Why choose sage/snap over tivo/replay?

[jominor]

Originally Posted by zz5

jominor,

When I say reliable, I mean reliable like a vcr. A vcr never needs to be rebooted. I suppose you never install drivers? I suppose you never run any programs that use any CPU? If you are using your computer like you say you are, you will not have 100% uptime like you claim. You're just defending your toy.

A VCR is up 100% of the time. Do you change tapes? First of all, all drivers don't require reboots. Second, I rarely install drivers. You are not being that deep, so I know exactly what you mean when you say reliable. Neither I nor my wife have any inclination to play computer on our TV. We want to watch TV, movies, etc.

Of course, if I want to install a update, I'll reboot. I will soon install SP2. What of it? My 5 DVD player, which I very rarely use, requires the occasional swapping of DVDs. Is someone defending their toy when they say it runs all the time? Of course not.

Next you'll count adding an internal drive as downtime. Well, I use exclusive USB2 enclosed drives, so those don't bring it down either. Even the new USB2 tuner doesn't require a reboot.

My machine is reliable because all it runs as Sage, Oracle, Windows media, and HTPC.

It doesn't matter what you want to do with your computer. We're talking generalities here. Most people don't want to do that stuff in their living room while watching TV. Even if they do, you could buy a TIVO and build a separate computer for all that for only a $100 or $200 more than the cost of the single computer setup (because you wouldn't need a PVR card or Sage software and extra drive space), and then be able to do everything else you can do with a regular computer, such as play games, burn DVD's, and turn it off when you want. In fact, server-client is the way most serious users setup Sage anyway.

I've had plenty of people see this setup and have entertained questions about how to set it up. This machine chugs along behind a 70 gallone fish tank doing its job, which is entertaing my family and my guest.

My setup has been doing its job, better than having 6 Tivos crowding my shelve.

Edited for content - Opus4

[jominor]

Originally Posted by Ralphjb

I just posted in another thread under the "General Discussion" group, and I echoed a lot of the posts I see here.

Short answer - if you don't mind putting in the time and overcoming some of the roadblocks (with help from your fellow posters here on this forum), go the SageTV-HTPC route. Flexibility, and upgrade-ability is worth it. That is what I did.

If not - get the set-top-box - plug it in and forget it.

The initial from scratch, meaning, "I don't know anything about PVR, tuners, etc.." took sometime as I did trial and error.

But now that I know what to get, assuming cable tv, it is a breeze. I had a friend set his up in a day, ie, about 9hrs because he had to figure out usb-uirt. His kid uses it for cartoons. He uses it for sports. No problems.

Again, I have no problem recommending it.

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by jominor

A VCR is up 100% of the time. Do you change tapes?

That reminds me... back when I used 2 VCRs, those things were _extremely_ reliable. Absolutely 100% of the time, I could count on both VCRs to reach the ends of their tapes, kick them out, and stop recording every time we went away for a few days. Every time. Now, that's reliability.

Moderator's aside (Edit - to no one in particular): Let's remember that we each have our own preferences on what type of system we want to use & this thread is being read by (and was started by) people trying to determine which direction they want to take. Offering the pros and cons of each type of system can help them determine the best way for them to go, but lets not get into a war over this.

- Andy

[mightyt]

Originally Posted by Opus4

lets not get into a war over this.
- Andy

DITTO Andy ... Now ... everybody not !!!!!

Let's talk about less controvesal things ... How about Mac vs. Wintel? Um, Chevy vs. Ford? Sly vs. Arnold?

I still love my SageTV !!!

T.