Using Sage with Digital Tuning Adaptor

[sunray]

I have analog cable and a HTPC equipped with 5 analog tuners (3 Hauppauge HVR-1600s, 1 WinTV-PVR USB2, and 1 ATI Theater 650 Combo USB) running Sage 6.62 under WinXP SP3. My cable company just announced that they are moving the cable service in my area to digital. According to them I will need 1 settop box and digital tuning adaptors (DTA) for each TV. Can someone list all the hardware and software I will need to use Sage under this setup? Will I need a DTA for each tuner? Will I need a USB-UIRT? Will I need more than 1? Thanks.

[GKusnick]

If you want to keep using all five analog tuners, then you'll need a DTA for each one, plus a way to change channels on them. One USB-UIRT can control up to three DTAs, so you'd need two of those.

However that's probably not your only option. If the cable provider transmits your local broadcast channels in the clear (unencrypted), then a digital QAM tuner can receive them directly without a DTA. Or if you live in an area with good over-the-air TV reception, you could use digital ATSC tuners with an antenna to receive those broadcasts. Neither of these options will get all your cable channels, but they might get enough of your favorite shows so that you can get by with fewer DTAs. Also, QAM and ATSC tuners can record in HD, which your analog tuners cannot do.

[jptheripper]

GKusnick was right on. You will need either a DTA OR a Cable box for each analog tuner you wish to keep active.

You can plug the cable right from the wall into the ATSC port on your 1600 (if it is a QAM compatible model) and you can get HD local stations as well.

You will need a way to change the channels on each device. A usb-uirt has up to 3 zones, and can therefore control 3 devices. However, you can put two devices on the same zone if they have COMPLETELY different IR codes. I control a settop box and a DTA on the same zone with a usb-uirt.

Hope this helps.

[sunray]

Thanks for the help guys. I was hoping I'd only need 1 or 2 DTAs. Instead I'll need 5. My Hauppauge 1600s don't seem to be able to pickup any QAM signal when I've tried it before. The channel scan didn't pickup a single channel. I've already ordered 2 USB-UIRTs. Can you tell me where I can get the extra emitters needed for the USB-UIRTs? The USB-UIRT web site doesn't seem to carry them.

[Spectrum]

The ones for the MS blaster work if you can find those, I found several results on google just searching for 'ir blaster cable', and they are nothing more than IR LEDs attached to a mono/stereo plug so you can roll your own if you are so inclined. I didn't create the attached diagrams so props to whoever did, I'm just putting them up for convenience. Also I believe you will need a modified driver for using 2x USB-UIRTS on the same system.

This thread has info regarding using the USB-UIRT with Win7 when using as a service. Note this driver is seperate from the one that deals with 2x UIRTS

[Codell]

The USB-UIRTs have an emitter on the front and a stereo jack on the back. If you put a stereo-to-dual-mono y adapter/splitter (like this one http://www.radioshack.com/product/in...ductId=2102691) in the jack, you can attach two emitters to the y adapter. I use the 283D product from http://www.hometech.com/hts/products...ers/index.html, and I've been happy with that; I also use the 28DES shields on that page, but they are optional.

The DTAs from my cable company included IR receiver cables that plugged into the back of the DTAs. For each of my USB-UIRTs, I ran the IR receiver from a DTA and taped it to the front emitter on the USB. This freed me from having to align that front emitter with a DTA or cable box and allowed me (with a y adapter and two emitters) to control two more DTAs or cable boxes from that USB UIRT.

And if you do use the USB UIRT to control more than one device, you'll want to find one of the threads that discusses how to set up zones in your IR file.

And if you do use more than one USB UIRT, you'll want to email support at USB UIRT to get the special driver that supports multiple UIRTs; also, you'll want to find the thread (here or at the USB UIRT site, I can't recall) that discusses how to name the USB UIRTs so the system can distinguish between them.

Sorry I don't have links to those forum posts handy, but I hope this helps some.