beyond tv, sage tv, etc. which do you like

mpegripper

[H]ard|Gawd
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Oct 8, 2001
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i'm wondering what everyone uses as the software for their htpc and why they chose it over another program

TIA
 
What I use: SageTV, Meedio, iTunes/Winamp, Media Player Classic, NV codec, FFDShow

Why I use them: Sage and Meedio are both very flexible and powerful, iTunes is great for a jukebox player and I'm also going to have to add an iPod later/ Winamp for a simple player, MPC because it's simple but not very customizable- thinking of getting Zoomplayer, Theater Tek or whatever later, NV codec because it's the best out there and I can't watch video without FFDShow now.
 
meedio, sage, Nvidia NVDVD codec, zoomplayer, FFDshow

meedio is very customizable and has some cool plugins. Will be awesome if meedio tv is fully functional

sage was easy and I like the interface. leaves a little to be desired for a full all-in-one solution, but will do that job pretty well too.

NVDVD is the hottest codec right now.

zoomplayer has all kinds of settigns to tweak. keeps me busy. also has a nice interface IMO.

FFDshow because I can. It realy doesn't help a lot on my PJ, but I am hoping it will do wonders on my HDTV.
 
they both have free trials for download. I suggest trying them both and see for yourself. I just downloaded the beyond trial to check it out.
 
I use BeyondTV 3.5.1 and it has been alright for me. I really want to move to an all in one interface and might add Beyond Media to do that later but for now I am satisfied with BeyondTV on my something like 10 year old 27" TV.
 
IDversusEGO said:
they both have free trials for download. I suggest trying them both and see for yourself. I just downloaded the beyond trial to check it out.

While I agree with this, SageTV only has a 14 day trial which I think is just too short for that product. Hell it can take 14 days just to get it running just right. I think SageTV would do better with a longer trial, ~30 days maybe even 45.

So with such short trial time, I think getting user feedback is also very important.

BeyondTV has a 30 day trial.

I have tried both and paid for SageTV, simple reason is I got SageTV to work easier out of the box. I am using a non-standard remote with a USB-UIRT, and with SageTV I do not need to setup/and pay for a seperate app to use it. With BeyondTV I have to setup/pay for Girder, not a big deal, but is a tick in the not like column for me. I also was able to tweak the settings in SageTV eaiser than with BeyondTV. While BeyondTV is much easier to get started with, I found the more advanced tweaks not so easy. Their were some other things the was BeyondTV worked that I did not like as much as SageTV. Such as handling were shows are stored, SageTV does this automatically BeyondTV you have to tell it which "store" to put a show in. A few other items that I can not remember.

But overall I would say my decision to go with SageTV was not much over BeyondTV. For this reason I will continue to watch BeyondTV develop and may change to it. However having a wife and keeping up with WAF, changes have to be sublte and few ;)
 
actually, it is 21 for beyond. and there are ways of extending the trial period...
 
IDversusEGO said:
actually, it is 21 for beyond. and there are ways of extending the trial period...
Not to nitpick but the latest version of beyondtv allows a 30 day trial, and even allows you to try if you have tried earlier versions.
 
I think that new site is using a little old info. I downloaded and insatlled the beyond demo. 21 day trial. Also, the version in the news link you gave is 3.44. My demo is 3.5.1.
 
IDversusEGO said:
I think that new site is using a little old info. I downloaded and insatlled the beyond demo. 21 day trial. Also, the version in the news link you gave is 3.44. My demo is 3.5.1.

Ok, you win :D
 
flak said:
mythtv for me. 100% GPL up in here

You know I am a linux lover at heart, all but my HTPC and gaming box are running linux. However from my resaerch into HTPC, linux is kinda lacking in the HTPC. I could not find anything as advanced as ffdshow or ac3filter for linux, and the driver support for ATI while is ok for servers, sucks for HTPC since the last I checked the stable ones did not support s-video out.

Maybe I am wrong, it has been ~6 months since I last considered myth. If you know of utilites that support my above concern please point them my way :).
 
SageTV + SageMC STV = Solid PVR Ability.

If you want more functionality add in medio to create a true "center piece" for your system. I really really like SageTV. Version 3.0 will add quite a bit of embedded functionaily (Native Support of Hauppauge MVP & Webserver)

-tReP
 
yeah. It's too bad there sin't one app out there that does it all nicely. meedio/sage combo is the best for me, but I don't like juggling two interfaces.
 
IDversusEGO said:
yeah. It's too bad there sin't one app out there that does it all nicely. meedio/sage combo is the best for me, but I don't like juggling two interfaces.

That is something I never understood when people mention using both meedio and sage. Do they have some kind of tie in to each other or do they juggle two front-ends? Cause juggling two frontends for a HTPC to me is not an option. I do NOT want people to know that I am running a computer when they use my enteratianment center.

Now if people are able to make it a seamless connection I can see that being very cool, otherwise it seems it would make it a little unweilding for the livingroom.
 
I am sure the Meedio to Sage transition shouldn't be a problem but I am not sure about Sage back to meedio.
 
m1abram said:
That is something I never understood when people mention using both meedio and sage. Do they have some kind of tie in to each other or do they juggle two front-ends? Cause juggling two frontends for a HTPC to me is not an option. I do NOT want people to know that I am running a computer when they use my enteratianment center.

Now if people are able to make it a seamless connection I can see that being very cool, otherwise it seems it would make it a little unweilding for the livingroom.

If you use the SageMC STV along with the MCE skin for Meedio...you should have very "little" knowledge that you are really switching to another program.
 
