New Sage TV experience - so far

[mykjonz]

My PC PVR System

Hardware

Dell Optiplex GX270 P4 2.8ghz
512 MB Ram
HIS Radeon 9250 256MB AGP Video Card
Hauppage HVR1600 72021 PCI Tuner Card
320 GB WD AV Hard Drive
Vizio 26 HDTV (720P) with 2 HDMI inputs - I will be running the 2nd HDMI from my VC with DVI to HDMI adapter - resolution set to 1360 x 768

Software

Windows XP Pro
Sage TV 6.2 (latest) installed 11/13/2007
PowerDVD Installed for decoder

Cable

I have Comcast digital preferred service and get all digital channels except for scrambled on my HDTV presently. I have no set top cable box connected to this. This is my bedroom tv and I don't want to rent a 2nd PVR or pay for the 2nd outlet. The 50" DLP HDTV downstairs is hooked up to the PVR from comcast.

So far ...

I installed the latest WinTV2000 software that was downloaded from Hauppage. I was getting 100% signal by their signal meter.

I installed Sage TV and ran the initial setups.

I scanned with my cable hooked up to the ATSC connector and after 15 min about 50 digital channels were found.

What I am seeing ...

All my viewable channels come in as 100.1, 100.2, 100.3, etc. I expected this and will learn how to remap them to the correct station on my Guide. I was able to delete one by accident so far .

My video is very choppy on some channels - not sure why but based on what I have read on these forums I will have to mess around with my decoder, VRM9 or overlay. I am still unclear on what I should do, there is a lot of data on these but not many step by step instructions. I don't know how to enable XDMA (?) on my Video card but it sounds like that needs to be done.

My biggest concern is why I am not seeing the same quality picture with my HVR1600 tuner as I am getting from the onboard HDTV tuner on my television. I am also not seeing all the same stations that my HDTV tuner is able to pickup on the same cable line. Why? I would expect to be able to get exactly the same stations that are not unscrambled on my HVR1600.

If anyone would like to enlighten a PVR noob as to what steps I should take next I would greatly appreciate it. I really like Sage TV and would like to get the most out of it. I would take any and all recommendations as far as hardware upgrades. From what I have read I might be lacking in 2 areas, RAM and maybe the video card.

Anyway thanks for reading this I look forward to any suggestions and/or recommendations.

[mykjonz]

I adjusted some settings last night and got almost flawless playback with HDTV.

Now I just wish the HVR-1600 would get all the stations my onboard HDTV tuner does.

I do have a large number of stations with a small line of static showing on 5 pixels/lines or so all the way across the top of the screen. It might be due to having my video card hooked up to the RGB input on the TV while I'm waiting to get my DVI to HDMI adapter. Not sure though. I tried adjusting the SageTV menu position but that had no effect on this problem.

I tried converting an HD recording to Ipod format and it worked really well. It just took a long time, more than likely because I only have 512mb ram.

[MeInMaui]

Originally Posted by mykjonz

I do have a large number of stations with a small line of static showing on 5 pixels/lines or so all the way across the top of the screen. It might be due to having my video card hooked up to the RGB input on the TV while I'm waiting to get my DVI to HDMI adapter. Not sure though. I tried adjusting the SageTV menu position but that had no effect on this problem.

What you are seeing is more than likely closed caption data embedded in the broadcast. You can adjust your Aspect ratio settings and increase the vertical stretch to about 104% or so (change horizontal too if you want to preserve the true aspect ratio) to push it off the top of the screen. This data is typically hidden in the overscan area on most TV's.


Aloha,
Mike

[Djc208]

Remember that to get all the channels (clearQAM digital and SD analog) you have to hook cable into both ports on the 1600. Each port only handles one type of signal. It should be set up as two tuners in Sage.

As for the transcoding the slowdown is more than likely the processor, while the RAM doesn't help matters the P4s were't exactly king in their day compared to the AMD competition and they are a far cry from the C2Ds and higher end Athlon X2s out there now. I saw a huge change going from my P4 2.8 w/ 1GB of RAM to my E4200 C2D with the same RAM when doing video editing and transcoding, especially when it can use both cores.

[mykjonz]

Thanks for the info! I will try that as soon as I get home.

I also learned some more today by reading everything I could. What I was assuming was SD broadcasts on my HDTV through cable were just analog over cable stations. For some reason my TV says the analog stations are 480 SD when I hit the info button.

I am getting pretty poor reception of the QAM stations on my HVR-1600 through my cable but the reception is excellent on my HDTV tuner. I would say I am only getting around 3 or 4 without any artifacts.

