SageTV HD Theater is an alternative when you are not sure how to build HTPC media center. Traditionally HTPC media center is viewed as a device or in SageTV’s case media extender which is capable to play videos, music, photos and online media content. To my experience, media center concept is often defined too narrowly. In this article, I will explain why SageTV is a good choice if media center concept is defined narrowly, but not so feasible solution if you define media center more broadly.
Let’s look how SageTV defines their media center:
- Enjoy your home video library, music and photos
- Movie trailers, music videos, TV shows and more on demand video
While I agree with the basic definition of media center, I would add the following:
- Reed the latest news from RSS news feeds (e.g. Google Reader)
- Browse your favorite websites with a mouse
- Check the greetings from your friends using social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter
- Communicate with your family and friends using Skype or similar software and Webcam
- Edit and share your favorite photos or home videos over the internet
- Play occasionally some games
- Play a DVD or Blu-Ray movie
- And so on (what else would you like to do in the living room)
The key point here is that many people would like to do more with their media center than simply stream music, videos and photos from their desktop computer located in another room. While SageTV seems to perform well in the basic tasks will it be enough to your growing needs. Soon you will realize that you need another box to play games, you need another box to play DVD’s or Blu-Ray movies, you need a laptop or iPhone or similar device to browse internet and read news feeds and so on. For this reason, I do not really see SageTV as an alternative to my HTPC media center. Maybe I have just learned to demand more from the media player attached to my HDTV.
Furthermore, you still need a computer to act as a Media Server for your SageTV HD Theater. So my question remains why wouldn’t I put a computer next to my TV, which can substitute most of my existing devices to simplify my media experience. Sure SageTV is small and silent box, but so is my Apple Mac Mini HTPC.
Let me know your thoughts on how do you define your media experience. Is it enough for you to play music, video and photos using a media extender and use separate game console, DVD-player, desktop PC or laptop for other activities.