Limiting Tuner Access for Specific HD-200 Extenders

[Greg]

Before I can decide on my configuration and how I will use SageTV for my multiple room application I need to know a couple of things. I will have 5 rooms with TV's, possibly all with HD-200's. As we discussed in a previous thread I will be starting out small, but I want to understand the big picture in case Sage is for me.

1. Can I limit access of specified HD-200's to certain tuners, including the HD-PVR? In other words, I would like to prevent, say the TV's in the bedrooms from accessing any tuners/HD-PVR's that I specify.

2. Is there a stand-alone DVR without a subscription fee (ie no TIVO, etc.)? This may be for a dedicated room without access from other rooms. Actually, it would be nice if it could be accessed from at least one other room......but, not crucial. Do not want to run SageTV on this set-up.

Thanks,
Greg

[gplasky]

1. No. Why would you want to do that? All available channels show up in the guide and Sage decides what tuner to use based on what channel you choose. There is no need to worry about tuners.

2. No-not that I'm aware of.

Hopefully what you will find that works best is that you set favorites for everything so it gets recorded. You should actually be watching mostly recordings with very little, if any channel surfing or watching "live" tv. That is what most people end up doing. I want to watch it when I want to, not when they put it on tv.

Gerry

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by Greg

1. Can I limit access of specified HD-200's to certain tuners, including the HD-PVR? In other words, I would like to prevent, say the TV's in the bedrooms from accessing any tuners/HD-PVR's that I specify.

The extenders do not really have anything to do with the tuners. All an extender does is ask to watch a program. If that program is already recorded, it plays the recorded file. If that program is currently on live, the server will find the first tuner that carries that program, and start recording it... the extender will then start playing back the recording. Understanding this early on will help to minimize some later confusion about sage's inner workings.

[Greg]

Originally Posted by gplasky

1. No. Why would you want to do that? All available channels show up in the guide and Sage decides what tuner to use based on what channel you choose. There is no need to worry about tuners.

2. No-not that I'm aware of.

Hopefully what you will find that works best is that you set favorites for everything so it gets recorded. You should actually be watching mostly recordings with very little, if any channel surfing or watching "live" tv. That is what most people end up doing. I want to watch it when I want to, not when they put it on tv.

Gerry

Gerry,

1. My reasoning is that I may have only 1 or 2 at the most, HD Comcast boxes. With 4 people watching live TV at the same time, I may want to limit the HD (from Comcast) to one or two primary rooms. By the time I get home from work the rest of my family will be hidden away in their rooms sucking up all of the HD. If there's something on that I can't get from OTA then I will need access to the Comcast box. If I can prevent their bedrooms from accessing the Comcast boxes they will be forced to watch it in the dedicated rooms......at least we'll see each other from time to time!
All I'm trying to do is determine the flexibility so that I can design the best configuration for our viewing habits.

2. This was an alternative to blocking access from select HD-200's. If#1 will not work, then maybe I can do #2..........dedicated HD rooms with a stand-alone DVR.

I could be over-thinking this whole thing! There is another approach........it's my house, give me my HD.

Thanks,
Greg

[GKusnick]

There's a Favorite Channels plugin that may help you do what you want, by limiting the channels available in the EPG on certain clients.

That said, Gerry has a point that designing a setup to suit your current viewing habits may not be the best approach, since your habits are likely to change once you build up a backlog of recorded favorites, and real-time channel-surfing becomes less important to you. That's what most of us here have found.

[Fuzzy]

Also, if you like sage, and you think your family will as well, the best option, if you think you will be encountering tuner conflicts, is to up the tuner count. In the end, if you spend the money on extra tuners for the Sage system, instead of the stand-alone DVR's, it'll make for a much smoother experience for all. Combine in the capability to play DVD's from a centralized storage, and the common interface among all your PC's (with any recording viewable at any TV), and you will really start to see the strengths of Sage.

[Greg]

Originally Posted by GKusnick

That said, Gerry has a point that designing a setup to suit your current viewing habits may not be the best approach, since your habits are likely to change once you build up a backlog of recorded favorites, and real-time channel-surfing becomes less important to you. That's what most of us here have found.

You are probably right, as the only experience that I currently have is using a VCR............AS LITTLE AS HUMANELY POSSIBLE. I did record two shows last night, but what a pain. I don't have the remote anymore, so I can't even program it. Once I end up with a Sage based PVR I won't be so tied to live TV and may tend towards how most of you use it.

