Considering switching and I have a few questions

[zemac]

If it's any help I am trying the Trial of Sage 5 with only the SageMC installer.

1) Can the video library auto update itself? I thought I saw this when I was searching yesterday but I can't find it now.

2) Can the MCE 2005 controller control the volume of Sage? Everything else seems to work, including the mute button.

3) I am considering running two SageTV servers with the networking encoder option, does this work transparently?

Thanks for any help.

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by zemac

If it's any help I am trying the Trial of Sage 5 with only the SageMC installer.

I recommend that you do all configuration using the default STV, since that regularly gets tweaked to match how it needs to interact with the core to handle all setup details.

1) Can the video library auto update itself? I thought I saw this when I was searching yesterday but I can't find it now.

Import directories are periodically scanned for new files, though there is a way to turn off the auto-scanning, I believe. (OK, so if disabling auto-scan isn't there now, it will be an option later.)

2) Can the MCE 2005 controller control the volume of Sage? Everything else seems to work, including the mute button.

It should -- in the default STV, you'll need to go to Detailed Setup -> Commands -> Remote Config, then select the MCE remote.

3) I am considering running two SageTV servers with the networking encoder option, does this work transparently?

You'll have to at least do some initial configuration steps, but that is covered in Appendix G of the manual, on p. 248 for v5.0.

- Andy

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by zemac

If it's any help I am trying the Trial of Sage 5 with only the SageMC installer.

1) Can the video library auto update itself? I thought I saw this when I was searching yesterday but I can't find it now.

Not sure what you mean exactly, but if you add new files to a Library Import Directory, Sage will find them automatically.

I don't believe SageMC (an add-on/customization for Sage) automatically updates metadata.

3) I am considering running two SageTV servers with the networking encoder option, does this work transparently?

Just a little semantics clarification here (since I think you understand).

There's no way for two Sage "servers" to interact with each other, beyond importing each others recordings as imported media.

What I think you're planning on, is setting up one Sage server, and one Sage encoding server, where the encoding server slaves it's tuners to the SageTV server.

Yes, the later is trasparent, Sage doesn't expose tuner location to the user, beyond tuner setup that is.

[zemac]

1) Both of you answered it for me, I didn't realize sage auto imported videos when I dropped them in the folder, I was probably being impatient

2) So not being able to change the volume could be a SageMC issue? In the sage config I did setup the controller as the MCE controller.

3) The brief searching I did made it sound like installing the full blown sageTV on the second "slave" computer was better then the sagerecorder for network recording. Let me expand my question then, if I have computer 1 and computer 2 (the networked encoder(s) ) Can I use the "slave" sage normally on a tv (IE watch recordings, watch tv, etc) Also would the "slave" sage use its own hard drives for the recordings?

Thanks for all the quick replies.

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by zemac

2) So not being able to change the volume could be a SageMC issue? In the sage config I did setup the controller as the MCE controller.

It _could_ be a SageMC issue; I don't know if it does what is required to set everything needed for that remote. (Keep in mind that there could also be some other volume related issue that has nothing to do with the remote config.)

3) The brief searching I did made it sound like installing the full blown sageTV on the second "slave" computer was better then the sagerecorder for network recording.

SageRecorder is obsolete & no longer being updated, so it won't support the use of the latest tuners. In that sense, 2 full installations of SageTV is certainly a better option.

Let me expand my question then, if I have computer 1 and computer 2 (the networked encoder(s) ) Can I use the "slave" sage normally on a tv (IE watch recordings, watch tv, etc) Also would the "slave" sage use its own hard drives for the recordings?

The Appendix I referenced above tells how to use the UI on the network encoder PC.

Then, there is a mmc/encoders/<some ID number>/forced_video_storage_path_prefix property that can be used to limit any tuner to some specific recording dir(s), but you'll want to use UNC paths so both server + network encoder machines see the location in the same place.

- Andy

[blade]

Originally Posted by zemac

2) Can the MCE 2005 controller control the volume of Sage? Everything else seems to work, including the mute button.

Has the remote been taught other codes for the volume? The MCE remote isn't a learning remote, but the volume buttons can be taught different commands so that it can control the volume of a TV or stereo. If it has been programmed to control something else you will need to teach it the codes for your current tv, stereo, etc... or reset it to the default setting so that it controls the volume on the computer.

[zemac]

Thanks for your help and patience Opus4

blade - Thanks I didn't know or forgot that the volume controls can be trained.