Recording OTA HD without HDTV

[derringer]

I have an informational question. My TV is not capable of HD. However, I have a SageTV box and a HD Tuner and a large antenna for OTA HD. Can I record HD for viewing on a placeshifter client, and for viewing when I upgrade my TV shortly?

Basically, I wanted to get the HD worked out and working before I upgraded my TV. Will this be an issue? What happens if you try to view an HD channel through Sage on a non-HD TV.. does it downgrade it to SD so its viewable?

Just some informational questions... thanks in advance.

[malore]

Yes, you can enjoy a DVD quality picture with 5.1 surround sound. I did that for about 8 months before I found a HDTV at a price I was willing to spend.

The only issue is you need a computer CPU and/or video card beefy enough to decode HDTV.

[evilpenguin]

Yes, as long as your box has the power to handle HD, Sage will take care of down-resing it to play on your SDTV. I actually did that for quite a while before I had an HDTV and was really happy with it, it was like watching a DVD quality live TV

[derringer]

Awesome, thanks for the replies, I think thats what I will do! =)

Next question, hehe: Does a Dual Core Intel @2.0GHZ and 1GB RAM, with a ATI 2600 Pro and a Fusion USB HD unit qualify as enough power?

What are the two of you (or anyone else watching) using, and what would you recommend to someone trying to upgrade to do so ?(I have not bought the video card yet, so I am completely flexible on that front.) Is the ATI 2600 HD Pro really the way to go ? Anyone using it fanless? I'd love to have a fanless card, but I also don't want to overheat when watching HD.

[flashbacck]

That system is most definitely powerful enough.

Regarding the 2600, I'd go with the Nvidia 8600. I think it's the same price, but has better video decoding performance and also faster 3D rendering (if you ever want to play games).

[Brown Radagast]

I have a xps 600 (I can't believe it's almost dated now!), which has the 830 dual core processors and a single vanilla nvidia 6800. For my HD tuner I've been using a OnAir GT.

I can't get the QAM to work with Sage yet, so I've just been using the GT's analog tuner for now. I understand that the newest beta supposedly remedies this, but call me chicken - I am leery of beta software, especially when I finally have my video encoding/decoding/transcoding working relatively well!

So, for now I'm using Sage for analog, and the GT's SW for QAM (Comcast). HD works fine, as long as the signal is over 28 db or so. This seems to be in contradiction to some opinions that you need an ATI 1600+ or 7-series nVidia card to adequately view HD material...

Heck, I'm not even using a Purevideo decoder, just a Cyberlink one...