SageTV for dummies

[supernoob]

Ok so I've just purchased and set up my first PVR (the 250/sagetv bundl).

Now that it seems to be working with the newest beta drivers for the new revision reciever, where do I go from here. I'm not sure how nice it should look so I dont know if its poor quality or not. All I know is that I've heard its fairly poor quality out of the box. What steps in what order should I do to increase the quality? The box is a fresh install so It has nothing but the absolute minimum decoders installed by haupague. I'm still using my 21" monitor for the display until I get all the settings up to snuff. I'm assuming it'll look a bit worse once I switch over to the TV. I'm on regular cable with a standard (read, cheapo) 36" TV.

please remember I need this in "dummy speak". I'm not exactly the brightest bulb when it comes to this.

[CanadianEh]

Before messing with the settings, I'd first give it a shot at hooking it up to your 36" tv and seeing how it looks... I've used two separate 27" TV's (the first one died about two months ago) and noticed that I had to 'tweak' it a bit when changing between to two TV's..

[Ralphjb]

My experience is Sage looks excellent "out-of-the-box." You can tweak the color settings, and that is beneficial. But the best thing you can do is have an good source. I record both direct from cableTV into the PVR-250, and also DirecTV with composite video (for those channels not on cable). I can tell you that the DirecTV sourced stuff is excellent - I mean almost identical to watching "live." I did adjust the color some, and that has made recording quality really, really good. But even before that, I was always amazed at the quality of the picture.

[mightyt]

I learned a few things recently ...

1 - Make sure you don't have too many cable splits. Now this does not mean many TV Cards. It could be cable feeding one TV card, on VCR, one FM Receiver, one TV, etc. If you have too many splits the picture becomes very grainy and slightly blurry and an amp is required. As soon as I hooked up an amp all my splitts worked great!

2 - Are you using NDVD, Sonic, WinDVD, etc? That makes a difference.

3 - Make sure you have the latrest Hauppauge drivers.

4 - If you are using VMR9 in you Detailed Video Settings then try overlay.

Just a few things I would consider.

Thanks T.

[supernoob]

ok, thanks for the info so far. As far as #2 ndvd ect... are those decoders? and where do I get them? whats this descaler thing I've read about...cant seem to find that anywhere either. and why cant I play my purchased dvd's. it says something about it being copywrited. do I need a different decoder to view it? which and where do I get it?

[stanger89]

Originally posted by supernoob
ok, thanks for the info so far. As far as #2 ndvd ect... are those decoders? and where do I get them?

Unfortunately nVDVD isn't available anywhere right now.

whats this descaler thing I've read about...cant seem to find that anywhere either.

It's here:
http://www.dscaler.org/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=3629

and why cant I play my purchased dvd's. it says something about it being copywrited. do I need a different decoder to view it? which and where do I get it?

Sounds like you're using the Hauppauge decoders, they don't support DVD playback (no support for CSS) you need true DVD decoders. My favorite is Sonic Cineplayer. If you don't need multichannel analog audio, then all you need is the DVD Decoder pack ($15), otherwise you need Cineplayer Surround.

[kny3twalker]

ok, thanks for the info so far. As far as #2 ndvd ect... are those decoders? and where do I get them? whats this descaler thing I've read about...cant seem to find that anywhere either. and why cant I play my purchased dvd's. it says something about it being copywrited. do I need a different decoder to view it? which and where do I get it?

yeah the decoder that comes with the pvr 250 cannot decode encryoted DVDs

you need a third party decoder

buy either the full DVD programs like Sonic Cineplayer Surround for the most audio options

or the get the Sonic DVD decoder pack for Windows Media Center
but the decoder packs are limited to stereo sound or spdif output normally

NVDVD which is nvidia's DVD software is not currently available to be purchased

WinDVD can also be purchased or you can again get the Intervideo DVD decoder pack for Windows MCE


SageTV will have more options as for video and audio decoders after you install the DVD program and restart SageTV

also trials do not work in SageTV (without cracking them of course, just kidding)

and Dscaler 5 is alpha

although it is free
its stability will not be very good
and it also cannot playback DVDs

(unless of course you rip them to your harddrive)

[supernoob]

ok, purchased WinDVD and that seems to do the trick. now another question. How do I get the remote that came with the 250 to work? the only button that responds is the "GO" button and when I pick wintv from the menu it brings up, nothing happens.

[Opus4]

Originally posted by supernoob
How do I get the remote that came with the 250 to work? the only button that responds is the "GO" button and when I pick wintv from the menu it brings up, nothing happens.

See this FAQ entry regarding setting up the Hauppauge remote to use it with SageTV if you didn't install support for the remote when SageTV was installed.

- Andy