My options at this point are to try a signal amplifier or to get an OTA antenna which might be my best bet. A decent amplified antenna from Radio Shack is $50. I'm not sure what an inline signal amp costs but I know that the OTA is good in my area.

So far I have spent around $350 bucks to save paying Comcast another $18 a month (my computer was free )

Money well spent

[Djc208]

SD resolution is technically 480i (480x640 I think, I'm drawing a blank on it right now) so your TV is correct.

As for the video quality this could also be computer related, HD is harder on playback and your Radeon 9250 isn't the fastest thing on earth. When I was running my 9600 Pro it would do OK at HD playback, better with the ATI MPEG decoders but the 6200 does a slightly better job, though I still have issues with fast motion in HD but it doesn't really bother me.

I would record an HD video and try to watch it first in another program (like WM), if it looks better it's a decoder/sage issue, if not try playing the same file back on a faster machine if you have one and see if you get the same result. If you do then it's your cable, otherwise save the $50 for a better graphics card.

I hear you on the price thing, I've got more than that in my Sage setup so far and there's more to come, but my cable company DVR can't do half the things Sage can. The placeshifter alone almost makes it worth the extra cost. Besides, unless you get upgrade happy (like most of us) once you have a stable system there's nothing more to buy, unlike the never-ending DVR charges from the cable company.

[mykjonz]

Thanks for the information!! I am grateful that people that have been there before take the time to help us newbies out.

I subscribe to Comcast digital preferred plus HBO. My Comcast HDPVR box is on my 50" HD DLP in our family room, this new PVR setup is for my bedroom 26" HDTV.
What I understand that I should get without a Comcast box over my cable is: 1) All the analog stations, ie all basic and expanded basic channels, 2) All the clearQAM digital stations. I originally thought that I would get all the digital basic and digital preferred stations but found that I need the cable box to descramble them.

I am getting ABC and TBS HD stations on live TV perfectly over my existing cable into my ATSC input on the HVR-1600, but none of the other stations that my HDTV tuner gets (at least not good enough quality to watch). I recorded an ABC HD program for an hour last night and played it back perfectly over my existing system using SageTV and WMP. So it seems my hardware is okay for HD playback.

My conclusion was that the QAM tuner on the HVR-1600 was just not as strong as the one in my HDTV because the TV gets all the QAM stations perfectly while the HVR-1600 only 2 or 3.

I could be wrong in this conclusion for some other reasons that I am not aware of though

[MeInMaui]

Check your cable line leading to the HVR-1600. Try to minimize the number of splitters in the path. That might help bring up the signal enough to get more channels.

Also, if you can fit it into your budget at some point, I highly recommend the HDHomeRun dual tuner. It has very good reception.

Aloha,
Mike

[autoboy]

Just out of curiosity, are you using overlay for HD playback on that 9250? I used to have a 9600XT and it could handle HD VMR9, but I wondered about the 9200.

[mykjonz]

Some new updates from last nights tweaking.

I received my DVI to HDMI cable and replaced my vga computer out to rgb in on the HDTV. I also formatted my new hard drive with 64 k blocks.
I had the split cable going to my tv and the ATSC in on the HVR-1600. Now I have both cables going into the HVR-1600; analog and ATSC.

So quite a few things different so I am not sure which made the difference BUT what I am seeing now is that all of the QAM stations come in great!!!

I am leaning towards thinking that it was replacing the rgb with the digital cable.

I am pretty sure that I have VMR9 set and I am using the Hauppauge decoder from the latest Hauppauge download. I recorded Conan Obrien last night in HD and watched it back this morning in perfect HD playback. Quite impressive.

I changed my vertical % to 104% and got rid of the 6 pixels of static on top.

Keep in mind that this is all running on a 26" HDTV with a resolution of 1366 x 768, not a large HDTV so I don't need a higher resolution. This is probably why my Radeon 9250 with 256mb of ram seems to work great at playing back HD.

I ran into some problems remapping some channels and had to rescan a few times. I found out that if you remap to an existing channel incorrectly then back to another, that the original channel won't show up again unless you remove the source, exit Sage and restart from scratch. Took me a while to figure that out.

I still haven't figured out how to manually add a channel and if that even actually tunes it or just puts it into the "guide".

More things to play with when I get home!!

[Djc208]

Yes the maping process is kind of confusing, took me a few tries to get it right. It's not the size of the TV it's the resolution. My 46" DLP has a similar resolution, so it would be no harder to push a signal too. A 1080p signal would be a little harder, but unnecessary since the extra resolution would be wasted.