Requirements to Record Multiple Shows

[Ken505]

I have been looking at SageTV and some other recording software and really think SageTV is what will work for me. I am replacing 2 UltimateTV maches which enables me to record 4 shows at once. I am in the processing of setting up a new media room and needed to know what I really needed. I think I am going to be buying a server with 6 tuners (3 cards). Does these mean that I need 6 Directv receiver boxes to record 6 shows at once? Is there a simple way to do this? I would appreciate any help to bounce my questions off. I am real confused in what I need to begin.

[sainswor99]

Originally Posted by Ken505

I have been looking at SageTV and some other recording software and really think SageTV is what will work for me. I am replacing 2 UltimateTV maches which enables me to record 4 shows at once. I am in the processing of setting up a new media room and needed to know what I really needed. I think I am going to be buying a server with 6 tuners (3 cards). Does these mean that I need 6 Directv receiver boxes to record 6 shows at once? Is there a simple way to do this? I would appreciate any help to bounce my questions off. I am real confused in what I need to begin.

I don't use a Set-Top-Box in my setup, so there may be some details I'm overlooking, but essentially, the answer is yes; for every video capture card in the box (sounds like you want 6 of them), you need a tuner. IF you're using a satellite system like directTV the tuner is actually the box (the card just transcodes the video from the STB).

You'll also need some method for SageTV to change channels on the STB; again, no expert here, but you may want to look at the USB-UIRT (I'm not sure how many STB's it can manage).

HTH,
Stu

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by sainswor99

You'll also need some method for SageTV to change channels on the STB; again, no expert here, but you may want to look at the USB-UIRT (I'm not sure how many STB's it can manage).

You can do some tweaking to get 1 or 2 USB-UIRTs to control several boxes, but for DirecTV, you should probably look into using a serial connection to change the channels.

- Andy

[Ken505]

If I had 2 Win TV HVR-1800 in my server, would I be able to connect separate televisions by the S-Video cable to watch different shows and control the SageTV software independent of each other? Or do you need the media extender to control SageTV independently of each other? Also, how will watching through the S-Video be compared to the HD media extender?

[ke6guj]

the S-video connectors on the 1800 are input connectors, not TV-out connectors.

To run 2 televisions separately, you need 2 client setups. The first "client" setup can be run on the server via your video card, but the second client would need to be either an extender or a SageTVCLient or Placeshifter running on a second computer.