Help me go Sage (new user hardware help)

[bastage]

well I did just have a quick thought, but it looks like there is no linux client. So that rules out the extra netbook I have sitting here.

Basically at this point what I am looking for is the cheapest conceivable way to get sage up & running so that my wife can use it & give the go ahead for a full migration.

For the Full deal from what I can tell I am going to be into things close to a grand (including upgrading my server to a quad & 2x 2250 tuners) when the extenders are included (something for all 4 TV's)

[KeithAbbott]

Originally Posted by bastage

Basically at this point what I am looking for is the cheapest conceivable way to get sage up & running so that my wife can use it & give the go ahead for a full migration.

If you are looking to sell your wife (I mean on the idea), I would order a HD300. Show her the seamless solution to connect to all four television sets. Rip a few DVDs with the free version of DVDFab, and show her how you can then watch them on any television whether it's got a DVD player attached to it or not. Hook up comskip (fairly easy to do), run it on a couple of recorded TV shows, and show her the results. Show her the best that Sage has to offer. If the answer is still no, you should be able to sell it used for $125 (particularly since the HD100s are going for $70). So you lose $25+shipping. I was in the same boat a year ago, and had to plunk down $180 for the HD200.

Originally Posted by bastage

For the Full deal from what I can tell I am going to be into things close to a grand (including upgrading my server to a quad & 2x 2250 tuners) when the extenders are included (something for all 4 TV's)

Just making sure that you realize that the 2250s contain two tuners apiece, and can process 2 HD channels simultaneously, or 2 SD channels simultaneously, or 1 HD and 1 SD channel simultaneously...

[bastage]

Originally Posted by KeithAbbott

If you are looking to sell your wife (I mean on the idea), I would order a HD300. Show her the seamless solution to connect to all four television sets. Rip a few DVDs with the free version of DVDFab, and show her how you can then watch them on any television whether it's got a DVD player attached to it or not. Hook up comskip (fairly easy to do), run it on a couple of recorded TV shows, and show her the results. Show her the best that Sage has to offer. If the answer is still no, you should be able to sell it used for $125 (particularly since the HD100s are going for $70). So you lose $25+shipping. I was in the same boat a year ago, and had to plunk down $180 for the HD200.

lol.. Actually we no longer own DVD's other then my daughters Disneys, All other movies are already done Digital in one form or another other then Netflix BR rentals. And when I mentioned to her that it would skip the commercials for us, she was actually turned off on it. She pointed out that most of the time we find new shows that we like, by watching the commercials elsewhere. And since we dont watch the "news" the little bit of current affairs we find out about are during commercial breaks now.
The sell to her is going to be simply showing that its not cumbersome to use & that it will save us money in the long run. That is the same argument I used on the Tivo's though & it was going to take 18 mos to break even on those & there just over a year old. So I dont want to push the "we will make our money back in XX months" thing.

Originally Posted by KeithAbbott

Just making sure that you realize that the 2250s contain two tuners apiece, and can process 2 HD channels simultaneously, or 2 SD channels simultaneously, or 1 HD and 1 SD channel simultaneously...

Yep. I Dont anticipate needing more then that since only my locals will be in HD & everything else in SD.

[KeithAbbott]

Your argument to spend ~$1000 to switch to SageTV is becoming less compelling with every post. It sounds like your current setup works well for you, why not stick with what you've got and finish getting your Tivo payback?

[bastage]

Originally Posted by KeithAbbott

Your argument to spend ~$1000 to switch to SageTV is becoming less compelling with every post. It sounds like your current setup works well for you, why not stick with what you've got and finish getting your Tivo payback?

1. Switching from tivo now or later the cost to do so isnt going to fluctuate by much, so staying with tivo does not save anything, it just means more months before whatever the next solution is is paid off.

2. Only have 2 tivo's & 4 TV's. So my current solution is incomplete.

3. The Absolute biggest reason.. I freaking hate the fact that I am paying for adds to be displayed on my screen. I Dont mind having adds, but only on something I am not paying for. And I am not talking about commercials. On atleast every other tivo screen there is some sort of an add stuck somewhere. & it just flat pisses me off.