I am having issues with getting TV to work with mediaportal. otherwise, I like it for the price...

as for the sage/meedio combo, it is nearly seamless. I don't see my desktop. I have a container in Meedio that launches the Sage.exe. Then I have a button on my firefly that launches meedio. If meedio is launched, it just brings it to the front. So Sage and Meedio are running at the same time, I just use these 2 items to alternate focus. however, it is a delicate balance and that is why I am moving away from it. the wife gets too frustrated, and quite honestly, it bugs the hell out of mee too.
 
m1abram said:
That is something I never understood when people mention using both meedio and sage. Do they have some kind of tie in to each other or do they juggle two front-ends?
Sage doesn't make a very good frontend anyways, it's worth is in it's PVR features which are more developed, also it's easy to add Sage to Meedio and it's pretty seamless.
 
I havn't used sage as a total front end, Crim, waht are your gripes about it as a front end with a good STV?
 
IMO it's all pretty basic features, I already have a couple choice apps that I use for video, music, etc and the only thing that I find useful is the slideshow thing... but I don't really use that anyways. LOL

After adding a better STV things change alittle depending on the added features but still I find the weather stuff useful but it doesn't stack up to what can be done with Meedio.
 
can you launch an external video player with sage? that may be a deal breaker. I like my zoomplayer.
 
I've got Sage setup to launch TheaterTek for DVDs and Ripped DVDs

so it shouldn't be any more difficult for it to associate with ZP


BTW, this is using either SageMC or Cayars Ultimate STV
 
cool, thanks. I would have answered my own question once I got home, but I am sittign at work bored of my ass.
 
SageTV 3 should be a nice improvement.. Check the specs at the SageTV forums.. They will be adding linux functionality (for OEMs currently, but they're talking about a unsupported version for the public), as well as more integrated Sage Media Center support.. Plus current 2.x customers will get a free upgrade..

Something to think about..
 
We are targeting this spring for a version 3.0 release and this will be a free upgrade to all current SageTV 2.x customers.

found it in their forum
 
Yeah, linux and the ATI AIW don't really mix. Nvidia cards and the hauppauge 250 get along great tho. In all honesty I've had bad luck with ATI and capturing. My PVR-350 is awesome now that I've gotten it 100% working. I cannot tell the difference between my TV tuner and playback of a recorded program on my mythtv. The only problem is that it flat out sucks at DVD playback. However, it plays divx/xvid/mpeg1/mpeg2/ogm/wmv quite well.

m1abram said:
You know I am a linux lover at heart, all but my HTPC and gaming box are running linux. However from my resaerch into HTPC, linux is kinda lacking in the HTPC. I could not find anything as advanced as ffdshow or ac3filter for linux, and the driver support for ATI while is ok for servers, sucks for HTPC since the last I checked the stable ones did not support s-video out.

Maybe I am wrong, it has been ~6 months since I last considered myth. If you know of utilites that support my above concern please point them my way :).
 
I used Mythtv for a little over a year, and when my box decided to fry I decided it was time for a change up and I am now trying Sage.

At this point I am wanting to go back to Myth as everything just seemed to work without too much juggling and it is a very fine program. I know nothing about Linux and I was able to get Knoppmyth going in a matter of a few hours.

Sage seems to be a fully functional PVR but its other functions have a bit to be desired, the movie playback is inferior to Myths and even after adding a custom STV the interface is subpar.

I am going to check out Meedio in the next few days and see how I like that, too bad its TV functionality is not really working. Maybe I can get a Meedio/Sage Hybrid to work.


Spud
 
flak said:
Yeah, linux and the ATI AIW don't really mix. Nvidia cards and the hauppauge 250 get along great tho. In all honesty I've had bad luck with ATI and capturing. My PVR-350 is awesome now that I've gotten it 100% working. I cannot tell the difference between my TV tuner and playback of a recorded program on my mythtv. The only problem is that it flat out sucks at DVD playback. However, it plays divx/xvid/mpeg1/mpeg2/ogm/wmv quite well.

Oh I am not even reffering to ATI capture cards, just using the regular video cards and Svideo out. The last time I looked you could not get svideo out on ATI cards with linux, however I know some people were working on a fix. Not sure how far they have gotten yet. ATI themselves are not helping though, they do not reallly care about linux.
 
m1abram said:
Oh I am not even reffering to ATI capture cards, just using the regular video cards and Svideo out. The last time I looked you could not get svideo out on ATI cards with linux, however I know some people were working on a fix. Not sure how far they have gotten yet. ATI themselves are not helping though, they do not reallly care about linux.

Oh yeah you reminded me of the other Linux and HTPC problem and that is Encoded DVD support. Really a shame about that one too, damn lawyers!

edit: for typos
 
LinDVD is intervideo's answer to Linux DVD playback. It will be a legally licensed Linux palyback piece for standard DVDs.
 
m1abram said:
Oh I am not even reffering to ATI capture cards, just using the regular video cards and Svideo out. The last time I looked you could not get svideo out on ATI cards with linux, however I know some people were working on a fix. Not sure how far they have gotten yet. ATI themselves are not helping though, they do not reallly care about linux.

I think http://gatos.sf.net/ might be what you're looking for. I can't make any comment as to whether or not it actually works tho.
 
m1abram said:
Oh yeah you reminded me of the other Linux and HTPC problem and that is Encoded DVD support. Really a shame about that one too, damn lawyers!

edit: for typos

Just remember to apt-get remove libdvdcss when you hear the feds a knocking
 
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