Sage TV vs Beyond TV vs WinTV

[bglines]

I'm setting up a PVR based on a Windows MCE 2005 Rollup 2 edition and a Hauppauge 1600, 1850 or 2250 card. I'm recording off of Comcast cable. Currently we have Comcast Standard but are considering upgrading to Comcast Digital. Comcast charges too much for their DVR plus I can't archive recordings from their DVR for future viewing. i.e. no network ability.

I want to build a PVR out of my Windows MCE 2005 Rollup 2 machine so I can record the 2010 Winter Olympics and them some. I haven't seen any specifics on the capabilities of the SageTV of BeyondTV Applications and the Hauppauge cards. Where does it compare to the WinTV app that comes with the Hauppauge cards?

I need software that can record at the resolution of the incoming signal, eventually full HD. I stream from my Windows 2005 MCE rollup 2 machine to my XBox 360 (Win MC Extender) on my TV. therefore I need full screen capabilities at highest resolution possible.

Accuracy in scheduling (based on internet available TV schedule data) and quality of recording (Resolution, etc) is important. I need to stream whatever I record from my Windows Media Center Edition 2005 R2 machine to my Win Media Center extender (Xbox 360 and/or other Win media Extender) in either standard def or HD when applicable. I understand that Win MCE 2005 doesn't support QAM but beyond TV may. I believe I can record via BeyondTV into Mpeg 2 format and then stream to my TV...

Where does SageTV stand in regards to BeyondTV and WinTV? I need to make a decision rather quickly as time is running out.

Can someone sell me on SageTV based on experience? Hauppauge doesn't seem to want to give any feedback and from what I've read online, the WinTV app isn't up to par...

Thanks for any guidance possible. I'm ready to buy but can't find anything online that points me to a particular software package.

Brett

[davephan]

Hi Brett, Welcome to the SageTV forum!

SageTV is probably your best choice. I haven't tried Beyond TV, but they are gone now. I haven't tried Microsoft or Myth TV either.

I did try using the Comcast DVR. It would have been free for six months, then $18 a month after that. The Comcast DVR is very crude and clunky compared to SageTV. I traded the Comcast DVR for two additional HD set top boxes, so I have a total of three HD set top boxes, one for SageTV.

If you want to record HD and SD from cable, I recommend the Hauppauge HD-PVR. If you want to record HD from over the air, I recommend the dual tuner HDHomerun. You can setup many tuners with SageTV. The more tuners, the less recording conflicts. Comcast in my area is dropping analog soon. I heard that will be happening to other areas too.

The WinTV application that comes with the Hauppauge tuners is extremely limited, and a lousy application. The only purpose for the WinTV application is for testing your Hauppauge tuner cards when you first set them up before you install SageTV. After that, you will probably never use the WinTV application again.

You will need a HD-200 at each TV. The HD-200 works with standard def and high def TVs. Don't bother getting a MVP, since the video and audio quality are much worse than the HD-200. The HD-200 is also much more reliable than the MVP. The HD-200 will also play a number of video formats directly. The MVP will play only mpeg2. If you have video that isn't mpeg2, the computer will have to transcode the video on the fly into mpeg2 for the MVP. If you don't have enough processing power, the video will stutter and will be unwatchable. The HD-200 does not have this type of problem. The HD-200 is a much better choice than the XBox 360 for an extender. The HD-200 is small, draws almost no power, generates no heat, reliable, DHCP or static IP, and totally silent.

Before you install SageTV, you should take an image of your system. Periodically take images. You can then quickly and easily recover your system. I'm not saying that SageTV is unreliable, it is because computer systems do fail, and it is better to be prepared than unprepared. It's like driving a car without a spare tire -- a bad idea.

Post your system hardware so people can help you more easily. If the hardware is in the signature area, it is always easy to check. Post more questions. People are waiting to hear from you!

You can build up the SageTV system over time, adding more capacity and redundancy. I've been using SageTV for about 5 years, and I think it is absolutely the best choice for a PVR system.

Dave

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by bglines

I want to build a PVR out of my Windows MCE 2005 Rollup 2 machine so I can record the 2010 Winter Olympics and them some. I haven't seen any specifics on the capabilities of the SageTV of BeyondTV Applications and the Hauppauge cards. Where does it compare to the WinTV app that comes with the Hauppauge cards?

