Need sage advice about Sage....

[beelzerob]

I'm new to using Sage, and I've been given the challenge by the wife: "Make it so my folks can watch general hospital while they're here."

Ok, so here's what I have:

• A decently powered media PC which at one time was used to render captured OTA HD
• ATSC-110 HD OTA capture card
• Hauppage PVR250 capture card
• DVICO HD Fusion 5 lite capture card
• A lower powered PC which is currently the CQC server (stays on 24/7)
• A media MVP

Our OTA reception is pretty poor here. We basically get nothing for analog channels (which is fine, they're going away soon anyway), and we get digital channels for Fox, ABC, and NBC. All of those have a digital broadcast which comes in 480i. We get CBS too, but it's always in some higher form of HD apparently.

The good news is GH comes on ABC, which we get pretty decently in HD and in digital SD.

I resurrected the older PC (FX5200 video card, AMD Athlon something or other, 1 GB memory) for the CQC server and for running the kitchen touchscreen. it works great for that. I thought it'd be pretty neat to be able to use that for anything sage related too, so I don't have to use the more power-intensive media PC (Athlon 64 I think, and some better video card).

So here's what I was able to do....I put the PVR250 card in the lower powered PC and looked to see what channels I could tune in. It did get some channels. I'm guessing those must have been analog channels, and the reception was bad. So, I put in the HD Fusion card and hooked up the antenna to that, and the reception was much better.

I hooked up the media MVP to it last night to see how well it worked. It seemed to be working ok. I was able to tune to HD channels, and the feed to the TV was very stuttery. For HD, is that rendering on the PC and then being sent to the MVP? If so, that explains how bad it was. But the digital SD channels were (relatively) fine. There was some kind of frequent visual glitching. I'm guessing that's a result of the reception, and not the setup?

My HD TV has no problem with the signal coming in. I bought a splitter from automated outlet, so I could take the OTA signal from the antenna to both my HD TV and to the capture card, but I wonder if that's going to make the reception in sage even worse.

So I guess my questions are....is the PC having to render it if it's digital, even if it's only in SD? If so, then the PC is working harder than I want it to. The media MVP is supposed to be the one rendering it, right? Like the HD100 does?

Any remarks or suggestions on my setup? Again I'm new to this. I like how it's working, but the GH scenario has to be pretty rock solid.

And where do I put in the license code to get the "trial" to go away from the media MVP screen?

 

[sic0048]

I'm not an expert on the MVP, but I think the TV has to render the stream if it is HD. The MVP cannot play HD, so it has to be rendered before sending it to the MVP.

Concerning the tuner cards. I've found that the newer the tuner (whether tuner cards, or the tuners in TVs), the better the reception. Clearly there have been advances in tuner performance and it shows. The older HD cards I have don't work as well as my newer tuner cards. I think you are seeing the same results. I bet your TV is the newest tuner out of the bunch, so it handles reception the best.

 

[jkmonroe]

I dont have any advice for you, I just wanted to pop in and comment that this thread made me laugh. beezlerob, of SageTV driver fame, is just now setting up a SageTV system B)

 

[beelzerob]

Hehe...ya, I was more than a little apprehensive starting to use Sage myself, because I knew that I would then start demanding more from the CQC driver too!
B)

 

[felixrosbergen]

seriously??? you wrote the driver but never used it?

Thats too funny...

 

[beelzerob]

Well, so I'm running into problems with Sage, and the time is almost out (the inlaws are almost here). I can't figure out why Sage can't find any airings of General Hospital, when I'm selecting a lineup that includes the channels it is on. In fact, right now, I'm not getting any guide data at all (previously, I had guide data just for a few channels, the rest said "no data".

Is that downloaded automatically? Can I spur it on somehow?

 

[BraveSirRobbin]

That's weird. Maybe you have multiple tuner cards and some aren't programmed for your correct channel inputs (cable area)?

 

[IVB]

Check the SageTV forums;i know there's a way to force an EPG update, i can't remember what it is. It's normally downloaded 1x/24 hours.

FWIW, I just checked, I find tons of General Hospital airings. It sounds like an EPG/XMLTV Feed issue for your zipcode.

 

[Steve]

Do any of you have other issues with the EPG, such as one channel very often showing 'No Data' while others are fine, or several shows not indicating if they are first run or not. Sometimes I miss shows because they are not marked as first run so the favorite doesn't record it, but if I change the fav to allow repeats I get a ton of recording and can't always differentiate the first run from repeats. I think these are all EPG issues but I don't think I can use a different EPG.

 

[beelzerob]

Well, ok...I redid the video source, and now I get recordings for General Hospital...

but here's the new/real problem. GH is on ABC. ABC has 2 channels, both digital. One is in HD (ch 23.1), the other is SD (ch 23.2). I'm using a media MVP, so I need to use the SD channel. However, in the EPG, there is only channel info for ch 23.1. Ch 23.2 (and ch 23.3) show no data. So that means it won't match as a general hospital hit on 23.2, only 23.1 So it's only going to record the HD shows, which are unwatchably stuttery.

Worst worst case scenario, I can get my media PC up and running again, and hopefully it will still have the horsepower to render HD to the MVP...but I'd rather just record in SD off of 23.2. I guess I could also set a manual recording, but I'd rather know why those 2 channels show no data. Any ideas?

 

[IVB]

hmm. if you can handle a little bit of rework, try removing the video source for the SD tuner, then re-add it using a different zipcode. Try a major one (ie, SF is 94105, but try one in your timezone), then force the download, then see if you get any data. That's the big problem you need to solve, and the major networks should all be the same all along the freezin, i mean eastern, seaboard.

 

[beelzerob]

Well, it's not an SD tuner...it's a fusion gold hdtv "tuner". The channel that comes across is digital, but in SD instead of HD.

The area I'm getting the lineup for is actually somewhat significant....Altoona/Johnstown is a pretty large town for this area. I don't think I'm going to find a larger area unless it's Pitts/Philly. But even if I did that, won't the channels be wrong? They're not going to have 23.2, right?

 

[IVB]

hmmm. That is an issue. Try it anywy, see if you get any guide data; that's your current issue, so let's see if flipping zips solves it.

 

[sic0048]

It sounds like it is a guide issue where the guide isn't showing any data for the SD subchannel. If it is simply a rebroadcast of the HD channel - ie it is the same shows all the time, then I think you can somehow map the channel to read the primary channel's guide information. Do a search on the SageTV forum and I think you'll find directions on how to map the channel guide to another existing channel. This is different from simply mapping the channel in the SageTV menu.

 

[beelzerob]

It sounds like it is a guide issue where the guide isn't showing any data for the SD subchannel. If it is simply a rebroadcast of the HD channel - ie it is the same shows all the time, then I think you can somehow map the channel to read the primary channel's guide information. Do a search on the SageTV forum and I think you'll find directions on how to map the channel guide to another existing channel. This is different from simply mapping the channel in the SageTV menu.

Ok, I'll look at remapping. I was able to go into the Favorites and tell it to record specifically from 23.2, but doing so, it also uses that guide info, and so it can't find any listings.

23.2 is an SD rebroadcast of the 23.1 HD channel for ABC. However, amusingly, 23.3 is actually a FOX SD broadcast, the only fox channel we get. So, even though remapping 23.1 to 23.2 is useful, that still doesn't get me 23.3 which is fox, not abc.