Opinion Needed - Integrating Chromecast with SageTV

[Deacon Crusher]

Freaking Awesome.

It's up and running and looks great. I've been using my hd-pvr basically just to record HBO shows, all other channels are covered by my Ceton or one of my ATSC tuners or both. With this setup I can now just watch/record HBO shows and movies from their app at my leisure and the quality looks much better. Shows won't have all the program data with them so not sure if I'll record and may leave old setup in place, but this is great. And should be a much better way to watch netflix as well. If chromecast can add amazon prime and showtime this will be perfect.

[trk2]

Originally Posted by Deacon Crusher

Doing a little Saturday Sage work.
Did you set the chromecast up while plugged into some other TV and then move to the hdmi splitter or?

And then did you set the new tuner up with 1 bogus channel or ??

And did you have any driver issues with the colussus? (I have an hd-pvr in the same system and don't want to mess it up.)

My Colossus was already in my Sage server and I use it only occasionally to transfer media from my dish dvr to Sage (typically Celtics playoff games). I was bold and setup Chromecast for the first time while it was plugged into the HDMI splitter connected to the Colossus.

I have no other tuners currently setup. My Colossus is setup for the HDMI input, and I did not attach a guide to it. I use Gemstone and under my TV flow I simply renamed the "Watch Live TV" menu command as "Watch Chromecast".

The only issues I have encountered is that the Pandora cast app causes the music to clip and is unlistenable and the "cast from chrome browser" feature unbelievably has yet to be enabled for the Android OS (get your act together Google). Netflix and HBO Go work great and look much better then through Playon (I haven't tried Playon's new HD stream upgrade yet, but it is only 720p and no 5.1 sound)

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by trk2

The only issues I have encountered is that the Pandora cast app causes the music to clip and is unlistenable and the "cast from chrome browser" feature unbelievably has yet to be enabled for the Android OS (get your act together Google).

I don't see this happening for quite some time. Android devices simply don't have the horsepower to encode HD video on the fly (which is what the chrome tab casting is doing).

[pjpjpjpj]

So I'm late to this discussion, but I am fairly certain I am receiving a Chromecast for Christmas, and would love to integrate it into Sage. This thread is a bit disjointed, so could someone produce a "summary" of what has been discovered? Specifically:

1) What's the minimum equipment I need for this method? Chromecast, an HDMI splitter (monoprice or Amazon), and an HD-PVR or Colossus? If this is correct, what models of the latter work (or don't)? I think some models of the HD-PVRs don't work, or have workarounds been found?
(also, for those like me who are OTA-only with HDHRs and have never had to deal with any sorts of codecs, etc., please summarize what needs to be installed - or not - to use one of these devices)

2) Besides HD versions of things that "PlayOn through Sage" can't do (yet), like Netflix, what else does the Chromecast currently provide that isn't available via PlayOn? Can you cast any live video stream at all from a computer to the Chromecast and therefore could watch/record it in Sage?

Thanks.

[trk2]

Originally Posted by pjpjpjpj

1) What's the minimum equipment I need for this method? Chromecast, an HDMI splitter (monoprice or Amazon), and an HD-PVR or Colossus? If this is correct, what models of the latter work (or don't)? I think some models of the HD-PVRs don't work, or have workarounds been found?
(also, for those like me who are OTA-only with HDHRs and have never had to deal with any sorts of codecs, etc., please summarize what needs to be installed - or not - to use one of these devices).

You have the equipment list correct. I have never owned an HD-PVR so I can't comment on model differences except to mention that you must buy a version with an HDMI input. As far as software, simply install the drivers (download the latest from Hauppauge or SHS) and you're good to go. I use extenders for playback so I am unfamiliar if any codec are required for playback on a sage server but I think for Sage version 7 that it includes an H.264 codec? In one of the HD-PVR threads there is a discussion on how to customize the recording options (bitrate, VBR vs CBR etc..) within Sage that is helpful, but not necessary.

Originally Posted by pjpjpjpj

2) Besides HD versions of things that "PlayOn through Sage" can't do (yet), like Netflix, what else does the Chromecast currently provide that isn't available via PlayOn? Can you cast any live video stream at all from a computer to the Chromecast and therefore could watch/record it in Sage?

Besides the higher resolution (1080 Chromecast vs 720 PlayOn HD) the other big benefit is the 5.1 audio. Right now there are very few apps for Chromecast but Netflix and HBO Go work well. The few videos I have tried streaming from my computer to Chromecast have worked fine, but I have limited experience. The big drawback is that using the tab casting feature of Chromecast is somewhat clumsy when using sage in a home theater environment. My solution is to use my tablet with a remote desktop app to tab cast from the sage server. Clumsy but it works, and once the stream has started all the pause/resume functionality can be controlled within Sage.

[BobPhoenix]

I would get the OLD 1212 version of the HD-PVR. It has been almost error free for me once I got a good NEC based USB card to connect it to. My Colossus has problem frequently recording from HDMI and I hear the new HD-PVR that can record from HDMI has similar problems to the Colossus. I keep the Colossus because I can tell the recordings are just a little bit better then HD-PVR1 (1212 model).

