I wander down to this part of the forum every once in a while but spend most of my time in the HTPC area. I've run SageTV for quite some time and have been very happy with it. Well, SageTV just released version 6.3, and the big new feature in 6.3 is support for the STX-HD100 High Definition Media Extender.

I'll leave the detailed descriptions to the reviews, but basically the the STX-HD100 is a Sigma 86xx based device that uses the SageTV interface and SageTV backend (media library, PVR capabilities). It's highly customizeable and support a ton of formats, including full DVD playback with menu support.

I thought the "Content Streamer" area might be interested as this is the first hardware product I've seen that really provides the capability for an integrated whole-house system. Or, to put it another way, it's the first product which has made me consider retiring my HTPC, and I think it may well be successful :cool:

The STX-HD100 certainly does seem to be the best / most compatible Sigma EM8623L based box on the market. No other Sigma 86xx-based box has a UI that is even close in terms of usability. I'm really surprised there hasn't been more talk about it.

The obvious negative is the need for a computer (Windows / Mac / Linux) running their server software, but a version of that is available for Windows Home Server. If you have one of those new NAS-type boxes running WHS (like me), you can install the SageTV software on that and be done with it. No need to keep your PC running 24/7.

So the chip is an EM8623L, I have been waiting to find out what it used.
I bought SageTV a few days ago to try it as a whole house video distribution system. I like everything but the standard GUI, I will try some of the user mods later.
I did not buy the HD hardware extender yet but based on my experience with the software client on a second HTPC I will be buying a few of these for my home.
I wish they would have used a Sigma EM8634/35 chip, maybe in a future version.

Just curious, what does the 863x have over the 862x? From the specs they look very similar, they seems to have about the same codec support and the same level of support for each codec.

Just curious, what does the 863x have over the 862x? From the specs they look very similar, they seems to have about the same codec support and the same level of support for each codec.The 863x has dual video decoders (for PIP), more robust audio DSPs, dedicated hardware decryption, and a faster CPU (300MHz MIPS vs 200MHz ARM) to decode higher-bitrate video.

I don't think the 862x has the processing power to decode some 1080p material from Blu-ray, but it does perfectly well with 720p H264 / Divx and 720p/1080i/1080p24 MPEG-2 @ 20Mbps.

Anyone know if there's a way to get this extender to work with any of DirecTV's HD receivers to pull in HD content and distribute that throughout the house?

Anyone know if there's a way to get this extender to work with any of DirecTV's HD receivers to pull in HD content and distribute that throughout the house?No, there's no way to do that with any consumer product.

If you want whole house HD distribution, you've got to switch to cable or OTA. Yes, it's unfortunate.

If you want whole house HD distribution, you've got to switch to cable or OTA. Yes, it's unfortunate.

Or Dish Network with an R5000'd box.