Planning for SageTV

[upstatemike]

I’m looking forward to eventually installing a SageTV system and I need some input to confirm that what I am planning makes sense and will work. What I have now is:

Location 1-
HDTV
Sony HD SAT Tuner/SD Cable Tuner
SD SAT Tuner + ReplayTV DVR

Location 2-
HDTV
SD SAT Tuner + ReplayTV DVR

Location 3-
HD Monitor (no internal tuner)
Sony HD SAT Tuner/SD Cable Tuner

The 2 Sony HD tuners will be replaced by DirecTV at the end of this month.

This is my plan:

Put a spare PC (which I will upgrade later) into a central location
Install a WinTV-PVR-500MCE PCI dual tuner card into the PC
Install a WinTV-HVR-1600 PCI single tuner card into the PC
Install 2 Hauppauge HD-PVRs
Install Media Center For Windows 6.x

Location 1-
Move the DTV supplied HD SAT box to the central location and connect using a Hauppauge HD-PVR
Move the SD SAT box to the central location and connect to PVR-500MCE via S-Video
Discard ReplayTV
Install HD Extender in location 1

Location 2-
Move the SD SAT box to the central location and connect to HVR-1600 via S-Video
Discard ReplayTV
Install HD Extender in location 2

Location 3-
Move the DTV supplied HD SAT box to the central location and connect using the 2nd Hauppauge HD-PVR
Install HD Extender in location 3

Will this work or am I missing something?

 

[CollinR]

Your design doesn't require the HVR1600 at all, each PVR500 supports 2 SD boxes.

You'll probably want a USBUIRT too which is only like $50.

I would hold off on the HVR1600 as I think a new product will be better suited if QAM/ATSC is your goal.