[bastage]

ok so I am buying a used mobo & a AMD Athlon64 X2 5600+ CPU locally this evening so that takes away the need for a USB tuner. I also have a call in to someone locally that has a 2250 for a good price. So if those come through that should get me the hardware that I need for 150ish other then the 1st extender.

I am also thinking that for the 1st 2 I can move my server to my living room & get a remote & IR receiver for it & then pick up the Cheapest extender I can find for the master bedroom so that I can sell my Tivo's.

[bastage]

ok on top of the Mobo CPU combo that I have coming this evening I also have a 2250 coming. So for the server hardware I will be out a total of 130 & am in negotiations for a unused hd100 & sage media center for windows (version 6) so as long as those come through at a good price I will not have a problem paying for another used hd100 or hd200 for less then 200 total out of pocket when figuring in the stuff I am selling here (the Atom D510 mobo/cpu & the 2x Tivo HD's).

Then I can take my time upgrading the 2 units to the HD300's & move the older 2 to my daughters room & Guest room & upgrade the server with a Low Power Chip (will underclock & undervolt to begin with)

[bastage]

well I Guess she is going to be onboard one way or another now. I sold one of the Tivo's earlier this evening. Backing up my WHS data now as I will need a reinstall for the new mobo due to completely different hardware. So tomorrow Things start to happen.

Edit: And I now have the CPU w/ Abit AN-M2HD motherboard & a 2250 w/ remote sitting here.

[KeithAbbott]

Looks like you're on your way. Hope you find Sage to be everything you want it to be...

[drewg]

Originally Posted by bastage

I will not have a problem paying for another used hd100 or hd200 for less then 200 total

If you're trying to avoid ticking off your wife, avoid the HD100.

If you can, you might want to wait until the just arriving crop of HD300s causes more HD200s to become available used at better prices. I just came from nearly 3 years with an HD100, and it was painfully slow (gui would take a long time to catch up to input) and frustrating to use. My buddy with a 7 year old SD tivo would mock the HD100 for its slowness.

Drew

[bastage]

Originally Posted by drewg

If you're trying to avoid ticking off your wife, avoid the HD100.

If you can, you might want to wait until the just arriving crop of HD300s causes more HD200s to become available used at better prices. I just came from nearly 3 years with an HD100, and it was painfully slow (gui would take a long time to catch up to input) and frustrating to use. My buddy with a 7 year old SD tivo would mock the HD100 for its slowness.

Drew

I have seen reports of the hd100 being much faster on sage media center v7. Something about it being as fast on 7 as the hd200 was on 6. On top of that the hd100 will eventually end up in my daughters room or the guest room where it can be painfully slow & not bother us.

[JetreL]

Originally Posted by bastage

I have seen reports of the hd100 being much faster on sage media center v7. Something about it being as fast on 7 as the hd200 was on 6. On top of that the hd100 will eventually end up in my daughters room or the guest room where it can be painfully slow & not bother us.

It's faster but certainly underpowered compared to the 200s and 300s. I have all three now and for me the jump from the 200 to the 300 was much less drastic than the 100 to the 200. If you could, I would hold out for 200s or even buy the 300s. You won't be disappointed. My DVD library is pretty extensive. (Well over 300 DVDs) I have seen the HD100 choke before loading the graphics and descriptions as well as have some issues with some themes. My 200 and 300 were consistently fine with these issues. Looking back through the post in this thread, AFAIK all of us are hobbyist and not paid to be here. So we are just talking about experiences, take it or leave it we have been there and are just trying to help make your first impression of Sage be a positive one. That said I still use my HD100 and it works fine, but my 200 and 300 are both noticeably faster even in 7.

