Home Basic vs Home Premium vs Professional?

In article , "Char Jackson"
said...

The bar isn't nearly that low. A completely different motherboard
might trigger a reactivation, but not a video card or hard drive (by
themselves). Regardless, if reactivation is required, it can usually
be done online. In extreme cases, a phone call may be required.

That was my experience. New MB called for a phone call. An explanation
that I had to swap out the MB was all they needed and they activated it.

In message , Steve Hayes
writes:
[]
Home Premium - like Home Basic, but also lets you watch and record TV on your
PC, and create DVDs from your camcorder footage
[]
I've always been puzzled about that bit: surely to watch TV, you either
need (a) a TV receive stick, which will come with its own driver
allowing you to both watch and record it anyway (even on XP), or (b) a
pretty unlimited - and good - internet connection?

(And similarly for the DVD bit: I'd expect most camcorders these days,
i. e. digital ones, _or_ anything that can capture from an old analogue
camcorder, to come with at least some video editing software - and
either DVD writing would come as part of that software, or is at least
available free online from various sources [as is video editing
software].)
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G.5AL-IS-P--Ch++(p)Ar@T0H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

aibohphobia, n., The fear of palindromes.

On Fri, 27 Jul 2012 19:28:32 +0100, "J. P. Gilliver (John)"
wrote:

In message , Steve Hayes
writes:
[]
Home Premium - like Home Basic, but also lets you watch and record TV on your
PC, and create DVDs from your camcorder footage
[]
I've always been puzzled about that bit: surely to watch TV, you either
need (a) a TV receive stick, which will come with its own driver
allowing you to both watch and record it anyway (even on XP), or (b) a
pretty unlimited - and good - internet connection?

An Internet connection isn't usually required, except perhaps in cases
where you're trying to watch online content. Typical TV programming
(here in the States, anyway) is delivered via cable or OTA
(Over-the-air).

As for the basic TV apps that come bundled with aftermarket tuners,
they are shamefully barebones, to be nice about it. Third parties
rushed in with offerings such as BeyondTV, SageTV (what I use),
MythTV, and others. Wikipedia has an exhaustive list. Finally, with
Win 7, we get a fairly capable media center application. It has a
proper GUI that includes an extended program guide (EPG), full PVR
support, support for a wide range of tuner hardware, cover art and
show icons, and more. I don't think anyone is going to use the basic
app that comes with a tuner when they have Win 7's MC available.

--

Char Jackson

Per Char Jackson:
SageTV (what I use)

Have you developed a fallback position for the day Sage breaks?

I have not based on the assumption that, by the time it does,
there will be other possibilities than what is out there today.
--
Pete Cresswell

On Sat, 28 Jul 2012 10:56:21 -0400, "(PeteCresswell)"
wrote:

Per Char Jackson:
SageTV (what I use)

Have you developed a fallback position for the day Sage breaks?

AFAIK, Google hasn't said what they plan to do with it, so for now I'm
just riding the Sage horse until it dies or swerves off in a bad
direction.

I have not based on the assumption that, by the time it does,
there will be other possibilities than what is out there today.

To be honest, I'll probably use Win 7's Media Center. For my needs, it
does most of what Sage does, but its recorded files have the .wtv
extension rather than .mpg, which is a drawback for me since my
favorite video editor doesn't handle .wtv.

I've also been keeping tabs on the free Media Portal project, which
seems to have some excitement surrounding it. I looked at an earlier
version of MP, but IMO it wasn't ready yet at the time, or maybe it
was just me who wasn't ready. Anyway, I love Sage and hope Google
doesn't screw it up or kill it.

How do my experiences compare to yours?

--

Char Jackson

Per Char Jackson:

How do my experiences compare to yours?

When I tried Media Center, the dumbing-down of the UI made me
crazy... but I suspect I'm a little crazy to begin with... maybe
a closet Type-A. When I was an obese pre-adolescent, my dad
took me to this fat doctor in NYC, who put me on a starvation
diet and amphetamines - which seem to have formed much of my
personality as an adult.... -)

I never got to the .wtv thing - but a proprietary format was the
first thing to put me off of BeyondTV back when I was looking for
a MythTV replacement... so that would be make Media Center even
harder to swallow.

I'm running XP and Sage just keeps on tickin'.... mostly...

Managed to mess it up a little when I migrated my RecordedTV from
a NAS box to a couple of 2-TB drives on the Sage server. Pauses
on playback.... but I am pretty sure that was because I forgot to
format the drives properly (64k blocks) and it's struggling with
the inevitably-fragmented disc.

I am also having major pixellation problems on certain channels
at certain times of day. I had the Silicon Dust support guys
check my tuner logs and they say there's no signal problem... so
I'm hoping that it's somehow an artifact of the bad blocking
and/or a flaky drive. Another possibility is growth of tree
branches between antenna and transmitters - but the TOD thing
would have tb explained for that one to work... and the onset of
fall/winter may dispose of it with no effort on my part.

As long as I can keep the Sage box running XP - or even a version
of 7 where it works the only thing I've heard so far that might
break it is some driver issue if/when I have to go to a new mobo.

