HD300 Review

[PLUCKYHD]

I posted a couple of sample videos of hd300 running smm if interested

http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/show...247#post446247

last post I posting this on if you didn't read one of the 3 sorry

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by sleonard

Are we not allowed to turn our home videos into unprotected BD? I've made several of ours into DVD's with nice menus and all and keep the originals in a folder structure on hard drive.

Are you authoring to BDMV format? Or BDAV format? Those BD-Java menus? AFAIK, all BDs are BDMV format and most use BD-J for menus. How many people actually bother creating full-fledged menus for their home-made DVDs?

But that's beside the point, beside my point at least. My point is the industry perspective. They don't see unprotected BDs with full BD-J menus as a potential market, they see it as a vast seething underworld of pirated content that must be crushed. They have little to no interest in promoting support for Blu-ray Disc functionality outside of their narrow view of a box with a slot/tray, that plays one copy-protected disc at a time.

I'd like to think that I could move up to BD when I get an HD video camera. But if I am forced to encrypt my home vids or not allowed to make proper menu's for them then something's wrong.

Welcome to the world of Blu-ray. AFAIK you can't author/sell a retail Blu-ray Disc without AACS. At one point there was a push to disable playback of un-copy-protected BDMV (ie the format with menus) formats, I don't know what came of that (hopefully it died).

I'd love to see BD-J support in Sage. I'm just not optimistic in the near term.

Originally Posted by PLUCKYHD

I think it is the BD-Live part of the menu's I don't think home movies support bd-live

BD-Java actually. BD-Live is the internet-connectivity (Profile 2.0) functionality.

[babgvant]

Originally Posted by derelicte1

Has anyone asked sage about multi-channel lpcm output? I tried to submit a feature request but they haven't added the new extender to the product list.

A firmware update was released tonight that adds multi-channel PCM output for non Dolby/DTS multi-channel formats.

[bialio]

Yep! I just selected the LPCM track on my BD rip of Casino Royale, and the receiver registered it as 7.1 channels!

Which is a little suprising, as the cover says 5.1 LPCM. But it used to send over 2.0 when I selected an LPCM track, so something has changed fo sho.....

btl.

[cncb]

Originally Posted by babgvant

A firmware update was released tonight that adds multi-channel PCM output for non Dolby/DTS multi-channel formats.

I guess this only applies to the HD300 since I don't see any announcement for the HD200 firmware?

[paulbeers]

Originally Posted by babgvant

A firmware update was released tonight that adds multi-channel PCM output for non Dolby/DTS multi-channel formats.

So I guess that only leaves the lack of Netflix/Hulu as the only missing thing from the HD300? Awesome job Sage!

[ranger]

If you hook a DVD player up to the USB port as a mass storage device, can the DVD be played locally?

[derelicte1]

Originally Posted by bialio

Yep! I just selected the LPCM track on my BD rip of Casino Royale, and the receiver registered it as 7.1 channels!

Which is a little suprising, as the cover says 5.1 LPCM. But it used to send over 2.0 when I selected an LPCM track, so something has changed fo sho.....

btl.

yeah! great work sage! it may be time to buy one and replace my 7mc setup.

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by ranger

If you hook a DVD player up to the USB port as a mass storage device, can the DVD be played locally?

Most likely not. I'd doubt the extender has any sort of deCSS capabilities.

[monetteboy]

Originally Posted by bialio

Yep! I just selected the LPCM track on my BD rip of Casino Royale, and the receiver registered it as 7.1 channels!

Which is a little suprising, as the cover says 5.1 LPCM. But it used to send over 2.0 when I selected an LPCM track, so something has changed fo sho.....

btl.

I rip my blurays to .mkv with the audio track ripped to flac so that it will play 7.1 in my theater. I have been having to keep an secondary AC3 track in the file so the extenders could play it.

With this new option do you know if the HD300 would be able to play the flac track from the mkv? If so that would be great and I could eliminate my pc in the theater

[valnar]

Originally Posted by monetteboy

I rip my blurays to .mkv with the audio track ripped to flac so that it will play 7.1 in my theater. I have been having to keep an secondary AC3 track in the file so the extenders could play it.

With this new option do you know if the HD300 would be able to play the flac track from the mkv? If so that would be great and I could eliminate my pc in the theater

Is there a reason you couldn't keep the DTS-HD or Dolby TrueHD intact now with the HD300 supporting it?

[PLUCKYHD]

Originally Posted by valnar

Is there a reason you couldn't keep the DTS-HD or Dolby TrueHD intact now with the HD300 supporting it?

No that is what I do.

[monetteboy]

Originally Posted by valnar

Is there a reason you couldn't keep the DTS-HD or Dolby TrueHD intact now with the HD300 supporting it?

I could...I just really didn't want to go back and redo 150+ movies...

[PLUCKYHD]

Originally Posted by monetteboy

I could...I just really didn't want to go back and redo 150+ movies...

That is why I ripped and left them there I hoped one day I would be able to play them and wola my wish is true.

[babgvant]

Originally Posted by PLUCKYHD

That is why I ripped and left them there I hoped one day I would be able to play them and wola my wish is true.

I remuxed all of mine when I got an HDMI 1.3 HTPC, but I didn't have 150 to do

[sleonard]

Originally Posted by PLUCKYHD

That is why I ripped and left them there I hoped one day I would be able to play them and wola my wish is true.

That's what I did too. I just planned on going without most BD until either an HD300 came out or I purchased some sort of DTS decoder solution for all my TV's. Yay, for the HD300.

S

[nick_l]

sigh, 11 pages of comments on and Engadget article about comparing appletv to other media streamers and not on mention of SageTV (except mine). Sage needs to hire a market person!!

[Fuzzy]

As a media streamer alone, there are better options than the HD300. Frankly, in standalone, it's still got the dated UI, and lacks features the others in that market have (Netflix, Hulu, etc). All they'd get by marketting to that crowd is comparisons to how the competition is better, and cheaper. They wouldn't understand the actual SageTV part of it.

[Brent]

Originally Posted by nick_l

sigh, 11 pages of comments on and Engadget article about comparing appletv to other media streamers and not on mention of SageTV (except mine). Sage needs to hire a market person!!

I kind of wonder if the SageTV guys even try to send out a PR press release to those guys... Seems like it would be worth a shot. I used to count on Ben Drawbaugh to link to that stuff, but he's sort of obsessed with Windows 7 MC these days & not doing as much blogging.

[bcjenkins]

I tipped Engadget to the PR as soon as it came out. I guess they haven't done anything with it yet.

B