TwistedMelon

Not to mention, why would anyone want a noisy PC in the same room as the music?

Not all HTPCs are noisy -- but most do have at least a DVD player in them, and as a result, a CD player.

So why, if I already have a HTPC, would I want to add a standalone CD player when my HTPC should be capable of filling the role?!?

[dcardellini]

.....why would I want to add both a stand-alone CD player, and also have to add a pre/pro when all I need is a power amp with my HTPC doing all those audio pre/pro functions?

[Deacon Crusher]

Hey, has anyone suggested that if an extender had a blu-ray drive in it, I know it couldn't directly play back disks directly because of encryption/licensing etc, but what if that drive could be mounted as a remote drive on your Sage server, if you then had anydvd running on your server could it then decrypt a blu-ray disc put in that drive and make it available to local sage server software which could then stream it back to the extender for playback?

A little worky sounding, but would allow one to just have a TV and an extender (and if you want better sound a soundbar) hanging on any wall for a really great self contained media center setup.

Problem with no dvd drive at the TV is family may not want to go to the sage server (what if it's in the basement or other climate controlled place) to insert a disc (rental disc?) in order to watch in on whatever TV.

Could that work?

thanks

[Fuzzy]

This is one of the reasons I love USB. I've got my server in a closet in the room adjacent to my living room, with an HDMI cable, and a USB cable running out to the TV. HDMI is used for video, USB is used for a Blu-Ray drive, an HD-DVD drive, USB digital Audio, and USB-UIRT for controlling the client. It work's great! I can insert discs and such out at the tv, and play them just fine.

[stanger89]

I don't think AnyDVD works on network shares, I "think" it needs direct access to the drive.

[Fuzzy]

That's correct. Though I suppose it'd probably work if the drive was exposed as an iSCSI target.

[Stuntman]

Originally Posted by Opus4

There was a beta firmware for the HD200 put out for the HD200 on Jan 18, an STV update was put out in Dec, and you want to start a rumor that SageTV isn't doing anything any more?
- Andy

You can't blame us for being a tad paranoid.. I've been out of commision for a while because my two HD100's died and I couldn't afford to send them back to Sage and my MVP, works only on my SD content.. so the HD200 beta firmware doesn't really get me too excited.. I've just fixed the caps in the HD100's myself and there really isn't much I can do with the MVP I bought back a few years ago (just before you rolled out the HD100!!!).. When a company starts making announcements about inventory rather than innovation, one starts to think either they are making room for something new, or they have little resource left to make something new.. (the company I work for has done this for both reasons)

I don't mean to start rumors, merely to vent a little frustration with broken parts and end of life items and/or my fear that items I have just recently purchased or repaired my be just about at the end of their life as well. Such is progress, I get that.. but I enjoy having a forum to vent, suggest and even answer questions about something I care about.

And I won't roll my eyes at you... not that you can see anyhow..

[tmiranda]

I see there is a firmware beta ready for the HD200 and one of the changes is "updates to the rendering system." Me thinks this is a good sign that the UI is being worked on.

[brainbone]

Originally Posted by Stuntman

Do you know that? I see less and less involvement from all the fine folk at SageTV here on the boards.. I see mention of a version 7, but no mockup, demonstration or any evidence there is such a thing.. I see mention that hardware is still available.. I see nothing that shows they are still in the game the way they were.. so yeah, I'm a bit worried.. to the point I won't buy any more sage products until I see some forward movement by the company..

May not be enough for you, but from a recent email exchange with George at Frey regarding some issues with ATI graphics in SageTV (words in brackets are my addition):

"We are working on the beta for version 7 and that will have quite a few updates and fixes. We also at some [point will] be releasing a beta version for testing as well."

[Crunch]

I just had HD fail, which means new install. I should have changed HD out a while ago, it had done several years of work. It is currently running Windows XP and I wonder if I should move up to Win7? (See reasons below).

So I am thinking, should I do all that work to set up again, or just get a DVR from my cable company for a few months so I can wait and see what happens with cable card devices etc.

Seems currently that the new CC HD Home Run will only be working on Windows Media machines, and I understand the same can be said for the other Cable Card add ins. At this point they won't be working with SageTV, is that correct? and might never?

