Would this work?

[ryanrandom]

Hi, im ryan, and im fairly new to this whole Sagetv thing, nevermind PVRs.

I am planning to provide live tv and pvr functionality to 3 or 4 tvs around my home, using sagetv.

I hope to have a server, which runs the Sagetv as a service, and is dedicated to sagetv. It would run 2000 or xp or maybe a server 03(undecided).

I would like the server to have 4 capture cards, such as the Hauppauge PVR 150, hooked up to 4 cable receivers, each with the same channel line up, controlled by IR blaster or similar.

I have the nescessary networking in place and would wish to use a combination of Wireless and Wired Hauppauge Media MVP for the TVs, with maybe one Windows Sagetv client in the future.

Cabling would be over CAT5e and wireless would be over 802.11g WEP.

I would like the clients to be able to view live television, view dvd images, record tv ("off peak" probably), listen to music, the general sage experience.

The advantages of this system would be that cable tv is hard to route around a home and therefore It would be easier for it to be in one location, with the functionality of Sagetv included, and to have a small STB type thing running wirelessly or via Cat5e, which is already installed around my home.

My questions are:
- Does the Media MVP display live TV from SageTV Server?
- Are there any major disadvantages of using the Media MVP as a client?
- Will I get traffic issues running this scaled system on CAT5e?
- Is there good enough performance over 802.11g for the Media MVP?
- Does the Media MVP have to use DHCP, or is there somesort of hack these days?
- If the cable boxes are the same, how do I differentiate the IR Blasters?
- How do I get hold of the Hauppauge cards (the numbers seem to be different in the uk than the ones in the us which sage is compatible with)
- Could one PC cope with 4+ capture cards (don't worry about the PCI slot amounts).
- Can the Hauppauge remotes be used to control the tv's volume or not, and if not, does the MVP have it's own internal volume system?

Thanks a lot for all of your help, I really appreciate it
Ryan

If I have posted this in the wrong section please tell me, and if you are kind enough to move it for me, please do so as it is greatly appreciated.

[QueOnda]

Originally Posted by ryanrandom

My questions are:
- Does the Media MVP display live TV from SageTV Server?
- Are there any major disadvantages of using the Media MVP as a client?
- Will I get traffic issues running this scaled system on CAT5e?
- Is there good enough performance over 802.11g for the Media MVP?
- Does the Media MVP have to use DHCP, or is there somesort of hack these days?
- If the cable boxes are the same, how do I differentiate the IR Blasters?
- How do I get hold of the US versions of the Hauppauge cards which arent available in the UK - or they have different names??
- Could one PC cope with 4+ capture cards (don't worry about the PCI slot amounts).
- Can the Hauppauge remotes be used to control the tv's volume or not, and if not, does the MVP have it's own internal volume system?

Ryan

1) Yes, but the server will use cpu cycles to transcode on the fly if other than MPG2.
2) #1 above and the happauge remote. There are 2 kinds, the larger one with more keys give you more options. There may be other reasons, but I have 2 mvp and good for just SD.
3) don't know
4) don't know
5) Yes (i think)
6) usbirt has different zone you can specify. Also if you have serial or firewire port on the box is another way to change channels
7) don't know. The cards in the us may be the same name as the UK, why do you want the us versions?
8) You just recording SD? I have 2 pvr500 cards and a HDHR and have recorded all at the same time over 3 hard drives.
9) MVP have an internal volume and mute ( I just set my tv sound to medium).

[hemicuda]

on 9) if you use the spdif out on the MVP it may or may not control the volume if it's 5.1 source material.

MVP "could" work over wifi-g if you have a very solid signal. There's a wireless model, but most people opt for a bridge device.

I have 4 SD and 3 HD tuners on mine. My old 3200 AMD could handle it, but the NIC wasn't up to HD traffic and the cpu couldn't transcode HD to the MVP realtime.

[paulbeers]

Originally Posted by ryanrandom

My questions are:
- Does the Media MVP display live TV from SageTV Server?
- Are there any major disadvantages of using the Media MVP as a client?
- Will I get traffic issues running this scaled system on CAT5e?
- Is there good enough performance over 802.11g for the Media MVP?
- Does the Media MVP have to use DHCP, or is there somesort of hack these days?
- If the cable boxes are the same, how do I differentiate the IR Blasters?
- How do I get hold of the Hauppauge cards (the numbers seem to be different in the uk than the ones in the us which sage is compatible with)
- Could one PC cope with 4+ capture cards (don't worry about the PCI slot amounts).
- Can the Hauppauge remotes be used to control the tv's volume or not, and if not, does the MVP have it's own internal volume system?

