WGTV Live vs SAGETV Options

[sscroggyy]

HI All,

Im new to all of this and Ive been researching the WGTV Live And the SAGETV. The one thing that I cant find is if you are able to stream live television through the WGTV live via a tuner card. I also was wondering how the WGTV Live stands up to the SAGETV HD200 as far as file compatibility and overall opinions between the 2.

Any help or opions would be very much appreciated.

THANKS!

P.S. I think if the WGTV live cannot stream live T.V. , That might a deal breaker (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)

[WDUser]

This thread seems more appropriate in the "OTHER MEDIA PLAYERS" sub-forum...

I don't think the WD TV Live can stream live TV via a TV tuner card. As for comparing it to the SageTV, hope someone who knows can chime in.

[radio1]

SageTV is software that acts as a PVR (first) and media center (second) for a computer equipped with a TV-Tuner card. If the computer is hooked up to a TV, it can push video to that.

WDTV Live is hardware that can play media located locally on a direct-connected drive or from a networked drive.

They are not really in competition with each other. If you have a tuner card in your computer-- SageTV is a worthwhile program to have. So you can record stuff off of OTA (over-the-air) and cable broadcasts. But really, in this day and age; unless you don't have broadband internet or are morally opposed to file sharing-- it's much easier download what content you want to play than to generate it yourself.

Also, if you have some types of cable boxes-- you can record directly off to your computer. A good indicator of that is if your cable box has a firewire connection. If interested, Google that...

[WDUser]

Thanks for the info. radio1! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[sscroggyy]

Hey Radio,

Thanks for the reply,

I was actually trying to compare both of the hardware devices. I was wondering if it was possible to stream live T.V. to the WDTV Live like you can to the sageTV HD200 or if it is just for saved content on the connected HDD or networked PC? They look pretty similar in regards to what file formats they are compatible with. Do you need a media player associated with your hardware device to stream live T.V. Is there a media center associated with WDTV Live.

What would you reccomend for a guy who wants to get rid of his cablebox and stream live HD tv to all of his televisions through the house (4)? Also would like to save all of my photos/music and DVD - both regular and bluray onto a server and stream those also.

Thank you for your knowledge

Curt

[radio1]

Thanks for the info. radio1! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

You're welcome!

[radio1]

I did not know that Sage came out an actual device... But I checked out the one you mentioned. It does seem to be more capable in that it has composite(simple yellow) and S-video out (plus keyboard support) vs. the Live. Other than those differences it seems comparable to the actual media playing capabilities to the Live.

I have not tried it, but you can stream live TV to it with media center as long as you have a tuner card in your main PC...

As far what would I do? Well, what kind of HDTV are you looking to stream? If you are looking to dump cable (read: pay tv) altogether and stay with OTA (over the air broadcast) HDTV, the easiest thing to do would be just hook up an external HD antenna to your 4 TVs. Or get 4 indoor amplified antennas for your TVs-- both assuming your TVs can pick up digital signals otherwise you'll also need converter boxes.

If you just mean HD quality programming that you've downloaded or are streaming live from web; then it gets a more expensive. To house your downloaded content some kind of NAS box will be needed with a couple of terabyte drives to serve your media. HP, Netgear-- all the big names make such things... Both wired and wireless. A wireless NAS box with a couple of drive bays runs about $300, plus a couple of drives (1TB) runs another $200; so thats $500. Plus you need 4 media player devices, so ball park another $800 for those... You do that, you can download/rip movies and TV from your main PC and store the stuff on the NAS. Then whatever player retrieves whatever it wants from the NAS. If you want specifically Live HD programming (for all 4 viewing stations potentially); you are talking a lot more bandwidth needed coming in from outside as well... As well as a beefier PC to serve all that live stuff as well... Or just a dedicated HTPC/server to that instead of your regular PC.

There specialized devices like Squeezeboxes and Slingboxes a such as well...

It's kinda confusing and somewhat of a large undertaking, so tread carefully and decide exactly what you are trying to accomplish before spending any cash. Write back, I'll help.

[WDUser]

Just to chime in since radio1 mentioned NAS - not all NAS boxes will work with the Live. Browse the forum and see, 'cos a bunch of people have reported issues with the Live not being able to recognise their NAS.

[radio1]

Just to chime in since radio1 mentioned NAS - not all NAS boxes will work with the Live. Browse the forum and see, 'cos a bunch of people have reported issues with the Live not being able to recognise their NAS.

Yeh, I should written something about that. But I don't use an NAS... I like local storage myself.

[sscroggyy]

Thanks for your knowledgeable opinions.

I guess the main question that still isnt resolved in my head is .... can the WDTV play live tv through
it. This is my setup..

4 HD TVs
1 MediaSmart Home Server
1 Pc with Windows 7 32 bit Home Edition
4 T.V. Tuners

I would like to stream the channnels (and also record via PVR) coming from my cable company (Comcast) and the only thing Im missing is an extender. I was looking for one that has a lot of file compatibity, as I would also like to stream blu ray and dvd rips saved on my server. I was looking at the WDTV, cause the price seemed right , and the file compatibility was through the roof. The only thing that I didnt notice , is if you can stream the live T.V. played through the media center pc?
You replied that you could stream through windows media center? If thats true, then can you use WMC as the platform for the WDTV? Have you done this personally? And if it is possible is there anything special you need to do so the WDTV can notice WMC?

Hope That Makes Sense as I tend to kind of blabber on and on

Thank you So much,

Curt

[radio1]

No, no worries here.
For sake of illustration, I'll limit the example one other TV.

So you have:
Cable -> House -> PC w/tuner card-----NAS
| |
| |
WDTV Live-------------
|
TV #1

Your PC with WMC or VLC can push a Live TV feed from your computer to the Live that you can watch on that TV. But the Live is not media extender, just a media player... There will be no interactive control of your live TV feed- you only will be able pick up and turn off whatever feed you just setup on your media PC. Want a different feed (e.g. change channels); you'll have to go to the PC and change the feed manually.

The Sage TV device may be a better fit for you because that will act as a media extender for the SageTV server on your PC with the TV tuner. You may also want to look at Slingbox as well.

The issue then becomes how many live feeds for TV will you need. You'd need as many tuner cards for as many TVs that you have.

The big problem is the live TV issue. A NAS and whatever media player you choose is not difficult. Essentially emulating the capabilities of 4 cable boxes, 1 to each TV in HD is a much larger pain in the you know where. Especially if you are trying to use only 1 feed in and split it four ways...

[sscroggyy]

Thank you so much for your help.

That was exactly what i was looking for. Unfortunately , ill have to go with something other than the WDTV (which was the one I really wanted to go with) since I cant control media center with it.
Oh well
Thanks again,
Curt

[radio1]

No worries! Good luck!