SageTV HD Theater

Combination of standalone mode, extender capabilities, and web video make it a steal for the price. Sports all the A/V connections du jour (component, composite, HDMI, SPDIF, S-Video). Plays media in a ton of formats: MPEG, H.264, WMV, AVI, AAC, FLAC —...

No integrated Wi-Fi. Flashing status lights are ridiculously bright. Switch from “extender” mode to “standalone” requires a power cycle. Remote is unnecessarily complicated and hardly universal. Mediocre quality for web video. Sorry home audio buffs,...

Smooth local network streaming, even in high definition. Small size. Includes plenty of cables and a full-featured remote. USB ports finally work

Still no Wi-Fi capability. Sparse, boring selection of online content. Plenty of hiccups in online streaming performance. Some stability issues

The SageTV HD Theater isn't the killer, must-have media extender we've been waiting for. It's a decent box, but only if you skip the online video section and stick with USB or network streaming.

Works great with SageTV servers; fanless and quiet; very customizable

Doesn't work well without SageTV server; remote lacks a real keyboard; fiddly

For anyone who has already bought into the SageTV lifestyle, the HD Theater is a great way to connect more rooms to the media hub. However, we can’t recommend the HD Theater if you haven’t already purchased SageTV. We’d rather run the more-polished and...