PVR500s are getting harder to source I would really consider 2.

~~~~~~~~~

The real issue though is how many shows do you wish to watch that air at the same timeslot? There is no need to have more encoders then that plus say 2.

 

[davefred99]

I’m looking forward to eventually installing a SageTV system and I need some input to confirm that what I am planning makes sense and will work. What I have now is:

Location 1-
HDTV
Sony HD SAT Tuner/SD Cable Tuner
SD SAT Tuner + ReplayTV DVR

Location 2-
HDTV
SD SAT Tuner + ReplayTV DVR

Location 3-
HD Monitor (no internal tuner)
Sony HD SAT Tuner/SD Cable Tuner

The 2 Sony HD tuners will be replaced by DirecTV at the end of this month.

This is my plan:

Put a spare PC (which I will upgrade later) into a central location
Install a WinTV-PVR-500MCE PCI dual tuner card into the PC
Install a WinTV-HVR-1600 PCI single tuner card into the PC
Install 2 Hauppauge HD-PVRs
Install Media Center For Windows 6.x

Location 1-
Move the DTV supplied HD SAT box to the central location and connect using a Hauppauge HD-PVR
Move the SD SAT box to the central location and connect to PVR-500MCE via S-Video
Discard ReplayTV
Install HD Extender in location 1

Location 2-
Move the SD SAT box to the central location and connect to HVR-1600 via S-Video
Discard ReplayTV
Install HD Extender in location 2

Location 3-
Move the DTV supplied HD SAT box to the central location and connect using the 2nd Hauppauge HD-PVR
Install HD Extender in location 3

Will this work or am I missing something?

Question.
Are you getting rid of the Cable SD boxes and cable altogether.
From what I read it looks like you are getting 2 new Direct Tv HD receivers a 2HD-PVR ti capture HD. You are keeping the 2 SD Direct TV boxes to use for SD capture using the Hauppage 500 Mce tuner via S video. The 500 MCE is a dual tuner/capture device, What is the 1600 for. Unless you are keeping the Cable boxes or alos planning on OTA HD capture.

I have been a Sage TV user for several years now and have just replaced Direct TV With Verizon Fios TV. I use two 150 MCE capture cards . One is presently hooked up to an HD reciever and the other is using a SD def receiver via S video on both for now. I am waiting for the HD-PVR's to get sorted out. They are having some issues with heat and lockups in the current batches. I am sure Hauppagge will get it worked out soon. Also the current HD-DVR's do not do Dolby 5.1 yet via spdif. The is a fix in beta and they should release it soon.
Oh Also I use an HD-Homerun for for HD Qam capture off of Fios. I HD-Homerun is nice because its a network device and does not use up any computer slots. It also can do OTA digital HD and is dual tuner.
The HD Media extenders are great too.
Hope this is helpful,
Dave

 

[upstatemike]

Maybe I misunderstood the specs on the PVR-500. I do not have any cable boxes but I do have basic analog cable (+ internal modulated channels) that will go into the 2 tuners on the PVR-500. I also understood that this card has one S-Video input which I would connect to one of the SD SAT tuners. I thought I would need the 1600 to get a second S-Video input for the other SD SAT tuner. If the card has 2 S-Video inputs then I guess I don't need the 1600.

It sounds like getting 2 PVR500s might be a good strategy. This would give me 4 analog cable inputs which would allow all three locations to be watching a different cable channel... unlikely, but I will probably also get some SD extenders for additional locations so these inputs would get used.

I don't get any OTA signals so that does not need to be taken into account in the plan.

 

[CollinR]

If the card has 2 S-Video inputs then

Try 3 homme, and also 3 composites for your new cameras. However they share audio inputs so you can't really use the composites and Svideo mix and match.

You need an add-on board but often they are included and if not they are cheap.

 

[davefred99]

Maybe I misunderstood the specs on the PVR-500. I do not have any cable boxes but I do have basic analog cable (+ internal modulated channels) that will go into the 2 tuners on the PVR-500. I also understood that this card has one S-Video input which I would connect to one of the SD SAT tuners. I thought I would need the 1600 to get a second S-Video input for the other SD SAT tuner. If the card has 2 S-Video inputs then I guess I don't need the 1600.

It sounds like getting 2 PVR500s might be a good strategy. This would give me 4 analog cable inputs which would allow all three locations to be watching a different cable channel... unlikely, but I will probably also get some SD extenders for additional locations so these inputs would get used.

I don't get any OTA signals so that does not need to be taken into account in the plan.

Upstatemike,
The Hauppage 500 mce has dual Svideo inputs but you need this attchment to use both http://store.sagetv.com/Merchant2/merchant...ategory_Code=HD It is a crd that plugs into the outputs for the second s video input.
You can use both the svideo and the analog imputs on the card but only one at a time. In other words you can hook up your analog cable to the f connector and tune/record the cable channels and use the same tuner for svideo input from a different source but even though you technically have 4 inputs only one source per tuner can be used at a time. I hope that made sense.

 

[upstatemike]

Maybe I misunderstood the specs on the PVR-500. I do not have any cable boxes but I do have basic analog cable (+ internal modulated channels) that will go into the 2 tuners on the PVR-500. I also understood that this card has one S-Video input which I would connect to one of the SD SAT tuners. I thought I would need the 1600 to get a second S-Video input for the other SD SAT tuner. If the card has 2 S-Video inputs then I guess I don't need the 1600.

It sounds like getting 2 PVR500s might be a good strategy. This would give me 4 analog cable inputs which would allow all three locations to be watching a different cable channel... unlikely, but I will probably also get some SD extenders for additional locations so these inputs would get used.

I don't get any OTA signals so that does not need to be taken into account in the plan.

Upstatemike,
The Hauppage 500 mce has dual Svideo inputs but you need this attchment to use both http://store.sagetv.com/Merchant2/merchant...ategory_Code=HD It is a crd that plugs into the outputs for the second s video input.
You can use both the svideo and the analog imputs on the card but only one at a time. In other words you can hook up your analog cable to the f connector and tune/record the cable channels and use the same tuner for svideo input from a different source but even though you technically have 4 inputs only one source per tuner can be used at a time. I hope that made sense.

OK so 2 PVR 500s probably makes sense... otherwise if both SD SAT boxes were in use there would be no access to analog cable.

I'm also considering using an S-Video switcher into one of the cards so I can share a single input with several seldom used devices (beta, vhs, laserdisc, PAL DVD, DVD changer). Either that or I'll throw these devices onto modulated analog channels and let them run through the tuners.

 

[davefred99]

[/quote]

OK so 2 PVR 500s probably makes sense... otherwise if both SD SAT boxes were in use there would be no access to analog cable.
[/quote]

