Just in case- Alternatives to SageTV

[davephan]

Originally Posted by rickgillyon

"The" solution? Everyone's replacement is likely to be different, no? I can't see us all moving as a block...


Can and do. I have no problem going from 3 days a week using HD to the rest of the time using MVPs. But then again, I tend to watch TV rather than get caught up in the quality of it the whole time... I don't think it's a surprise that we get a lot of obsessives using a product like Sage.


Errr, obviously. But it's transparent to the people watching the TV. Wife/kids don't have a clue what the MVP handles or doesn't, it all just works. But if your server is a piece of crap, it won't.

That's true, everyone's replacement could be different. The people that have moved from SD to HD and better audio quality probably don't want to go back to SD and lousy audio quality. So, the replacement may be more difficult for some people. Some people might also be satisfied with a crude and clunky GUI, which will also make the replacement easier.

Offloading CPU load from the media server can helpful, reducing it's load and speeding up Comskip processing and other jobs. Low end single core 1.8 gig SageTV computers will choke and stutter. Quad core 3.0 gig SageTV computers will handle the load, but waste CPU cycles transcoding when they could have been offloaded by using decent extenders.

The problem with SageTV is it is the best choice. Everything else is a step down, sometimes a leap down a cliff. The solution has to be as reliable as SageTV without constant lockups. The GUI shouldn't look like a crude Comcast DVR. The alternative must have HD and good audio quality. Delayed live TV is very important to many people. The vast selection of plug-ins are very important and make SageTV even harder to replace.

It's not an easy problem if you use SageTV many times a day and don't want to give up the quality and features. That's the reason for staying with SageTV until an equal or better solution is found.


Dave

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by war10ck

Thanks to enron/pg&e are you serious? Thank your idiot liberal politicians for that... I'm at 0.07/kwh here in Texas. But hey your carbon footprint is so small in California never mind people can't afford to stay in there homes. What a joke

I'm paying twice that in Allen, TX. Who do you use? .07/kwh would be awesome.

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by panteragstk

I'm paying twice that in Allen, TX. Who do you use? .07/kwh would be awesome.

I'm at .10451. Central Florida.

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by tmiranda

I'm at .10451. Central Florida.

I didn't know what I was doing when I signed up. I found a fixed rate for .081/kwh. I'm going to switch when I get home today (or make wifey do it since it is in her name).

[jchiso]

You guys just hipped me to that Giada Cube barebones at NewEgg, and just when I decide to get one they bumped it back up to $199 (from $149, where it had been). Anyone know if this will work as a video playback device with only 2GB RAM installed?

[war10ck]

I'm paying twice that in Allen, TX. Who do you use? .07/kwh would be awesome.

I'm with tri eagle energy signed up last fall on a 1 year.(0.076 to be exact) Go to powertochoose.org enter your zip and they will show you all the providers with current prices.

[BobbyDing]

You do know GBPVR/NextPVR support much better extenders than the very old MVP? It supports extenders like the Popcorn Hour A100/A110, EGreat M34A etc which are based on modern Sigma chipsets, and play just about everything, with full HD vide, and highdef UI. A recent video of it in action can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhZINoWUIc4. The video was captured with a Hauppauge Colossus, shows you a bit of the UI, a short bit of playback, and also shows the multi-record feature (where several channels are recording at the same time from the one digital tuner installed).

Sub,
Your saying this video is the output of the Popcorn Hour captured with a Colossus?

Bobby

[sub]

Originally Posted by BobbyDing

Sub,
Your saying this video is the output of the Popcorn Hour captured with a Colossus?

Yes.

If you're wondering why the video is a bit soft, it was also transcoded by iMovie for uploading to youtube, and quality dropped a bit along the way. It's the first movie I've ever uploaded to youtube, so I'm no expert in getting the best results out of video posted to the net.

[panteragstk]

Looks like a pretty good alternative. Just wish the UI was as nice as sage. I wonder if gbpvr can be used as a backend for xbmc?

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by war10ck

I'm with tri eagle energy signed up last fall on a 1 year.(0.076 to be exact) Go to powertochoose.org enter your zip and they will show you all the providers with current prices.

I did that after my first post. Nice fixed rate at 0.081. Not bad at all. There were some cheaper variable rate plans, but that isn't as good to me.

[IVB]

Originally Posted by war10ck

Thanks to enron/pg&e are you serious? Thank your idiot liberal politicians for that... I'm at 0.07/kwh here in Texas. But hey your carbon footprint is so small in California never mind people can't afford to stay in there homes. What a joke

It would be best to not turn this thread into a CA vs TX flamewar, nobody will win.

I started this thread in 4/2008 with electricity & rate structures, that link takes you to a chart of costs by state. There's a link to an excel file with both total power costs (on one tab), and marginal power costs on another tab for 22 different states.

