Can someone point me to a summary of the HD options?

[yacht_boy]

Heh, I came home and looked through the big bag of wall warts I've been saving all these years and found one that works! I never would have thought of the power supply, thanks! Gotta love a free, simple fix.

My Sage setup is very simple. I have the computer under the TV in the entertainment cabinet. There's no other TV in the house. I'd like to upgrade to a fanless computer one of these days, as this machine is LOUD, but otherwise this works great. I don't have the patience, space, or cash to mess around with moving this to some distant closet and running wires all over the house with a media extender setup. Pros and cons of a small house.

I use SPDIF throughout, from the STB to the HDPVR to the 5.1 amplifier. I hadn't realized that could be causing an issue with stability, but I have no intention of downgrading the sound. Another strike against the HDPVR for selling a product where you can't use the features as advertised.

Anyway, for now it's working. Thanks everyone! I'll consider upgrading to Windows 7 eventually, but I hate to spend the money as long as everything is still working.

[Dargason]

Originally Posted by yacht_boy

Hopefully Google/Motorola/Sage will come out with some amazing new device that actually works in the near future, where you just plug your coax into one end and your TV into the other and have the full Sage experience without all the hardware headaches.

If you can wait a while, the Ceton Q / Ceton Echo might be what you're looking for. I'm no expert, but it looks like the Echo is basically a media extender for WindowsMC, and the Q is a box runing a customized version of WinMC packaged with tuners.

http://cetoncorp.com/

[yacht_boy]

That Ceton Q looks almost perfect. I'd still like to have a full Windows setup, since there are a fair number of things I do using the computer on the main TV (like listen to Spotify, or download movies on the entertainment PC via bittorrent). And I'd have to give up Sage, although I get the feeling that is coming sooner or later unless Google gets on the stick and gives us something soon.

But I might be able to give all that up for one device that gets rid of everything in my entertainment center. I bet my power bill would go down by about $30 a month, too!

[yacht_boy]

Originally Posted by wayner

Every couple of weeks someone posts about their HD-PVR dying and it is almost always the power supply.

If it's that prevalent, might I suggest pinning one of those threads with a modified title like "HD PVR issues? Read this!!" I did a bunch of searching before I asked this question but because I was getting USB error codes all my searches led me to other posts.

Anyway, thanks everyone for all the help! Glad to have it fixed so easily, and for free!

[MattHelm]

BTW, my HDPVR died over this last weekend, and it was the power supply.

BTW, anyone know where to buy HIGH quality wallworts??? I'm getting tired of them dying all the time.

[wayner]

Could you make your own out of a PC power supply? I believe that the HD-PVR uses 5V. Therefore couldn't you just connect the red connector from a molex connector meant for a IDE hard drive to the +ve and one of the black wires to the ground? Just cut one of these connectors and splice it onto the power plug for the HD-PVR. Now we just need a way to switch the power on and off from the PC and you are in business!

[MattHelm]

Originally Posted by wayner

Could you make your own out of a PC power supply? I believe that the HD-PVR uses 5V. Therefore couldn't you just connect the red connector from a molex connector meant for a IDE hard drive to the +ve and one of the black wires to the ground? Just cut one of these connectors and splice it onto the power plug for the HD-PVR. Now we just need a way to switch the power on and off from the PC and you are in business!

"I" could do this, but would not recommend it to the normal person. Plus the efficiency would be low for most.

Now that you have me thinking, probably a better way, would get one of those old external hard drive Molex adapters that pass an internal Molex HD connector to the outside, then just pull off the 5V that is on the connector. "I'd" add a fuse to make it safe.

Like this one:
http://www.performance-pcs.com/catal...455ece9feb343b