Thank you all for your insight.........it helps greatly.

Greg

[Greg]

Originally Posted by GKusnick

There's a Favorite Channels plugin that may help you do what you want, by limiting the channels available in the EPG on certain clients.

Greg,

It seems like this plug-in can be used as a type of parental control feature. Is there a separate parental control feature in SageTV? If so, it could probably do what I wanted.

Thanks,
Greg

[CollinR]

Also when you setup you channels you don't have to enable every available channel. As an example I NEVER enable any of the shopping networks, but also you can remove Nik, Disney and the like from your HD PVR lineups thus forcing another source to be used. Handy if you use Dish Network Duo recievers as you can put 1 PVR500 and 2 HD PVRs with 2 boxes. ($7 total outlet fees, 4 tuners) Technically the lineup is the same however removing those from the HD lineup forces the cheaper and readily available PVR500s to be used.

However the bonus isn't so big if you don't have Dish Network.

[CollinR]

Originally Posted by Greg

Once I end up with a Sage based PVR I won't be so tied to live TV and may tend towards how most of you use it.

This is almost certain if you follow the knowledge of the forums.

1. Not messing around server with focus on storage and availablity.
2. Hardware client per room


Yes favorite channels list does work somewhat like parental controls, however it also limits the access to recordings by channel and there is only 1 password. So you either give them channel access or you must enter the code each time you want them to view that channel.

Me personally I just would like an STV that disabled liveTV use altogther, this way those rooms have no option to tie up a tuner. They must schedule recordings, or use what someone else has scheduled. The SageTV recording logic is very very good, much better then any human. It will do the best possible senario to record everything you request if it is possible. In my case I create the favorites my kids watch, however even with my hacks there are still ways to get into liveTV.

[GKusnick]

Originally Posted by CollinR

Me personally I just would like an STV that disabled liveTV use altogther, this way those rooms have no option to tie up a tuner. They must schedule recordings, or use what someone else has scheduled.

I don't understand what this means. Watching a program "live" from the program guide is the same as marking it for manual recording and then watching that recording in real time. The only difference is whether the file gets autodeleted. I don't see how forcing the kids to do it the hard way prevents them from tying up tuners. Every time you cause a program to be recorded, whether it's by Favorite or Manual or Live TV, you're potentially tying up a tuner that somebody else might like to use for their recordings.

[CollinR]

Because it's easy to remove those functions and for you to create favorites and manuals for them. In this manner my kids only get preapproved content in addition to existing parental controls.

Also I set the priority levels...

I'm a packet nazi I guess but it helps IMHO when you have inexperienced users or users who may not be capable of handling it on their own. Just have them think it's a VOD system rather then tring to teach them to manage a complex PVR, I want the complexity however I dunno about my 9 year old.

[Greg]

Originally Posted by CollinR

Me personally I just would like an STV that disabled liveTV use altogther, this way those rooms have no option to tie up a tuner. They must schedule recordings, or use what someone else has scheduled.

The HD-200 in stand-alone mode would prevent viewing live TV. They wouldn't be able to schedule recordings, however. But, they would be able to watch recorded shows.

Greg

[CollinR]

Then you have no parental controls at all!

[Fuzzy]

You should be able to just remove the program guide and live tv from that HD-200's STV. Would be really simple with Dynamic Menus.

[CollinR]

I have already done that. There are other ways to get into the guide and if a recording is currently recording and you start watching, it will go as long as you watch until parental access is required. You can also channel up/down from a current recording as well as choose program guide from the menu you get from pressing select twice during playback of anything.

[Fuzzy]

Some of those are fixable. Ch-up and dn you should be able to disable by simply unmapping those commands (not positive, as I don't have an HD-200, but this would work in a full client at least). If all you are watching is Recorded TV, there is no need for those commands anyways. Others, such as removing the program guide item from the Options menu would have to be done in Studio (though should be relatively simple to find and remove that option). As for the recording continuing if watching a show that is recording, I have not seen this behavior. If selected FROM THE GUIDE, it does keep recording/playing. However, what I've experienced, is that when selecting a show from the Sage Recordings menu, it DOES stop when the program is done.

As for a feature request, I honestly don't think there would be much chance of this being added, as I'm guessing there are very few that are interested in being that restrictive with the viewing. For most everyone, if they DO want to restrict viewing, the built-in parental controls (using industry wide standards) are more than adequate.

Sage IS fully customizable, it's just that to get that full customization, requires some working in Studio.