[stanger89]

So, does NextPVR through the supported extenders support Blu-ray structure playback, chapters, or HBR audio?

[sub]

Blu-Ray has never really been that high on the NextPVR priority list, with hardly anyone ever asking about it or requesting it as a feature. That said, Blu-Ray playback was added for the PC in the last release though. We've also experimented with it on the Sigma extenders, and seen it going, so it'll most likely be added a feature for the next release.

[valnar]

Originally Posted by sub

Blu-Ray has never really been that high on the NextPVR priority list, with hardly anyone ever asking about it or requesting it as a feature. That said, Blu-Ray playback was added for the PC in the last release though. We've also experimented with it on the Sigma extenders, and seen it going, so it'll most likely be added a feature for the next release.

Sub,
Can you detail the difference between the regular Popcorn firmware and what we get/remove using the firmware that works with NextPVR? The feature list of the PCH devices as a standalone media player are just as impressive as the Sage HD300 standalone.

Can I assume that my list of MKV files which reside on my "Server" would be easily accessible from a list through the nPVR interface?

[emveepee]

Originally Posted by stanger89

So, does NextPVR through the supported extenders support Blu-ray structure playback, chapters, or HBR audio?

The A110 bitstreams DTS HD-HR, DTS HD-MA, Dolby Digital Plus and Dolby TrueHD, the A100 doesn't have the licenses. Th A110 also will downmix DTS

I am still working on support for the 200 series, as sub wrote NextPVR users are more interested in playing recordings which is easy on the 100 series so getting the 200 series working has not been our priority.

Martin

[emveepee]

Originally Posted by valnar

Sub,
Can you detail the difference between the regular Popcorn firmware and what we get/remove using the firmware that works with NextPVR? The feature list of the PCH devices as a standalone media player are just as impressive as the Sage HD300 standalone.

Can I assume that my list of MKV files which reside on my "Server" would be easily accessible from a list through the nPVR interface?

I'm not sub, but the client doesn't replace the firmware, the client is another application running with it. For non-mpeg ts/ps files, NextPVR provides a fast PC based front end to the PCH's media player, which has mkv, subtitles, 24fps etc. In addition to the standard UI with NextPVR for your mpeg recordings you get the features you expect like comskip, multi-room resume, live TV etc. Regardless of the type of file, you won't need to do any configuration of your media shares on the extenders since everything is streamed via http, except for playback of DVD ISO's

Note for those that don't like NextPVR's look on sub or my YouTube videos, NextPVR can be skinned, it is just waiting for creative people to do it.

Martin

[BobbyDing]

I am still working on support for the 200 series, as sub wrote NextPVR users are more interested in playing recordings which is easy on the 100 series so getting the 200 series working has not been our priority.

Any ETA for 200 series support? The 100 series is no longer sold by PH. Also, any plans to support the WD Live?

Bobby

[mkanet]

I must admit the PCH C-200 is nice. It looks like it has even better support for streamed bluray on NAS than sageTV.

Originally Posted by BobbyDing

Any ETA for 200 series support? The 100 series is no longer sold by PH. Also, any plans to support the WD Live?

Bobby

[ThePaladinTech]

More NextPVR questions-

What is the status / road map for supporting the ceton tuner card? Like sageTV does, understood it is unlikely that you would be supporting copy protection.

I have a HAVA network tuner ( a rarity I think) - but SageTV and media portal support it, nextPVR does not seem to. Is it possible to support the Hava as a tuner in NextPVR?

Last a simple question - Does NextPVR support both extenders and client PCs with a full UI?

The more I look the more it seems like if I move from SageTV it will be to either NextPVR or XBMC/MediaPortal/ForTheRecord. I keep thinking "oh I can just use MCE, then I remember it has no extenders, no clients, has DRM", well you can use an XBOX but I guess the UI isn't 100% replicated and the quality isn't the same. For *me* what really matters is dependability, tuner support, full extender / client support.

I am looking to make a client PC or two while I continue to enjoy SageTV, but would like to know if google doesn't produce a viable solution for me that the hardware (client pcs) will be usable in my next endeavor. At the moment I am more likely to pay the silly price for an HD-300 then I would be to buy a popcorn hour - but it seems the best option (now) is to build a pc that can work with sage or whatever is next (google, npvr, whatever)

[Graygeek]

Originally Posted by ThePaladinTech

More NextPVR questions-

I have a HAVA network tuner ( a rarity I think) - but SageTV and media portal support it, nextPVR does not seem to. Is it possible to support the Hava as a tuner in NextPVR?

+1 for HAVA support .... HAVA may not be true HD but it's good DVD quality component capture and it just works! No hangs etc.

I just purchased another to backup my present one... I was thinking about a Colossus, but given recent happenings I decided to play it safe and stick with my HAVA.