DVR Solutions / Suggestions

[IVB]

Here is a screen shot of my information from the Antennaweb.org site:

CBS had to be an odd-ball and do something different, else everything else that I care about is Yellow: ABC, NBC, FOX

Yellow is damn easy to get, that's a small multi-directional antenna. Is channel 4 CBS? If so, that'll be your hassle, but you could do what I did when I had a similar issue with NBC: Stock up on 3 HD-OTA PCI tuner cards (or 2 HDHomeRun dual tuners, or 1 HDHR and 1 PCI card). That gets you ABC/NBC/Fox, all taping concurrently. Then use your cable/DirecTV box to tune CBS, trapped by either a Hauppauge PCI card (if SD), or Hauppauge HD-PVR (for HD), based on which STB you have. All that is plugged into SageTV as video sources.

Then, by putting the extender at each TV location (or nearby running component), you can use the sage UI to watch & schedule anything you want.

On a side note, If you have kids, the other nice thing that I did was to setup movie folders as such:

G:\Movies
G:\Movies\SciFi
G:\Movies\Drama
G:\Movies\Action
G:\Movies\HomeMovies

I upload all our movies taken via the digital camera to that HomeMovies location, and now I can flip between TV, DVDs, and Home Movies all pretty easily from within Sage. Sage sorts movies by the file folder type, so I physically see a different bucket for SciFi vs Drama vs Action vs HomeMovies. Clicking into each of those shows only those movies.

 

[DrunkenLizard]

red
uhf WHWC 28 PBS MENOMONIE, WI 200° 43.0 28

blue
uhf WHWC-DT 28.1 PBS MENOMONIE, WI 200° 43.0 27


Ouch,

I'm in a similar boat, have Directv for service right now but OTA recordings are going to be a complicated and expensive solution at the least. I know I'd be able to get more than just PBS with a massive antenna tower and a higher end antenna. Is there a limit to the number of HD PVR's you can run on one server?

I already picked up an extender and a sage license. I plan on just running the extender to my Extron, probably add a second or third extender. Can't see ever needing more than three streams from sage at one time in my house, two would probably cut it 90% of the time.

 

[drvnbysound]

Yellow is damn easy to get, that's a small multi-directional antenna. Is channel 4 CBS? If so, that'll be your hassle, but you could do what I did when I had a similar issue with NBC: Stock up on 3 HD-OTA PCI tuner cards (or 2 HDHomeRun dual tuners, or 1 HDHR and 1 PCI card). That gets you ABC/NBC/Fox, all taping concurrently. Then use your cable/DirecTV box to tune CBS, trapped by either a Hauppauge PCI card (if SD), or Hauppauge HD-PVR (for HD), based on which STB you have. All that is plugged into SageTV as video sources.

Then, by putting the extender at each TV location (or nearby running component), you can use the sage UI to watch & schedule anything you want.

On a side note, If you have kids, the other nice thing that I did was to setup movie folders as such:

G:\Movies
G:\Movies\SciFi
G:\Movies\Drama
G:\Movies\Action
G:\Movies\HomeMovies

I upload all our movies taken via the digital camera to that HomeMovies location, and now I can flip between TV, DVDs, and Home Movies all pretty easily from within Sage. Sage sorts movies by the file folder type, so I physically see a different bucket for SciFi vs Drama vs Action vs HomeMovies. Clicking into each of those shows only those movies.

Yes, 4 is CBS. However, I am 99% sure that my parents are actually picking it up with one of the small indoor antennas like this (generic photo, not actual one used):

I know my dad has one of the large outdoor antennas as well, but I am not certain that he has split that signal to each of their TVs, and I know he can currently get CBS - I am approx. 5 miles away from my parents house. I will have to pick up a small multi-directional antenna and see what I am actually able to get. In any case, I know I would end up serving the STB into a HD-PVR anyway, because there are HD channels that Id want to record that are not OTA. Fortunately, I dont currently think there would ever be a situation where I would need to record more than 1 non-OTA channel .. or Id have to get multiple HD STBs and HD-PVRs to handle it.. which would start esclating the price quicker than I'd like.

