OK, you guys have me almost sold! Here's my problem... I love Tivo - I've had it since 2000 when it was brand new - I like the interface and the remotes, etc. It doesn't ever screw up or miss a show. I have DirecTV tivos now (plus I have the basic cable through Comcast because of the internet), and I have 2 identical ones - if the HD's on one start to go out, I switch to the other and fix the first - both are about 500 hours. Not to mention, I have 7 remotes between the 2 Tivo's - wife and I each get one, in the LR and the BR, and we have spares.
Previously though, I only had one TV. Now I have 2 regularly used TV's, plus a desire to have 2 more (Office and Workout Room). Currently both TV's are hooked to the same Tivo with an IR repeater on the bedroom one (causes problems if we're watching in both rooms - wife will often just switch to live comcast basic cable). And, I have almost 2TB in ripped DVD ISO's - plus I have a media PC in the livingroom hooked to the TV for watching streaming netflix or youtube - which has the monitor split and also runs a monitor on the end table in the livingroom with the ElkRM and the baby-cam. And, I'm getting the itch to go HD (I wouldn't do it with DirecTV until they get the tivo version in about a year, but don't want to wait that long). Of course, this is all topped by the fact that I'm kinda cheap when it comes to TV and don't want to spend a fortune on it.
I do like the idea of managing shows in one place - gaining another tuner, gaining HD, and gaining the ability to have a server-like setup where I can see the same thing in each room - pause in one and pick up in another, or watch different things in each room - all from the same pool of shows. Also, with HD space so cheap nowadays, it wouldn't be a big deal to throw a few terabytes into a machine and have all the space a person could want. I am afraid of losing my familiar interface though.
So, how do you guys have your systems set up? Every time I look on Sage's web-site, they're sold out of everything - are they that popular, or do they just not make much product? Or are you guys just using their software and not their hardware? And for your sage server - can that just be something like a PC with an HD capture device, a standard capture device, a camera capture device, a crap-load of storage space, and a video out to your TV? Or does it need to be broken out more? Can it do anything with multiple display cards? And - how are the remotes - is it just the hauppauge remotes typically, or do they have a good, standard one? And do they work well?
Not to hijack the thread, but this is something I keep hearing about and looking back at - I want a lot of the features - it'd consolidate a lot of what I have now (with the WHS, the media PC, the two dual-tuner tivo's) and give me multi-room, separate viewing over Cat5 - which I have a plethora of in this house... and it'd make my movies more available... but I'd need to get a crash course on how people are setting things up and getting the best results. Also, having my music more available might be nice - I have 120GB's of MP3's as well, and I love music (when the wife isn't home - she's not that into it)... so someday I'd like to incorporate things with a basic whole-house audio system as well - but a simplified one.
I can always pick up a machine and load it with space and capture cards if that's what makes sense. It'd all have to be in my family room entertainment center - since we don't have basements around here, and that's the hub of all my wiring... and I assume I'd drop back to basic non-DVR devices for my TV so the Sage hardware can handle the recording... but can you run multiple capture cards on a single PC simultaneously, or does it have to be broken up? And can I run one high-powered server as the capture and playback device in the LR, and just use an HD extender in the master BR, and a standard-def in the workout room? Possible skip an extender in the office and go with just the IP-accessible stuff from the PC in there - or run the software in there (I have an XP desktop I use with quad-monitors, and often just play my media on one of the four while I work.
I think it's a curse that I type fast... my posts are always long-winded...
Hi Todd,
I'm a SageTV Newbie, I've been using it for less than a year. I found out about it here, saw how many people were using it, and I wanted to look further. I realized how quickly Sage's High Def. Extenders sell out, so last time they had them in stock I picked one up, along with one of their Tuner/Software packages. I don't even have any high def. TV's yet, but I didn't want to waste money on an older media extender, as I'll be upgrading all my TV's soon.
Anyway, I have SageTV running on one machine. My one tuner is also in that machine. From what I understand, you can have multiple tuners in a single server, or even multiple machines with multiple tuners. Sage software will pick them all up somehow (may just need to install the software on multiple machines in you're going that route).
I also have my 123 GB of MP3's on a completely different machine. I share that drive to my SageTV machine and I can stream music to my extender.
SageTV also offers Placeshifter software. You can watch/stream TV from your Sage server to any computer by using Placeshifter. This is handy for watching TV in your office, or bedroom....no need to buy tons of extenders for rooms you rarely watch TV in....
The media extenders just use a network connection to connect to your server. They also have wireless extenders if you need to go that route. The HD media extenders have HDMI out, and that's why they sell like hot cakes. They're really worth the money. Also, from what I understand, the High Def. extenders offload the video processing from the server. So the extender does more work, not the server. Others can comment on this more.
You can mix and match extenders. Yes, you can run an HD one in your LR and regular in your MBR. Depending on the horsepower your server has, you can watch as many shows/movies/music as you have extenders. I read someone runs 4 of them at a time without problems.
You can even navigate directories within the Sage interface. For instance, if someone wanted to download torrents....they can navigate to their download directory and manually open up a video if desired. Because Sage is connected to the Internet, you can also view the weather right on your extender, YouTube, Google, and other vids right thru the built in interface. There's also a buncha mods that you can do to the interface to add more features.
I like how easy the software is to use. If auto detects your tuners, has tons of customization.
In regards to other setups, I've heard users putting all of their cable boxes in their wiring closets next to the server. They then run IR blasters from their tuner cards (in the server) to their cable boxes. Sage can then control the cable boxes and tune to whatever channel is needed, either for live viewing or recording shows. Sage is intelligent, it'll warn you if you try to change the channel and all of the tuners are busy recording. You can have a pool of tuners if you have more than one tuner. So if you're recording something, and then decide you want to watch something else, it'll just switch to an open tuner. Sage also warns you of any recording conflicts.
My wife hates electronics/remotes and she can manage Sage easily, she uses it all the time, and I never hear complaints. I need to get another extender for the MBR asap!
EDIT: I forgot to add, anything you can pretty much play on your server, can be played on the extender. Someone correct me if I'm wrong. I can stream almost anything....I even had a DVD image (VOB files I think) on my server and Sage allowed me to play it as if it was an actual DVD. Navigate the DVD menus and everything!