How much longer do you think your cable co will support analog. Amost all cable companies are fazing out Analog all together. General most cable companies include at least the local QAM channels in there analog tier, Thus you might want a Qam tuner ie an HD-Homerun. In most cases the Local HD channels are all in the clear via digital QAM and many of the regualr SD channels might also be there in the clear. You need to do a channel scan with a QAM tuner to find out.

 

[mustangcoupe]

How much longer do you think your cable co will support analog. Amost all cable companies are fazing out Analog all together.

I was thinking the same thing... I lost 5 analog channels this week alone!

 

[upstatemike]

How much longer do you think your cable co will support analog. Amost all cable companies are fazing out Analog all together. General most cable companies include at least the local QAM channels in there analog tier, Thus you might want a Qam tuner ie an HD-Homerun. In most cases the Local HD channels are all in the clear via digital QAM and many of the regualr SD channels might also be there in the clear. You need to do a channel scan with a QAM tuner to find out.

I don't know how long analog will be supported but I am not planning to move to a cable box arrangement. Right now cable comes into an amp where signals from 2 different quad modulators get added to the mix and then it gets distributed via additional amps. I can easily adapt this to Sage by taking the feeds to various rooms and instead run them to the central location where the tuner cards are. If I start messing with digital cable boxes my whole modulator setup becomes much more complicated for very little return since SAT is my main program source. I guess if they stop providing analog I will just cancel cable and use the tuners strictly for the modulator channels.

 

[davefred99]

How much longer do you think your cable co will support analog. Amost all cable companies are fazing out Analog all together. General most cable companies include at least the local QAM channels in there analog tier, Thus you might want a Qam tuner ie an HD-Homerun. In most cases the Local HD channels are all in the clear via digital QAM and many of the regualr SD channels might also be there in the clear. You need to do a channel scan with a QAM tuner to find out.

I don't know how long analog will be supported but I am not planning to move to a cable box arrangement. Right now cable comes into an amp where signals from 2 different quad modulators get added to the mix and then it gets distributed via additional amps. I can easily adapt this to Sage by taking the feeds to various rooms and instead run them to the central location where the tuner cards are. If I start messing with digital cable boxes my whole modulator setup becomes much more complicated for very little return since SAT is my main program source. I guess if they stop providing analog I will just cancel cable and use the tuners strictly for the modulator channels.

Mike,
I think you missed my point. You may already have at least digital locals and maybe basic cable and not even know it. Have you ever hooked up a digital tuner to your coax feed and scanned for digital channels. Digital Cable, at least the local HD stuff is usually included on the same tier as analog is. I used to subscribe to basic cable and used my HD Homerun to capture all my Local in SD & HD plus as a bonus many of the SD cable channels like discovery were unencrypted too. Sooner or later all analog will disappear but cable companies are required too send out all Locals in the clear so any Qam equipped TV or VCR can receive them without the use of a cable box.

 

[upstatemike]

Mike,
I think you missed my point. You may already have at least digital locals and maybe basic cable and not even know it. Have you ever hooked up a digital tuner to your coax feed and scanned for digital channels. Digital Cable, at least the local HD stuff is usually included on the same tier as analog is. I used to subscribe to basic cable and used my HD Homerun to capture all my Local in SD & HD plus as a bonus many of the SD cable channels like discovery were unencrypted too. Sooner or later all analog will disappear but cable companies are required too send out all Locals in the clear so any Qam equipped TV or VCR can receive them without the use of a cable box.

Yes I guess I did miss your point. I don't know if I have a QAM tuner in my TVs or not but I can look in the manual. Not sure what you mean by "homerun". I have cable connected directly to the TVs that have tuners in them (although it passes through amps and splitters). I don't have any set top cable boxes apart from the cable ready tuners in my Sony SAT receivers. Also if QAM stuff is there wouldn't the tuner card in the Sage PC pick it up? Do I need a different card just for QAM?

 

[davefred99]

Mike,
I think you missed my point. You may already have at least digital locals and maybe basic cable and not even know it. Have you ever hooked up a digital tuner to your coax feed and scanned for digital channels. Digital Cable, at least the local HD stuff is usually included on the same tier as analog is. I used to subscribe to basic cable and used my HD Homerun to capture all my Local in SD & HD plus as a bonus many of the SD cable channels like discovery were unencrypted too. Sooner or later all analog will disappear but cable companies are required too send out all Locals in the clear so any Qam equipped TV or VCR can receive them without the use of a cable box.

Yes I guess I did miss your point. I don't know if I have a QAM tuner in my TVs or not but I can look in the manual. Not sure what you men by "homerun". I have cable connected directly to the TVs that have tuners in them (although it passes through amps and splitters). I don't have any set top cable boxes apart from the cable ready tuners in my Sony SAT receivers. Also if QAM stuff is there wouldn't the tuner card in the Sage PC pick it up? Do I need a different card just for QAM?

Mike,
The HD-homerun is a network dual tuner that can be used to tune in OTA/ATSC or Cable/QAM channels her is a link.
http://www.silicondust.com/products/hdhomerun There are other QAM capable tuners too but this is the one most people recommend. The Hauppage 500 MCE can not tune digital channels it only does Analog or Composite/Svideo capture.
Have you checked out the Sage Tv forums there are a lot of users over there that can help you out with just about any questions.
Dave

 

[upstatemike]

Mike,
The HD-homerun is a network dual tuner that can be used to tune in OTA/ATSC or Cable/QAM channels her is a link.
http://www.silicondust.com/products/hdhomerun There are other QAM capable tuners too but this is the one most people recommend. The Hauppage 500 MCE can not tune digital channels it only does Analog or Composite/Svideo capture.
Have you checked out the Sage Tv forums there are a lot of users over there that can help you out with just about any questions.
Dave

Thanks Dave. I will take a look at it but until I know what I can get via QAM, I don't know if it is a good deal for me. (I will never be able to use ATSC here). To start with I need to focus on distributing my legacy analog stuff plus the HD from the SAT receivers. I can always add the QAM card down the road.

 

[bfisher]

I'd considering adding an antenna if possible for your local channels. The HD quality is outstanding (no compression)... plus you aren't dependent on cable QAM anymore. True, you won't get ESPN (or whatever through it), but if you want local channels - an antenna can't be beat for quality.