Will SageTV work for me? (and my wife)

[m1abrams]

Well sorry I am sure you guys get this question on the board regularly, I tried searching to see other threads on this subject but did not find any. (bad searcher I guess)

Anyhow, my TV background. Been using TIVO for awhile, started with a Series 1 StandAlone. Love it, then upgrade to DirectTivo and really really loved it, Dual Tuners are the way to go! Well recently bought a house with a very nice wooded lot, however so wooded that there is NO WAY to get DirectTV

So I decided I would give Comcast Cable a try, and hey they offered a DVR for only $9.95/month with no equipment charges and it offers DualTuners. I figured hey it probably is not a Tivo but for that price i will try it. It is the biggest piece of crap I have ever used, the UI is very confusing, it does some weird crap too. If you start watching a sched recording before it is done recording, once the recording finishes it jumps you out of what you are watching and puts you in LiveTV, wtf? Its scheduling and searching features are almost unuseable. And the worst part is the UI is too much for my wife to use, Tivo she got right away and LOVED it. She is wanting me to find a better solution.

So my options are SA Tivo, however the wife really wants Dual Tuners, she really hated how hard it was to watch one show and record another with the old SA Tivo. So i found SageTV, it looks great, and I love tweaking so it will probably be great for me. However will I be able to setup a machine that is rather reliable that my wife can just come home and easily navigate the menus and watch TV like she did with Tivo?

I plan to build a machine just for SageTV, however first I am going to just buy a PVR-250 and drop it in my workstation to see how I like the software before building a machine around it.

I have also noted that SageTV is not a cheaper solution than Tivo, the cheapest I can build a Single-Tuner machine is about $500-$600. Dual adds ~$100. Oh I understand the advantages of SageTV over Tivo, but the wife may not. So can anyone give me arguement points to smooth over the expense? I mean I can get a Tivo for $99 (after rebate) and then pay $299 for the subscription and that is still only ~$400. Course the option for a decent Dual Tuner is not even there, sure you could hack two Tivos together and use the crapping sharing software Tivo put together (they could have done much better with that) and sorta have dual tuners, but then the cost gets really pricey. Guess that is my arguement

[Opus4]

I see you've found the other discussion of this topic... do you still have additional questions?

- Andy

[DFranch]

You are right, a single tuner sage TV setup will cost more than a stand alone tivo with lifetime service, but once you start adding additional tuners to Sage it becomes more reasonable. a 2 tuner unit costs just slightly less than 2 sa tivos. a 3 tuner sage costs considerably less than 3 sa tivos. the menu's on sage are quite good, my wife took to it right away. Additional benefits include:

1) everything on 1 unit
2) lifetime service is not specific to the unit (If a tivo dies outside of the warranty, you have to pay to get it fixed or lose the lifetime sub)
3) use custom menus and features which are being developed by user community (commercial skip, video compression)
4) Jukebox for MP3's
5) can surf the web with a wireless mouse and keyboard.
6) when HDTV is eventually supported, all you will need to do is add an HDTV tuner, not buy 2 or 3 new tivo's.

I could go on but lunch is over.

[Ralphjb]

First off, an HTPC is a labor of love. Setting one up, getting it running and making it easy to use for say a wife, takes a lot of time, effort and at times frustration. SageTV software definitely makes life easier than other potential solutions. But the greatest advantage of developing an HTPC is also its greatest drawback - flexibility. You can make your HTPC system what you want, but dealing with all the steps required to get it built are a challenge. Only go this route, if you do not mind dealing with some frustration.

Why did I go the HTPC route? Because using the PC as the base for a home media system gave me great flexibility in design, and the ability to upgrade as new technology comes along and/or as prices on components (such as hard drives) drop.

I've been at this for over 5 years. My biggest problem is I can't stop tweaking and changing things. The longest I've gone without messing with things is about 3 months. During that time, SageTV on my 3 PC network never crashed! That is how rock solid it is. I wish I was that reliable .

Good Luck!

[m1abrams]

Well if other people can make it work for their wives/family members after a bit of work, I probably can too.

I know frustration, I installed Gentoo from Stage 1 on a Sun SparcServer 10!

I am very much a DIY type person. Just wanted to know that it was possible to build a SageTV box that will be fairly reliable and easy for the wife to use.

I am taking a slow route into this, and from the reading I have seen on the board it sounds like what I want out of the system is within reason. I am going to order a PVR-250/SageTV bundle and try it out on my main workstation in the office before building the dedicated box for the main TV.

[Ralphjb]

Then for sure you should go the SageTV-HTPC route.

From a reliability standpoint, the program is rock solid. As I mentioned, when I have left my setup alone, my SageTV network has run without fail for months at a time.

[FreeBSD4me]

I think you may be surprised at how easy your wife will find STV. After all, most of what she’ll be doing is watching live TV, or looking at STV recordings. These two options are accessible from the main menu. Setting a show to record can be accomplished within the above two options as well, since each channel offers a “record option” with no more than a single click. So, when you think about it, most (none techie users) will get pretty much everything they need from Sage within two basic sub menus.

The Hauupauge remote is fairly easy to use, but will likely be somewhat different than what you’re using now. Hell… It’s been two weeks for me, and all I use is the Live TV, volume, sleep, and skip ahead/back commands. The layout is simple enough, which (if you’re starting out) is better than a remote that’s too cluttered. I think both of you will become comfortable with Sage within the first night of using it.

As others have pointed out though… Be ready to invest some time in getting everything setup, (in the video tuning department) just right. The good folks on this site provide better support than any corporate America entity ever could, so you’ll never be left hanging
Dave