Wireless setup questions

[vettold]

I have been reading posts for three days and feel that I am ready to purchase some hardware. Here is my proposed setup.
a. p4 3.0 w/1gig
b. linksys g broadband router
c. wireless g adapter in my pc
d. win xp pro
e. server from router 10' and router to tv with mediamvp one wall and 8'.

I am thinking of purchasing the following:
a. a hauupauge wintv 150 or 250 pvr with remote.
b. a mediamvp extender hopefully a wireless if it isn't available a linksys wireless bridge or wireless game adapter.

My questions are:
1. how effective is the pvr remote in seeing the ir receiver for the pvr? Is it line of sight?
2. what is the difference between a haupauge wintv-150pvr and a 250pvr?
3. other than hoping wireless works ok are there any other issues before i buy the hardware? Thanks in advance

[GKusnick]

My experience with a wireless client was not good. Even though Windows showed good signal quality and various network benchmarks reported adequate throughput, I still had frequent stuttering and dropouts. Watching a recorded program while fixing dinner was a non-starter, because the microwave oven killed the connection every time. Even having a WiFi laptop in the same room as the Sage client (or a good rainstorm outside) was enough to disrupt playback sometimes.

Although Sage usually managed to restore the connection on its own, that wasn't the end of the problems. Instead of picking up where it left off, Sage would often start the program again from the beginning and I'd have to fast-forward through the part I'd already watched. Or the connection would come back up on some random channel instead of what I'd been watching. Also the server would often refuse to delete a watched recording if there had been any network dropouts during the watching.

Eventually I ended up paying an electrician a couple of hundred bucks to run a Cat5 network cable under the house from the server to the TV room. The result is a much more pleasant viewing experience. So my advice would be to stay away from wireless if there's any way to run a wire instead.

YMMV.

[vettold]

Is it necessary to have a remote that you gat with a wintv 150pvr and also a remote that comes with a mediamvp? Remeber that I will not be using tv on my pc.

[GKusnick]

If the MVP comes with its own remote, and you don't plan on watching TV at the server, then I don't see why you would need another remote.

[vettold]

Now I know I can buy a pvr w/o remote, however I will be using a mediamvp in another room away from the pc with the pvr card. The mediamvp will be hooked up to a dish stb. How can I control sagetv and the dish stb. Or in other words, bring up the guide then choose a channel in the guide and have it change the channel on the dish stb. Can the remote with the Haupauge mediamvp do this with some help? Thanks again I am almost there!

[sleonard]

I'm waiting for 802.11n

[stevech]

I'm using 11g with the SageTV server. The server uses a cheap USB dongle type WiFi adapter, but it's on a 12 ft USB cable and it is elevated - at about 8 ft. About 40 ft to the W-Router and penetrating one drywall. I planned for and have a very strong signal (-75 to -80) and it is pretty much only at 54Mbps. I also use a channel (1) which has very few SSIDs in my neighborhood. It works quite well.

With some of the newer routers, you can run QoS to give priority to a specific MAC address (like the server and/or a client) in case you have other PCs in the house competing for bandwidth.

If you have WiFi disconnects (that is, the client reports that it dropped its association with the access point (w-router), then reconnected, then you may need to assure that (1) you are NOT using a default SSID like Linksys, that you have WEP or WPA enabled - these stop the client from searching for a "better" connection on a generic SSID. Also take the usual RF propagation tactics: as near line of sight as possible, elevated antennas to reduce intermittent occlusion of the path (people walking, etc), choose a lightly loaded channel and make sure that the adjacent 3 channels are also lightly loaded (use only 1, 6 or 11). I also have a 6dBi antenna on my W-router (bought from a source far cheaper than the retail stores).

I also do backups of the server disk across this link (I don't backup the video- just the Win XP disk). The throughput I get is close to the ideal, that being about 60% of the WiFi bit rate.

[vettold]

What i'm trying to determine is where does the usb-uirt get plugged into? If it gets plugged into the server then how would it be of any benefit to someone who is trying to control sage and a dish stb in another room to far away for the ir to reach the ir receiver?

setup
sage 4.1 on server with 150pvr
mediamvp w/wireless game adapter hooked up to a dish stb in another room.

I guess even though I been reading on all the usb-uird sites I still haven't seen a post with info on the above question.

If the usb-uirt is no good for the above setup then what is the solution if any.

[gplasky]

The USB-UIRT goes on the Sage server. So whatever box you're trying to control needs to be within eyeshot of the server.

