SageTV Takes on Windows Media Center

[James Fee]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1558,1745131,00.asp' target='_blank'>http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1558,1745131,00.asp</a><br /><br /></div><i>"All told, we like SageTV, and believe it's a competent application that does what it says it does. That said, we've also spent time with BeyondTV and ShowShifter, and find those applications also have their strong points as well. To SageTV's credit, it combines the ability to present all media types – TV, video, DVD, music and still photos – with a reasonably easy UI and a client-server architecture that lets any PC on your home network use your server system's TV tuner. It also has the best EPG grid we've seen among media applications, and that grid is searchable."</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/sagetv.jpg" /><br /><br />The server aspect of SageTV seems very interesting and the sharing of the TV tuner allows you to watch TV on any PC with the client software. The only issues I see cost and making sure you have the hardware to support such a system. Beyond that, SageTV has a slick interface and might appeal to those who doesn't want a MCE 2005 system.

[whydidnt]

I'd love to hear from someone who has tried to watch TV on a client machine using a wireless network. Is their sufficient bandwidth to really do this?

[that_kid]

I have Beyond TV setup and I'm experimenting with the client in my home theater for Household Acceptance Factor. I've wanted to try sage for a while and the biggest reason so far is that you can use th hauppage $100 media center and it extends sage tv to that tv much like MCE extenders but costs less and works good from what I've been reading. Right now I have a pc setup with my Hometheater stuff but I also already have 2 hauppage mvp's one with the hometheater stuff and the other in the bedroom. If the reports are true and I can use the mvp to fully access sage tv server then that may be the best choice for me. This way I can buy a few more mvp's and put them in all the rooms. I already have enough tuners in my server to handle the load.

[sub_tex]

If you have 802.11g it's not bad. I've had one or two hiccups but overall, it runs really smooth. I can't say how it is with 802.11b, since all my gear is g.

I love Sage though. Great piece of software.

[dgage]

I have been using SageTV for about a year as a server back-end with 3 TV tuners (Hauppauge PVR-250). For the front-end I have been using multiple Hauppauge MediaMVPs. I used to have a Tivo but got tired of the limitations such as a single tuner, not able to share recordings easily (I had a Series 1), and not being able to take them when I travel (I'm a consultant). I tried BeyondTV, GB-PVR, and downloaded Windows MCE 2005 but didn't install it after reading reviews. Overall I like SageTV best but it wasn't until the last couple of months when someone came up with a Java interface to make the SageTV interface show up on the MediaMVP that I have been really happy with the whole setup. Now I really like the SageTV and MediaMVP combination and my wife does too. I am also using a skin that is modeled after Windows MCE 2005. Here are some links that might be of interest:

http://www.hauppauge.com/pages/products/data_mediamvp.html
http://forums.freytechnologies.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8035
http://forums.freytechnologies.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7946

David