Getting started in HTPC's

[bfisher]

OK guys, yet another newbie question. Why would you / do you need a remote to go with your TV tuner card? The extenders come with remotes to control them right? Do the extenders allow the ability to watch live TV via Sage (TV tuner card)?

To finish up the question (Collin answered the first part) - yes, with Sage extenders, you can watch live TV - although it's not really live - it's delayed about 5-10 seconds (it's recording it to the hard disk and then streaming it to you). If you are an avid channel surfer... this is a bad solution for you. It takes 1-5 seconds to change channels (depending on if its a STB or an antenna, HD, etc).

I never ever watch live anymore. Its so easy to go into the EPG and tell it to record something - and then I get something to drink or whatever and then start watching. Of course, I have hundreds (best estimate is around 200 hours) of TV already recorded to watch.

 

[CollinR]

Also if you like professional football a game in reality only lasts about 45 minutes when you blast through all the crap. (ie commercials, time outs, huddles) With a 60/15 skip you can basically jump from play to play.

That alone is super cool enough for me.

The 60/15 is the timeskip configuration for the remote buttons. The >> is 60 seconds and the > is 15, this as with just about everything else is user configurable. I normally use 60/30 as commercials seem to be 60 or 90 seconds long.

It also seems from the time the ball is down to the next play is about 15 seconds.

 

[magrann]

I have been following this post and in the not to distant future will be considering my options also. If I understand this correctly, this is for sharing anything that I have loaded to that server (ie. dvd rips, recorded shows, downloaded movies, etc...). And what it is not for is sharing your components live (ie. set top box, dvd player, video game console, etc...). Would it make sense if I wanted the best of both worlds to have sage tv for recorded playback and a matrix switch for the components playback for different zones?

Also,
While I to love to skip commercials and be in control, I enjoy watching my sports live.

Mike

 

[DeLicious]

how do the tuners handle encrypted cable signals? would i have to put the incoming coax into my cable box first and have an output go to the sage server?

 

[CollinR]

Today you must either pull QAM directly from the coax no STB needed, through baseband svideo and it appears soon to be component at reasonable cost and performance.

 

[68sting]

Still a little confused. I think I can do a lot of this already. But not all.


Does sage work with Directv or only with OTA and cable? If it does work with Directv how do I get D in to the server? My main concern here is how does sage record USAHD, TNTHD, ESPNHD, ect. from Directv? How does it get these channels in HD from cable companys? We watch a lot of other HD channels besides the OTA ones.

Here's my set up again. I use CE Labs component amps to distibute and have an ir system in place to contol the equipment.

I have 2 HD DVRs that can be viewed at these locations: 2 sets of component video run to each location-each location has it own 5.1 system.
Master bed
Main linving room/kitchen
Basement living
Theater-Projector

These rooms only have access to 1 DVR: I won't watch recorded material in these locations so I only ran one set of component cables.
Theater-15" hdtv
work out room
shop
office
basement bath

All location plus these get a coax feed with OTA, 12 cctv cameras modulated to channels, and a SD directv box also modulated:
kids room-4 year old and 14 days old so no real demand there yet
garage


I also have a touch screen in the masterbath that I stream (via Homeseer)the modulated SD box to sometimes in the morning. This can viewed over the net.

Here's the plus side that I see:

The dvd play back is not a big deal to me. We don't rewatch movies so it doesn't make sence for me to buy them. We rent most everything and I didn't think it was legal to rip rented discs. Plus we watch movies in the theater room so I really only need them in one location. I can see a real upside though for this with the kids movies. They get watched all over the place and we do buy those. Also if it is legal to rip the rentals then why not have library on hand. This could be a plus.


Displaying other pc contant on your tv. If your tv has a vga input you could use this also though. My laptop usually follows me from room to room anyway.

Ability to record more than 4 channels at once. I'll need more info on how it gets the "other" hd channels that are not OTA.

If you haven't run cables the extenders can be an eaiser and cheaper way of get HD to a location.


The down side.

I believe I would be putting my tv "wife would consider this mission critical" in the hands of a PC. That issue gets discussed all the time so I won't go into it.

I can see a need for this at some point but I seem to have most things covered at the moment. Let me know what I've missed.

Thanks
Lance

 

[IVB]

I use SD (not HD) D* with SageTV; you can get a D* box with USB control via the patersontech.com cable, so you can change channels via serial through native SageTV functionality (infinitely superior to IR). You get a TV tuner card, ie PVR250 or PVR500 (dual tuner), connect the D* STB RF or composite output to the PVR500 input. You setup SageTV so that you always use channel 3 on the PVR500, and use serial to control the station on the D* STB.

Works great. My wife had concerns about the "mission-critical-recording-of-Celebrity-Apprentice" 3 years back, but now that we have 1.1TB allocated to SageTV, 3 HD OTA tuners and 1 SD D* tuner so we can record every god damn reality show out there, and play back on any TV, she now feels that setting up any recording anywhere, watching anywhere, and modifying anything anywhere, is also mission critical. Oh, and the 6 year old REFUSES to let go of the MVP remote control if she's watching TV, hell she's better at it than the wife is.

