Just in case- Alternatives to SageTV

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by Evil_Attorney

For $200, this is a nice impulse buy, especially to play around with openelec. Maybe I'll install Win 8 later with Sage to see how it handles things. While I generally love my HD300 for TV and blu-ray rips, it crashes every time I play music (the Phoenix interface with all Apple Lossless music files). It would be nice to have one box that can reliably do video and music but also looks pretty.

A box you don't see is better than a pretty box any day. My clients are all hidden in closets/cupboards - you don't know they are there, aside from the little USB-UIRT stuck to the top of the TV.

[Evil_Attorney]

Sorry, what I meant by pretty was the user interface, since Phoenix crashes when I play music (assuming it won't do that on a PC client). I honestly don't care too much about what the box looks like since I recently purchased a new entertainment center with dark glass doors (can barely see in) but that also let IR light from remotes through.

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by Evil_Attorney

Sorry, what I meant by pretty was the user interface, since Phoenix crashes when I play music (assuming it won't do that on a PC client). I honestly don't care too much about what the box looks like since I recently purchased a new entertainment center with dark glass doors (can barely see in) but that also let IR light from remotes through.

Ah.. yeah, I really like gemstone at this point. Phoenix, as a UI, never got 'production ready' enough for me. I never liked the idea of a whole replacement UI.

[Evil_Attorney]

Gemstone would be a great option, but my wife and I really like the Netflix-like fast forward preview in Phoenix. I wish that was a standalone plugin.

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by Evil_Attorney

So newegg has this AMD A-450 barebones system for under $200 with a free 64 Gb SSD drive. I would just need memory. The important question is, will this be able to bitstream HD audio? Panteragstk, how quiet is your Foxconn system?

HD audio is a yes. Dead silent. Can't hear the fan unless you put your ear next to it. With the free ssd that is a great deal.

If you guys want (and can find a place to host it) I can make an unregistered W7 image with all the drivers installed and sage configured if you want. All you would have to do is put in a client key and go.

I got a crystal HD card because the e-450 isn't capable of playing HD flash (I use Hulu desktop in place of playon) and for $20 I can play anything a more powerful computer can. For the money this thing is great.

[Evil_Attorney]

Thanks for the W7 offer Panteragstk. I was thinking that I would play with openELEC first, but probably move to W8 since it appears to be cheaper (I think it's a $40 upgrade and I have some old XP licenses around). I know others have had good luck with Sage and W8 (it has the same h264 codecs as W7, right?).

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by Evil_Attorney

Gemstone would be a great option, but my wife and I really like the Netflix-like fast forward preview in Phoenix. I wish that was a standalone plugin.

Can you post some screenshots of this?

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by tmiranda

Can you post some screenshots of this?

I'm not sure which of the phoenix dev's built that up, but it probably COULD be made a standalone plugin, or even part of Gemstone, if you bride them properly...

[Evil_Attorney]

Originally Posted by tmiranda

Can you post some screenshots of this?

There was a screen shot posted on this thread of thumbnail FF

[panteragstk]

The netflix FF is pretty sweet. I wonder if we could convince someone to make that for us

[Dargason]

Yeah, I remember seeing that in Phoenix and thinking that was pretty neat. I almost never use FF though, so I don't have any problems living without it.

Reading the recent bits of this thread have me wondering what I'm going to do if/when my extenders die. I already bought a couple of client licenses, but haven't really thought much about boxes to run them on.

I've never used a PC client... it would be really cool if those of you who have ones working well (especially the more recent SFF type ones) could post your configurations. Maybe in a new thread in the Hardware forum? Sort of a "DIY HTPC Guide" or something.

[Fuzzy]

That's been done before, but the hardware changes so rapidly it gets obsolete really quick. I mean, we would have crapped ourselves 6 years ago seeing something like the Raspberry Pi playing back BluRay quality video when it was a trick to get HD MPEG-2 to play back smoothly back then.

The world of HTPC's has changed quite a bit, and basic playback pretty much works out of the box for just about every content type. VC-1 is the most finicky of them, and it seems the new LAV decoders fix that issue right up.

[wayner]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

I'm not sure which of the phoenix dev's built that up, but it probably COULD be made a standalone plugin, or even part of Gemstone, if you bride them properly...

Freudian slip or are you trying to arrange a marriage?

[Skirge01]

Originally Posted by wayner

Freudian slip or are you trying to arrange a marriage?

Isn't it obvious? It's a marriage between Phoenix and Gemstone. The hope is that they'll bring a little bundle of plugin joy into the world.

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by Evil_Attorney

There was a screen shot posted on this thread of thumbnail FF

That is very cool. I don't use Phoenix or Gemstone but I remember seeing this when MeInMaui posted it. This might look good in the default STV.....

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by tmiranda

That is very cool. I don't use Phoenix or Gemstone but I remember seeing this when MeInMaui posted it. This might look good in the default STV.....

I thought i posted this a few days back, but maybe i dreamed it

The thumbnail generation is done using the phoenix.videothumbs api, specifically the phoenix.videothumbs.GenerateThumbnailsEvery or phoenix.videothumbs.GenerateThumbnailsEvenly apis. Using that you get an array of generated filenames that you can then use to display the video thumbs bar.

I think meinmaui did the initial implementation in Phoenix.

[reggie14]

Originally Posted by panteragstk

HD audio is a yes. Dead silent. Can't hear the fan unless you put your ear next to it. With the free ssd that is a great deal.

What did you end up getting for the remote control and IR receiver?

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by reggie14

What did you end up getting for the remote control and IR receiver?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16826641002 works great. RF which is always preferred. I like the MCE remotes because of the "green button" that I use for a home button.

[wayner]

And it is designed for Wndows Vista!

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by stuckless

The thumbnail generation is done using the phoenix.videothumbs api, specifically the phoenix.videothumbs.GenerateThumbnailsEvery or phoenix.videothumbs.GenerateThumbnailsEvenly apis. Using that you get an array of generated filenames that you can then use to display the video thumbs bar.

Thanks for the info Sean. I haven't looked at the phoenix API's recently so I'm sure I'll find a bunch of goodies in there.