[Wayne]

Many of you around here will know that I am a big proponent of SageTV after having tried pretty much all of the alternatives. There has recently been some news on the SageTV front that may be of interest to DHC members.

SageTV7 Beta
The biggest complaint against SageTV is typically that the User Interface is fugly compared to alternatives such as Win MC and XBMC. The latest version of SageTV includes a much improved, although not perfect, UI. This latest version has been in beta since May but the beta version is very stable and many Sage users have been using it for their main PVR system for months. In addition, there are some UI improvements available or in the works. There is now a SageTV version of MyMovies which is a very good movie management framework that was originally developed for Win MC. There will soon be two new "improved" UIs for Sage - one is called Ortus and one is called Phoenix.

New Extenders - Sage HD-300
The main advantage that Sage has over its competitors (like WinMC and Myth) is the excellent hardware extenders. The third generation model, called the HD-300, is now shipping. It is cheaper than its predecessor at US$150, is faster and is better at handling some types of digital audio found on BluRay discs. These extenders, plus full support of the HD-PVR and all of the addins make Sage the best whole house solution particularly if you want to be able to record all HD channels, including cable. I have been using Sage as my main system for about two years and I have five extenders (HD-200s, the previous model) throughout my house to use as playback devices.

 

[Tikker]

is your backend linux or windows?

i may take a crack at it again at some point if it's improved quite a bit


that being said, i'm 99% happy with my win7 systems (specifically media browser)


I've always secretly hoped sage would come up with a handheld version (iphone/android/etc)

 

[Wayne]

I am using Windows as my backend - I was using WHS but I have switched to XP on my Sage7 server as I was having some problems with WHS. I am not sure if I am going to stick with this PC or buy a new one - right now I am using a single core and it is kind of slow for Comskipping and/or transcoding.

I am also hoping that they release a Sage Placeshifter client for smartphones. I think someone has written some sort of a client for android but I would like an iPad version.

 

[tbusa]

Now that its shipped and I can talk about it (NDA) It's the best extender on the market right now,the Sagetv 300 with All the blue-ray audio codec support to play ripped Bluerays and with built-in DTS-MA ES etc.. decoding, there is no need to convert the audio now to play AC3, when you are using it only with TV and no amp to decode.

Pro's

Price is lower
Standalone or as part of Media Server
Comes with HDMI 1.3 cables and dongle for analog
Optional External IR receiver cable to hide the STX300
Flash recover mode is new and works
Stock remote now has programmable buttons (vol -+ & power)
Faster CPU and more ram

Cons

Stand alone has old style GUI (but they are working to update it)
no built in netflix,Hulu support ( yet ) no one has mentioned anything as of today

I have been using a few of them for the past two months and they are great units. I just wish we had more time to test. They're is a few minor bugs in them still, but they are being fixed as we speak. I was glad I unloaded a few of my STX-100 about 8 weeks ago.

Most of the time I use theses as Extenders and gave one to my folks to use a placeshifter device. So far my folks wont give the stx-300 back.


Tbusa

 

[DVDguy]

The 300 looks pretty interesting... can you buy it in Canada, or does Saga only sell via their web site??