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Hardware Support Discussions related to using various hardware setups with SageTV products. Anything relating to capture cards, remotes, infrared receivers/transmitters, system compatibility or other hardware related problems or suggestions should be posted here.

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  #1  
Old 01-21-2010, 03:09 PM
tktplz tktplz is offline
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SageTV and HD thru DirecTv??

Well I'm looking at numerous options and I'd like some guidance...

I currently have Cox cable and DirecTv. I have to keep Cox for internet and I currently use basic and expanded basic cable to get most of my cable channels, but the pic quality really sucks. I'm thinking of dumping cableSo, recently I signed up for DirecTv and got a HR23-700 and 2 D12-100s.

My Dual TV tuners record SD cable and an HD homerun recording OTA HD. I'd really like to add the other HD channels from DirecTv. I also have some old DirecTv equipment -Toshiba DST-3000 and 4 Phillips DSR-6000R TiVos.

So:
1- Capturing HD thru Sage - I read about the MPEG-4 HD compression on the H23 series receivers, so my old DST-3000 is obsolete, right? So the R6000 option is out, right? What about the Hauppauge HD-PVR? Does it integrate nicely with the HR23? Any option to capture HD out of the HR23 from HDMI or esata? I have 5 HD TVs throughout the house and would like to share HD content off the HR23...Options?
2- Does anyone prefer the Petterson device over the null modem/serial to usb option? Either will work with the D12 receiver, right? Anyone prefer the USB-UIRT over direct serial?

Thoughts?
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  #2  
Old 01-21-2010, 03:15 PM
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Evil_Attorney Evil_Attorney is offline
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I can tell you that I am using two H21 (I believe), each connected to an HD PVR via component and SPDIF, controlled by two USB-serial-null modem-USB cables and the system works great. Not sure how well null modems work with other Directv receivers, but I was previously using the USBUIRT to change the channel prior to serial control. I am not aware of anything that will capture via HDMI since it is encrypted.
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  #3  
Old 01-21-2010, 03:16 PM
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Skirge01 Skirge01 is offline
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I can't speak about the R5000 (6000?) option, but my 2 HD-PVRs work perfectly with my two non-DVR DirecTV boxes. You'll want to steer clear of the DVR's, since you don't want to be fighting for control of the channels. I had lots of problems when I tried using a DVR with the HD-PVR. Save yourself the DVR rental fee and go to the standard receivers.

Paterson works just as well as the null/serial does. It's really just a matter of dollars.

You could capture via HDMI if you picked up one of those HD Fury units and converted it to component and passed that to the HD-PVR, but that would be pretty silly when you can just go component out to component in.
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  #4  
Old 01-21-2010, 03:24 PM
monetteboy monetteboy is offline
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I have 5 HR-23's running through 5 HD-PVRs via Component/Optical out. I don't have any problems minus needing to do a reboot every so often.

I was never able to get any null modem cables to work so I bought the patterson cables and all was well.
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  #5  
Old 01-21-2010, 06:28 PM
SWKerr SWKerr is offline
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Two H-20s using the null modem and have never had problems with channel changing. HD-PVR have been pretty solid since the summer.
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  #6  
Old 01-05-2011, 10:22 AM
facesnorth facesnorth is offline
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Wow, I just learned about this HD-PVR. I'd love to cancel my DVR service with DirecTV but I'm one year into my contract so I don't know how that would affect things. Plus any hardware changes starts over a new 2 year contract, so I'm not sure it's worth it for me to use it up just to revert back to an H from my HR. Plus I have some concerns:

One biggie is whether the analog sunset will affect this in any way? i.e. will DirecTV at some point be forced to transition their component outputs to send out less than HD resolution? I suppose in that case the HD Fury would be an expensive but necessary addition.

But as of now the content stored on the HD-PVR is identical in both audio/video quality to that which would otherwise be stored on my HR23? Not just in resolution, but bitrate, etc.

Since there is only one component output as opposed to 2 coax's entering my DVR, I would only be able to record one stream at a time? Can I also connect my OTA coax and record a second stream simultaneously this way?

Does this unit have a similar ability to the D* DVR's to record series' and know the difference between first-run/re-runs, as well as the ability to prioritize what will be recorded in case too many simultaneously running selections are chosen?

How about the content viewing interface, is it easy to navigate through, find, and load stored content?

And to be clear, this unit could connect to a NAS and use that for potentially limitless storage?
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  #7  
Old 01-05-2011, 10:45 AM
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Skirge01 Skirge01 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by facesnorth View Post
Wow, I just learned about this HD-PVR. I'd love to cancel my DVR service with DirecTV but I'm one year into my contract so I don't know how that would affect things.
Most likely, even with the recent court ruling against DTV, you would need to pay a cancellation fee.

