Hd Filme Ich Einfach Unverbesserlich 2

"The SageTV Hard disk drive Theater can exist frustrating to prepare, just experienced DIYers will appreciate what it has to offer"

Pros

Computer-contained
inexpensive
HDMI output
1080p
x-foot user interface
very extensible
Ethernet interface

Cons

Bereft documentation
should back up more than file formats
slightly buggy

Summary

The SageTV HD Theater is akin to Western Digital'due south WD TV Hd Media Player in that it can stream music and video to your television independent of a computer—that means you don't need a computer at all. Like that device, it'south outfitted with HDMI, blended, component, and S-video outputs, and analog and S/PDIF sound outputs. Too like to the WD TV, the HD Theater delivers video resolution up to 1080p. But if yous're the type who expects to plug something in and have information technology simply piece of work, the SageTV HD Theater probably isn't the right media extender for yous. That'southward not to say that the device is extremely buggy or poorly designed; information technology'southward merely most appropriate for people who like to tinker and share their experience on online forums.

Features and Design

SageTV's box is twice as expensive as Western Digital's, only it offers more than twice the functionality. And if y'all exercise connect it to a PC or a server (over a hard-wired Ethernet network but—it doesn't support Wi-Fi) and add optional hardware and software to the mix, you can assemble a media system with all the features of a TiVO and a Slingbox rolled into ane.

Considering the SageTV HD Theater'southward plethora of options, specially when used in conjunction with SageTV Media Centre, information technology's unfortunate that the manufacturer provides only a skimpy 12-page user manual to help users figure out how to apply information technology. If you purchase 1, look to not only encounter a learning curve, merely programme to spend some time perusing SageTV's online user forms in order to take full advantage of all that it's capable of.

Setup

We first tested the SageTV Hard disk drive Theater as a standalone device, since that's what you lot get for its $199.95 purchase cost. The pocket-sized enclosure is manufactured from heavy-gauge steel, a nice departure from the more typical plastic box. Despite the welcome absenteeism of a fan (which enables the box to operate in consummate silence), the device remained surprisingly cool; information technology shouldn't have whatever issues with being tucked into an entertainment center chiffonier. We connected information technology via HDMI to a 42-inch ViewSonic N4290p HDTV and via S/PDIF to an Onkyo TX-SR701 A/V receiver.

Connect the HD Theater to your home-entertainment arrangement, plug a portable difficult bulldoze into the front or rear USB port and yous can play your own media (eastward.one thousand. music and movies ripped from disc, or digital movies or photographs captured with your own camera). Incorporate it into your dwelling network and you lot can use your broadband Internet connection to piping all sorts of gratis Net video into your Idiot box.

SageTV HD Theater

Sage Television Hard disk drive Theater

Supported Media Formats

The device supports nearly of the media codecs, container types, and file formats that a ripper might demand (including MPEG, FLAC, H.264, QuickTime, and Matroska – please refer to the specifications page following this review for a complete list).

It does not, withal, support any forms of DRM-protected media (such equally you might encounter with Rhapsody, the Zune Marketplace or iTunes). It likewise does not support the WMA Lossless codec (we understand this is a hardware limitation, then support tin't exist added via a patch or update). It also doesn't support the MJPEG codec, which some all the same cameras use to encode videos while encapsulating them with sound in QuickTime. Nosotros'll discuss this in more particular later. The Hd Theater'southward support for various photograph formats is too disappointingly limited: It volition display JPEG, PNG, and GIF files, merely not BMP, TIF, or RAW files.

Difficult Drive Support

We establish that the Hard disk drive Theater's two USB ports deliver more than than the typical amount of power over USB, merely neither port could provide plenty juice on its own to run every portable hard bulldoze nosotros tried. An old 20GB SmartDisk FireFly drive worked, for instance, but a newer 100GB Seagate drive didn't (not surprising, since that drive is shipped with a two-headed USB cable to provide additional ability by tapping two USB ports). A much newer 250GB Western Digital Passport bulldoze also wouldn't work (disappointing, but nosotros too had issues with that drive requiring more ability than can be delivered from a single USB port on some notebook PCs). Both the Seagate and the Western Digital drives worked fine when we used that two-headed cable to draw ability from both of the device's USB ports. Search the web for "USB cable dual power" if y'all demand one of these.

Defective only mass storage, the SageTV Hd Theater is otherwise completely cocky-contained. Information technology has its own operating system, its ain couch-friendly and very responsive graphical user interface, and its own media thespian. A full-featured remote command is also provided. Connect the box to your networked broadband Internet connection and you lot can admission a pre-populated list of online video sites, including YouTube, the Discovery Aqueduct, One-act Central, circulate network news, and many others. When information technology comes to network and premium cablevision content, however, near of the amusement programming is limited to abbreviated clips and promotional videos—commercials, basically.

