Any Chance for Xcard OSD Support?

[RobDMB]

Is there any chance of this happening. I know it isnt possible right now but I guess what I am wondering is if this is even being looked into by sage or is the only way to achieve this to use the pvr 350 tv out and then run it through the xcard?

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by RobDMB

Is there any chance of this happening. I know it isnt possible right now but I guess what I am wondering is if this is even being looked into by sage or is the only way to achieve this to use the pvr 350 tv out and then run it through the xcard?

The last we heard, there are no plans at Frey to add Xcard UI support.

And, you don't send the 350's TV out to the Xcard. If you happened to have both a 350 & Xcard, you would only use the 350 for recording & the Xcard for decoding/output to the TV. So, you would be better off to have a 250 in that case.

- Andy

[RobDMB]

So basically there is no way to display the sage ui on a tv if you are using the xcard svid out.

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by RobDMB

So basically there is no way to display the sage ui on a tv if you are using the xcard svid out.

No.

There is a way to use the Xcard's on-card VIP connecter to connect to some older video cards, but if I recall correctly & if I didn't misunderstand the results, it isn't much better than using the video card output w/o the Xcard in the first place. See this post & on.

- Andy

[Crowdx42]

The way I worked the XCard when I was using it for decoding was to use an AV amp with multiple inputs, this way I had the normal PC tv running into one input which displayed the UI and then the other input was from the Xcard which we did our viewing on, worked fine and had the advantage of AC3 decoding for DVD playback. Is a REAL shame that no one is trying to do the UI on the Xcard. I found it much more stable than the 350 which I now use.
Patrick

[RobDMB]

I'm starting to think I should just give up on using my computer to play stuff on my tv and just buy a tivo

[Opus4]

You don't _have_ to use a 350 or an Xcard -- the majority of people around here are using a regular video card; some of which are not very expensive at all. Do some forum searching & you'll see many cards discussed.

- Andy

[Crowdx42]

This is very true,, depends on the tv you are using and also what your reception is like. I personally moved to a 350 cause it was hardware decoding and no worries about tearing which was the problem for me at the time. I also feel that hardware decoded picture is just a little "nicer looking" BUT that is totally a personal perception.
Patrick

[RobDMB]

I have a setup now that I use my video card output and it works ok. The reason I wanted to use something like an Xcard is because of its hardware decoding. I figured this would take a load of of my cpu and allow me to use my computer better while I using sage full screen in my tv.

[x[corwyn]]

Finally someone else who feels the same way I do. The VIP connector thing relies on older cards and only svideo out. Not to mention with that Plextor card announcement, the 350 will not display mpeg 4 streams. The xcard can. The xcard is the PERFECT tool for a computer PVR. It provides a superior picture and offloads that burden from the CPU. This should be a slam dunk. It CAN be done. Joveplayer can do it and I know there were developers that said they would help, though thats been silenced lately. The Svideo of a video card out is crappy next to it. When we are trying to make a product that is better than tivo do we even have to question using a cheap tool that will make the experience better than tivo as far as vidual quality. Using a monitor and TV right now is a lame stop gap, and so is using the VIP connector which you cannot even get on a newer video card.

I've had several people over now, and they think that Sage TV is pretty cool, except where I show off the monitor and TV combo that I have to use. "wow that sucks" is the common phrase. Along with "too bad you can't just use your TV, well how about helping me with a tivo"?

[RobDMB]

You mentioned that Joveplayer can use the xcard? This may be something I should look into. I really like the design of sage but I may even be willing to make some sacrifices if I could get better quality with a program that can use xcard.

[x[corwyn]]

Problem is Joveplyers PVR function isn't there yet. It sucks...all these different doftware out there and they all have pieces of the features I want. I really keep hoping one of them will get off their butts and get all the hardware support going and just do the PVR work well. All the PVR guys want to be an All in ONE and thats really not necessary. The Joevplayer is a good piece for everything BUT the PVR. Check it out though.

