Review: SageTV STP-HD300

[Naylia]

[url=http://www.missingremote.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5120&Itemid=1&limit=1&limitstart=4]Original Article Link[/url]

Excellent!!! It’s my birthday next month too 🙂

Things that make me happy:
– Support for DRM  to enable CC in the future (I never though I’d say I’d be happy about support for DRM)
– Full decode of Dolby TrueHD and DTS-MA (no more converting audio tracks in ClownBD!!)
– Even faster than the HD200

[autoboy]

Don’t forget that it can decode all formats, including DTS, Dobly Digital and their HD versions to stereo for use on TVs that can’t decode those formats.  That’s huge for me.  I wonder if I’m still going to just pull the lossy codec on my BDs to save space…

Glad to at least have the option though…

I can’t wait for Cable Card, and I’m hoping that I’ll still be able to copy freely most of my content since I don’t watch premium channels.

I see three negatives so far.  No multichannel PCM audio support,  the form factor prevents me from stacking andlaying it on it’s side, and the lack of a front USB port.  I used mine on occasion when using standalone mode, and as a free USB charger for ipods.

Those are pretty minor complaints. 

Probably my biggest problem now is do I upgrade?  I would like to upgrade my bedroom to get DTS decoding support, but do I upgrade my main system also so I can support HD bitstreaming?  Hmm.  I guess that will depend on Cable Card support since I don’t believe in spending $ just to get HD audio.

If they launch Cable Card on SageTV, I will be upgrading just to simplify my system and make it more reliable.  It’s a mess with 2 HD-PVRs and 2 cable boxes connected with 4 cables each and mine hasn’t been very stable.

[Naylia]

I figure that with the HD300 selling for $149, it’ll still be possible to get $100-$120 for gently used HD200’s on eBay or through the forums. Makes the upgrade pretty reasonably priced if you benefit from the new features. I think there are probably users out there that even with the improvements, might not see a benefit in their specific setup.

[mikinho]

Great price point and feature set.

Even makes me want to consider it.

[autoboy]

I’ll probably sell the HD100 and not one of my HD200s.  I’m not sure the demand for HD100s will be very high.

[ruwackd]

Of  course I just got the tracking number for the HP slimline I ordered for a sage client 🙁

I hope that if they do go the cable card route they’ll be able to support PC clients, if not then I guess I’ll just ebay my slimline and replace it with an HD300.

[Andrew Van Til]

[quote=”autoboy”]
and the lack of a front USB port. 
[/quote]

I’m glad they didn’t mar the front with USB ports. 

[tboyce]

I love the fact that Sage listens to their user community.  I have always thought that an extender should have the capability for an external IR receiver.  Now, thoughts on future designs.  Bring it back to being square so they can be stacked or set on edge.  Make the size just big enough to accomodate pass through screws for a VESA mount.  

I am now in a bit of a quandry, as I have a Ceton card waiting to be setup.  I was originally going to set it up in a thin client PC as opposed to using the XBOX as extenders to benefit from full CODEC support and DVD menus.  Now, I am seeing that Sage really has their head in the game and Microsoft clearly does not, and am thinking about dusting off the Sage setup.  Adding to this, in order to go the thin non extender route, I need to have an analog tuner for the non HD channels since my provider does not simulcast them in encrypted QAM.

If only Sage had native Cable Card support, the decision would be so easy.

[bbig119]

Is the $150 a pre-order special or is that going to be the normal price?

[Naylia]

[quote=”SageTV Announcement in Forum”]SageTV HD Theater 300 and all accessories are available at http://www.sagetv.com  and costs $149.95. The optional USB Wireless g/n adapter is $29.95. The optional external IR receiver is $7.95. SageTV Media Center software, the DVR/Media Center software for Windows, Mac or Linux, costs $79.95. SageTV Placeshifter an add-on to SageTV Media Center allows live and recorded TV to be watched at home or anywhere over the internet, costs $29.95. [/quote]

Doesn’t sound like promotional pricing.

[Andrew Van Til]

[quote=”bbig119″]
Is the $150 a pre-order special or is that going to be the normal price?
[/quote]

AFAIK it’s the the normal price.

[Andrew Van Til]

A firmware update was released tonight that addresses the multi-channel PCM issue.  Non Dobly/DTS multi-channel formats are output as multi-channel PCM now.

[Naylia]

Excellent, it made me sad that LPCM was being down-mixed. There are lots of great Blu-rays that have LPCM as their only HD audio track.

[joao12345]

[quote=”tboyce”]
I love the fact that Sage listens to their user community.  I have always thought that an extender should have the capability for an external IR receiver.  Now, thoughts on future designs.  Bring it back to being square so they can be stacked or set on edge.  Make the size just big enough to accomodate pass through screws for a VESA mount.  

I am now in a bit of a quandry, as I have a Ceton card waiting to be setup.  I was originally going to set it up in a thin client PC as opposed to using the XBOX as extenders to benefit from full CODEC support and DVD menus.  Now, I am seeing that Sage really has their head in the game and Microsoft clearly does not, and am thinking about dusting off the Sage setup.  Adding to this, in order to go the thin non extender route, I need to have an analog tuner for the non HD channels since my provider does not simulcast them in encrypted QAM.

If only Sage had native Cable Card support, the decision would be so easy.
[/quote]

Can you use the ceton tuner with this? i thought the quad tuner only worked with MCE….

[mikinho]

Currently the InfiniTV4’s native support is limited to 7MC; however, Babgvant (Andy) released SageMCTuner that lets you use a CableCARD in SageTV.  It is limited to Copy-Freely content and has a delay.

With CableLabs’ approved change to the OpenCable specifications Ceton + SageTV will be able to add native support for the InfiniTV4 + Copy-Freely content but currently no ETA for that.

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