[bastage]

Originally Posted by JetreL

It's faster but certainly underpowered compared to the 200s and 300s. I have all three now and for me the jump from the 200 to the 300 was much less drastic than the 100 to the 200. If you could, I would hold out for 200s or even buy the 300s. You won't be disappointed. My DVD library is pretty extensive. (Well over 300 DVDs) I have seen the HD100 choke before loading the graphics and descriptions as well as have some issues with some themes. My 200 and 300 were consistently fine with these issues.

The most important thing to her at this point is for me to get everything working since she is down a TV. So its a matter of doing whatever I can get fastest without breaking the budget for the time being. & I am afraid 2x hd300's would break the budget for sure.

[JetreL]

Originally Posted by bastage

The most important thing to her at this point is for me to get everything working since she is down a TV. So its a matter of doing whatever I can get fastest without breaking the budget for the time being. & I am afraid 2x hd300's would break the budget for sure.

Sure, I understand that. On the bright side when you switch to the 200 or 300. It'll certainly be brownie points!

Just remember that one of the positives of SageTV is also it's negative. I've probably rebuilt my server 20 times till I got the configuration that I REALLY liked. Version 7 has made a great deal of strides to make the whole package more of a plug and play system for plugins, etc.

But somethings you can't plan. Drive failures, moving of files from one disk to another when all the files are over 6 gigs, changing OSs, and on and on. I mentioned that you will get really frustrated with sage a time or two, I know I have, but I can honestly say I have never been under impressed with this community, this product, and most notably Sage as a company for listening to their base users.

[bastage]

Originally Posted by JetreL

Sure, I understand that. On the bright side when you switch to the 200 or 300. It'll certainly be brownie points!

Just remember that one of the positives of SageTV is also it's negative. I've probably rebuilt my server 20 times till I got the configuration that I REALLY liked. Version 7 has made a great deal of strides to make the whole package more of a plug and play system for plugins, etc.

But somethings you can't plan. Drive failures, moving of files from one disk to another when all the files are over 6 gigs, changing OSs, and on and on. I mentioned that you will get really frustrated with sage a time or two, I know I have, but I can honestly say I have never been under impressed with this community, this product, and most notably Sage as a company for listening to their base users.

lol I haven't been really frustrated with anything windows based since I the 1st time I compiles Slackware Linux from scratch. But yea there will be some changes made to hardware, but I think most of the issues you speak of are, well non issues in WHS due to its drive pooling & backups. Also I dont think I will be upgrading the OS any time soon unless veil has another trick up its sleeve because the current WHS is, well just awesome.

[Spectrum]

Originally Posted by JetreL

...I can honestly say I have never been under impressed with this community, this product, and most notably Sage as a company for listening to their base users.

The more time I spend here the more I appreciate Sage as a company and the community. Everyone here is extremely helpful and the devs actually listen to and COMMUNICATE with their user base. A really novel idea

[KeithAbbott]

Originally Posted by bastage

lol I haven't been really frustrated with anything windows based since I the 1st time I compiles Slackware Linux from scratch.

Careful, I've seen people get seriously injured patting themselves on the back too hard...

[bastage]

Originally Posted by KeithAbbott

Careful, I've seen people get seriously injured patting themselves on the back too hard...

lol.. as have I.

[scott2020]

FWIW I am using the HVR 2250 and have it configured in Sage as two analog and two digital QAM tuners, even though it can do only 2 things at a time. Along with that I have the HD Homerun for two additional clear QAM tuners. I kept in my KWORLD 115 OTA tuner on an outside antenna as a backup.

The HD-200 extender changed my life! I was very frustrated with the PC connected to the TV, messing with codecs and tinkering all the time. Drove the wife nuts. I got the HD-200 which is a nice, small little box that is in the TV cabinet just barely visible, and the wife loves it. Now my server is headless and the "ugly" cables and junk are all in another part of the house.

I am even using an old MediaMVP box in my bedroom! That takes server CPU power if trying to watch HD stuff while transcoding, but it does OK.

[bastage]

yea the wife is already unhappy about the Full Tower Lian Li I have sitting next to the living room TV..

Been screwing with it all day & running into damn nVidia driver issues. Havent even gotten to the point of loading sage yet.