Considering SageTV Questions

[jrwalte]

I am currently using Media Center 7 with MediaBrowser and MPC-HC. I'm annoyed by the lack of extender support and not being able to support more than one PC with MCE successfully.

I'm hoping SageTV can offer what I'm looking for. Could you please look at my questions and let me know if SageTV v7 is capable. I'd appreciate it.

1) MKV support with HD bitstreaming of DTS-MA/TrueHD. If not, can sage load 3rd party MPC-HC?

2) Can you resume MKV file from another client?

3) ISO support with loading TMT5?

4) Anyone had success using SageTV with Aver A188 ClearQAM?

5) Does a Hulu app/plug in exist?

[medwynd]

Originally Posted by jrwalte

1) MKV support with HD bitstreaming of DTS-MA/TrueHD. If not, can sage load 3rd party MPC-HC?
5) Does a Hulu app/plug in exist?

I can only answer these two since those are the only situations I have direct experience with.

1) The HD-300 supports:
DolbyDigital/DolbyDigital+/DolbyTrueHD* (stereo down-mix or pass-through)
DTS/DTS-HD/DTS-MA (stereo down-mix or pass-through)

You can find the other supported formats here:
http://www.sagetv.com/hd_theater.html

5) You need to use Sage in combination with PlayOn to get Hulu, Netflix, etc.

[jrwalte]

Thanks for your response.

To clarify more, I don't plan on using any Sage Extenders, but HTPCs with the Sage Client. Can a Sage Client support HD bitstreaming?

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by jrwalte

I am currently using Media Center 7 with MediaBrowser and MPC-HC. I'm annoyed by the lack of extender support and not being able to support more than one PC with MCE successfully.

I'm hoping SageTV can offer what I'm looking for. Could you please look at my questions and let me know if SageTV v7 is capable. I'd appreciate it.

1) MKV support with HD bitstreaming of DTS-MA/TrueHD. If not, can sage load 3rd party MPC-HC?

2) Can you resume MKV file from another client?

3) ISO support with loading TMT5?

4) Anyone had success using SageTV with Aver A188 ClearQAM?

5) Does a Hulu app/plug in exist?

Originally Posted by jrwalte

Thanks for your response.

To clarify more, I don't plan on using any Sage Extenders, but HTPCs with the Sage Client. Can a Sage Client support HD bitstreaming?

Yes, it can... but why avoid the extenders? They are far cheaper than an HTPC, and they 'just work'.

As for your questions:
1) MKV support - yes, in sage, any format that directshow can play back
2) Resume at another location - yes
3) ISO with TMT5 - TMT5 doesn't actually support ISO's directly, you have to load them into a virtual drive and point TMT5 there. That said, sage fully supports DVD navigation internally, and will play back BluRay videos (no menus) as well, so TMT5 is only needed if you want BluRay menus, BDLive, or 3D. As for the ISO's, it's just easier in sage to extract them out to full folders, to avoid the mounting steps.
4) Never used it.
5) As mentioned, PlayOn gets you Hulu and Netflix and others into sage.

[jrwalte]

Thanks.

It was late and I wasn't clear again. I don't need to use extenders because I already have the HTPCs. It is good to know the extender can do all of this when I need one.

Seems like Sage may be able to do everything I'm seeking. Now I just need to research and figure out how it does it...

[Suntan]

I can't provide anything further that hasn't already been said, but if you already have the tuners and HTPCs, your best bet to "get a feel for it" is to download the trial copies and test the sage system out for a couple weeks.

They offer a 21 day trial.

http://www.sagetv.com/download.html

-Suntan

[Fuzzy]

just keep in mind that the HTPC's bring with them a higher level of complication than the extenders, and you're still going to have to purchase a client license ($30) for each. If you don't need them for anything that requires a PC, I'd think about phasing them out. I still use a single PC client in my main living room, but that is because I use 3D BluRays, which sage doesn't support itself (so I launch TMT5 from sage).

[jrwalte]

Thanks for all the comments. Sounds like I just need to give it a try and see if it's what I'm wanting.

Looking at the software licensing, I can't figure out what the difference is from Client or MVP. I see MVP comes in a bundle with the server software and would save me $10. What are the differences?

[Fuzzy]

MVP is an old extender made by Hauppauge (MediaMVP). Ignore that.. you don't want one. What you would want is the SageTV Server license ($79.95), and a SageTVClient license ($29.95) for each of your connecting HTPC's. There isn't a bundle that includes the real client license. There IS a bundle that includes a Placeshifter license with the server ($99.95), which is for viewing/managing over the internet.

The bundle I would recommend would actually be the SageTV HD Theater 300 with SageTV Media Center for Windows Bundle for $199.95, which would get you the server (which can still be sued for a viewing location, if you want), and the HD300 for a single other location. That is, after you run the trial and decide if SageTV is right for your needs. Then, you can decide if you want to continue using the PC Clients at the other locations, at $29.95 a piece, or replace them with HD300's for $149.95 a piece.