 

[damage]

i just bought an antennas direct db4 ( http://www.antennasdirect.com/DB4_HDTV_antenna.html ). it works great on the blue stations. right now it's on the first floor of our 2 story house near a window. i haven't tried to move it outside or into the attic yet. fox is the farthest station from me that i care about & it comes in perfectly.

* blue
uhf KTVU-DT 2.1 FOX OAKLAND, CA Feb 17, 2009 (post-transition) 296° 40.9 44

 

[felixrosbergen]

DTV Antenna
Type Call Sign Channel Network City, State Live
Date Compass
Heading Miles
From Frequency
Assignment
blue
vhf WTNH 8 ABC NEW HAVEN, CT 94° 24.0 8
blue
uhf WTXX 20 CW WATERBURY, CT 76° 22.7 20
blue
uhf WVIT 30 NBC NEW BRITAIN, CT 66° 37.7 30
blue
uhf WTIC 61 FOX HARTFORD, CT 65° 37.8 61
violet
uhf WSAH 43 SAH BRIDGEPORT, CT 105° 15.3 43
violet
vhf WFSB 3 CBS HARTFORD, CT 61° 42.0 3

Looks mostly blue for me...coudl be because i had to answer 'yes' to the tall tree question. I'm also in a hilly area and am not on top of the hill.

What equipment would i need for OTA HD? Atennaweb said 'medium directional with amp' but if i look at the angles does that mean multiple directional antennas?

Due to WAF i can only do in attic antennas. Is this realistic? Seems i am between 15 and 40 miles from the antennas at a couple of different angles.

All stations appear to be analog (while i say show digital stations only they all disapear)...is this even HD then?

 

[drvnbysound]

DTV Antenna
Type Call Sign Channel Network City, State Live
Date Compass
Heading Miles
From Frequency
Assignment
blue
vhf WTNH 8 ABC NEW HAVEN, CT 94° 24.0 8
blue
uhf WTXX 20 CW WATERBURY, CT 76° 22.7 20
blue
uhf WVIT 30 NBC NEW BRITAIN, CT 66° 37.7 30
blue
uhf WTIC 61 FOX HARTFORD, CT 65° 37.8 61
violet
uhf WSAH 43 SAH BRIDGEPORT, CT 105° 15.3 43
violet
vhf WFSB 3 CBS HARTFORD, CT 61° 42.0 3

Looks mostly blue for me...coudl be because i had to answer 'yes' to the tall tree question. I'm also in a hilly area and am not on top of the hill.

What equipment would i need for OTA HD? Atennaweb said 'medium directional with amp' but if i look at the angles does that mean multiple directional antennas?

Due to WAF i can only do in attic antennas. Is this realistic? Seems i am between 15 and 40 miles from the antennas at a couple of different angles.

All stations appear to be analog (while i say show digital stations only they all disapear)...is this even HD then?

Ideally - I would think (and hope for you) that they all transition to digital HD signals here soon. All of my stations were listed as so, either listing the already converted digital ones, along with others that will convert to digital on the 17th.

 

[drvnbysound]

Yellow is damn easy to get, that's a small multi-directional antenna. Is channel 4 CBS? If so, that'll be your hassle, but you could do what I did when I had a similar issue with NBC: Stock up on 3 HD-OTA PCI tuner cards (or 2 HDHomeRun dual tuners, or 1 HDHR and 1 PCI card). That gets you ABC/NBC/Fox, all taping concurrently. Then use your cable/DirecTV box to tune CBS, trapped by either a Hauppauge PCI card (if SD), or Hauppauge HD-PVR (for HD), based on which STB you have. All that is plugged into SageTV as video sources.

Then, by putting the extender at each TV location (or nearby running component), you can use the sage UI to watch & schedule anything you want.

On a side note, If you have kids, the other nice thing that I did was to setup movie folders as such:

G:\Movies
G:\Movies\SciFi
G:\Movies\Drama
G:\Movies\Action
G:\Movies\HomeMovies

I upload all our movies taken via the digital camera to that HomeMovies location, and now I can flip between TV, DVDs, and Home Movies all pretty easily from within Sage. Sage sorts movies by the file folder type, so I physically see a different bucket for SciFi vs Drama vs Action vs HomeMovies. Clicking into each of those shows only those movies.

