SageTV Software funtionality questions

[pjpjpjpj]

I am ready to jump into the SageTV world very soon, but I have some questions that I have not seen discussed. My apologies if they are "noobish".

My set-up (once the HD Extenders are restocked) will be OTA antenna reception, a two-tuner HD Homerun, new SageTV software, and HD Extenders at several TVs. I have no intention of watching TV on my PC (it’s an old one in the basement that will be dedicated to this use) so all of my decoding will be hardware-based.

That being said, I have a few questions about the SageTV software and its use in my system.

(1) When I start, I assume the first thing that I will do is to get the SageTV software to find the HDHomerun on my network, and once I do this, to find what channels I am receiving. Is there an auto channel search when you start, or do you manually choose what stations show up on the on-screen guide? Will this be very difficult to set up if I don’t have a viewing window on my PC to view the incoming signals and verify what I am receiving, or is it all automatic?

(2) Do I manually set up what stations appear on my on-screen program guide? As HDHomerun is all digital (ATSC), I will only want those local digital OTA channels to appear on the guide (and since I am OTA, there won’t be too many!). But it seems like national “TV Guide” services would only have the major networks. Where does SageTV get its programming, and what will show up?

(3) Will the programming guide show local digital subchannels? For example, one local PBS station has 4 subchannels with “Learning”, “Kids”, “World”, etc. Will those be on the programming guide? Those channels are not even listed in our local newspaper's weekly TV schedule, so can SageTV's program guide list them somehow?

(4) When I set up to record a program, do I have to choose individually (per program) on which of the two tuners on HDHomerun it will be recorded, or is this done automatically? In other words, does the SageTV software automatically use the tuner that is not being currently used (similar to my old Tivo, which records on the tuner that is not currently being watched or “active”)?

(5) When you program a show to record with the remote control at the TV set (through the extender), can you set the recording quality (HD/SD), aspect ratio, etc., at which you wish the particular program to be recorded? Or is this a global default setting that you would have to change at the PC? In other words, if I am recording a 1080i, 16:9 broadcast from 8pm-9pm on one station and then a 480i, 4:3 broadcast from 9pm to 10pm, could I set each to record at those specs, so that I don’t have to take up hard drive space by recording the later SD program at “HD quality”?

I'm sure I will come up with more questions as I await the HD Extender return, but any answers that can be supplied to these questions are appreciated!

[sleonard]

1) Sorry, can't answer this one.
2) Yes, you can choose which stations appear in the guide.
3) I'm not sure about this but I think so.
4) No, Sage manages the tuners by itself
5) OTA ATSC signals are already digital streams that Sage simply captures to disc. If a program is 16x9, 1080i then that is what you will capture. If it is 4x3, 480i then that is what you will capture. There is no need for you to manage or control this.

S

[carlgar]

2) The guide for your city that you select should already be limited to the digital stations. Sage gets its EPG guide from zap2it, you can go to http://www.zap2it.com/ and get an idea of what stations are available.

3) yes, the substations will be shown.

[pjpjpjpj]

Thanks to both of you, that is all great news.

Another question (I told you I would come up with more):

Could I run an OTA antenna into one of the HDHomerun tuners and cable TV (for QAM) coax into the other? What would SageTV "see", as far as available channels? For example, if a channel was available on both QAM and OTA, but reception was too poor OTA (say, bad weather), would the SageTV be able to detect a signal loss and automatically choose the QAM tuner to record a pre-programmed show (assuming that nothing else was recording or whatever)? Could you "force" the tuner used, if you saw bad weather was coming, or perhaps knew that the local channel's OTA tower was having troubles? Does anyone here have this set-up, and how does it work for you?

Thanks again! This board is extremely helpful.

[carlgar]

Only when using the network encoder drivers which are now obsolete. With the BDA drivers both tuners have to tune the same way. Both must be clear QAM or OTA but cannot be mixed.

[gplasky]

The beta at the end of Dec. supported both.

Hi guys,

The latest beta release supports running Digital Cable and Digital Antenna tuners with the BDA drivers:
http://www.silicondust.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=26341

Nick

Gerry

[carlgar]

The link points to a topic or post that does not exist. Can you give me the forum group and thread name so I can it.

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by carlgar

The link points to a topic or post that does not exist. Can you give me the forum group and thread name so I can it.

This changelog:
Release 20080104

Windows: Support different sources for each tuner (when supported by DVR application). Not supported by MCE.

Gerry

[carlgar]

Originally Posted by pjpjpjpj

Could I run an OTA antenna into one of the HDHomerun tuners and cable TV (for QAM) coax into the other? What would SageTV "see", as far as available channels? For example, if a channel was available on both QAM and OTA, but reception was too poor OTA (say, bad weather), would the SageTV be able to detect a signal loss and automatically choose the QAM tuner to record a pre-programmed show (assuming that nothing else was recording or whatever)? Could you "force" the tuner used, if you saw bad weather was coming, or perhaps knew that the local channel's OTA tower was having troubles? Does anyone here have this set-up, and how does it work for you?

If you have clear QAM available I would expect it to be the preferred source, it may even give more channels than OTA.
Sage will not do any automatic switching between the source. The souce is determined by the EPG data you select. You would have to mannual change from OTA guide to a digital cable guide. I think you are making this much more complex then it needs to be.

You should go to http://www.silicondust.com/wiki/hdhomerun/channels and see what channels should be available both OTA (8vsb) and clear QAM (qam256).

[pjpjpjpj]

Originally Posted by carlgar

If you have clear QAM available I would expect it to be the preferred source, it may even give more channels than OTA.
Sage will not do any automatic switching between the source. The souce is determined by the EPG data you select. You would have to mannual change from OTA guide to a digital cable guide. I think you are making this much more complex then it needs to be.

You should go to http://www.silicondust.com/wiki/hdhomerun/channels and see what channels should be available both OTA (8vsb) and clear QAM (qam256).

Thanks. It probably is more complicated than I want to mess with.

In case you were wondering why I would want to do this, I am located in northern Cincinnati. I can get all the Cincinnati "locals" fine OTA, but I am on the fringe of being able to pull in Dayton, OH "locals". The problem is that the towers are in almost opposite directions, making OTA reception of both almost impossible without a switch or an antenna rotor (which are out, considering I will be using SageTV and the HDHomerun). So I was hoping that I could use QAM to get all the Cincinnati "locals" on one tuner, and then aim a big directional antenna north and try to get the Dayton "locals" on the other tuner. I suppose I could have similarly suggested the idea of having two large directional antennas, facing opposite directions, and each feeding one tuner on the HDHomerun... this effectively creates the same question.

I have heard that supposedly the Cincinnati Time-Warner QAM includes a few of the Dayton "locals" in it, but I have not confirmed which ones. I'm particularly interested in just Fox and CBS, as they often carry non-Cincinnati-market NFL games in the Fall, and also are not affected by the local blackout rules when the Bengals are on. Silly reason to bother with all of this? Probably. But there are also occasions where the local affiliate loses its OTA broadcast, and I would want to pull in the Dayton affiliate. So that's a legit reason, huh?

[ttiell]

I'm using sagetv in cincinnati also. you can get all of the local channels in ditigal from time warner but they don't have any intelligent information with them. They show up on the guide and always say "No Data". The OTA gives all of the info. If anyone knows a way around this, then I am open to trying something out.