Vista MC to SageTV 6 Migration Doc. Feedback please?

[heffe2001]

Just in case some of you out there don't have Word, or a word-compatible viewer, I converted the doc file over to a PDF.

[onlydarksets]

I did have it come back once after I ran VMC, but when I terminated the process it never came back (after multiple reboots).

[HT Slider]

Originally Posted by babgvant

It should. I don't have any XP files to test though. Try one, if it doesn't work let me know and I can take a look.

When using your migration tool, does it do anything to the original dvr-ms files, or are they left unaltered?

I'd like to give Sage TV a try on a separate partition and leave VMC on another partition. I have all of my Recorded TV, Music, Photos, Videos, Movies, etc. all on separate hard drives (a couple on partitions). With the 3 independent boot partitions I can evaluate different options, but don't want to mess up my VMC recordings (so they won't work with the VMC boot partition).

[babgvant]

Originally Posted by HT Slider

When using your migration tool, does it do anything to the original dvr-ms files, or are they left unaltered?

I'd like to give Sage TV a try on a separate partition and leave VMC on another partition. I have all of my Recorded TV, Music, Photos, Videos, Movies, etc. all on separate hard drives (a couple on partitions). With the 3 independent boot partitions I can evaluate different options, but don't want to mess up my VMC recordings (so they won't work with the VMC boot partition).

It just reads the metadata embedded in the file and creates an xml file from it.

[rochurch]

Maybe this isn't the best place to post this..... But reading your Blog and seeing what you are doing has me considering taking the leap to Sage.

I have a couple of questions about your setup.

1. XP or Vista. I'll probably test with a new hard drive.

2. Did you purchase clients or placeshifter?

3. Do you have commercial advance working better than it does in VMC?

Maybe I can overcome the WAF. VMC is not stable enough for me with bugs in Microsoft updates sometimes. Also, the interface feels "sluggish" to me compared to my 8 year old ReplayTV. Man, I wish they would have done a HD version.

[ghostlobster]

1 - I'm running Vista, but I don't imagine XP is much different from a setup/config standpoint. One thing to keep in mind is that the MS encoders are not available in XP. I have one XP client, however, and am running the old PureVideo encoders and it's working perfectly!

2 - Yup, I bought some SageTV clients, but no placeshifter licenses yet. Not sure I'm going to go placeshifter, but we'll see. Actually, the clients are incredible. Fast, stable and the remote control functions are incredibly simplified! I'm giving serious consideration to putting my main box headless in a closet and running nothing but clients.

3 - Yup! babgvant has "Sage-ified" DVRMSToolbox and it's working great!

The 21 day trial is the perfect way to get your WAF number up to scratch. Go through the doc, get things as you want them and take your time. Then, after ensuring stability and functionality, put it in front of the family for a week. It took some getting used to for Mrs. Lobster, but once the HD-PVR was tossed into the mix and we were getting our cable HD channels in real HD (on the clients too!) she ws sold. Especially with the Olympics going on right now. It's an absolute pleasure to flip from NBC HD to Universal HD, to the Olympic Basketball HD broadcast, and so on, and get them all in HD. The rig has been getting a major workout over the past few days and it's holding its own in a big way!

Originally Posted by rochurch

Maybe this isn't the best place to post this..... But reading your Blog and seeing what you are doing has me considering taking the leap to Sage.

I have a couple of questions about your setup.

1. XP or Vista. I'll probably test with a new hard drive.

2. Did you purchase clients or placeshifter?

3. Do you have commercial advance working better than it does in VMC?

Maybe I can overcome the WAF. VMC is not stable enough for me with bugs in Microsoft updates sometimes. Also, the interface feels "sluggish" to me compared to my 8 year old ReplayTV. Man, I wish they would have done a HD version.

[babgvant]

Originally Posted by rochurch

Maybe this isn't the best place to post this..... But reading your Blog and seeing what you are doing has me considering taking the leap to Sage.

I have a couple of questions about your setup.

1. XP or Vista. I'll probably test with a new hard drive.

2. Did you purchase clients or placeshifter?

3. Do you have commercial advance working better than it does in VMC?

Maybe I can overcome the WAF. VMC is not stable enough for me with bugs in Microsoft updates sometimes. Also, the interface feels "sluggish" to me compared to my 8 year old ReplayTV. Man, I wish they would have done a HD version.

1) Vista. If you're using XP it should be similar and simpler because you don't have to deal with UAC.

2) I'm just using Sage on one box (with the service and client as separate processes). I want to add an additional "extender" to the mix, but I haven't decided if I want a pc based extender or the one that Sage sells yet.