Is there any difference between the SiliconDust HDHomerun and the Hauppauge HVR-2250 in terms of function / capability? I do realize the HDHR is an external, where the 2250 is internal... but both are dual tuner. Just making sure Im not missing something else. The Hauppauge one is currently listed as being $10 cheaper (Newegg). I think Id want internal cards anyway - the less external hardware I have to find places for the better.

SiliconDust HDHomerun: http://www.silicondust.com/products/hdhomerun_dvbt

Hauppauge HVR-2250: http://www.hauppauge.com/site/products/data_hvr2250.html

 

[drvnbysound]

i just bought an antennas direct db4 ( http://www.antennasdirect.com/DB4_HDTV_antenna.html ). it works great on the blue stations. right now it's on the first floor of our 2 story house near a window. i haven't tried to move it outside or into the attic yet. fox is the farthest station from me that i care about & it comes in perfectly.

* blue
uhf KTVU-DT 2.1 FOX OAKLAND, CA Feb 17, 2009 (post-transition) 296° 40.9 44

Thanks for posting that link. I'd like to use something that was attic mount for personal AF :-\

 

[Steve]

The digital stations where you are likely to pickup your HD stuff should be listed as the .1 stations. Don't underestimate the size you need. Most of the time a larger antenna will help and not hurt. The Radio Shack antenna are actually pretty good and a good value. I have the VU90 in the attic. I would have put the 160 if I thought I could fit it.

 

[IVB]

I live 14 miles away from one tower, but I was 45 miles away from the NBC tower. For the reasons Steve mentions (don't underestimate), I got a huge honking Channel Master CM4228 for my roof. My wife absolutely hates it when she looks at it, but fortunately it's in the back part of the house that no one really looks at.

How big? Here's a pic. It's not my install, but one I grabbed off google. I had no issue picking up the signal from 45 miles away on clear days, when it would rain there would be some pixelation (digital = no static, just blocks missing from the pic).

 

[drvnbysound]

Any insight to the tuner question from above? Post #22.

 

[Steve]

Any insight to the tuner question from above? Post #22.

For purposes of OTA either should work fine, depends on you wants/needs. Remember the 2250 needs a PCIe slot so as long as you have one available and are willing to use it then you can pick either.

 

[drvnbysound]

Any insight to the tuner question from above? Post #22.

For purposes of OTA either should work fine, depends on you wants/needs. Remember the 2250 needs a PCIe slot so as long as you have one available and are willing to use it then you can pick either.

Thanks for the info - what I thought. Ill have to check the mobo and find out whats available :-\

 

[sic0048]

Personally I would stick with the HDHomeRun because it is a network tuner. It is hooked onto the network and only uses the computer to record the stream of data. In other words, it works as a stand alone device, but without any onboard storage. With an internal tuner you always have the chance that something in your computer setup won't work with the tuner. There is just a much higher chance of problems with an internal tuner vs the HDHomeRun. A USB tuner can still have the compatibility issues because although it is external, it still uses the computer for much of it's work.

I've had many tuners over the years (everything from an MyHD card and other internal tuners to USB tuners and the HDHomeRun). The HDHomeRun has been my most reliable tuner by far. In fact, I don't think I have ever missed a recording due to a problem with the HDHomeRun. I've missed them due to weak antenna strength with the HDHR, but never because something went wrong with the tuner. I cannot say that about any other tuner I have ever owned. They have all had issues at some point that caused me to miss a recording or two.

 

[gregking]

I've considered a BYO dvr system several times, but I always run into the problem of how to get the recorded data to play on my TV. I have no interest in watching recordings on a PC.

So have I missed some magical product that does this? I thought the HDHomeRun might be the ticket, but it looks like it's just a streamer. Is there something that takes streams or shared files and can output to either HDMI or Component at 1080i level?

gk