SageTV & HD-PVR setup for newbie

[jduncc]

I am in the process of trying out SageTV with an HD-PVR connected to my TimeWarner HD STB. I'm also playing with an HDHR with both tuners connected to my digital cable.

My initial thoughs are that it is super, super slow changing channels watching live tv. Is there some configuration that I don't have right, or is this the way it is? Switching between recorded shows is super fast, and works fine.

Also, I only have the server machine setup right now, and playback on there is pretty choppy. I have read that I should store the video on 64k clusters, but for my initial testing, I don't want to have to install another drive in the computer yet. Once I prove this works, then I'll install a large drive and set it to 64k clusters for storing the video.

Any help and thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

 

[CollinR]

What are the server specs?

The channel changing will just be slow, thats how it is with the HDHomerun. If you use the system correctly you shouldn't be watching live TV, always wait a minimum of half the show to be captured to allow you to fly through the commercials.

 

[jduncc]

What are the server specs?

The channel changing will just be slow, thats how it is with the HDHomerun. If you use the system correctly you shouldn't be watching live TV, always wait a minimum of half the show to be captured to allow you to fly through the commercials.

The server is a dual core system at 2.6ghz, 2gb of ram running windows xp

 

[CollinR]

display adapter?

 

[Sacedog]

I would guess that you need to install a different codec. If you go onto the Sage forums, you should be able to find which one people recommend, then download the KLite codec pack to install it. I had the choppyness problem when playing back on the pc, when I first set up sage.

 

[CollinR]

I would definately NOT suggest a codec pack.

 

[jduncc]

display adapter?

256meg card, I forget the model, but it was a video upgrade on my dell computer. It's within a year old, and supports dual 30" displays

 

[Sacedog]

I would definately NOT suggest a codec pack.

Right...didn't mean to imply to install the entire thing. I meant to look on the Sage forums to figure out what everyone else is using, then install that one codec from the pack (since the pack contains all of them). After taking a look at the forum real quick, it looks like many use either the Cyberlink DVD or the Nvidia PureVideo decoder.

If you get an extender, I believe this issue goes away, as all of the decoding is done on the extender. Please correct me if I am wrong..I'm a Sage noob too.

 

[CollinR]

display adapter?

256meg card, I forget the model, but it was a video upgrade on my dell computer. It's within a year old, and supports dual 30" displays

This you will need to know, check the device manager. Many display adapters straight up cannot handle the output from the HD PVR. Most should however handle the HDHomerun.

If you get an extender, I believe this issue goes away, as all of the decoding is done on the extender. Please correct me if I am wrong..I'm a Sage noob too.

Yup, in this case all the decoding is done in hardware.

That is unless you put the extender in placeshifter mode, which I dunno if a machine exists that can transcode HD PVR on the fly to something thats web kosher.