HTPC non-sage FAQ?

[bnh]

I'm fishing a little here, so keep me honest. (a bit of a read, sorry.)

I'm not aware of a general non-Sage troubleshooting FAQ (Opus4/Andy?)...but even if i didn't search correctly, i'm wondering if an easy to find non-Sage specific guide would be helpful? I visit this forum every day at least, so i would volunteer to update this if needed, but i'm only knowledgeable in what i have and use, so i would need help to share other people's setups, configs, and discoveries. Maybe what i am proposing below is just a reconfiguring of the forum topics... idk.

There seem to be a number of points of concern when getting content recorded, imported, and played back as desired. i wonder if an outline of check points should be fleshed out and evolved (with the help of this forum) as Sage and the associated technologies and techniques change over time. I'm thinking that agreed bits of recommendations, knowledge, and gotchas be added to each of the areas in the outline.

Is there value in consolidating posts to the forum into a comprehensive non-Sage specific guide? or is searching the forum more effective than a single FAQ?

1. Content Source Providers:
a. Cable
b. Satellite
c. OTA
d. DVD backups
e. Music/Photo
f. Online: Hulu,YouTube2. Server Tuner/Capture devices:
a. Sage supported- (Read-the-FAQl)
b. unsupported
c. latest "good" drivers
d. QAM Tuning
e. ATSC Tuning
3. Electronic Program Guide (EPG):
a. Missing guide data
4. Server
a. Sage server software version functionality
b. Recording drive cluster size
c. CPU
d. Case and auxiliaries
e. Network-attached-storage (NAS)
f. Content storage file structure
5. Client Operating System
a. Windows considerations
b. Linux considerations
c. Mac considerations
6. Client Graphic Drivers
a. overlay, VMR9, Renderers, recommendations?
7. Client Playback Codecs
a. too many variables to list here?
8. Network Topology
a. wired: cat5e, cat6
b. wifi: 802.11a/g/b/n
c. switches
9. Client Audio
a. SPDIF
10. Transcoding Issues
a. h.264
b. mpeg4
c. sage-external processing
11. Commercial Skipping
a. Comskip
b. VideoRedo
c. Cutting commercials
12. User Interface
a. Stock
b. SageMC
13. Importing Content
a. Classifying: Metadata, IMDB, Genres

I'm guessing the answers are going to be "it depends...but i would think you should add this section [xxxxxx] to the FAQ also, because i encountered this odd problem [xxxxxxx]."

We sage-users are probably tinkerers in many ways. Our own solutions are best for our own problems and needs, and if we post those solutions independently, as we do now, someone else may be able to benefit. A comprehensive FAQ may not be discrete enough for a new user anxious to improve the end result. I, for one, am convinced that this product is THE BEST TECHNOLOGY in this arena. i am willing to tinker (or use someone else's solution) to get Sage to do what i want, but even the tinkerers might benefit from a more consolidated knowledge base. what do you think?

Is there a need for a more holistic topic-non-Sage-FAQ?

[mayamaniac]

I think it would be easier to just encourage members of the forum to tag all the useful threads with keywords such as the ones you listed. The tag option is at the bottom of each thread right above the Quick Reply, and then you can advice users to just search by tags.