TiVo Community Forums Archives - Replacing Tivo with HTPC

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Replacing Tivo with HTPC
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Posted by: jimbo19

I have loved my Tivo , fantastic product . However TV is moving on and sadly the UK Tivo market is not . No new or envisaged product
Due to the picture quality on Tivo and the fact I am upgrading to a HD Plasma I have decided to go down the HTPC route , this gives much more flexibility DVD recording etc etc

Has anyone tried Sage TV 2.0 ? I just want to make sure I get s/w that has all the features that Tivo has now .

I just wish Tivo could get a new UK distributor onboard , then I wouldnt have to go down this route

Posted by: cwaring

Looks like a very nice product. Seems to have 'wishlists' and 'suggestions'. Can't see anything like a Season Pass, though. Haven't looked too hard, but is UK data available for it? Interesting to note that the screen-shots are all of US programmes we get over here. I'm sure that's just a coincidence, though :)

Posted by: jimbo19

UK Tv listings are only available at the moment via xml list grabbers , hopefully they will incorporate digiguide in there soon though
It does have season pass (called favourites manager) and it also has the equivalent of thumbs up and recording based on your viewing habits

Posted by: pauljs

quote:
Originally posted by cwaring
Looks like a very nice product. Seems to have 'wishlists' and 'suggestions'. Can't see anything like a Season Pass, though. Haven't looked too hard, but is UK data available for it? Interesting to note that the screen-shots are all of US programmes we get over here. I'm sure that's just a coincidence, though :)

Please could you put in a link so we know what it's about

Posted by: jimbo19

Sorry - wheres my manners

http://www.sage.tv/

Posted by: DaveP

The software looks fine but surely that's only half the story? How do you record Sky? They don't do, and will probably never do, a PC card with a viewing card slot. So presumably you'll be stuck with a capture card and restricted to capturing analogue pictures. How will the software work with a capture card? Either that or a FTA Satelite card or a Freeview receiver thereby missing out on all the subscription channels.

I don't think I'll be replacing my Tivo anytime soon.

Dave

Posted by: jimbo19

Sky - scart to svideo in on pvr350
or a sweetspot card which will do rgb scart in to the pc :)

Posted by: pmk

Just done a quick search for SweetSpot and come up with this URL

http://www.pluggedin.tv/sweetspot/specs/index.html

It says in the System Requirements for Display you need a Monitor (or similar) does this mean that the Sweetspot accepts incoming RGB it does not output in RGB?

Anyone know of solutions for outputting as RGB SCART?

TIA

Posted by: jimbo19

The output would come from whatever you have on your VGA card
DVI or Svideo - if the card supports TV out
Alternatively if it must go back out scart you could use one of these
http://www.mediaatlantic.com/product.php?xProd=366

Posted by: starfire

You will still need an IR blaster driven by the HTPC to change Sky channels inline with Sage TV starting recording.

Posted by: pmk

quote:
Originally posted by jimbo19
The output would come from whatever you have on your VGA card
DVI or Svideo - if the card supports TV out
Alternatively if it must go back out scart you could use one of these
http://www.mediaatlantic.com/product.php?xProd=366

Thanks but that is not RGB SCART.

Until you can output to a normal widescreen TV using RGB SCART a HTPC is not feasible in my opinion.

I know some Windows Media Centre PC's have RGB SCART output but this technology is not available to consumers to upgrade their PC's probably due to the size of the SCART connector (i.e. where does it fit in the back of the PC).

Any other suggestions welcome.

TIA

Posted by: Andy C

Some nice screenshots of it in action here, and a quite a good review.

I'm actually tempted to build a shuttle or similar running this as a little project, although I'd need to make sure I could get listings and change channels on my Pace STB first.

Hmmm, fun! :)

Posted by: Andy C

quote:
Originally posted by pmk
Thanks but that is not RGB SCART.

Until you can output to a normal widescreen TV using RGB SCART a HTPC is not feasible in my opinion.

Indeed. However, it's a good option for plasma / lcd owners that have VGA or component inputs.

Posted by: starfire

quote:
Originally posted by pmk
Thanks but that is not RGB SCART.

Until you can output to a normal widescreen TV using RGB SCART a HTPC is not feasible in my opinion.

I know some Windows Media Centre PC's have RGB SCART output but this technology is not available to consumers to upgrade their PC's probably due to the size of the SCART connector (i.e. where does it fit in the back of the PC).

Any other suggestions welcome.

TIA

A Matrox G400 can support RGB output, on the maxtrox website is an official diagram for making a RGB scart lead - I've done it and it does work.

Posted by: pmk

quote:
Originally posted by starfire
A Matrox G400 can support RGB output, on the maxtrox website is an official diagram for making a RGB scart lead - I've done it and it does work.

Brilliant thanks. For reference:

http://forum.matrox.com/mga/viewforum.php?f=52

If you know of any other cards the output to RGB SCART please post.

TIA

Posted by: jimbo19

Or for any ATI Radeon card
http://www.idiots.org.uk/vga_rgb_scart/

personally I will be going DVI out to DVI in on plasma :)