New set up looking for tips

[Mailman74]

I ordered hd30 and having an unraid server built. Will be using new pc with avermedia dual tuner to record ota. Are there any tips before I rip too many dvd/cd to my server? What format and any organization tips. I want to keep original quality because storage is no a concern. I will be getting hd300 on Friday and tuner today. What about add ins? Are there add ons that are a must or should I run stock sage for a while?

[vexhold]

I recommend going slow and documenting everything you do. Alot of people rush into their setup cause they are excited and a week into it they end up breaking something and it takes them another week to get back to where they were.

Take it piece by piece and verify everything is working as you go. Write down as much information and steps you take to do each task. Before you make any changes, make a quick backup.

Ignore addons for now and run stock, once you have that fine tuned, you can slowly add more. Each person is different on what functionality they need.

As far as ripping and file structure, do a search, there are many good posts on the subject.

[pjpjpjpj]

There are not really any better or worse methods for file organization. It depends on how you want the (DVDs, for example) to show up. Some people put them all into one big folder, some put them into folders labeled by year, some into folders labeled by their own personally-designated genre, some separate by "husband's", "wife's", "kids", etc. It all depends on what you want - and then which "view" you choose to make the default in Sage. And, of course, depending on if you use metadata and UI plugins, you may have entirely different view options.

There are a lot of plugins which make things work better/easier. Some simple things like "multifunction stop" and such. There are simple add-ons, like the Stock viewer (lets you see how your stocks are doing). Then there is another level, where you start getting into movie metadata or commercial skipping, and have external apps that have to integrate. I would take it slow and get other "easier" things working before you do those. Read the description of the plugin, be sure you understand it, and if you are unsure about something, read the entire thread about it, and maybe even PM the author. There are also several UI replacements, of which you will find long discussions. If you like the looks of them, you can give them a shot, but many of them change the view methods of certain things (i.e., movies, or TV shows), so make sure you are willing to change those before you jump in.

[wrems]

Comskip is a must for us! I would check out Diamond UI mod too. See if those screenshots do anything for you. As for movies rip with anydvd or dvdfab keep it in folders format no ISO's they're much more of a pain then they're worth. I prefer to only capture the main movie and drop all the extra features, menus and stuff. For movie management you may consider SageMyMovies SMM. It requires an extra add on called the collection manager to manage your titles metadata. Otherwise, Batch Metadata Tools BMT will work too.

Do lots of backups. Especially before you install a plugin. This measure will help you in the event you break something and need to get back to a working install quickly. Nothing ruins the WAF than breaking Sage before her favorite primetime show!... Acronis works great, otherwise Macrium. You'll be able to get back to a stable working version in minutes. I like to image the entire partition before adding anything to my setup. Run it for a few days before moving forth. Unless you know that everything you want to put together works flawlessly together. You can never be too cautious.

[Mailman74]

I do like the diamond ui and installed it. I really like to have metadata and nice loooking pics for movies. I installed mymovies but it only shows half of my collecton and it does not look like others here in the forums. I am ripping with dvd fab in vob folders and music is in flac. I installed my avermdia tuner last night and it is not showing up. I will have to work on it tonight. I should delete and reinstall sagetv to start from the basic. And how do I backup befoe installing plug in. Sorry about all the questions but I want this to work and have waf. I need to cancel overpriced satellite.

[wrems]

You shouldn't have to start over from scratch unless you really mucked something up. As long as you installed the avermedia card and driver + rebooted machine for good measure you should be able to go into detailed setup and do a channel scan.

For backing up, I like to use an imaging software like Acronis or Macrium. Since I do the entire OS drive partition. You can back up just the folders in Program Files just the same. even copying the folders to another directory works fine. If something goes wrong nuke the original location and replace all the folders and directories with your backup. The most important piece of information you need is the Wiz.bin. It has all your watched data, favorites and so forth. the properties file can be rebuilt if necessary. But if you do the entire partition you won't miss anything... If you have a light windows install and little extraneous data on your C drive the image will go fast and should you need to recover it too would be pretty quick.