Quote:
One biggie is whether the analog sunset will affect this in any way? i.e. will DirecTV at some point be forced to transition their component outputs to send out less than HD resolution? I suppose in that case the HD Fury would be an expensive but necessary addition.
Exactly. That's why I wasn't concerned about it either.

Quote:
But as of now the content stored on the HD-PVR is identical in both audio/video quality to that which would otherwise be stored on my HR23? Not just in resolution, but bitrate, etc.
I can't say for certain, since I don't know how to access the DirecTV DVR's files, but I did a 1:1 comparison before switching to the HD-PVR and couldn't see a difference between the HDMI output on the DVR and the HD-PVR.

Quote:
Since there is only one component output as opposed to 2 coax's entering my DVR, I would only be able to record one stream at a time?
Correct. But, you won't want to hook up an HD-PVR to a DTV DVR, since they fight for what to record. I tried this myself and missed quite a few recordings or recorded the very intriguing satellite guide data download. If you want to record 2 shows from DTV, get two receivers and two HD-PVRs. I have the same setup.

Quote:
Can I also connect my OTA coax and record a second stream simultaneously this way?
Sure can. Many of us have chosen to use SiliconDust's HD HomeRun for this purpose, which has two tuners built into it.

Quote:
Does this unit have a similar ability to the D* DVR's to record series' and know the difference between first-run/re-runs, as well as the ability to prioritize what will be recorded in case too many simultaneously running selections are chosen?
Yes to all of that, but there are instances where the guide data providing the first run/re-run info can be incorrect, so I wouldn't suggest utilizing that aspect. However, once you mark an episode as "watched" in SageTV, it will not record it again.

Quote:
How about the content viewing interface, is it easy to navigate through, find, and load stored content?
This is completely subjective, so I won't offer an definitive answer. Some people like the default UI SageTV V7 provides, others like SageMyMovies, and others like the Diamond theme (look them up here on the forums).

Quote:
And to be clear, this unit could connect to a NAS and use that for potentially limitless storage?
See my sig. 13TB and counting. I believe some people here (Plucky?) have even more storage than that.
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  #8  
Old 01-05-2011, 11:21 AM
facesnorth facesnorth is offline
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Great, thanks for that thorough response. Main issue with all that would be this:

Quote:
Originally Posted by Skirge01 View Post
If you want to record 2 shows from DTV, get two receivers and two HD-PVRs. I have the same setup.
Since having to get extra receivers with their associated monthly cost eliminates the cost savings of cutting the DVR service.
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  #9  
Old 01-05-2011, 11:43 AM
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Skirge01 Skirge01 is offline
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Since I don't have a DVR, I don't recall the cost, but if it's $5, then you're correct that it would be a wash. You'd be saving $5 on the DVR service, but adding $5 for the new receiver. But, don't you pay $5 for the DVR service, plus $5 for the DVR receiver? In that case, you'd be ahead $5.

That said, it doesn't negate all the other benefits you'd get from switching to SageTV. I left DirecTV's DVRs behind because of:

1. Frequent breakdowns, resulting in lost recordings (and a ticked off family)
2. Not enough recording space
3. PPV events not able to be watched after 24 hours
4. Crappy interface
5. No commercial skipping
6. Limitation on how many series I could set up to record
7. (At the time) lack of ability to watch in multiple rooms
8. Fear of the broadcast flag (and other DRM) being implemented/followed

That doesn't even being to touch on all the cool things you can do with SageTV through plugins.
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  #10  
Old 01-05-2011, 12:08 PM
facesnorth facesnorth is offline
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All true. At least in my case, the receiver is $5 and the DVR service is $7 per month, but I get a $5 credit per month for the receiver which was part of one of their deals when I renewed. So it looks like I'd save at least $2 even if I added another receiver, although first I'm going to need to investigate the implications of switching from an HR to 2 H's, both in terms of possibly violating my contract, as well as extending to a new contract.

Thanks.
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  #11  
Old 01-05-2011, 12:50 PM
BobPhoenix BobPhoenix is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Skirge01 View Post
See my sig. 13TB and counting. I believe some people here (Plucky?) have even more storage than that.
I currently have 30TB on my unRAID server. With 5TB free so 25TB used.

Last edited by BobPhoenix; 01-05-2011 at 12:53 PM.
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  #12  
Old 01-05-2011, 01:18 PM
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gplasky gplasky is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BobPhoenix View Post
I currently have 30TB on my unRAID server. With 5TB free so 25TB used.
That's crazy talk.

Gerry
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  #13  
Old 01-05-2011, 01:29 PM
BobPhoenix BobPhoenix is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by gplasky View Post
That's crazy talk.

Gerry
Yes I'm a packrat. I still have recordings (converted to mp4) from 2004. 4 SageTV servers (3 with 5TB recording drives in each 25%, 50% and 75% full and one WHS SageTV server with 6TB storage 3.5TB free). I also have the first driver I ever downloaded for my 40MHZ AMD 386 PC with a Trident video card.

Sorry about the thread jack
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