Which HA software has TV interface & integrates with Sage?

[IVB]

BTV is quickly losing this game. This is one of the many SageTV threads about the increasing # of defectors moving over.

Of course, this link where the BeyondTV founder had the following to say may have had something to do with it:

First things first: there are a lot of people who want to see us add support for photos, music, and DVD playback directly into Beyond TV. I want to be upfront and let you know that I do NOT think this is something that we'll end up doing in 2008.

If I understand him correctly, even if there's super-tight integration done with an HA product, you will NOT be able to use it to stream ripped DVDs to rooms without a PC. If that matters to you, the hidden costs of BeyondTV are $300-$400 per room that you don't want a PC in. ($500 PC minus $100 SDextender or $200 HDExtender).

For me personally, that's the MBR, kitchen, and soon enough the kids room. I used to have a PC for the MBR, but between the power bill and the heat/noise issues, I decided to go strictly extender. Low power, tiny so it can go in the room and be unobtrusive.

 

[CollinR]

Agreed SageTV > BeyondTV by alot, been there and done that first hand.

BeyondTV is a MS whore, if ever MS decided to thy could crush them. The whole thing relies on Windows API calls and whatnot.

SageTV is platform independent, you want Windows, Linux or Mac it's no problem.

The Linux option specifically is very interesting for headless server applications where stability and efficiency take priority over ease of use and flashy GUIs.

 

[IVB]

CollinR - as a former BTV'er, is this snippet true?

SageMVP. Once again, BTV USERS have hacked together a somewhat working version of BTV and the Hauppauge MVP. SageTV directly integrates them.

It can't be - that means that BTV requires more than just plug-n-play to get an extender working? What year is this, and why the heck would anyone voluntarily pay for BTV with those limitations?

 

[CollinR]

Yup there has been a user contributed add-on for the MVP with Beyond TV. However when I played with it (I have probably $350 worth of BTV software so I didn't want to go to SageTV initially, I also have MCE05 ) and it wasn't what I consider stable. Also if you dig a little deeper I think you will find the users that put that together have themselves converted to SageTV. So i don't see a big improvement in that development coming either. I never could get live TV going and of course no media support as BeyondTV and BeyondMedia are not integrated and this add-on effected BeyondTV only.

What I meant by MS whore is BeyondTV is basically like MCE in that it is simply an extension of Windows Media Player, your media is in the WMP library, if WMP cannot play it nor can BTV. If you don't like WMP managing your metadata too bad, thats sorta stuff.

Otherwise most consider the BTV interface to be more "cool" then the default SageTV interface. I guess it's true if judging books by their covers BTV does look better then SageTV, digging deeper you find BTV is a brochure and SageTV is a novel.

 

[DavidL]

BTV makes a very nice PVR. That's what they do.

MainLobby covers the other aspects of media control.

That's why the blend is a good one.

There is more overlap with MainLobby and Sage.

We'll combine the best of both.

 

[IVB]

Not entirely true; as shown above, SageTV works cleanly with the MVP, is seriously a plug-n-play situation. Same deal (i hear) with the HDExtender.

For those of us who don't want PCs in every room with every TV, or include component distro (&component input TVs) to 1off locations like the kitchen, BTV isn't a viable option. Even worse, if you do the hack to get BTV to work with an MVP, you still cannot stream ripped DVDs which is really just silly.

I'm actually leaning towards taking the UMPC out of the MBR and putting it in our dining room. Once Beelzerob finishes the "CQC inside SageTV skin", the HDExtender will get me 99% of what I need. I'm sure there will be some functions that wouldn't be possible that way, but TV, ripped DVDs, HA control via a "7watts when on" device is well worth it.