I really *like* SageTV... Having said that, if Google and the
old Frey team were to come out with a functional clone with the
same customizability for under $200....
--
Pete Cresswell

On Sat, 28 Jul 2012 14:22:47 -0400, "(PeteCresswell)"
wrote:

Per Char Jackson:

How do my experiences compare to yours?

When I tried Media Center, the dumbing-down of the UI made me
crazy... but I suspect I'm a little crazy to begin with... maybe
a closet Type-A. When I was an obese pre-adolescent, my dad
took me to this fat doctor in NYC, who put me on a starvation
diet and amphetamines - which seem to have formed much of my
personality as an adult.... -)

Was that dumbed-down UI under Win 7 or XP or what? I really don't have
a problem with Win 7's MC interface. Of course, I rarely ever see the
(Sage) interface. It just quietly does it's thing, recording from my
two dual HDHomerun tuners, and I access those recordings from another
PC on the LAN, never from the box that recorded them.

I never got to the .wtv thing - but a proprietary format was the
first thing to put me off of BeyondTV back when I was looking for
a MythTV replacement... so that would be make Media Center even
harder to swallow.

I tried BeyondTV several years ago and liked it, but what turned me
off when I got the HDHR tuners is that BTV is effectively a dead
product. Its developer has openly said he is no longer interested in
it and has shifted his focus away from the consumer space into a more
commercial space. One of the things I liked about BTV was the fact
that it created standard MPG files that any MPG editor was able to
work with. I'm surprised to hear that you found the files to be
proprietary. That may be something that changed later, after I had
moved on.

I'm running XP and Sage just keeps on tickin'.... mostly...

Managed to mess it up a little when I migrated my RecordedTV from
a NAS box to a couple of 2-TB drives on the Sage server. Pauses
on playback.... but I am pretty sure that was because I forgot to
format the drives properly (64k blocks) and it's struggling with
the inevitably-fragmented disc.

My Sage drive pool is comprised of 15 2TB Samsung drives, configured
as a single 27.2TB volume. Even with all 4 tuners recording to the
pool, I can watch (stream) a recorded program from across the LAN. Of
course, in my case, I might be recording to one or more physical
drives and pulling content from an entirely different drive. Who
knows. The drives are all formatted with the default settings. I
haven't checked their fragmentation status. I'm going to wait until I
have a problem.

I am also having major pixellation problems on certain channels
at certain times of day. I had the Silicon Dust support guys
check my tuner logs and they say there's no signal problem... so
I'm hoping that it's somehow an artifact of the bad blocking
and/or a flaky drive. Another possibility is growth of tree
branches between antenna and transmitters - but the TOD thing
would have tb explained for that one to work... and the onset of
fall/winter may dispose of it with no effort on my part.

When I first got the HDHR's, I was a bit mesmerized with the ability
to watch their signal strength in real time. If you see any problems,
you might want to fire up the HDHR Config program to check it out.
Signal Strength, Signal Quality, and Symbol Quality are all available
in real time. All of my tuners are using a single OTA antenna as their
source, and my signal levels range from 93% to 100% across all of the
channels. Signal Quality and Symbol Quality are always pegged at 100%.

I did have a signal strength problem with one half of one dual tuner
at first. Signal Strength would never get above 60% on that one. I did
some basic t-shooting by moving cables around, then opened a case with
HDHR support. They were excellent, by quickly reviewing my reported
complaint and immediately issuing an RMA. They didn't cross ship the
replacement, but even so, I had the new one in about 8 days from when
I mailed back the bad one.

Before getting the HDHR tuners, I messed around with several other
brands and types (PCI cards, USB sticks, etc), and I'm kicking myself
for waiting as long as I did. These things absolutely rock. The two
things I like best are 1)no coax cables running to the server!, and
2)the tuners are available to any PC on the network and are pooled, so
instead of connecting to a specific tuner, you connect to any
available tuner in the pool. As you know, Sage is able to take
advantage of that pooling, as does Win 7's Media Center.

As long as I can keep the Sage box running XP - or even a version
of 7 where it works the only thing I've heard so far that might
break it is some driver issue if/when I have to go to a new mobo.

No issues running Sage on Win 7. I didn't need any drivers since
there's no hardware involved.

I really *like* SageTV... Having said that, if Google and the
old Frey team were to come out with a functional clone with the
same customizability for under $200....

I hope they just leave well enough alone, but I suppose they didn't
buy it with the idea of doing nothing. We'll see.

--

Char Jackson

Per Char Jackson:
One of the things I liked about BTV was the fact
that it created standard MPG files that any MPG editor was able to
work with. I'm surprised to hear that you found the files to be
proprietary. That may be something that changed later, after I had
moved on.

More likely, I got it mixed up with some other product. I think
the same product I was thinking of also "Phoned Home" every time
it booted up - so if the publisher's server was down or
something, the user was unable to run the product.

As far as WMC's dumbed-down interface making me crazy goes...
You're probably normal.... Thousands, if not hundreds of
thousands or even millions of people must like it just fine....
But I'm one of those fault-finding PITAs.

Just read Steve Job's biography, and I feel a bond with the guy.
I've got the same arrogant attitude towards product - or at least
UI - design... it's just that he had the brains to accompany it
and I don't... -)
--
Pete Cresswell