Gerry

[GKusnick]

Originally Posted by vettold

The mediamvp will be hooked up to a dish stb.

Either I'm confused or you are. The MVP is a playback device. It doesn't do any encoding. So I'm not sure what you hope to achieve by hooking it up to the STB.

If you want to record Dish programming, then you need a physical wire from the STB to the PVR card on your server. So the USB-UIRT line-of-sight thing is a non-issue, since the server and the STB have to be in the same room anyway.

So your choices would seem to be: (a) move the STB into the server room and use the MVP to play back recorded content in your TV room, or (b) move the server into the TV room and don't bother with the MVP (unless you have a second TV somewhere else).

Or am I misunderstanding what you're trying to do?

[vettold]

The mediamvp will plug into the stb.
The mediamvp communicates with the server via a wireless bridge.
The server does the encoding then sends it to the mediamvp.
I have diagrams from the the hau[auge site showing this hookup.
Many other forum users have the same setup.

What I am trying to do is run the server in one room, tv, stb and mediamvp in another. With comm between them via a wireless bridge.

[GKusnick]

Sorry if I'm being dense, but I'm still not seeing how the server is going to be able to encode anything if the video source (the STB) is in a different room. The wireless MVP link won't help with that.

Or to put it another way, what do you plan to plug into the video input jack on the server's PVR card? If it's not the STB, then why does it matter whether the STB is within IR blast range of the USB-UIRT?

Maybe you could post a link to that diagram so we can get a clearer picture of what you're talking about.

[vettold]

I am starting to see the light. Thanks for your patience. It looks like the wireless system I am talking about will only handle the playback. I am going to have to figure out how to get the dish stb's output to the pvr card.

I guess the advantage of the mediamvp is that you dont have to run playback wiring if you use wireless, however you still have to run a feed to the server with the pvr.

I guess what confuses me is if you are going to hardwire a mvp with network cable then why not just run a long composit or s video back to the tv? and forget the mvp.

[Para]

why not just run a long composit or s video back to the tv?

Signal loss/noise on the composite or S-Video will be greater the farther you run the cable. The Ethernet (TCP/IP) can go much farther distances and the signal from the MVP will look the same as if it were right next to the server.

[vettold]

I guess i'll have to figure a way to get the dish stb's signal to the pvr.
Wireing is a problem in this house at least where the hardware is located. The room where the server is located uses the cable jack for the cable modem. So I have to use the s video or the composite from the dish stb to the pvr. Unless i'm dense i see no other way. the loss of signal will be from the stb to the pvr.

[wrwaugh]

It goes like this:

You hook the STB to the Haupauge 150 or 250 in the Server computer.

You use the usb/irt to have SageTV in the server be able to change the channel on the stb.

You control the server either by a mouse and key board, or by a remote which comes with the 150 or 250.

You connect the MVP to your TV in another room, either by ethernet or wirelessly, and the remote for the MVP will allow you to control the MVP. The MVP can run SageTV on the server remotely. Tell the MVP to change the channel and it will tell SageTV to change the channel. SageTV will use the usb/irt to change the channel on the stb.

Originally Posted by vettold

I guess what confuses me is if you are going to hardwire a mvp with network cable then why not just run a long composit or s video back to the tv? and forget the mvp.

With the MVP someone can be watching TV in the livingroom and you can use the computer/server as a computer or view TV on the computer monitor at the same time. The server will, of course, not be able to provide different 'live' tv to to both the computer and the MVP at the same time as you will only have one input. But you can view different recorded shows at the same time (or the same 'live' show at both places) or a recorded show on one and 'live' on the other,

I put the 'live' in quotes because with SageTV there really is not live tv... just very very recently recorded tv.

I hope this helps.

[wrwaugh]

Originally Posted by vettold

So I have to use the s video or the composite from the dish stb to the pvr. Unless i'm dense i see no other way. the loss of signal will be from the stb to the pvr.

You can also run coax from the stb to the pvr. Loss of signal should not be to great a problem for the composite or the coax unless you have a very big house.

[Para]

Try drawing it out on paper..that is what I do when I can't figure it out in my head how to wire/layout something.

Edit:

You can also run coax from the stb to the pvr. Loss of signal should not be to great a problem for the composite or the coax unless you have a very big house.

or maybe run the coax for the dish-to-stb connection and put the stb in the computer room? That would eliminate the inability to control the stb from the computer also.

[vettold]

Thanks for all the help. I will let all those who helped what the outcome is as soon as I finish the install in about 3 to 3 weeks. Thanks again