Interesting.  Honestly it has

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June 21, 2011 at 9:14 pm #4451
farscapesg1

    Interesting.  Honestly it has been quite a while since I looked at Media Center in any format.  When I started with Sage it was back during the XP Media Center era where it just didn’t have the customizable options or features that I really wanted (centralized storage and client playback mainly).  By the time it evolved to it’s current state, I’d already invested in the SageTV server software, 2 client licenses, a couple Placeshifter licenses, and 2 extenders (increased to 4 by this point to replace client computers).  This isn’t Media Center’s fault, but the lack of direction from Microsoft that has plagued it until the decision to make XBox’s the default extenders.

    Sorry if I didn’t make the customizing options for SageTV clear.  I was just saying that it was possible.  I didn’t realize that they had brought additinal options to Media Center now.  SageTV still requires you to install the Plugins for those features (HA is possible with various plugins, but not familiar enough with it to say which ones).

    Does DVRMSToolbox handle automatic commercial detection and skipping as the files are being recorded, or do you have to wait until it finishes recording for it to be processed?

    At this point, I’m heavily enough invested in SageTV to wait out the details of the purchase.  To switch now would require purchasing new XBOX Slims for each room (4), which may happen depending on how things turn out.  Or I might give up on the PVR scene and join the masses with a DVR from U-Verse. 

    All I really want is something that allows me to watch anything I record on any TV or device that I own, as well as the media collection I have built up.  If Media Center gives me this now, great!  My concern is that right now my cable provider (Comcast) is not marking shows as copy-once but that could change at any time.  It would probably be easier to just switch to a DVR and use something like a Popcorn Hour or WDTV Live for stored media, then take a shot with buying more hardware that could be disabled by a simple copy protection flag.  Of course this is the same concern I’ve had with SageTV before the announcement and their lack of CableCard support, since Comcast is making it harder and harder to record and store what I want to watch.

    Unfortunately, I don’t have the funds for a home theater retrofit anymore.  My SageTV setup was expanded as I went over the years and to replace it in one shot won’t be happening.  Bare minimum to switch would require 2 XBOX’s (living room and game room) with the bedrooms still using the SageTV extenders in “stand alone” mode.. which has a horrible interface 😉