SageTV as a Stereo Replacement

[Mahoney]

Hi all,

I'd like SageTV to be a complete replacement for all electrical equipment in the living room - one remote, one box.

However, as it stands it doesn't measure up to the stereo in one vital area - you really need the TV on to use it.

So has anyone managed to circumvent this using a stereo like VFD? It would need to:

1) Allow browsing of the music menu so that I can play ripped DVDs
2) Allow browsing of the TV channels that are actually Radio channels (I get them through a set-top box)

I can see 1) being possible, but 2) looks more complicated; as far as I can see there's no way of categorising channels & then going to a filtered version of the LiveTV guide, is there? So I can't see how I could do this via a VFD...

Shame about not being able to filter the Live TV guide channels by category, incidentally - with about 60 of them that I want to be able to use it would be nice to be able to assign them a category and choose which category to view.

Also be nice to set the order in which they appear - in the UK it's always BBC1, BBC2, ITV1, Channel 4, 5, but SageTV doesn't get them in that order.

Apologies if this is rehashing past points - I have read the forums fairly extensively in search of answers before posting!

[nielm]

There is no VFD/LCD user interface, other than a status/whats playing plugin (see the sticky in the customisations forum). This would be somewhere between very difficult and impossible to implement.

for re-ordering analogue channels, see
http://forums.sage.tv/forums/showthr...p?postid=13430
(more XMLTV links here: http://www.sage-community.org/index.cgi/wiki/XMLTV)

[Mahoney]

Shame. Is a VFD/LCD interface on a wish list of any variety?

Thanks for the info on reordering the channels, I'll give it a go.

[sleonard]

There are a couple of HTPC cases that come with a small LCD screen built into the front of the case. Using clone mode on the video card puts the Sage menu on both the LCD and your main screen. This setup allows the main screen to be off while still navigating the menus for music, etc.

Unfortunately, there are a few drawbacks. One is that the LCD cases are very expensive and another is that when using clone mode both displays must use the same resolution and that is limited (usually) by the LCD.

The clone mode issue is what is preventing me from using this solution since my main display is a 720p 16x9 DLP. That resolution doesn't seem to be supported by the LCD's in any of these cases

[bhageman]

I looked into this awhile back. I was going to use one of the displays that you see in all the SUVs. It was going to be a 7" monitor that I would have mounted inside a cabinet. From all my research, it would have worked just fine, but it was cost prohibitive for me ($800-1,000). I ended up getting a cool little 13" monitor on Amazon for cheap that I have sitting on a bookshelf by my HTPC setup. I have it configured to do a slideshow when not in use, so it looks like a cool digital picture frame most of the time.

There might be a thread somewhere with some more details.

[Menehune]

I thought I remember seeing a small 9" automotive dvd screen with a video input so you could use the s-video or composite out of your video card to display on the small screen. Or use a cheapie scan converter to convert the vga out of your vid card to composite video to display on the small screen.
IIRC, the 9" lcd I saw was $1200us, and I've seen cheap scan converters for $150us. The screens I saw were designed for car stereo integrators though so you will probably need to build a housing, wire harness, power supply to get the display working.

[mayamaniac]

Originally Posted by Mahoney

.... as far as I can see there's no way of categorising channels & then going to a filtered version of the LiveTV guide, is there? So I can't see how I could do this via a VFD...

Shame about not being able to filter the Live TV guide channels by category, incidentally - with about 60 of them that I want to be able to use it would be nice to be able to assign them a category and choose which category to view.

In Cayars17 stv, there's an option to create a custom guide with channels you select. I'm not sure how well it works as I only played with it once. You might wanna give it a shot.

[spike5884]

Have not tried this, but it should work.

• Get a wireless tablet with touch screen
• Install VNC server on HTPC
• Install VNC Client on "super remote".

The Sage window should be visable and usable from the "super remote". If I can find a VNC client for my superpda, I will give this a try.

Right now I am using Meedio Housebot to control SageTV, TV, Stereo, and lights from my Viewsonic SuperPDA. I do not play music thru SageTV though. It plays via WinAmp, which is controlled by Housebot.

[Mahoney]

In Cayars17 stv, there's an option to create a custom guide with channels you select. I'm not sure how well it works as I only played with it once. You might wanna give it a shot.

Yes, I saw that thanks - to be honest with you looking at the screenshots of Cayars it's al a bit busy and confusing. I'm sure I could use it fine, but I want something cleaner for a general purpose living room GUI! I know everyone says this, but it'd be lovely to have Studio so I couild bolt on the bits I want for my system...

[Mahoney]

I looked into this awhile back. I was going to use one of the displays that you see in all the SUVs. It was going to be a 7" monitor that I would have mounted inside a cabinet. From all my research, it would have worked just fine, but it was cost prohibitive for me ($800-1,000). I ended up getting a cool little 13" monitor on Amazon for cheap that I have sitting on a bookshelf by my HTPC setup. I have it configured to do a slideshow when not in use, so it looks like a cool digital picture frame most of the time.

Excellent - I think that might well be the option for the future. Not going to push my luck by suggesting it just yet, though...

[Naylia]

You could take a look at the work I've done on XLobby integration with SageMC. It supports both touchscreen and pocketpc controls. It could be adjusted so that you never even see XLobby if you don't want, you could just use a pocketpc as a remote.

[dblaine2]

Originally Posted by Mahoney

Yes, I saw that thanks - to be honest with you looking at the screenshots of Cayars it's al a bit busy and confusing. I'm sure I could use it fine, but I want something cleaner for a general purpose living room GUI! I know everyone says this, but it'd be lovely to have Studio so I couild bolt on the bits I want for my system...

Cayars uses Nielm's dynamic menus... if you don't like it, they can be easily removed using the remote.