There'south currently no out-of-the-box support for streaming content from the major online entertainment hubs similar Hulu or Joost, so y'all can't use information technology download recent episodes of network TV shows. Netflix subscribers tin can't use the box lonely to stream movies from that subscription service, either. In both cases, the limitations can exist attributed to licensing issues, rather than whatever particular shortcoming of the hardware. A SageTV representative told us the company is working on integrating those services.

In that location is something of a work-around, nevertheless; buy MediaMall Technologies' PlayOn software ($30) and install it on a PC or server on your network, and you'll gain access to both your Netflix and Hulu accounts. Just you should be aware of two meaning caveats: Get-go, PlayOn is still in beta (there's a 14-day free trial bachelor). 2nd, the software does not "officially" support the SageTV HD Theater, so you lot're unlikely to get much help from the folks at MediaMall if you lot have bug.

Our feel logging into our Netflix account was problematic, at all-time. You must add videos to your "spotter instantly" queue on a computer—you tin can't do this using the Hard disk drive Theater. We were able to stream some TV episodes with no issues, merely the Hd Theater showed only the playlist files for the movies in our queue—non the movie files themselves. Netflix considers PlayOn an unauthorized client, so you won't get any back up from them, either. We had a better experience accessing network idiot box content, including CBS and Hulu.

Image and Audio Quality

The SageTV HD Theater delivers excellent video quality and it has a very good onboard sound DAC (although about people volition probable use ane of its digital audio outputs). Just crappy, low-res Cyberspace video doesn't look much improve when it's scaled up on a big screen—the box can't put back what'southward not there in the first identify.

The device won't part every bit a Windows Media Eye extender either, so nosotros also tested information technology in conjunction the company's ain SageTV Media Middle for Windows running on an HP TouchSmart IQ506 PC, which has an integrated AVerMedia A327 TV tuner. And merely to be thorough, we tested the SageTV Media Centre add together-in for Windows Dwelling Server, too. We did non, however, test the Macintosh version of the software (all 3 versions sell for $79.95 each). Pairing the Hard disk Theater with whatsoever version of SageTV Media Heart and a TV tuner in a PC or server on your network creates a very powerful personal video recorder; adding SageTV'due south Placeshifter software to the mix ($29.95 per client PC) lets you watch live or prerecorded TV on any PC anywhere you accept Internet access. Placeshifter supports the Windows, Macintosh, and Linux operating systems. Dissimilar the similar Slingbox and Hava devices, however, SageTV doesn't offer streaming clients for any handheld devices.

Using the SageTV HD Theater in conjunction with SageTV Media Center should have enabled u.s. to scout QuickTime files encoded with MJEPG (which we'd created using a digital notwithstanding camera). The server software is capable of harnessing a host PC'southward processing power to catechumen files that the HD Theater tin can't handle on its own, transcoding them in real fourth dimension into a format that the Hard disk Theater tin deal with. All we got was a black scree, though. A representative from SageTV tells usa the sound in our QuickTime files was encoded at a very low bit rate (8 Kb/sec), and that the current version of their software can't work with it. They too tell us this is the first time they've encountered the problem and that a gear up is in the works (unverified every bit of press time).

Sage TV HD Theater

Sage Telly HD Theater

Determination

The SageTV Hard disk Theater is a solid value if yous're the blazon of person who likes to exercise things for yourself, doesn't mind dealing with a few crude edges and keeps an eye peeled for firmware updates, patches and upgrades. SageTV's user forums offering a mother lode of useful information, but mining for the detail nugget you demand can be an arduous experience—forums are certainly no substitute for thorough "official" documentation, even if it's in the grade of an online PDF. We're besides disappointed past the lack of back up for Hollywood-backed online video services such equally Hulu, and the absenteeism of support for prototype file formats such as RAW and TIF.

If you lot don't enjoy figuring things out on your ain, yous might discover this device frustrating to ready. On the other hand, when you combine the Hd Theater with SageTV'due south other software products, yous wind up with a very complete PC-based, networked entertainment ecosystem at a very reasonable cost. Add a few features, put on a couple coats of polish, and SageTV will have a killer product.

Pros:

Doesn't rely on a reckoner
Functionality can be extended with software that's uniform with the Windows, Macintosh, Linux, and Windows Domicile
Server operating systems
Actively supported by a big user base of operations

Cons: