Are there alternatives to sagetv?

[ranger]

I'm not planning on giving up on SageTV before I absolutely have to. It does too many things too well to dump it. On the other hand, I have PlexTV set up and running as a player if needed and NextPVR running in standby if something ever goes horribly wrong with my SageTV setup.

I've found the XBMC plugin for SageTV playback to be unreliable and I really prefer the Plex interface. If Plex would only come up with support for a PVR backend AND start honoring commercial skipping, that might actually be able to move me away from SageTV. Plex just doesn't seem interested yet and the Plex plugins I've used to date, haven't been reliable either so any PVR backend support would almost have to be part of the core system.

Has anybody played with MediaPortal recently? Every time I load it up, I end up disappointed by some aspect and I lose interest.

[nyplayer]

One thing I have found about NEXTPVR is that it handles the Prime much better than the SAGEDCT Sagetv combo. Copies streams directly do not have to remux with SAGEDCT ffmpeg.... also the Roku using Mediabrowser3 and NEXT PVR works great for viewing TV.

[dgeezer]

I have also been experimenting and testing NPVR as a possible replacement for SageTV. I actually went from NPVR (it was GBpvr then) to Sagetv when the HD100 came out. If you have an instance of Xbmc running you really ought to try the NPVR plugins. There is a regular npvr plugin which is listed as a pvr source in xbmc and the x-newa add-on written by an NPVR user (Martin).

I have been using the x-newa plugin on xbmc running on a fire tv. It has a mode called web client which mirrrors the Npvr interface on xbmc just as if it was an extender. I've had good luck with Live TV. Skipping forward and back in my recordings doesn't work quite as well as the HD300, but it works. I think this is more of an XBMC problem. Also, comskip is supported. As of right now, I don't think comskip works in the regular npvr client for xbmc.

[nyplayer]

Originally Posted by dgeezer

I have also been experimenting and testing NPVR as a possible replacement for SageTV. I actually went from NPVR (it was GBpvr then) to Sagetv when the HD100 came out. If you have an instance of Xbmc running you really ought to try the NPVR plugins. There is a regular npvr plugin which is listed as a pvr source in xbmc and the x-newa add-on written by an NPVR user (Martin).

I have been using the x-newa plugin on xbmc running on a fire tv. It has a mode called web client which mirrrors the Npvr interface on xbmc just as if it was an extender. I've had good luck with Live TV. Skipping forward and back in my recordings doesn't work quite as well as the HD300, but it works. I think this is more of an XBMC problem. Also, comskip is supported. As of right now, I don't think comskip works in the regular npvr client for xbmc.

I have to look into that...

One thing I have always hated about SageTV is the way it handles padding on back to back recordings on the same channel I always like to keep the padding.

For example I have 1 minute on the front and 1 minute on the back of a show. I always want to keep the padding on all shows even if on the same Channel. This requires at least 2 tuners in SageTV ... in NPVR all you need is 1 tuner and both shows will have the padding ... less conflicts. This also saves on Network Bandwidth.

[miloj]

Originally Posted by mikejaner

I have played around with the idea of going to PC's like Skirge01 suggested, for when my HD300s die. Honestly, when you set up a PC client, I have not seen the burden of constant patching etc. A one time OS install, with drivers, and the patches for the OS at that time, is going to take at most a day worth of effort. The need to patch and have AV etc... is overrated when the PC is not going to do anything behind your firewall/router. It wont even need to talk to the internet at all. If you purchase an Intel NUC, or cheap $200 Dell Laptop, you just set it behind the TV and forget about it.
That being said. I have been using PLEX with the SageTV plugin as a client with Chromecast pretty successfully, but that's missing Guide etc...

Having no experience with PC client hardware requirements & setup (other than my server, which is overkill), can anyone comment on whether these forthcoming $100 Win8 tablets with BayTrail Atom, 1GB, & HDMI out could suffice?

http://blog.gsmarena.com/8-inch-king...-8-100-budget/
http://blog.gsmarena.com/8-inch-emdo...osts-just-100/

If I had to do this, I'd prefer a reputable mfr., but the only ones with HDMI out thus far are significantly more expensive.

[miloj]

For $200, this forthcoming win8 pocket PC might better fit the bill as a client replacement instead of a tablet:
http://www.dailytech.com/ZOTAC+Annou...ticle36458.htm

Some info here on performance of a tablet with similar hardware (driving the tablet screen vs. HDMI):
http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/show...518#post560518