Do note that there are some Colossus and/or HD-PVR2 users that have reported no problems as well. It might just be that my Colossus is overheating a little and that is why I have problems. I tend to doubt that a little since the problems were fairly common. But as I said some have reported no problems as well. The old 1212 version had people reporting errors as well and before I went to the NEC based USB card I had problems as well. But of the 2 (HDMI Colossus or Component HD-PVR1) the most reliable is the HD-PVR1. The best looking (buy a small amount that some people dispute is even there) is the Colossus/HD-PVR2.

[pjpjpjpj]

My local MicroCenter has the "HD PVR-2 Gaming Edition" for $120. It's model 1480. That will work?

So I would get this, plug the Chromecast into the HDMI splitter "in", then connect an HDMI cable from the "out" to the HDPVR, and the HDPVR via USB to my Sage Server.

I only use Sage through extenders, so maybe I don't need to worry about codecs? I don't seem to have any issues playing H.264 videos as-is...

When I add the HDPVR as a tuner, what do I do about a channel guide? It's been so long since I even had to look at that part of Sage... it allows you to manually create a channel, right? And then that channel will show up in my EPG, with "No Data" in the listing row, but that channel would show whatever Chromecast is casting?

The main thing I am hoping to do is this: sporting events of my alma mater are available via online streams - I purchase the "All Access" package through the school, which provides the games that are not on any national TV network. I typically watch them on my laptop, or by connecting it via VGA to a TV. The game streams are flash-based, if that matters. I would like to open up the game stream on my laptop (in Chrome), then cast it to the Chromecast, and therefore be able to watch/record the game in Sage, allowing me to pause, rewind, save the recording, etc. Does that sound like something that would work? Can you cast any stream (even flash-based) via tab casting?

[Tiki]

Originally Posted by BobPhoenix

I would get the OLD 1212 version of the HD-PVR. It has been almost error free for me once I got a good NEC based USB card to connect it to. My Colossus has problem frequently recording from HDMI and I hear the new HD-PVR that can record from HDMI has similar problems to the Colossus. I keep the Colossus because I can tell the recordings are just a little bit better then HD-PVR1 (1212 model).

Do note that there are some Colossus and/or HD-PVR2 users that have reported no problems as well. It might just be that my Colossus is overheating a little and that is why I have problems. I tend to doubt that a little since the problems were fairly common. But as I said some have reported no problems as well. The old 1212 version had people reporting errors as well and before I went to the NEC based USB card I had problems as well. But of the 2 (HDMI Colossus or Component HD-PVR1) the most reliable is the HD-PVR1. The best looking (buy a small amount that some people dispute is even there) is the Colossus/HD-PVR2.

I think the point was that since the Chromecast is HDMI, you want to use a capture device that supports HDMI. The old 1212 version (HD-PVR) doesn't have an HDMI input. You would need to insert something in the middle to convert from HDMI to component if you use this device.

[BobPhoenix]

Originally Posted by Tiki

I think the point was that since the Chromecast is HDMI, you want to use a capture device that supports HDMI. The old 1212 version (HD-PVR) doesn't have an HDMI input. You would need to insert something in the middle to convert from HDMI to component if you use this device.

You are completely correct. I was thinking in terms of a normal recording done from a STB not out of the Chromecast. Hopefully most of the problems with HD-PVR2 and Colossus go away when recordings from the Chromecast. I believe most of the problems were because the broadcasters would switch resolutions and sound formats on the fly (commercials) for the broadcasts. Hopefully the Chromecast will even out any changes thus minimizing the errors.

[Deacon Crusher]

I made a couple recordings of a movie through my chromecast/colussus combo within sage.

They were labeled No Data because they came in on channel 700 (the colussus channel) that's not connected to any guide.

I was able to watch these recordings as they were coming in (occasional hitches even when running behind real time?) and after they were done recording, but sometime (approximately 2 days?) after I made the recordings they were gone from my system.

Does Sage auto delete recordings that are named "no data"? I've since made a new test recording and edited the meta data so it would be named something other then no data. So far (day and a half) recording is still there.

Thanks

[pjpjpjpj]

DC, that brings up a question I had: is there a way to overwrite the EPG (or lack thereof) for a channel you create, and replace "No data" with something else? Not metadata once the file is created, but the actual text in the EPG that shows in the channel row? It would be nice to call it "Chromecast programming" or something like that.

I assume we just using manual recording (data, time, channel) to record anything from that channel, right?

[BobPhoenix]

Originally Posted by Deacon Crusher

I made a couple recordings of a movie through my chromecast/colussus combo within sage.

They were labeled No Data because they came in on channel 700 (the colussus channel) that's not connected to any guide.

I was able to watch these recordings as they were coming in (occasional hitches even when running behind real time?) and after they were done recording, but sometime (approximately 2 days?) after I made the recordings they were gone from my system.

