SageTV Question

[hucker]

So I'm interested in setting up sageTV in our house to 'simplify' things a bit. It looks like SageTV is going to do what I need but I can't completely understand what I need to buy. Why there isn't a block diagram somewhere beats me...

I would like to have two (someday 3) locations in our house where we can play back movies, watch live tv. As far as I can tell to do this I need:

1. 1 Bundle SageTV Theatre + SageTV Media Center
2. 1 Extra SageTV Theatre box
3. Tuner card(s)?

It is the tuner card(s) that have me confused.

1. If I want to watch TV independently on each TV do I need 1 Tuner card per PC?
2. If I use the PVR function do all TV's see the recorded Shows?
3. Where does the cable companies settop box go in the signal chain?

CQC questions:

1. Does it matter what tuner card I get if (someday) I want to control all of this via CQC?

Thanks

 

[beelzerob]

It is the tuner card(s) that have me confused.

[*] If I want to watch TV independently on each TV do I need 1 Tuner card per PC?

If you mean "live" TV, then yes. Each tuner card can only be recording/showing a single show at a time. So if you have 3 separate TV's that want to watch their own separate shows at the exact same time...then you'd need a tuner card each. Note that this only for LIVE TV. Once a show has been recorded, then you can have all 3 TV's watching a different recorded show at the same time (AND be recording another show on each TV tuner card).

[*] If I use the PVR function do all TV's see the recorded Shows?

All TV's would have access to all shows that have been recorded, yes. No matter which tuner card records it, they all go into a common "pool" of shows, that all extenders then have access to.

[*] Where does the cable companies settop box go in the signal chain?

I'm going to put a "It depends" clause around this, but the most common scenario is....
1) Your cable signal comes into your set top box.
2) Your outgoing signal from the box goes into a tuner card instead of your TV.
3) Sage controls the settop box to tell it when to change channels so that it can record the shows it wants.

That's the easiest explanation.

[*]Does it matter what tuner card I get if (someday) I want to control all of this via CQC?

Absolutely......(wait for it)......not! The CQC control doesn't go down to the tuner card level. Instead it just tells Sage "Record me a show", and Sage makes the determination of how to do that. In other words, all CQC cares about is Sage. All other details of that system are irrelevant to it.

 

[hucker]

Yes I did mean Live TV on each TV....


With the scenario of multiple tuner cards, I suppose I need multiple settop boxes.

Does sage control the settop boxes via IR? This I suppose I'm gonna need a UIRT too...one per settop box?

 

[beelzerob]

Yes, each separate live show will need a set top box, as well as a tuner card. You could, however, also use OTA signals, if you live in an area that gets them...in which case you could split the incoming signal from the antenna into multiple tuner cards. Of course, that will only give you OTA shows, but sometimes that's enough.

I believe the majority of set top box control is through IR. Some capture cards come with the IR port and transmitter, so no USB-UIRT needed. But probably in the end you will need one.

There are *some* set top boxes that have a serial port and can be controlled directly. The only ones I know of are for DirectTV, so *shrug*.

I'm way into territory I know nothing about now, since I've only ever done a single set top box, and that was like 4 years ago. Sooo...I'm sure others will step in with better answers.

 

[IVB]

1) today you may watch a different livetv stream on each TV, but i'll bet that's short-lived. I installed SageTV in Sep 2003, and after perhaps 12 months, i've nearly never watched 'live' TV again. MAtter of fact, we rarely know when something is on. As soon as you go a few weeks of crazy-busy @work, you'll always have a mega-big backup of shows to watch. Well, sometimes we purge through it.
2) Don't forget to check antennaweb.org to see how far you are from the broadcast towers, you could just get a few HD-OTA cards to grab free hi-def off the air, and very cheaply/easily expand the # of tuners you have. The HDHomeRun provides 2 tuners, otherwise you need a seperate card for each one.
3) yes, you'll need a seperate STB, tuner card, and tuning mechanism (serial or USB-UIRT) for each concurrent Comcast/DirecTV stream. But as shown above, if you live close to the towers, one might very well be 'enough' as you could get all the networks (ABC/CBS/NBC/Fox/PBS/WB/etc) from the air. That is much cheaper & simpler.

The biggest issue with #3 is colocating IR controlled boxes, you'd have to get those 'eyes' to stick on the front of the STB so that the channel change command doesn't get sent to multiple boxes.

