How smart is Sage?

[Mike Young]

Once Favorites are set to record, will changing the encoder merit have any effect ? In other words will the shows be recheduled to be recorded on the encoder with the higher merit ?
Also, if I do a search and find a show on a HD network channel, If that show is also being shown on a SD channel, will Sage Know to use the other encoder on the SD channel to record the show in SD in the event that the HD encoder is busy ?

mike/

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by Mike Young

Once Favorites are set to record, will changing the encoder merit have any effect ? In other words will the shows be recheduled to be recorded on the encoder with the higher merit ?

I'm not 100% sure, but I imagine that the merit setting would be taken into account during the next schedule update. That update would probably occur after restarting SageTV... which would have to be done anyway, since you have to edit the properties file to change the merit & that can't be done while SageTV is running if you want your changes to take effect.

Also, if I do a search and find a show on a HD network channel, If that show is also being shown on a SD channel, will Sage Know to use the other encoder on the SD channel to record the show in SD in the event that the HD encoder is busy ?

I believe so, unless you linit your Favorite to a specific channel.

Part of your results may depend on how the ShowIDs are assigned. If the IDs are the same on both channels, SageTV will know to only record 1 of those airings & will juggle the schedule accordingly in order to record one of the airings. If they have differnt IDs, then SageTV will probably try to record both airings anyway.

- Andy

[jlabrue]

I would like to chime in on this thread since I am still unclear. If you schedule a favorite that is on a major nework CBS and that show is in HD and also SD. How does Sage determine which showing to record in HD. I would like for it to default to HD content if it is available and if a HD tuner is free. If it is not available or the tuner is not free, select an SD tuner instead.
If there is a conflict and you have 2 shows at the same time and they are both in HD, Sage should select the Favorite higher in preference for the HD tuner and record the second show lower in preference in SD.

Is this how the intelligence in Sage is designed or is this not available? How would it choose how to record? I know by setting the merit of the HD tuner first it would be the first tuner selected to record a HD show (HD channels selected only) Which HD show would win and be recorded by the HD tuner?

Clear as mud?

[JasonJoel]

Sage definitely understands that shows shown in HD and SD are the same show. I've tested that before.


I haven't had time to test how it picks to record though. I can say this though, when I added the HD and SD channels to my analog tuner (on accident) it kept scheduling the *HD* recordings over the SD. Now, was that coincidence? Not 100% sure.

Jason

[evilpenguin]

It's a good idea to set up your favorites with channel information when you want to be sure to catch the HD version. If you have syndicated shows that have HD versions on one channel then SD versions on other channels you can actually set up two favorites for the same show to handle both cases. By doing a few little tricks like that you can ensure that you get exactly what you want. Remember, no matter how smart Sage gets, you'll always be smarter, so use it to your advantage

[Jeraden]

It would be nice to have an option in the favorites screen to specify a specific encoder for each show. For example, if 2 shows are on at the same time, one in HD and one in SD, you could tell it to always record the HD show with the HD encoder and the SD show with the SD encoder. That way you don't have to worry about it getting mixed up.

[jlabrue]

That would be a way of doing it as well. My concern would be that if there was a conflict and you had assigned it to a specific encoder, then it wouldn't record the showing at all. If it would automatically "fall back" to SD if the HD encoder was busy, then you wouldn't have to worry about missing a show. I wouldn't mind watching in SD if HD was busy. As long as it was recorded I'm cool.

[JasonJoel]

I'll get around to testing this this weekend...


I am realtively certainly that Sage is smart enough to try and record the HD version first, and if the tuner isn't available then it records the SD version.

I'll let you know, but won't be until the weekend.

Jason

[Goodspike]

My solution is I don't have Sage set up to record any SD channels. I'm not even sure the Fusion card can record SD channels (and I don't care either). Even for SD material, the PQ is better off the HD channel, and disc space isn't an issue.

[jlabrue]

Thanks Jason, that would be cool to know. I'm thinking of dabbling in the Sage HD waters soon and don't want to waste my time/money until I am somewhat convinced it will be productive. I currently use a Cox DVR for HD so I have a solution but it would be nice to get rid of that and the $15 a month it costs

[JasonJoel]

Ok, I tested a few scenarios here, and Sage acted exactly as I expected.

1. I added a favorite for a show that is on both HD and SD channels. It scheduled it to record on the HD channel.
2. I added another favorite that is on both HD and SD channels and is on the same time slot as the first favorite. I only have one HD tuner, so the second show was scheduled to record on the SD channel.
3. I removed the first favorite, thus freeing up the HD tuner. It then rescheduled the second favorite to record on the HD channel.

So it looks like it preferentially records on an HD channel if available, but has the ability to go back to an SD channel if the HD tuner becomes unavailable.

Jeff - It would be great if you could chime in and verify this is the expected behavior, or if my results were mere coincidence.

Jason

Originally Posted by JasonJoel

I'll get around to testing this this weekend...


I am realtively certainly that Sage is smart enough to try and record the HD version first, and if the tuner isn't available then it records the SD version.

I'll let you know, but won't be until the weekend.

Jason

[jlabrue]

That's cool Jason. Looks like you did a sufficient enough job testing to ease my worries. That is what I would hope would happen and your right, it would be nice to get some official confirmation to ease everyone's mind who has a question about this functionality. I will probably be getting an HD card sooner rather than later now.

Thanks!
John

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by JasonJoel

So it looks like it preferentially records on an HD channel if available, but has the ability to go back to an SD channel if the HD tuner becomes unavailable.

I wanted to check on this before saying what I thought was happening... Your results really only indicate that your HD tuner is already considered the higher priority tuner (#1 tuner found, perhaps?) or you edited the encoder_merit values at some point. I'm told that SageTV does not differentiate between HD & SD for the scheduler, so if you want to give HD higher priority, you would probably need to set the merit values or create separate favorites for the HD channels.

- Andy

[Jeraden]

I guess the solution for now is to make your HD card the higher merit encoder and then arrange your favorites so that all HD shows are listed higher than SD shows. That should guarantee it will record the HD version using the HD tuner and not the SD tuner, right?
That assumes that the show higher in the Favorite list gets the higher merit encoder. Is that always true?

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by Jeraden

That assumes that the show higher in the Favorite list gets the higher merit encoder. Is that always true?

The encoder_merit value is supposed to be used to determine which tuner to use "when all else is equal", but it isn't entirely clear when all else isn't quite equal. It sounds like what you suggest should work most of the time, though.

- Andy