 

[bfisher]

regarding the new DirecTV HD channels - there isn't a good way to do it today... but there are about a half-dozen solutions on the near horizon. I suspect within 3-4 months we'll be bringing it in fine. Currently you use a STB (set top box) via S-Video. Picture is very good... but not as good as HD

 

[mustangcoupe]

OK, I am also deciding how to handle distrubited audio/video. And this thread made me start thinking.....

Can Sage also do Audio?
I have digital cable, I assume I'd need a QUAM card, what card is recommended?
If you mix and match HD/SD/Digital cards is sage smart enough to choose the correct card for recording or do you need to pick the correct card whwen settign up recordings? does it know you are recording one on SD and wont allow you to choose a second SD recording on the same card?
Can DVD's be streamed from the DVD Drive? or do you need to RIP them to watch?
How long does it take to rip them? How much strage space is required for a typical movie?
Is there a limit of streams from the server at once?
What is reccomended for the sage server (what are your specs)? is this the only process you are running on this machine, or is it also your HA server?? I assume if you are watching live TV you need a tuner for each output (unless your watching the same thing on multiple tv's)?

And Lastly..... How do I get the current cntent off my Comcast DVR and on the Server if I was to switch? Is there any easy way of doing this? Or shoulf I sit down with Ice cream for a weekend or two?

 

[mustangcoupe]

Oh wait one more..... Can you take the extender off your network and still access the media? ex. take to a friends house and plug it in to their network? I beleive you can do this with a laptop right?

 

[CollinR]

OK, I am also deciding how to handle distrubited audio/video. And this thread made me start thinking.....

Can Sage also do Audio?

Yes both analog and digital if your hardware supports it.

I have digital cable, I assume I'd need a QUAM card, what card is recommended?
If you mix and match HD/SD/Digital cards is sage smart enough to choose the correct card for recording or do you need to pick the correct card whwen settign up recordings? does it know you are recording one on SD and wont allow you to choose a second SD recording on the same card?

Best bet for you is probably a PVR500 + HVR1800 (<QAM) and wait for the component HD encoders.

SageTV is smarter then you are about getting what you want recorded. You need not specify tuners or ports, if you request it by title it will aquire it sooner or later.

Can DVD's be streamed from the DVD Drive? or do you need to RIP them to watch?

With AnyDVD yes.

How long does it take to rip them? How much strage space is required for a typical movie?

SageTV itself doesn't have an integrated DVD ripping facility. If you choose to do that you can use a command line driven application and the menus system to run it. Most do it manually on another machine.

Is there a limit of streams from the server at once?

5 outbound, unlimited incoming. This is for retail pricing, commercial licenses are unlimited ($399/$100)

What is reccomended for the sage server (what are your specs)? is this the only process you are running on this machine, or is it also your HA server?? I assume if you are watching live TV you need a tuner for each output (unless your watching the same thing on multiple tv's)?

Decent stuff Intel over Intel, look at disk access heavily and more PCI and PCIexpress slots the better.

And Lastly..... How do I get the current cntent off my Comcast DVR and on the Server if I was to switch? Is there any easy way of doing this? Or shoulf I sit down with Ice cream for a weekend or two?

Have fun! This is why SageTV exists, it does have automated facilities for Playstation Portable, Motorola Razor and Ipod. Not to mention you can just keep your stuff in MPEG2.

Oh wait one more..... Can you take the extender off your network and still access the media? ex. take to a friends house and plug it in to their network? I beleive you can do this with a laptop right?

No nothing is stored on the extender, however you can use placeshifter on your buddies computer be it Windows, Linux or Mac. If you unplug an extender you have freed a license for your placeshifter connection.

 

[mustangcoupe]

No nothing is stored on the extender, however you can use placeshifter on your buddies computer be it Windows, Linux or Mac. If you unplug an extender you have freed a license for your placeshifter connection.

I understand nothng is stored on the extender, but can you open ports on your router and then connect to the server using your wan ip?

 

[CollinR]

I'm thinking it might be possible with the HD extender, for sure it's not with the SD.

I would think performace to be horrible though, it's made for a LAN connection and would need tweaking to get it to connect over the internet.

 

[mustangcoupe]

Best bet for you is probably a PVR500 + HVR1800 (<QAM) and wait for the component HD encoders.

Im not as worried right now about HD as I do not have any HD Tv's but I want QAM fot digital the box I want to use is my WHS. BUT it does not have any PCIe slots. so the HVR1800 wont work for me... double

 

[DeLicious]

well, until it can record ESPNHD, or TNTHD or anything else that must be decoded by my cable's stb, it's too limited for me. i demand hi-def for Flight of the Conchords