Advice using TV recorder

[provobis]

I think this is the best place to ask advice about Sage TV Recorder, from users who already have the software and know what I am talking about. Looking forward to comprehensive answers from this forum since Sage TV info and tech support do not respond.

I have a Adaptec AVC-2410 capture card which originally came bundled with WinDVR3 and My DVD software. Using this hardware and software I was able to tune and watch live TV (Dish network satellite) on my computer monitor, recording and saving it, and also able to input my VHS tapes from my old VCR and record and save my tapes also. Any saved recordings I burned to disk later using other software such as DVD flick or Sothink.

At some point last year the capture and save procedures developed problems whereby the video and audio I was capturing would freeze. So I would either lose a live TV segment or have to start the VHS capture all over again. There is no longer support for the AVC-2410 card or the bundled software so there are no longer any updates or new versions or drivers available.

Assuming the problems were caused by the software I looked around for alternate software to use in place of WinDVR3 and My DVD...obviously I found SageTV which is supposed to be compatible with my AVC-2410 capture card. My question on this forum is..... will Sage TV recorder replace the bundled software and do the same job? Will I be able to view and hear the audio/video I am capturing and be able to save it to disk the same way as before? If so do I need other Sage TV software before I buy Sage TV recorder? I will appreciate any advice or suggestion that can be offered on the forum, and thanks in advance.

[HelenWeathers]

Are you talking about this software?

http://forums.freytechnologies.com/f...ad.php?t=31260

[GKusnick]

Almost nobody uses SageTV Recorder anymore because it's an old product that hasn't been updated in years.

The current product is SageTV Media Center, a full-featured PVR and media library application. It can make scheduled recordings of TV shows, and you can also watch TV in real time (with a couple of seconds delay) or time-shifted, and record what you're watching.

Capturing from VHS is possible with Sage, but this is not its strong suit and takes some finagling to set up. Personally I find it simpler, on the rare occasions when I need to do this, to set up a capture graph manually in GraphEdit.

All of that said, if your capture process used to work, and now doesn't, and nothing else has changed, then I'd be more inclined to suspect a hardware problem than a software problem.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by provobis

I think this is the best place to ask advice about Sage TV Recorder, from users who already have the software and know what I am talking about. Looking forward to comprehensive answers from this forum since Sage TV info and tech support do not respond.

You should check your spam filters, Sage definitely responds, but their responses (often?) seem to end up in spam filters.

[provobis]

Originally Posted by GKusnick

Almost nobody uses SageTV Recorder anymore because it's an old product that hasn't been updated in years.

The current product is SageTV Media Center, a full-featured PVR and media library application. It can make scheduled recordings of TV shows, and you can also watch TV in real time (with a couple of seconds delay) or time-shifted, and record what you're watching.

Capturing from VHS is possible with Sage, but this is not its strong suit and takes some finagling to set up. Personally I find it simpler, on the rare occasions when I need to do this, to set up a capture graph manually in GraphEdit.

All of that said, if your capture process used to work, and now doesn't, and nothing else has changed, then I'd be more inclined to suspect a hardware problem than a software problem.

Thanks GK, You might be right about the hardware...it has been suggested to me that it's a hardware driver problem, and since there are no driver updates for this card, that the only solution(s) are to use a open source driver or to get another card. I guess it was just wishful thinking that I might be able to use new software. Maybe I should just get another card, but I have not seen anything new that could replace the AVC-2410 or that got high ratings. Any suggestions? Anyone?

[provobis]

Originally Posted by HelenWeathers

Are you talking about this software?

http://forums.freytechnologies.com/f...ad.php?t=31260

Yes, the Sage TV recorder software. But as you see I have been advised it's obsolete. So I don't need another obsolete problem to add to my already obsolete hardware/software. (It's just that I liked the AVC-2410 and it did a good job when it worked.

[provobis]

Originally Posted by stanger89

You should check your spam filters, Sage definitely responds, but their responses (often?) seem to end up in spam filters.