Comparing Sage or BTV to WinTV is like comparing a Tivo to a WinTV, there's just no comparison. WinTV only provides the capability to view channels, and to record specific channels at specific times, no guide data, no fullscreen UI, nothing.

I need software that can record at the resolution of the incoming signal, eventually full HD. I stream from my Windows 2005 MCE rollup 2 machine to my XBox 360 (Win MC Extender) on my TV. therefore I need full screen capabilities at highest resolution possible.

If you want to stream to a WMC extender, you have to use Windows Media Center. You can't use Sage, or BTV.

Of course you're going to run into a problem with MCE 2005, if you want to record off cable, you're probably going to want/need QAM recording support (to get HD), and AFAIK that's only available in Windows 7 Media Center (on the WMC side). So for that you'd probably need to go with Sage since Sage support QAM tuning.

Accuracy in scheduling (based on internet available TV schedule data) and quality of recording (Resolution, etc) is important.

I'm not 100% sure what guide data MS uses, but AFAIK both Sage and BTV use Zap2It for guide data, so the quality should be the same, and it my experience it's very good.

Where does SageTV stand in regards to BeyondTV and WinTV? I need to make a decision rather quickly as time is running out.

SageTV is the only one of those under active development (Snapstream has changed their focus to the enterprise app) and I already explained WinTV (it's not a PVR).

If you want to record QAM and have a fullscreen functionality via an extender, your two best options are SageTV with HD200 extender(s) or switch to Windows 7 so you can use your Xbox.

[adone36]

I have Comcast and Sage with 2 clients. I tried the Hauppauge 1600 and 1800 cards because of their Sage support.

Comcast in my area uses clear QAM for many channels, but they use different types at the same time. The Hauppauge cards would tune some channels and not others. I use HDHomerun tuners (3 units, 6 tuners) and they tune EVERYTHING plus have an easy setup because of mutual support with Sage.

This tunes 90% of my recordings, skipping commercials, etc. I also have a TivoHD for scrambled channels. There is no charge for the cablecard for it from Comcast when it is the only device you have hooked up.

[ranger]

After 8 years, I recently switched from BTV to Sage for a couple of reasons.

BTV isn't supporting development of their consumer product at this time. All their development effort is going to their Enterprise product. Just go to their main web page to see what I mean.

BTV does not have and has publicly stated that all they want to be is a PVR. They are an excellent PVR, but if you want more, such as DVD player, WEB player, music, photos, etc, you will have to find some other software to integrate with BTV. While there are some very good programs out there to do this, if you want just ONE software package, they aren't interested in developing it.

BTV doesn't support the new video modes of Windows 7. Just more evidence that they are no longer emphasizing the consumer market.

Sage TV needs a front end face lift just to keep up with the current UI capabilities of apps like XBMC. For me it also requires the use of community supported add ons, so it may not be an out of the box solution for you either. BTV has a few more built in PVR functions than Sage TV, but the community more than makes up for it.

[APillowOfClouds]

Originally Posted by ranger

After 8 years, I recently switched from BTV to Sage for a couple of reasons.

BTV isn't supporting development of their consumer product at this time. All their development effort is going to their Enterprise product. Just go to their main web page to see what I mean.

BTV does not have and has publicly stated that all they want to be is a PVR. They are an excellent PVR, but if you want more, such as DVD player, WEB player, music, photos, etc, you will have to find some other software to integrate with BTV. While there are some very good programs out there to do this, if you want just ONE software package, they aren't interested in developing it.

BTV doesn't support the new video modes of Windows 7. Just more evidence that they are no longer emphasizing the consumer market.

Sage TV needs a front end face lift just to keep up with the current UI capabilities of apps like XBMC. For me it also requires the use of community supported add ons, so it may not be an out of the box solution for you either. BTV has a few more built in PVR functions than Sage TV, but the community more than makes up for it.

In addition to the fact that BTV is not currently developing for the home theater market, I also switched from BTV to Sage when my BTV server became so slow and buggy as to be unuseable (even after moving to a new server) and I could not get a stable version of the software. My best friend still uses BTV and reboots his server nightly.

Other than issues caused by hardware, my Sage setup has been EXTREMELY reliable.