noob hardware questions

[icky2000]

I'm about ready to pull the trigger on buying SageTV and the related doodads I need but I have some questions.

I plan to get the Hauppage WinTV-PVR-500MCE card and the add-on AV/cable so that I can connect the SVideo and audio from two cable boxes (doing this so I get better quality than with just coax). The card will sit in a PC in my living room and connect to my TV there. I plan to use a USB-UIART to control my 2 cable boxes and to be able to use a single remote for controlling Sage & watching TV in the living room.

I will then use a SageTV Wireless Media Extender to watch TV in my bedroom and install the Sage Client on my computer to watch TV in the office on my computer.

So, now the questions:

1. Since I'm feeding SVideo and analog audio into the Hauppage card, it doesn't really matter that it is a card with TV tuning capabilities does it? I know Sage supports this card so I'll get it anyway but theoretically I'm not using the card itself to do any actual TV tuning. This question doesn't actually have any effect on my setup, I'm just trying to get my head around all this.

2. I wish the Hauppage had optical inputs for audio instead of analog so I could feed it higher quality audio. Are there any supported cards that do? I don't see such a thing in the supported list but maybe I'm missing it.

3. The info for the Hauppage 500 says it has two "125 channel cable ready TV tuners." 125 channel? I have digital cable with HBO and other premium channels so I get a ton of channels - a lot more than 125. Will I be able to watch and record all of them through Sage? Given that I'm planning to feed the Hauppage with Svideo and analog audio out of the cable box, I'm guessing this wouldn't matter anyway but what if I just connected coax -would that work?

4. I'm at an absolute loss to understand how the video and audio from the computer gets to my TV. I understand the Hauppage will feed the two signals in but what do I use to get the signal out? I don't see any discussions on here about that - is that because pretty much any video card with TV out connectors will work? If yes, any recommendations for a quality card with SVideo and digital audio out that I can feed to my A/V recevier? And given all this, can I reasonably expect to use the TV to also view the computer itself and, for instance, surf the web from the living room? This would allow me to not have a computer monitor in the living room which would be nice. Or am I going to be using a TV out card of some sort that only exports the video that Sage is playing with its on-screen interface and not the entire video from the computer?

5. I see that the USB-UIART has an 1/8" output for connecting external IR emitters. Since I have 2 identical cable boxes, I guess I'll need to connect two external IR transmitters to it and place each on its own cable box with an "IR tent" of electrical tape to keep the signals enclosed? But how can I connect two IR transmitters to one 1/8" output and have it address them separately? Does that just work or do I maybe need two USB-UIARTS - one for each cable box?

Thanks in advance - I know this is a ton of questions and I've tried to read through the forums a lot but I'm just not seeing answers to these (in some cases, very basic) questions.

[blade]

Originally Posted by icky2000

I plan to get the Hauppage WinTV-PVR-500MCE card and the add-on AV/cable so that I can connect the SVideo and audio from two cable boxes (doing this so I get better quality than with just coax).

The ATI-650 is supposed to have much better PQ. I haven't use one before, but that is what everyone says.

4. I'm at an absolute loss to understand how the video and audio from the computer gets to my TV. I understand the Hauppage will feed the two signals in but what do I use to get the signal out? I don't see any discussions on here about that - is that because pretty much any video card with TV out connectors will work?

There are literally thousands of threads discussing just that issue on these forums. No offense, but you need to hold off on any purchases until you really understand this because having a good video card and how it connects to your TV is going to have a huge impact on PQ.

If yes, any recommendations for a quality card with SVideo and digital audio out that I can feed to my A/V recevier? And given all this, can I reasonably expect to use the TV to also view the computer itself and, for instance, surf the web from the living room? This would allow me to not have a computer monitor in the living room which would be nice. Or am I going to be using a TV out card of some sort that only exports the video that Sage is playing with its on-screen interface and not the entire video from the computer?

The Nvidia 6xxx or 7xxx series cards are the most popular. Honestly the desktop is going to look horrible with S-video and a SDTV. If you had a native 720p HD set connected with component or DVI then you could use it as a computer monitor, but you won't be happy with s-video and a SD set for browsing the web. If you're not planning on getting a HD set for awhile I'd probably consider using a MVP in the living room as well and placing the server somewhere else where it wouldn't be inconvienent to use a monitor with it.

As for the audio that is done with the soundcard or onboard sound. The video card has nothing to do with it.

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by icky2000

1. Since I'm feeding SVideo and analog audio into the Hauppage card, it doesn't really matter that it is a card with TV tuning capabilities does it? I know Sage supports this card so I'll get it anyway but theoretically I'm not using the card itself to do any actual TV tuning. This question doesn't actually have any effect on my setup, I'm just trying to get my head around all this.

No, it won't really matter because you won't be using the TV tuner portion of the card with the setup you describe.

3. The info for the Hauppage 500 says it has two "125 channel cable ready TV tuners." 125 channel? I have digital cable with HBO and other premium channels so I get a ton of channels - a lot more than 125. Will I be able to watch and record all of them through Sage? Given that I'm planning to feed the Hauppage with Svideo and analog audio out of the cable box, I'm guessing this wouldn't matter anyway but what if I just connected coax -would that work?

You can get all those extra channels due to the fact you are using an STB to convert the channels into something you can view. The TV tuner part of the card is just like the TV tuner on your TV... you can't use it to view channels that have to be converted/decrypted before you can watch them.

5. I see that the USB-UIART has an 1/8" output for connecting external IR emitters. Since I have 2 identical cable boxes, I guess I'll need to connect two external IR transmitters to it and place each on its own cable box with an "IR tent" of electrical tape to keep the signals enclosed? But how can I connect two IR transmitters to one 1/8" output and have it address them separately? Does that just work or do I maybe need two USB-UIARTS - one for each cable box?

See the Information Resources for Remotes, Receivers, and IR Blasters index; it has links for more USB-UIRT info. You'll need a splitter for that connector & will have to use zone control if the boxes use identical IR codes. If the boxes can use different IR codes, you don't really need those emitters or zones.

- Andy