Thanks but I have no problem with spam filters because I long ago stopped using software that's available.... so very agressive it thinks almost everything is spam. I have complete manual control with Mailwasher, a little more trouble but then I don't lose anything I want and can actually create my own spam and "blacklists".

[provobis]

Originally Posted by GKusnick

Almost nobody uses SageTV Recorder anymore because it's an old product that hasn't been updated in years.

The current product is SageTV Media Center, a full-featured PVR and media library application. It can make scheduled recordings of TV shows, and you can also watch TV in real time (with a couple of seconds delay) or time-shifted, and record what you're watching.

Capturing from VHS is possible with Sage, but this is not its strong suit and takes some finagling to set up. Personally I find it simpler, on the rare occasions when I need to do this, to set up a capture graph manually in GraphEdit.

All of that said, if your capture process used to work, and now doesn't, and nothing else has changed, then I'd be more inclined to suspect a hardware problem than a software problem.

Back to you GK...I have tried the Sage TV Media Center using my Adaptec card and apparently it does work. But the setup is pretty complicated for what I want to do, what with the scheduling and configurations I don't want or need so I simply tried settings for manual recordings. The results were always two separate files in the folder I created on my data partition, and those files were missing entire segments of the total recording. The live TV I tried to record was about 3 hours, and so I actually got about 1 1/2 hours of sketchy video at most. The good news is that there were no freezes or missing audio (in what was recorded) as there is with my old (bundled) software, so maybe the card is OK(?)

So the question is...is it possible to record manually with Sage, only one time, one program, with no given scheduling? And if so why should I have two files saved with missing parts of the one program in both files? Is this a matter of wrong or mistaken settings or is Sage TV just not meant to just record and save full length programs without time limitations? I certainly have plenty of space in my data drive so there's no conflict there.

If Sage is not the ticket in any case, do you know of recording software only that will work with my card without the Sage bells and whistles?

[GKusnick]

Pretty much all recording in Sage is scheduled. In Sage lingo, a Manual recording is when you select a specific program from the guide and set it to record once. A Timed recording is when you specify a channel and time interval, without reference to the guide. Both of these are scheduled in the sense that you set them up for some future time at which the recording happens unattended. (There are also recurring Favorites that also participate in the scheduling of future recordings.)

What Sage does not have is a VCR-like real-time start/stop recording function. The nearest it comes to this is when you're watching live TV and hit the Record button. But that does not start the recording; it's been recording all along, from the moment you started watching. Hitting Record during live TV just tells Sage to promote that temporary recording to permanent status so it won't be deleted when you stop watching.

Most of this is covered in the manual, so you might want to have a look at that if you're not clear on what Sage does.

To capture from VHS using Sage, you could set up a Timed recording and hit the Play button on the VCR at the designated start time. Or you could start the VCR playing, go into Sage and start watching that channel, and then hit the Record button in Sage to convert it to a Manual recording.

If you've tried either or both of these and are getting interruptions in your recordings, that would usually indicate a hardware failure during capture, i.e. Sage lost the signal from your capture card. Another, less likely possibility is that there's some issue with your file system or recording format that puts an upper limit on file size, so that Sage is obliged to split the recording into multiple files. But in this case the gaps between the segments should be no more than a second or two.

As far as alternatives to Sage for this purpose, the only other method I've used is the GraphEdit method I mentioned earlier. There's a lot of info on GraphEdit out there on the web, so I'm sure you could find a tutorial if you go looking.

[provobis]

Thanks GK, your explanation clearly tells me that Sage is not designed or intended to be used as I need. I don't think I need to read the manual completely. That's why I posted in this forum hoping experts like yourself could save me a few hours of reading, trial, error, and disappointment.

I'm not sure that a (temporary) hardware failure is indicated (while running during a record session?). But if the card is failing it's just another indication I should finally dump that bundle and try something else in spite of the poor reviews of everything available I've seen.

It's too bad, Sage did record well, as far and as much as it did work for me.

Thanks again.