MKM4 is right, there's no cheap way to do it although you can save a little money if you get a 922 or 920 modded and don't buy an HDD. That's what I did. That said, my 922 cost me right at $1000 after having it modded by Nextcomm. So it's still mighty pricey.
The integration with Sage still needs some work, but it's improving. The first version of their Sage software was pretty rough working with 4dtv, but the latest beta isn't doing too bad. It does have some issues, but I feel like they're probably fixable. I've been corresponding with tech. support about them. The nice thing about having the Sage integration is the 4dtv receiver becomes a dumb box. All of the user interface is done through Sage, so the archaic 4dtv interface is replaced with a very nice PVR with 12-day searchable guide.
One thing to keep in mind with Sage is it's not really aimed at PC-savvy users. If you don't have fairly decent PC skills, it's going to be pretty difficult to set up. I suspect a lot of the folks on this board are geeks like me, so it probably won't be an issue for most folks reading this.
