Considering Abandoning SageTV for DirectTV whole home DVR

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  • January 18, 2011 at 10:32 pm #25859
    autoboy

      I’ve been a SageTV user since v 2.2 a long time ago. It gave me the ability to create a whole home DVR with up to 4 tuners and LOTS of storage.  I could also play my media library in any room.  It’s been a rocky ride but one I have enjoyed.  I could record in one room and watch in another, and I could have more storage than any rental box could provide.  I could also archive my shows, integrate my TV and Movie experience, and enjoy a fast UI.

       

      I’m now at the point where I don’t watch that much recorded TV anymore.  I can’t get rid of Cable/Sat TV completely since there are still shows I enjoy and I care a lot about the quality of my picture, but I don’t really feel the need to have a 4 tuner system that breaks down frequently.

       

      My 2 HD-PVRs refuse to be stable.  I reboot them once every 2 weeks or so and I lose a whole day of recording on that HD-PVR.  I’m constantly worried that one of my favorite shows will refuse to record.  They usually re-air but it’s annoying.  network TV is handled with a very stable HDhomerun.  I’ve tried a lot of fixes, returned one, and even bought a new one, but they still go down.  Also, there are times when my server takes a dump and firewire channel changing refuses to work, or sageTV crashes and needs to reboot.  This kind of thing happens once every 3-6 months or so for reasons I am unable to explain.  It’s slightly annoying but workable since it doesn’t happen all that often. It seems to happen most when I am out of town for a week and I lose a whole week.  Go figure…

       

      I can keep down this path, maybe buying the new PCI-e HD-PVRs that are said to be more stable ($300 at least for 2 but money isn’t THAT big of an issue if it helps), keep wishing for Cable Card that will never happen, or wait for some other miracle that helps with my system.  I can rebuild again since it’s been 2 years since the system was reinstalled.

       

      But, my father in law and my brother have both moved to DirectTV whole home DVRs.  I can hook up a SATA 2TB drive and match my current TV storage space.  I haven’t been able to play with them enough to get a feel for the UI speed and usability, but these make me think that I am wasting my time on SageTV and it’s quirks.  I can get a 2 tuner DirectTV whole home DVR, set up my favorite shows, and watch them in my two viewing rooms anytime just like SageTV.  My movies would be handled by SageTV HD200 still, or I might play around with a Dune media player.

       

      Has anyone had much experience with the DirectTV systems?  Would I be happy with it?  What do I give up?

       

      I don’t want to sound unhappy with my setup.  I love SageTV.  I’ve lived with the HD-PVR sucking since they were released, but I can’t help but think there may finally be a better way. 

      January 19, 2011 at 3:06 pm #29395
      skirge01

        Since you wrote out a lengthy, well-thought-out post, I’ll take the time to write something similar in return.  While I never used the DirecTV whole home DVR, I am intimately familiar with the DVR itself.  So, let’s tackle this one at a time:

        1.  My 2 HD-PVRs refuse to be stable.

        Are you on DTV now or cable?  The reason I ask is because most people with DirecTV have significantly fewer problems than cable users.  Once you lock the DTV box at 1080 or 720, you can rule out the STB as the source of your lockups.

        Have you done extensive troubleshooting with them?  Have you tried recording for a day using TME?  Have you swapped ALL your cables?  Checked their length to ensure they aren’t too long?  No “extensions” in the middle of the cables?  Done all of this?  Have you tried narrowing it down to a channel, time, or show?  (Keep a log!)  Have you contacted Hauppauge about it?  Also, get one stable before throwing a second one into the mix.

        2.  I’m now at the point where I don’t watch that much recorded TV anymore.
             I reboot them once every 2 weeks or so and I lose a whole day of recording on that HD-PVR.

        These seem to contradict each other, IMHO.  If you aren’t watching much anymore, then a problem once every two weeks doesn’t seem like a big deal and you shouldn’t be losing much, if anything; certainly not an entire day.  I do sense some frustration and that’s certainly understandable, but I want to make sure we have everything straight.

        3.  there are times when my server takes a dump and firewire channel changing refuses to work

        Not sure what you really mean by that.  Are you having hardware issues on the server itself or just firewire issues?  If it’s the server, I’d rebuild with some newer, higher quality parts (no offense on your current choice of parts, which I have no clue about).  If it’s just firewire, try switching (lightbulb turns on)…  so, you’re NOT on DTV yet, since they don’t have firewire.  I can tell you that serial channel changing is flawless on DTV and now you can even have ethernet channel changing.

        4.  or sageTV crashes and needs to reboot

        When you say SageTV crashes, do you mean the client or the server?  If it’s the server, again, rebuild.  If it’s the client, I’d reinstall Windows (7, if you aren’t already on it) and/or rebuild with better parts.  On the client, ensure you aren’t installing anything more than you actually need to.  Codecs are the deathknell for SageTV.

        5.  It seems to happen most when I am out of town for a week and I lose a whole week.

        Okay, let’s get a little humour in here:  It’s not you or your hardware.  It’s someone else in the house causing all your issues.  😉  I think your hardware might be jealous or someone else in the house.