 

[TXFlatLander]

Does sage control the settop boxes via IR? This I suppose I'm gonna need a UIRT too...one per settop box?

If the setup boxes are within reach of the computer that the USB-UIRT is on, you can control up to three devices with one USB-UIRT, two using the external IR emitter port on the back and the internal IR emitter. If the STBs all use the same IR codes (same make/model STB), be sure to shield the two that are using the external connections. If not, a command from the internal emitter may be picked up by the other two.

Since you are using cable (or antenna), I would look into the HVR-2250. They have two QAM/ATSC tuners on one card. Currently, it is the only internal tuner card on the market that has two onboard QAM tuners. A lot of people like the HDHomeRun too. If you have a flat panel TV that has a QAM tuner, have it do a digital TV scan with the cable company's coax plugged directly into the TV on the antenna port to see what you get in clear QAM. However, I might warn you that with some cable companies, QAM channels can be a moving target. They move the channel numbers around so you have to rescan and remap. To me it is worth it because you get two tuners without having two STBs cluttering up everything.

 

[hucker]

Thanks for the info on tuner cards, I was just gonna ask.

The new problem is my mobo isn't PCIe and it is already full! So now I need a new motherboard! This is getting expensive fast, but i suppose it is an excuse to upgrade my server to quad core

 

[drvnbysound]

Thanks for the info on tuner cards, I was just gonna ask.

The new problem is my mobo isn't PCIe and it is already full! So now I need a new motherboard! This is getting expensive fast, but i suppose it is an excuse to upgrade my server to quad core

If your PC (Mobo) doesnt have the PCIe slot for the HVR-2200, why not just go with the HDHomerun? It also has dual tuners, and wont use any of your PC's resources having to do any processing.

I originally wanted the 2200 myself, but have since reconsidered and plan to use (2) HDHomeruns. I can get OTA HD channels for (ABC, NBC, CBS, and Fox). Not that I will ever really record from all 4 channels at the same time, but I will have the capability if I ever need to For starters, plan to have those (4) tuners along with a single HD-PVR which will be connected to Comcast STB for other recordings. If I see fit to add another STB and HD-PVR later, I will do so at the time. But this way I wont be limited by MOBO ports

NOTE: There are a couple of other threads around here where Sage users have stated that they are running Sage on OLD machines (3-5 yrs old) and they do very well. I certainly dont see a need for a quad core just for Sage. I personally am planning to spend more money on HDD's (also setting up RAID) and plan to rip my DVD library and probably select BR movies to be available through Sage as well.

 

[IVB]

comskip on HD stations may need a beefy CPU, i dunno as I don't use comskip. Wife has banned it, she likes watching some of the commercials, how else would she know what chick flick to drag my ass to...

 

[sic0048]

I agree that Sage can be run on a fairly low power machine. I run both Sage and CQC on an old P4 3.0 ghz machine with 1 gb ram. I have an HDHomeRun to record QAM (and/or ATSC) and a HD-PVR to record my satellite TV. But I also use an HD extender for playback as my machine could not handle the playback requirements of HD TV. But just to act as the SageTV server doesn't take much. (I also do not use comskip as my current machine wouldn't do that either).

 

[felixrosbergen]

With the PVR-2250 and QAM you also get HD signal without paying for it.

I have the regular digital cable package from Comcast but my HD TV with QAM tuner and the PVR-2250's will tuner about 10 HD channels (FOX, ABC, etc) which is all we really wanted.

 

[DaveW42]

I would echo the sentiments you are hearing about the HDHomeRun. I have 2 and am picking up a 3rd next week (6 total tuners). For me, it was definitely the way to go.

Dave

 

[hucker]

I think I'll track down a HDHomeRun. That box looks pretty sweet and I like the idea of using my network rather than getting into my server machine with yet more hardware. It also looks like it might be a little cheaper. Thanks for all the input this really helped.

 

[felixrosbergen]

I would echo the sentiments you are hearing about the HDHomeRun. I have 2 and am picking up a 3rd next week (6 total tuners). For me, it was definitely the way to go.

Dave

How many HD channels are you getting on that? You woudl get exactly the same thing i woudl get on a HDTV with QAM tuner right?

Also, any way to get these HDHomerun boxes neatly into a 19" rack? Do they come with mounting brackets or anything?

 

[sic0048]

They do not come with any sort of rack mount. They are very thin and you could probably fit two of them side by side on a regular rack shelf. They would only take up 1u or perhaps 1.5u in space.