3) Commercial skipping is very similar in Sage to what the DTB addin does in VMC. The experience is slightly better because it's more tightly integrated.

DTB isn't as functional with Sage as it is with MC, but that will come.

[rochurch]

Thanks Mr. Lobster & Andy.

Got Vista and plenty of horsepower so that answers that. Currently getting QAM HD via the HDHR. I know that works with Sage so I am not worried about that.
I'll give it the 21 day trial and see what I can come up with.

Thanks for putting together the guide. That was just what I needed to get me going.

I'll have to sell off my Linksys 2100 HD MC extender and save up pennies for the Sage extender. I like extenders over a PC with client software loaded because they are silent.

Thanks again. I'll check back in as I go:

[ghostlobster]

If you'er using the HDHR I recommend grabbing the latest beta from the beta forum here. As long as you follow the doc in that forum, the setup for it is incredibly easy!

Originally Posted by rochurch

Thanks Mr. Lobster & Andy.

Got Vista and plenty of horsepower so that answers that. Currently getting QAM HD via the HDHR. I know that works with Sage so I am not worried about that.
I'll give it the 21 day trial and see what I can come up with.

Thanks for putting together the guide. That was just what I needed to get me going.

I'll have to sell off my Linksys 2100 HD MC extender and save up pennies for the Sage extender. I like extenders over a PC with client software loaded because they are silent.

Thanks again. I'll check back in as I go:

[onlydarksets]

Originally Posted by ghostlobster

If you'er using the HDHR I recommend grabbing the latest beta from the beta forum here. As long as you follow the doc in that forum, the setup for it is incredibly easy!

I'll vouch for that - much easier than under VMC.

[3rob3]

Since you guys are all former VMC users (as am I) I got a quick WAF question for you. My wife hates how SageTV pauses between shows when watching live tv. I believe it basically ends one recording session and starts another, so there is a small freeze when watching.
Any solution for this?

[ghostlobster]

Originally Posted by 3rob3

Since you guys are all former VMC users (as am I) I got a quick WAF question for you. My wife hates how SageTV pauses between shows when watching live tv. I believe it basically ends one recording session and starts another, so there is a small freeze when watching.
Any solution for this?

Yup! There's a setting somewhere within the advanced setup panel called "Always Tune Channel" or something like that. By default, it's enabled. And yeah, the wife hated tha behavior here as well. I set it to disable, and it's all better. It's pretty obvious once you find it. If you can't find it, post back and I'll poke around for you.

[3rob3]

Sweet, thanks! I remember seeing that somewhere as well.

[cybrsage]

Originally Posted by onlydarksets

I'll vouch for that - much easier than under VMC.

How much easier could it be? On VMC, I ran the program from Silicon Dust and it found all my channels. I then reran the setup in VMC and it added the channels.

All done.

[onlydarksets]

Looks like they've simplified it in the past year. You used to have to create the mapping file manually.

[mbowe]

Originally Posted by heffe2001

Just in case some of you out there don't have Word, or a word-compatible viewer, I converted the doc file over to a PDF.

Any chance you could add the html links to the pdf doc, as hyperlinks, or just the text. I've gone to reference a couple times from systems that don't have word installed and always come to find the links don't work. Thanks for the guide btw, it's been very useful.

[ghostlobster]

Originally Posted by mbowe

Any chance you could add the html links to the pdf doc, as hyperlinks, or just the text. I've gone to reference a couple times from systems that don't have word installed and always come to find the links don't work. Thanks for the guide btw, it's been very useful.

I just uploaded the current doc in .pdf with embedded hyperlniks. Sorry about that!

I'll be updating the overall doc this week with HD-PVR and HDHomeRun stuff. I think I've finally got that part of things hammered out in my setup enough to trust it.

[theringnebula]

Maybe this is a stupid question but what do you do with the XML file that MigrateMCtoSage creates? How do you import this to SageTV?

[ghostlobster]

Originally Posted by theringnebula

Maybe this is a stupid question but what do you do with the XML file that MigrateMCtoSage creates? How do you import this to SageTV?

Import the .xml file using the SageWebServer

[wayner]

What do you have to do to get dvr-ms files to play in SageClient? They play fine on my main Sage PC but I can't get them to play in my client. Note that install Arcsoft TME on the client allowed H.264 files to play but I can't get dvr-ms files to play, although the play fine in WMP. The client PC is running XP Pro and the Sage Media PC is running Vista HP. On the client I am using Arcsoft for MPEG-2 playback.