Does Sage auto delete recordings that are named "no data"? I've since made a new test recording and edited the meta data so it would be named something other then no data. So far (day and a half) recording is still there.

Thanks

Did the recording have a manual recording icon on it? If it was considered a live recording and not a manual it would get deleted just like any other live recording. You might try toggling the manual recording setting on it after you record it and see if it gets deleted.

Originally Posted by pjpjpjpj

DC, that brings up a question I had: is there a way to overwrite the EPG (or lack thereof) for a channel you create, and replace "No data" with something else? Not metadata once the file is created, but the actual text in the EPG that shows in the channel row? It would be nice to call it "Chromecast programming" or something like that.

I assume we just using manual recording (data, time, channel) to record anything from that channel, right?

There is a plugin that allows the naming of timed recordings. So using that plugin and naming the recording and scheduling it rather than doing it live would allow you to name the recording whatever you wanted. This would help with the metadata possibilities.

[Deacon Crusher]

I'll have to look for that plugin. Further test results. Recording that I renamed via metadata area still deleted after 48 hours or so, very odd. However, a version of that same recording that I switched from a TV show to an imported video did not delete, so at least there's a way to have them not delete. I'll do another test and look for the manual recording/live recording issue.

Will also try the timed recording and see if that helps.

Thanks

[pjpjpjpj]

Originally Posted by BobPhoenix

There is a plugin that allows the naming of timed recordings. So using that plugin and naming the recording and scheduling it rather than doing it live would allow you to name the recording whatever you wanted. This would help with the metadata possibilities.

True, I use that plugin now. I was just wondering if you could make the actual EPG look prettier instead of having that "No Data" staring you in the face.

[wayner]

Originally Posted by pjpjpjpj

True, I use that plugin now. I was just wondering if you could make the actual EPG look prettier instead of having that "No Data" staring you in the face.

I looked into this several years ago as I have some closed circuit cameras hooked up to old Hauppauge PVR-150 cards that are mapped to channel 991, etc. But I never found an easy way of fudging the Guide data to show something like "Playroom Camera" instead of "No Data".

Maybe if we bribe Slugger he could write something to do this as he has written the Schedules Direct EPG?

[BobPhoenix]

Originally Posted by pjpjpjpj

True, I use that plugin now. I was just wondering if you could make the actual EPG look prettier instead of having that "No Data" staring you in the face.

Originally Posted by wayner

I looked into this several years ago as I have some closed circuit cameras hooked up to old Hauppauge PVR-150 cards that are mapped to channel 991, etc. But I never found an easy way of fudging the Guide data to show something like "Playroom Camera" instead of "No Data".

Maybe if we bribe Slugger he could write something to do this as he has written the Schedules Direct EPG?

You should be able to write a Groovy script to do this with his Schedules Direct EPG plugin but nothing exists for the default and likely isn't possible since the core is responsible for downloading the EPG from SageTV. I.E. there is no way to intercept the downloaded data before it is put into the SageTV database like there is with the EPG plugin. But that is just a guess. Slugger would definitely be a better resource to consult on this.

[wayner]

I received some insight from Slugger on this - I will try to put something together in Groovy. If anyone else wants to do this then please PM me and I can give you some help - I am not really a programmer but I can pretend to be one from time to time.

[pjpjpjpj]

Resurrecting an OLD thread...

I am interested in doing what this thread describes (setting up a channel in my guide for a Colossus or HD-PVR) and putting in a stick that can stream video to it on demand. This would almost entirely be for the purpose of recording my school's sports streaming from various online networks (ESPN+, for example, which is streaming-only). If I can run it through Sage this way, then I can pause, rewind, etc.

My question is this: when you set up a channel for a tuner in this way and have no EPG, can you do a manual recording from "X" hour to "Y" hour such that it allows you to record from the stream if you are not there? Obviously if I'm watching live I can pause, rewind, whatever, but I'd like to be able to set recordings for when I'm not home. I would then just have to tune the device (probably a Fire stick) to the network and let it stream and hope it didn't fail while I was gone.

Curious how those who use this configuration deal with the lack of EPG and whether manual recording works.

[will]

Originally Posted by pjpjpjpj

Resurrecting an OLD thread...

I am interested in doing what this thread describes (setting up a channel in my guide for a Colossus or HD-PVR) and putting in a stick that can stream video to it on demand. This would almost entirely be for the purpose of recording my school's sports streaming from various online networks (ESPN+, for example, which is streaming-only). If I can run it through Sage this way, then I can pause, rewind, etc.

My question is this: when you set up a channel for a tuner in this way and have no EPG, can you do a manual recording from "X" hour to "Y" hour such that it allows you to record from the stream if you are not there? Obviously if I'm watching live I can pause, rewind, whatever, but I'd like to be able to set recordings for when I'm not home. I would then just have to tune the device (probably a Fire stick) to the network and let it stream and hope it didn't fail while I was gone.

Curious how those who use this configuration deal with the lack of EPG and whether manual recording works.

This can be done. I do scheduled recordings of shows all the time like this. However, not every app offers live streaming, a lot only offer on demand.