[RobDMB]

Seems like they changed the name of Joveplayer to Tvedia. I havent downloaded it yet but the pvr functions seem decent. I'm going to wait til I receive my xcard in the mail to demo it since I dont want to use up my demo before i get the xcard.

[kny3twalker]

I also feel it is sad that Sage has denied the X card an OSD
and furthermore another Hardware decoder the MVP

and now they sign on with the Plextor
who cares most of us have enough tuners for a bit
(my Whine)

[JasonJoel]

Agreed. A good client is the next 'big thing' for PVRs. Microsoft knows it, which is why they are releasing the extenders (and owner of multiple XBOX, I'm VERY interested...).

And I also agree here, too:

Originally Posted by kny3twalker

who cares most of us have enough tuners for a bit
(my Whine)

My whine too.

Jason

[DFA]

Count me in on the xcard band wagon. It has been admitted by Jeff that it would not be overly difficult to implement which makes it all the more frustrating.

DFA

[insomniac]

same gripe...not that it does any good.

I.

EDIT:

I mean,...who would actually want to watch quality tv on their actual tv. Come on...really...

[Stuntman]

I too use the X-card.. I have a Sage Server in my Garage and use the client connected to a TV to view what is recorded.. as far as I can tell the only way I could get hardware decoding was to get an X-card, and the quality is fantastic! However I can't get the OSD.. it would be FANTASTIC to get OSD support for the X-card for those of us with either the older 250's in our systems, or for those of us with the client as our main connection to the Sage Server..

[something fishy]

I have to say that Joveplayer/TVedia started to be a serious contender (at least for those of us outside the US who have to deal with xmltv anyway) with JP3.0.

With the current release it is a pretty full featured PVR, media, DVD, CD player and photo viewer and is extremely stable (stable enough to be regarded as a Tivo replacement for non-techies). It has one or two bugs but the developer is reponsive.

Tell the truth though I would like to give Sage 2.0 another try - it has PVR features that TVedia doesn't. I tried it with a PVR350, which was the problem. I hated the PVR350. It (or its drivers) were buggy as hell and thr card eventually died on me. The xcard simply works (and of course plays DVDs plus other formats). The picture quality of both is much, much better than any of the video cards S-Video outputs that I tried.

This probably isn't the place to recommend it but if you already own an XCard I think that you owe it to yourself to try TVedia (its now v 3.1). Maybe market forces will induce Sage to look again at the xcard. I have no doubt that for standard definition TV it is a more robust solution than the PVR350.

[jptaz]

I was tempted to try TVedia again, but I am too happy with my current SageTV, SageTVClient Configuration.

Back in the day I used JovePlayer and Xcard on an old crappy PC and it looked way better than my current system.

When talking about scaling with Clients and other PCs the argument is getting harder to make against ReplayTV with its networking features that are similar to what can be achieved with SageTV and SageTVClient if I need a good PC to watch TV on a client. With ReplayTV every new Tuner you add gives you another client. With the current rebates you can get a 40HR ReplayTV for $100. That gives you both Recording capability and playback...and can be plugged into a netork. With this kind of competition SageTV needs to allow

XCard is available for under $100 most places online and it looks better than my DVI connection to my HDTV. People who argue that a software Decoder can look as good or better than a hardware solution are all using really fast PCs which is just not very practical. They have a really fast PC that they can not even use when playing back. When I had my Xcard running on my 400Mhz P2 I was able to watch TV with JovePlayer without any stuttering or hestiate in playback or in the use of the OSD ( CPU at 10% when playing from a network server) and then also surf the web or chat or do anything else on the PC.

I can get my hads on an old sub 1Ghz PC for $20 or less as they are deemed unusable by most people, but with an XCard I now have a $100 SageTV Client that looks great when output to a TV set of any kind. Put a DVD ROM in it and you have a great Media Device...better than a Tivo or ReplayTV in quality when connected to an HD TV and / or Digital Receiver as it outputs Digital Audio and can Scale to 720P and 1080i.

Ok...Rant Done.

John