Sage work in Canada É

[paxtten]

I`m thinking of trying Sage, but are there guides for BellExpressVu (Eastern) Canada available.
Yes I read that there are guides for Canada, but that is rather a generic statement considering all the different providers.

Will the remote control and IR blaster work that came with my Hauppauge 1600 work with sage ... its not specifically listed as a supported item in the system requirements section

Do many Canadians use Sage ... considering there are only two threads under the forum section (using SageTV software in Canada.)

[vividweb]

The guide works fairly well for Bell, PPV's, NHL CI, and a few movie channels don't appear in the guide but all other channels are there.

I'm not sure about the 1600 IR blaster, but I know the blaster for my PVR-150 didn't work, the USB UIRT works great.

I think there are a few Canadians here, we just don't stand out, eh.

[paxtten]

Originally Posted by vividweb

The guide works fairly well for Bell, PPV's, NHL CI, and a few movie channels don't appear in the guide but all other channels are there.

I'm not sure about the 1600 IR blaster, but I know the blaster for my PVR-150 didn't work, the USB UIRT works great.

I think there are a few Canadians here, we just don't stand out, eh.

Thanks for answering ... if the blaster doesn't work for your 150, it won't work for my 1600 as they are identical ...

I guess I'm not going to try Sage after all ... not worth spending money on a different IR just to try and see if Sage is better than BT

thanks

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by paxtten

Will the remote control and IR blaster work that came with my Hauppauge 1600 work with sage ... its not specifically listed as a supported item in the system requirements section

Are you asking whether the blaster can be used by SageTV or whether it can control a specific STB?

SageTV can use one Hauppauge blaster via the Hauppauge ir blaster software (since that is all the blasters that software can use). If it is an MCE kit, that comes with an MCE blaster, which needs 3rd party software to control it.

If you want to know if a Hauppauge blaster can control your exact STB, then you'll have to list it and/or talk to Hauppauge.

Do many Canadians use Sage ... considering there are only two threads under the forum section (using SageTV software in Canada.)

This forum section is only showing the active threads from the past month. You can scroll down to change that.

- Andy

[paxtten]

Originally Posted by Opus4

Are you asking whether the blaster can be used by SageTV or whether it can control a specific STB?

SageTV can use one Hauppauge blaster via the Hauppauge ir blaster software (since that is all the blasters that software can use). If it is an MCE kit, that comes with an MCE blaster, which needs 3rd party software to control it.

If you want to know if a Hauppauge blaster can control your exact STB, then you'll have to list it and/or talk to Hauppauge.

This forum section is only showing the active threads from the past month. You can scroll down to change that.

- Andy

Thanks Andy ... sounds like it will work then ... I can invest some time in a trial provided my equipment works.

Standard factory Hauppauge 1600 and a Bell ExpressVu 3100, Windows XP Pro ... this is about as exact as I can get

[superporky]

Yup, I'm in Canada and Sage works great. I use cable though, couldn't get the sat dish secured to my ingloo

[Yalbik]

superporky, chip a hole in yer igloo with yer ice pick & pack it with moose fat. It holds my sat dish just great, eh!

But seriously, myself & three of my Canadian friends all use SageTV. It works fantastic for analog cable. One of my friends also succesfully uses it with firewire against a Shaw HD box. I have not tried the Haupauugge IR blaster...I much prefer the configurability of the USB-UIRT.

How is BT (BeyondTV I'm assuming) controlling your Sat box? If the Hauppauge IR blaster doesn't support it, BeyondTV shouldn't be able to either....

I think Sage is actually pretty popular in Canada given the lag we had in being able to obtain any kind of decent PVR hardware up here.

[paxtten]

BT works ... well most time ... it has funny little quirks now on 4.7 ... what works perfectly for weeks suddenly has problems.

Just thought I'd try Sage ... seems people are always comparing it in the BT forum ... if Sage can do this ... why can't BT do it

So ... here I am ... I'll install this week and see what happens.

[Fastrack]

Originally Posted by paxtten

BT works ... well most time ... it has funny little quirks now on 4.7 ... what works perfectly for weeks suddenly has problems.

Just thought I'd try Sage ... seems people are always comparing it in the BT forum ... if Sage can do this ... why can't BT do it

So ... here I am ... I'll install this week and see what happens.

I have analog, OTA HD in Canada here since last March '07. And there's no issues with the guide data. If there's a channel missing from the guide one can just add the call sign to the channel setup.

Download the trial you'll be very impressed, SageTV is rock solid. Also look at running the SageTV Service so if the interface gets shutdown it will continue to record.

[gveres]

Another approach is that it is very easy to get Sage working using Girder. I am sure there is a girder plugin for the hauppauge 150 blaster.

With Girder in the middle you can do just about anything.

Greg

[viper]

How exactly does sage work . I know a software package and a blaster. Do you get basic cable and the software allows you to get all the pay per views and stuff. any help appreciated

[Fastrack]

Originally Posted by viper

How exactly does sage work . I know a software package and a blaster. Do you get basic cable and the software allows you to get all the pay per views and stuff. any help appreciated

Huh? That was a little confusing, but no SageTV does not do anything illegally, it allows you to record from services which you already have.

[Yannai]

Does shaw have FireWire control enabled? When did this happen?

[Skiier__Dude]

Originally Posted by paxtten

Thanks Andy ... sounds like it will work then ... I can invest some time in a trial provided my equipment works.

Standard factory Hauppauge 1600 and a Bell ExpressVu 3100, Windows XP Pro ... this is about as exact as I can get

That is basically the identical setup I have used for the past 3 years with Sage. I did eventually switch to the USB UIRT as I wanted to use a single remote to control all my components plus the PC and the UIRT provides more flexibility (got the Harmony 880).

Recording quality off ExpressVu is good -- some networks are worse than others for compressing their signal and that shows up in the recordings (washed out colours). The movie and specialty channels (anything in the 300s, 500s etc) are generally superior to the networks. Channel changes are reliable with one exception. If by accident you switch to a PPV or Info channel, the STB will not respond to a 3 digit channel change and will get stuck on that channel until I manually either press channel up/down. I have manually removed most of those channels from the channel lineup (watch out for the TSN or SportsNet alternate channels).

It did take me quite a while to get the quality of the Leafs game recordings where I could watch them on the big screen (unfortunately, there is still only one guy wearing #13 on the ice). I took advantage of the Hauppauge Tweaker Tool plus added a few lines to the registry to optimize the recordings (do a search on Hauppauge optimization settings). Prior to that, the ice looked grey, and there was an annoying choppiness to the fast motion that has since gone away. For commercial skipping, I use ComSkipMonitor -- it processes while the game is recording and finishes it's work about 10 minutes after the game is over. I live on the West Coast, which means by the time 7pm rolls around, the game is over, the commercials are marked and I can watch the whole game in about 90 minutes.