Maybe more for Sage Forum...but

[drozwood90]

basic question...

If I wanted to use the Sage theater Extenders ($180 each), I need to have a copy of SageTV Media Center installed on my server?

--Dan

 

[roussell]

No, not at all. They will also connect to a network share to play your media. They seem to be a little slower when navigating this way but nothing too bad. Look on the Sage forums for "standalone" mode. (maybe two words...)

Terry

 

[sic0048]

Terry is right. The HD-200 HD Theaters do have a "Stand Alone" mode in which they basically act as a network media player. So they can play music and video files found on the network and display pictures too.

However, if you want to have it control the DVR functions of SageTV, then you obviously need the SageTV software and have the HD-200 connect to the SageTV software (via the network). Doing this will give you full control over the SageTV system including scheduling and removing recordings, accessing Hula, Netflix, and Amazon VOD via the new Playon plugin, etc, etc, etc.

Only the HD-200 HD Theater has the "Stand Alone" mode. The earlier extenders do not and can only be used with the SageTV software.

 

[drozwood90]

That is GREAT to know...

How about this then...

Can it browse a webpage? Right now, my movies are organized using DVD Profiler. I export that program's database to an XML, which is read in by a customized version of DVD Collections...which basically just parses the XML to give you 0 (number) - Z selection, drill down (keywords, director, actor, etc.) and does all the association...

Click Men in Black, then click Will Smith, and you get all his movies that are in the database.

IN my setup, each "movie" page has a "WATCH" link. Which executes a script, or a Homeseer event, or whatever I want it to (it's only HTML). I use this to execute a script, which then loads a media player on the PC that clicked the link (uses IP callback to figure out which machine it is)...and it sends the media list (in the event of a TV series, many files...in a movie...one file).

I can edit any code used to "launch" the film on the HD-200. I'm guessing I'm now getting more into a Sage Forum question...

Because at $180...for a stand alone unit...which replaces my HTPC...that really is a steal! Esp. since I just found out (1 day ago) that my HTPC can't be upgraded enough to watch BluRay...so use this and put a BR drive in a PC with Gigabit...or my server...

I'd only need to get AnyDVD on the machine...

Does this sound feasible to you Sage-users...?

--Dan

 

[electron]

I store all my DVDs on my NAS , and just use folders to organize them by category etc. If you save the cover art as folder.jpg in each DVD folder, it will show up nicely in SageTV. That said, I would just get the combo deal which includes MC and a HD200, it's an extremely good deal, and not more than just an extender. They recently had an even better promo, but not sure if it is still valid (check the Hot Deals forum).

 

[drozwood90]

Thanks Dan,

But my issue is I don't want to loose my current method of "drilling" down for a movie.

I have USB extenders, so hooking a USB hard keyboard in is not a problem (just to surf).

I'll jump over to the Sage Forum and continue this.

Maybe someone has an idea about how to do what I want. Otherwise, since I'm really only using this to watch movies, and I've got a pretty good setup already... in my case the $224.95 (still a TREMENDOUS price...considering what Windows MCE would cost in hardware / SW) would probably be better spent on upgrading my existing HTPC to allow it to play BR (new video card $100 new BR drive $100 (unfortunately as it only has PCI Express x1 slots...and the cheapest X1 video card that has HDMI with HDCP is...$89), SW $100). Or maybe just putting a whole new box together...my brother has an Atom with hardware acceleration...which allows him to play BR on one of his Netbooks...

That's what that video card would allow...basically move the processing from the CPU to the GPU...

Oh well...good to explorer new options...

--Dan

 

[roussell]

If you stay with a PC, have a look at the Acer Revo for only $199. I ended up with Sage, but this was a strong second.

Terry

 

[sic0048]

I'm not sure how you browse for movies in stand alone mode, but you may want to look at the Movie Wall plugin for SageTV. I believe it allows you to search for actors/directors in the way you want. It also looks pretty cool too.

 

[drozwood90]

Sic,

Just saw that on the Sage Forum. Looks really interesting. It also looks (from the forum) that there are people using DVD Profiler...

Maybe there is something there for me.

After I get my Server up and running with Win2k8, maybe I'll image my system and see how a test drive of Sage MC looks...

--Dan