        6.  I can hook up a SATA 2TB drive and match my current TV storage space.

        I did this and it was horrible.  It worked, but if the drive fails, you lose all your recordings, all your settings, all your favorites you set up… everything.  If the STB fails, you also lose all your recordings and everything else.  Ahh, wonderful DRM.  If you’re upset about a day’s worth of recordings being lost, imagine how you’re going to feel when you lose everything.  They also use part of that 2TB to store commercials and other data, which didn’t exactly thrill me.

        7.  I haven’t been able to play with them enough to get a feel for the UI speed and usability

        The speed was extremely frustrating when I had them a few years ago.  Maybe they’ve gotten better with newer hardware and more streamlined software.  I also recall that the interface was cumbersome.  I go into it every once in a while to delete system messages and such and it’s such a dated system… much worse than SageTV v6.  😉

        Another thing that ticked me off about their software was the limitation of options.  First, you can’t skip commercials.  Second, you were limited to 50 “favorites” at the time I had it.  Third, the guide was slow and couldn’t be customized at all.  Fourth, if you order PPV, you only have 24 hours from the time you record it to actually watch it.  After that point, the recording stays on your drive, but it won’t play.  I’m not sure if this limitation has made it’s way into any other areas.  Fifth, forget about pretty much any customizations.  I hope your favorite colors are white and blue and that you enjoy retro, 8-bit-looking graphics and text.

        8.  You didn’t mention this, but don’t forget that you’ll also have monthly charges for having each DVR, in addition to the STB rental fee.

        I think that’s about it.  😀

        January 19, 2011 at 5:01 pm #29400
        autoboy

          Thank you for the lengthy post George.  I didn’t post much about my system beacuse I wasn’t really looking for advice on my problems.  I was looking for feedback on the DirectTV whole house DVR system and whether or not it could fit my needs.

           

          I have comcast cable.

          My system is a AMD athlon X2 4800+ at 2.5 ghz on an Nvidia 6100 Gigabyte full ATX motherboard.  it’s 2 years old on quality parts.  I’m running an Intel Nic and I’ve experimented with the onboard firewire and an external card.   It runs WHS with 6 drives.  A mix of 1TB and 2TB drives.  4 are dedicated to WHS duties and the other 2 are dedicated recording drives not added to the drive pool.  One recording drive recently died after about 2 years of constant use and I lost half my shows.  It wasn’t a big deal because I tend to watch my favorite shows right away. All I lost was a bunch of junk and maybe an episode of Big Bang Theory.

           

          Playback is via 2 HD200s and 1 dead HD100 I have yet to fix the PSU on.

           

           I’ve done extensive  work on trying to get the HD-PVRs stable.  All cables are 3 feet.  It doesn’t happen on certain channels. It isn’t a heat issue since it happens in winter.  I’ve returned one and got a new one that acted exactly the same.  I bought a new one and it’s the same as the old 2.  I have 3, only run 2.  My first HD-PVR is one of the first ones they made and it lacked a heatsink, so it has been taken appart and I couldn’t RMA it.  It’s the most stable.  It fails once every 2 months or so vs the newer boxes every 2 weeks.  It is not dependant on which cable box they are attached to.  They run 1080i AC3 audio.  Stereo audio didn’t help much but I really didn’t give it that much time because after it failed in stereo a few times I switched back to AC3.  I really really want 5.1.  I gave up on them about a year ago after everything I did simply made them worse. 

           

          When one fails, it’s normally at night or when I am at work, so I lose all content the HD-PVR was supposed to record.  The HD-PVRs only record encrypted cable channels like history channel, CNN, Discovery, etc and those networks normally repeat their shows frequently so it isn’t a big deal if a HD-PVR goes down.  SageTV also seems to be smart enough to try and record the higher priority shows on the other, working, HD-PVR and I don’t usuallly miss anything that important.  All local networks are unencrypted and are recorded using a HDhomerun.  Shows like Big Bang Thoery, and the MOST important for WAF, the Bachelor, never fail because the HDhomerun is rock solid.

           

          The server will occationally fail to start after a power outage, or the firewire channel changing will fail, or I’ve actually had some random crashes of sageTV server when I was skiing in Tahoe which caused me to lose some key network shows.

           

          I used to watch a fair amount of TV and I could find a lot of shows I wanted to record.  Now, I feel like I’ve watched most shows I wanted to see, and I can’t find that many shows to record anymore.  I now preffer to rent a drama series such as Dexter on BD or DVD and watch it in marathon because I get into the show more.  That takes away even more shows that I wish to record.  Also, I recently got my PS3 back from my brother, and it’s working well as a Netflix streamer and more and more shows are available on Netflix.  I’m definately not at the point that I want to ditch cable TV, but maybe my needs are simple enough to just switch to a rented whole house DirectTV system.

           

          I don’t use customizations that I care about

          I don’t comskip, but I DO really really like my 2 minute skip and 10 second skip feature.  I’m not a fan of fast forward through commercials because it is slow and you have to pay attention.

          I like the quick UI of sageTV

          I’m not a UI snob.  If it works reasonably well it’s fine with me.

          I don’t take shows with me on travel and I don’t use Placeshifter anymore

          I DO occasionally watch TV on my computer in my office, so I would be giving that up.

           

           

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