Thanks a lot for all of your help, I really appreciate it
Ryan

1. Yes
2. Only plays MPEG2 videos so everything else has to be transcoded (although if you are just using PVR150's they only record in MPEG2 so it isn't a big deal. HD100's are much better)
3. SD MPEG2 television only uses something around 6mb/s so even with 4 clients you are only looking at about 24mb/s which wouldn't even saturate a 100mb/s network.
4. Wireless networking for video is highly unreliable. Especially using wireless G. You might be able to pull off with draft n, but unfortunately the Wireless MVP's are only G. Many people have had problems getting the wireless mvp's to work reliably. I would go solely hardwired. It will save you a lot of headaches....
5. My MVP's all use DHCP....I am not sure if there is a way to set an IP on them (unless it is set at the router level)
6. As far as the 4 cable boxes, here's the skinny....IF your boxes allow you to use different IR codes per box you can just create 4 different IR files and Sage will use the correct IR code to change the channel on the right box. However, if your cable boxes can not use different IR codes, they might be able to use firewire for channel changing or maybe serial. Worst case, is that you have to use seperate IR emitters. If this is the case the USB UIRT will only be able to control 3 boxes, so you would have to use two.
7. In the states, I believe all analog only cards have ceased production. You may have some difficulty finding analog only capture cards. The other option is to go with the Hybrid cards that have both a digital and analog tuner and just "ignore" the digital tuner....If you can get them, I recommend the PVR500's as they are dual analog tuners and would mean you only need 2 cards (I have my two dish network sd receivers connected to a PVR500)
8. Can a PC handle 4 tuners? Hell I have 8! Others have more than that. So yes.
9. No the MVP remote can not control the tvs volume but yes Sage has its own volume for each MVP so you canjust set the tv to one set volume and change with the MVP. You also can not power up a tv which there is no way around....

[shadeblue.com]

Originally Posted by ryanrandom

- Will I get traffic issues running this scaled system on CAT5e?

I have been running 2 HD-100s streaming HD content over my CAT5e 100MB network with no problems. I am using a 10/100 MB network switch, not a hub. I did not isolate the SageTV server and HD-100s to a separate network, I am running them all on the same network as all my other computers and equipment. I know this is a different setup than what you are asking, but it may provide some reference comparison information.

Originally Posted by ryanrandom

- If the cable boxes are the same, how do I differentiate the IR Blasters?

I just ran into this same issue, I just added two Uverse STBs to my SageTV server and they do not allow you to change the IR channels/zones on the boxes. I did successfully configure the 3 zones of my USB-UIRT to handle each STB discretely. This post helped me achieve this:
http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/show...16&postcount=9

Prior to Uverse, I was using digital cable with a Scientific Atlanta Explorer 4240 HDC. With this STB, I was using firewire to control channel changes.

[dadof4]

Can't you use the PVR-150's (or 500's 0r 1600's) as tuners and eliminate the need for the cable boxes? I must be missing something.

[ryanrandom]

Hi

In response to the guy who posted last, in the UK, the cable market is pretty much all snapped up by Virgin Media (part of the Virgin Group - ie: virgin atlantic, virgin holidays, virgin america, etc.), and infact apart from 1 company who operate on the isle of wight, thats pretty much it. Therefore, due to the nature of the cable box supplied, the signals cant be decoded by an analogue tv tuner. If it were analogue cable then sure, but thats very rare.

In response to everyone else, thanks for the positive response to my project that I'm planning. I'd still like to hear your opinions etc, but Thanks for your help.

Im gonna look into serial control of the cable stb, and if not will go with that 3-way usb thing, with signal "tents" on the front of the box. It wont matter for appearance's sake, as the system will probably me in a cupboard in our loft conversion, out of the way, ventilated and with the outside temperature as cooling.

For the pc that I will use, I'm scouring ebay for something with an ATX mobo, that still has some power in it. I would like atleast four PCI slots, a P4 2Ghz+, 512mb+, and maybe 250gb storage to start with.

Am now relying on my web design business to pull in the funds to let me set this up.

Thanks.

[shadeblue.com]

Originally Posted by dadof4

Can't you use the PVR-150's (or 500's 0r 1600's) as tuners and eliminate the need for the cable boxes? I must be missing something.

For analog cable TV, Yes - you only need one of those capture cards that has a cable TV tuner with a coaxial (RF / F connector) input.

The 1600 also supports ATSC and QAM. With an OTA (over-the-air) antenna and an ATSC tuner you can capture terrestrial digital TV signals, usually your local free TV stations. With a QAM capable tuner you can capture digital cables channels that are not encrypted, again maybe your locals. Clear QAM (not encrypted) availability varies depending on you location. For me, the only clear QAM channels are the same locals that I can get over the air on the ATSC tuner.

Now, for capturing digital cable or high definition from cable or satellite, you pretty much have to have a set top box (STB).