Advice on HD200 and Replacing Cable Boxes

[will]

I am in the process planning my first PVR system.

After doing a lot of research, I plan to base the system around SageTV, HD-PVR, and the HD200.

Ultimately I would like to have a PVR server in the basement with two or three HD-PVRs each hooked up to a SA STB (I use TimeWarner Cable). I plan to use firewire to change the channels to reduce the lag and inconsistency with IR blasters.

I plan to eventually hookup about 4 or 5 HD TVs to the system with HD200s. The house this system will be in is fully wired with CAT6 gigabyte ethernet, so bandwidth is not a concern. I would like to use HD200s to replace all the cable boxes hooked up to TVs.

What is the experience like using the HD200 to watch live TV and channel surf? My only hesitation about the system is the delays in channel changing and displaying the channel on the screen (and how the delays affect the WAF). I have been searching the web and I can’t find any experiences about using the HD200 to replace a cable box and how the experience compares when watching live tv.

Thanks for the help,
Will

[cat6man]

480i over hdmi works fine here with hd200 in stand alone media player mode

[PiX64]

Im not entirely sure what your asking, but I have 2 HD200's and use them as the sole STB at 2 diffferent HD TV's and everything works great. Yes there is a little bit of a lag when yo uchagne the channel, but if you really think about what is going on there, at least for me its not a big deal.

I never channel surf, but i do watch a show while surfing through the guide, which works perfectly.

Does that help?

~Mike

[will]

Thanks for the reply.

How are you controlling your cable boxes to change channels (serial, firewire, IR blaster)? What kind of delay do you experience, is it greater than 5 seconds?

What I am really curious about is how does using the HD200 as a media extender compare to using a regular HD STB for watching live TV. Does the experience feel as seamless? If each channel change takes 10 or 15 seconds I think that detracts significantly from the experience.

I personally don't watch much live TV besides the news but I am concerned about the WAF.

Thanks for the help,
Will

[Djc208]

The HD-PVRs are slow to change channels, especially if using digital audio. Some of it is the buffering but most is the audio syncing. I'll get the picture OK but the audio will take another 10-15 seconds. This is only during live TV, recordings are fine.

That said I'm always amused by everyones concerns with channel "surfing". I almost never do that any more, that's the whole purpose of me using Sage. I sit down, fire up Sage and pick a show from the recording list. I have so many shows recorded I never end up "looking" for something to watch live.

Besides, if you implement comskip after about a week you can't stand watching live TV anyway, you loose all tolerance for commercials.

The biggest problem with using HD-200 as your cable access is with three TVs and three tuners if all the TVs are watching live content you can't record anything else.

[PiX64]

My STB's are all centrally located by the server, and are channel changed via ir blast

I woudl say the delay is on the order of 2 - 4 seconds at most. But i do not use HDPVR.

When i was using HDPVR it was alittle bit longer. 5 - 7

From my experience the hd200 is perfect for watching live tv. no need to have teh STB at the TV. Just put it in the closet with your sage server, and hook it up to capture...

[will]

Originally Posted by Djc208

The biggest problem with using HD-200 as your cable access is with three TVs and three tuners if all the TVs are watching live content you can't record anything else.

I know this is a little off topic but with my current SA DVRs if I am watching live TV and two shows are scheduled to record at the same time then the channel changes to one of the scheduled recordings. If I try to change the channel to something that is not recording I am warned that I can't and I would have to stop one of the recordings to resume watching live TV.

How does SageTV handle this situation? Ideally I would like scheduled recordings to have top priority to the access cable sources over live TV viewing.

[gplasky]

So far with the HD-PVR there is a recommednded setting to help with the initial channel change and recognizing the resolution the chanel is broadcasting on. The default recommendation is 4 seconds. So for channel surfing you would need to get use to the 4 second or so delay. And even though 4 seconds doesn't sound like a lot in comparison with a cable box you'll notice the difference. Just trying to set your expectations. We don't watch live tv or surf the channels. We set favorites or surf the guide.

Gerry

Gerry

[will]

Originally Posted by gplasky

So far with the HD-PVR there is a recommednded setting to help with the initial channel change and recognizing the resolution the chanel is broadcasting on. The default recommendation is 4 seconds. So for channel surfing you would need to get use to the 4 second or so delay. And even though 4 seconds doesn't sound like a lot in comparison with a cable box you'll notice the difference. Just trying to set your expectations. We don't watch live tv or surf the channels. We set favorites or surf the guide.

Gerry

Gerry

Gerry,

Do you use an HD200 with your setup? 4 seconds isn't that bad, I can live with 4 seconds.

However, Djc208 says with the HD200 the delay for fully working video and audio is more like 15 seconds (that is long).


Will

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by will

Gerry,

Do you use an HD200 with your setup? 4 seconds isn't that bad, I can live with 4 seconds.

However, Djc208 says with the HD200 the delay for fully working video and audio is more like 15 seconds (that is long).


Will

Yes. I have a HD200, HD100 and PC clients. It's something someone can get used to but 4 seconds is longer than you think when you're channel surfing. Especially when you're trying to flip thru them. It could be longer (6 seconds o so) But I don't ever recall it taking me 15 seconds to go from channel to channel, video and audio.

Gerry

[paulbeers]

Originally Posted by will

How does SageTV handle this situation? Ideally I would like scheduled recordings to have top priority to the access cable sources over live TV viewing.

The same. If you run out of tuners and try to watch live tv, it will warn you and ask if you want to cancel the recording of X show.

[LittleJohnny]

Originally Posted by gplasky

Yes. I have a HD200, HD100 and PC clients. It's something someone can get used to but 4 seconds is longer than you think when you're channel surfing. Especially when you're trying to flip thru them. It could be longer (6 seconds o so) But I don't ever recall it taking me 15 seconds to go from channel to channel, video and audio.

Gerry

I would agree. I have 2 HD-PVRs with DirecTV receivers (USB/Serial) connected and the delay might be 4 seconds. I have never seen the 10-15 second delay.

[will]

4 to 6 seconds isn't that bad. Currently with my STBs if I was to "channel surf" by actually physically changing the channel like you do with analog cable there is a 2 to 3 second delay before the picture and audio display.

The way I "channel surf" is by using the mini-guide to go through what is on channels while watching TV. I don't think anyone with digital cable truly "channel surfs" like we used to 15 years ago.

Thanks for all the help. It seems like the HD200s are great client/server solution for what I want to do.

[jsin]

Just wanted to mention that watching Live TV with HD200 is great in general. Watching Live TV with HD-PVR, not so much. I think in general watching Live TV with HD-PVR tends to make it unstable, leading to a reboot or a reset. Also there is the infamous SageTV "pause" during Live TV when the show you're watching ends and the next one begins.

Not necessarily a deal breaker but some thing to bear in mind.

[Fuzzy]

I think you will find that once your wife gets some favorites set up, she will probably start watching less and less live tv. I know in our house, the only time live tv is viewed anymore is in the mornings while she's getting ready for work, she'll have one of the morning shows on.