So at best I don't see anything much happening here till later half of year, and that being a revamp of UI which I don't mind in its current form anyway.

So I am wondering if I should be looking down the Windows Media Center line with Xbox as extender? Is it possible that the HD200 could ever become a windows extender?

My SageTV lost a lot of points the other night during Super Bowl when the 'one hour' glitch raised its head several times including during presentations of trophy. Those here all started to cry out when the glitch started as they thought my signal was going. Though it was for only a few seconds their comments ruined the next 30 seconds as they all wondered what was going on with the TV. Does Windows MC have the same issue?

[reggie14]

Originally Posted by Crunch

Is it possible that the HD200 could ever become a windows extender?

I suppose anything is possible. But, given that the HD200 is a product commissioned by SageTV, sold by SageTV, for use in SageTV, I think its probably more likely that Microsoft will start giving away XBox360s on street corners than it is that the HD200 will work as an Windows MC extender.

My SageTV lost a lot of points the other night during Super Bowl when the 'one hour' glitch raised its head several times including during presentations of trophy. Those here all started to cry out when the glitch started as they thought my signal was going. Though it was for only a few seconds their comments ruined the next 30 seconds as they all wondered what was going on with the TV. Does Windows MC have the same issue?

No, Windows MC doesn't have that problem, but that creates other problems that Sage doesn't have. This has been discussed many times in other threads. But, the situation you ran into is the same reason I'd like to see "the pause" fixed somehow.

[Fuzzy]

Tha's why NFL Football is a favorite with 1/2 hour, and 15 minutes before padding end padding.. plus using SRE (which won't help the post-game festivities though).

Of course, sports are done for me for another many months... so this issue will again fade to the background, and I will not care yet again).

[sdsean]

I've said it before and I'll say it again. . . give us the option to have a cyclical buffer. . .
This is (in my opinion) at least half the reason for the pause. This in combo with SRE would greatly reduce "the pause" problem. Stopping and restarting the recording is expensive. . .saving off a show in the bg from said buffer is not nearly has problematic for most users. . .

[mayamaniac]

What I suggest SageTV need is SPORTS mode.

When you switch this mode ON:

- You will have options to set the recordings to buffer only if you are watching it live, like how Tivo does it.

- For recordings, automatically add 15/30/45 mins padding, base on user settings.

- For UI, have options to hide portions of UI such as the timeline or hide the UI completely so it doesn't block the scores or other info on the game. An option to move the UI elements so that it does block certain info on the screen is cool also.

- Playback speed, from slow motion to various increments of FF/RW controls. Maybe a zoom function is cool also.

Honestly, the 2-3 seconds pause between shows doesn't bother me at all, but I can see how it would bother others. SageTV delivered on Superbowl sunday and it was a successful party at my house.

But yawn... come on SageTV, give us something to tinker with already, its getting boring here.

[wayner]

The sports mode selections are great but SRE is a much better idea than automatic padding.

Your suggestion of adjusting the FwdSkip and FwdSkipx2 buttons is also very good. For hockey games 20 secs and 2 minutes would be better rather than the default of 10 secs and 2.5 minutes. But for other sports you might want different parameters.

Hiding the timeline is a great idea as I have noticed while watching basketball that the timeline has lots of padding which likely means overtime (I use SRE which automtically pads the games). That can kill the suspense in the last few seconds of the game.

[cat6man]

Originally Posted by sdsean

I've said it before and I'll say it again. . . give us the option to have a cyclical buffer. . .
This is (in my opinion) at least half the reason for the pause. This in combo with SRE would greatly reduce "the pause" problem. Stopping and restarting the recording is expensive. . .saving off a show in the bg from said buffer is not nearly has problematic for most users. . .

i usually don't care about the glitch but if i do, what i do is set sagetv to manually record, then watch the recording on the hd200........no skips

[vividweb]

Originally Posted by wayner

Hiding the timeline is a great idea as I have noticed while watching basketball that the timeline has lots of padding which likely means overtime (I use SRE which automtically pads the games). That can kill the suspense in the last few seconds of the game.

Don't hide the timeline, sometimes it gives me hope that my team will come back in the game.