Well done sage

[txstar58]

Hi all,

Well, i just finally let go of btv, and got on the sage wagon, and i have to be honest, its damn good.

What would you recommend doing, or advising a new user to do to get the most out of it. I have turned on AI and its still very raw. how can i tweak this, or guide its learning?

What are the better Decoders to use?

Thanks

[Opus4]

I can't speak about decoders...

Originally posted by txstar58
What would you recommend doing, or advising a new user to do to get the most out of it.

Read the FAQ thread. And, explore the screens to see what all the options are. Perhaps download the version 1.4 manual to perhaps get a better feel for the basics, if you need that.

I have turned on AI and its still very raw. how can i tweak this, or guide its learning?

By AI, do you mean IR = Intelligent recording? If you want to use that, and especially since you are a new user, I would suggest that you daily (at least until you have more of a viewing history) go through your list of scheduled recordings and mark the ones you do not want to see as 'Don't Like'. This will help IR determine what you do not want to see... even if it will ignore the don't like setting sometimes. Also, it is very helpful to have shows marked as 'watched' so that IR knows what you have watched and liked.

If there are shows that you want to record every time they are on, set them as favorites. Shows that you only want to see sometimes: watch a couple of them & then let IR pick them up -- this will reduce the number of recording conflicts from too many favorites competing for tuner time.

- Andy

[txstar58]

Doh, IR yes.. thanks

[kny3twalker]

the best decoders are sonic but for video with VMR9 NVDVD 3 is the best
it is pretty comparable to sonic when using overlay

sonic cineplayer surround gives all the audio options of 5.1 analog, spdif etc... and it very stable and works well with other decoders if you wanted to use like NVDVD for video and sonic for audio

the dvd decoder pack can do spdif but no 5.1 analog only stereo, surround and spdif

alot of people like elecard for when using SDTV output as well

also look at malore's STV
it can give you option to go through and just tell a complete series you do not like it

read in the install instructions for more info and look in the customization section

[Opus4]

Originally posted by kny3twalker
also look at malore's STV
it can give you option to go through and just tell a complete series you do not like it

Oh yeah, good point! With it, you can categorize your view so that you see all the series broken into groups & then you can mark all the shows from each series it currently lists -- so you could easily use his version of the Recording Schedule and get rid of entire groups of shows pretty quickly.

- Andy

[txstar58]

kny3twalker, you bring up a good point that has entered my wee little mind a few time.

How does sage handle dolby prologic. Is there a way to capture dolby digital from say a ppv?

[kny3twalker]

no you cannot capture anything but stereo with the pvr cards
but you can decode the recordings where It decodes in dolby prologic
depends on what you want but for 50 dollars, 25 if you have an old version you can sonic cineplayer surround
for 7 dollar from newegg you can get nvdvd and I can get you version 3 update
and that probably all you would need
or just go sonic but if you buy the decoder pack you cannot upgrade to the surround cineplayer

also you need a decoder that will do DVDs
unless you do not want to use sage for that
and in that case sage can play back any Dolby encoding as long as you have the hardware (sound card and speakers) and the software decoder that will decode it


also remember for 80 you can get a hardware decoder X card but as I understand it no vga output so you cannot use a monitor with it and unless you can some strange old video card that has the correct connector blah blah blah
but for TV it would be ok
but one other catch no sage UI with it on the TV
strange decision for frey to make but they choose to support the pvr 350s hardware decoder only with the UI (OSD)
but the pvr 350s hardware decoder cannot do retail DVDs
blah blah blah sorry to bore you
just trying to show you your options


if you go software decoding and only want to buy one decoder
definitely look at sonic
NVDVD I could suggest but its audio decoder crashes sage!!!!