Best way to ease into SageTV

[Skirge01]

I want to point out that during my initial testing (for the same reason you are), I had the HD-PVR hooked up to my DVR as well. I could not get reliable channel changes or reliable recordings. It wasn't so bad that things were unwatchable, but it was definitely an issue. What really broke the camel's back was when I set it up to record a premiere and instead got an hour and a half recording of the programming download! There's really no way to avoid something silly like this. I did make sure I turned off all recording to the DirecTV DVR, though, since I didn't need Sage and DirecTV fighting over the channel.

Also, keep that USB cable short (i.e. 6'). I went with the longest one I could find and had spotty recording until I swapped it out. I can't prove that was the issue, so YMMV.

There are only 2 of us in the house and we routinely have 4 recordings going, so you certainly aren't alone!

To keep things simpler for everyone in the house and eliminate a point of "failure" (wrong recordings, etc.), I would recommend against trying to "bypass" the HD-PVR and using the DirecTV box for live viewing or viewing recorded shows. However, what you could do is set up the DVR as a stand-alone box for live TV viewing and don't use it for Sage at all. This would allow guests to use that, rather than Sage for live TV stuff, and reduce the chance of them getting confused or accidentally "breaking" something. I keep thinking about doing this with my DVR, since I also own it and don't pay the rental fee. Right now, it's just collecting dust.

[kjgarrison]

Originally Posted by gplasky

The HD-PVR is going to require a component out connection from your DirecTV box. It can only take advantage of a single tuner becasue Sage needs to change the cahnnel on that box and only handles IR or serial. (Or firewaire if it has it) Once it records to the SageTV server it is watched with the HD-200. You'll want either a HD200 or a PC client at every TV that wants to watch the recordings thru Sage. That is why most people will centrally locate their set top boxes in a central area (think basement) with the SageTV server right there with them. Then a simple home network with a wired connection near each TV will let you connect the HD200 to a TV in every room. With SageTV you tend to stop watching live TV because you create favorites and watch them whenever you want. Recordings also allow you to take advantage of commercial skipping.

Gerry

Thanks Gerry. I think I have a handle on the structure in terms of what goes to what, finally.

Now I'm looking to figure out more about function, specifically whether the output of the DirecTV box can be processed through HD-PVR/SageTV/HD200 instantly (or after only a portion of the program has recorded) and essentially stream and be viewed at the TV the HD200 (or PC) is connected to in real time as it is being recorded in the SageTV PC.

OR

Whether the output has to be digitized by the HD-PVR and recorded into the computer with SageTV completely before it can be sent to a HD200 (or PC) for viewing.

I'm already not watching live TV, and I can't stand watching anything live anymore. Having the software automaically skip the commercials sounds great. No more 30 sec skips with backups, etc sounds just perfect.

Ken

[TorontoSage]

You can watch and pause live TV through the HD200 while it is being recorded without having to wait. I doubt SageTV would have been very successful if you had to wait.

[kjgarrison]

Originally Posted by TorontoSage

You can watch and pause live TV through the HD200 while it is being recorded without having to wait. I doubt SageTV would have been very successful if you had to wait.

Thanks.

I was thinking 'well of course you can watch it as it records' even as I asked the question.

Now...

I assume that the commercial detection and skip functionality requires that at least 22 minutes of the program (an hour long program) would have to be recorded for it to work right.

And..

Regarding the IR controller that comes with it. Does this control the source DirecTV box? or one or more of the elements in the Sage chain? I know it plugs into the HD-PVR box. Just asking what it controls. (and trying to figure out if I need to look at additional IR control capability or not)

Ken

[TorontoSage]

Originally Posted by kjgarrison

Thanks.

I was thinking 'well of course you can watch it as it records' even as I asked the question.

Now...

I assume that the commercial detection and skip functionality requires that at least 22 minutes of the program (an hour long program) would have to be recorded for it to work right.

And..

Regarding the IR controller that comes with it. Does this control the source DirecTV box? or one or more of the elements in the Sage chain? I know it plugs into the HD-PVR box. Just asking what it controls. (and trying to figure out if I need to look at additional IR control capability or not)

Ken

It's a flasher just like any third party flasher you'd buy. It's just a cable where one end plugs into the back of the HD PVR and the flasher end is affixed to the front of the box so it is positioned over the location of the internal cable box or satellite box IR receiver. SageTV tells the HD PVR to send a signal to change the channel (or, rather, is supposed to - I've had tons of stops and starts with mine and am going to wait until I get my server and then use firewire switching on my SA HD cable boxes instead) and then the flasher emits some light which is received by the IR receiver and the channel (is supposed to) change.

As an aside, the HD PVR then has a chip in it which does H.264 encoding based on the compression (mbits/sec) setting you have chosen and sends that stream to SageTV to be recorded. I think this is all the HD PVR does. Any pausing, starting, stopping, etc is done on the recorded file by SageTV inside the server.

Sorry I can't answer your other question.