SageTV reveals STX-HD100 HD Media Extender

Details are still a bit thin, but it looks like SageTV -- developer of alternative media center software -- is poised to release an HD media extender for in-home placeshifting. The company, which already makes a standard definition wireless extender, revealed pics of the so-called STX-HD100 today, along with a few shots of the retail packaging which expose such features as HDMI, component, S-Video, and composite jacks as well as USB 2.0 Mass Storage Interface. Keep reading to check out another angle, and you can probably dig up a little more info by trawling around the SageTV forums, where it seems like quite a few folks have been waiting around on this product for some time now...

[Thanks, Matt C.]

[BitBass @ Nov 27th 2007 9:32AM]

That's great...

Only problem is the only legitimate way to get HD content to this is to pull it off an antenna at the media center. Wake me up when someone has a way to record from Component.

[bcollinstex @ Nov 27th 2007 10:44AM]

Thus the name, "Media Extender".

SageTV is great.

[Craig Eugea @ Nov 27th 2007 9:56AM]

The other problem with Media Center extenders is that they cost to much. Most of them are around the $200 - $300 price range. Hell for that you could pick a lower end or used Xbox360 that can do so much more. In my personal opinion the price range for these stand alone extenders needs to be around $100 - $150 price range.

[w3pirate @ Nov 27th 2007 10:02AM]

This is great and the guys at Sage continue to do an excellent job!

I love my DVR, I love Sage, I just wish that windows stealth updates would stop disabling my WiFi USB stick... the bastards.

[azmouse @ Nov 27th 2007 10:51AM]

Yea!!!!!

I have been using Sage for a while now and it is fantastic.

P.S. There are several other ways to get full live HD content besides an arial, and Component/HDMI input is avalible.

[Pete @ Nov 27th 2007 11:55AM]

Ah, but not with HDCP. I'm guessing that's what he's complaining about. Oh well, someday the TV studios will learn the lesson that the record labels are learning: if you sell content without DRM people will by it. If you ruin your product with it, people will get it somewhere else.

[BitBass @ Nov 27th 2007 1:03PM]

Show me. How is it possible to capture Component video?

I know about firewire, CableCard, etc... Component would provide a raw, non-DRM'ed method of capturing HD video. As of today such a thing doesn't exist.

[Eric @ Nov 27th 2007 1:14PM]

Component capture would require you to re-compress the very high bitrate analog stream to h.264 or mpeg-2 resulting in quality loss. Right now there are component and HDMI capture cards for $300, but have you tried using a software solution to record SD? Even with todays computers it is still CPU intensive and prone to stutter and lost frames. Imagine that with HD and you can see why we don't use them in our HTPCs. Will someone come out with one that has hardware h.264 compression? Maybe, the chips exist that can do it, but you still lose quality in the transfer and you have certain legal issues to overcome. There are better ways of getting your HD fix.

[Geoff @ Nov 27th 2007 12:21PM]

All I need is a way to output the monitor signal and sound wirelessly from the office computer to the TV downstairs. It's not something I do much, but it would nice. That way I could watch "webisodes" on a decent screen rather than the family crowding around the desk in the office.

[Eric @ Nov 27th 2007 1:18PM]

People are working on wireless HDMI. Now that the FCC opened up the 60ghz band, these kind of high bandwidth, short distance applications become feasible.

[Josh @ Nov 27th 2007 1:03PM]

I have been using SageTV for many years. It is a great product. I cannot wait to get my hands on the new HD Extender. This will be a killer product in my opinion. It should diferentiate SageTV from some of it's competitors by a large margin.

[autoboy70 @ Nov 27th 2007 1:04PM]

This is a revolutionary product guys. Yes, there are HD extenders out there, but their UI sucks and they not integrate with a front end as capable as SageTV. Yes Windows media center is coming out with an extender, and you can use the xbox360 as an extender, but those solutions are saddled with DRM and an inability to play a lot of the content out there like Divx, mkv, etc.

The SageTV HD media extender supports the full (customizable) UI that SageTV offers, supports all current mainstream media up to 1080p resolutions, and the SageTV software supports more ways to record HD content than any other media center application including OTA HD from an antenna, free QAM tuning from cable, QAM tuning from unencrypted firewire, unrestricted HD h.264 broadcasts from Dish with the R5000, and unrestricted HD cable using the R5000. Currently, I am recording the entire Comcast HD lineup in full HD mpeg-2 glory totally legally, just like I had a cable card tuner.

What makes this extender so powerful, is that I no longer need a loud, expensive, and buggy PC client (which MCE does not support anyways) in my living room and I can still play all my media from my SageTV server thats chugs along making all the noise it wants in my garage. No more stuttering issues, no more "what codec should I use" and "my AC3 does not work" challenges. This is truly a great leap forward in media centers and for all you people just giving it a yawn, you need to get more sleep, because with more HD content than any other platform, server client and server extender capabilities, placeshifter capability, customizable UIs, and lots of extra addons built by the community, there is really nothing else out there like it. If you want to stick to the Apple-like limitations of MCE, go ahead, but if you really want a fully capable and customizable MC, then look no further, just don't buy your extender now because I would be pissed if they sold out.

[Matt @ Nov 27th 2007 1:27PM]

Yeah!! What he said.

[Michael Paul @ Nov 27th 2007 1:12PM]

This supposedly does component capture.

http://www.everythingusb.com/pinnacle_liquid_edition_pro_6.html

I'll find out for myself if/when I win the lottery...

[Matthew @ Nov 27th 2007 2:59PM]

The pricing was just released it going to be $199.95
and the target date for availability is Monday 12/10/2007

http://forums.sage.tv/forums/showthread.php?p=248953&posted=1#post248953

[han_solo @ Nov 28th 2007 2:53PM]

>only legitimate way to get HD content to this is to pull it off an antenna at the media center.

Actually you can record HD off of cable boxes via Firewire.

[shawn @ Dec 3rd 2007 3:29PM]

will this allow me to watch shows recorded on my DVR on a second TV? Or is that somethig else entirely?

[shawn @ Dec 3rd 2007 3:34PM]

or is it only from computer -> TV?